9 tips for creating a successful business blog [Checklist]
Writing a business blog goes a long way to get you ahead of your competition. Did you know over 400 million people view blog posts each month according to WordPress? And over 80 million blog posts and pages are published every month?
Let’s look at Ghana for instance. Research conducted in 2018 revealed that 10,110,000 Ghanaians use the Internet. This figure represents 35% of the total 29,150,000 population.
For your business to thrive in today’s online world, a strong online presence is a must. Yes, paid advertising will produce immediate results. But a content marketing strategy is a must if you want long-term success! It all starts with your website’s blog. Blogging serves as the base for all other digital outlets. It provides content for social media, newsletters, and a source for other websites to link to.
If your business doesn’t have a blog, you’re missing out on reaching a large audience and the opportunity to turn readers into paying customers.
In this blog, I’ll walk you through what a business blog is, its benefits, and how to create a successful one. Emphasis on success because it is not enough to only create a blog but one that goes viral too. Let’s go!
What is a business blog?
Before we dive into what business blogging is all about, blogging involves creating content about a particular subject by writing and sharing.
If your business doesn’t have a blog, you’re missing out on reaching a large audience and the opportunity to turn readers into paying customers. Click To TweetBusiness blogging is a blog where you post information about a company for the public to read. This makes it easy for people who visit your site to find the information they need with ease.
One of the most effective ways to build brand awareness, while providing relevant content to your target audience is through consistent blogging. Blogging is an inexpensive way for small businesses to drive traffic to their site and attract more prospective customers.
Importance of having a business blog
1. Thought Leader
A blog is one of the best ways to establish your business as an expert in your field. Why? Because it provides a platform to share important industry-related information and insights. The more valuable and educational industry-related content you provide for your readers, the more authority you build up in your niche. As you build up authority in your niche, this breeds trust, keeping you top-of-mind when your prospects are ready to buy.
2. Website Traffic
Research shows that the more information a site provides, the more traffic it gets. Think of blogging as fishing. The more hooks you have in the water, the more fish you catch. Imagine giving vital information about a particular subject a lot of people can barely find.
The moment they chance upon your site, you will have so many people visiting your site because you have something no one else has. And there’s even better news: The more traffic you generate, the more leads you get which means more sales.
3. Lead Generation
As I mentioned above, the more traffic you generate, the more leads you get. Lead generation is the process of attracting and converting strangers and prospects into someone who has shown interest in your company’s product or service. With the help of business blogging, you can get clients because your content gives them exactly what they need. In plain words, your content should make your audience want to do business with you.
4. Credibility and Trust
Trust in your product by your clients is one of the biggest blessings you could ever get. You earn this trust by being a transparent seller. Business blogging will gain the trust of your clients. Aside from trust, business blogging makes your site credible. In marketing, it’s called brand positioning where your product is on the minds of your clients. Thus, you come first to their minds before they think of anything else.
Following are these 9 tips to help you get started.
1. Quality Over Quantity
We read in so many articles how writing a long blog post will get you the traffic you desire. Don’t get me wrong, word count is important when blogging but I’ll choose quality over quantity any time. Don’t get carried away by the number of words that you end up misleading your readers. Go straight to the point in your blog. Don’t go in circles because you want to increase your word count.
2. Write for your audience
Ever come across a blog that speaks directly to you? It’s like the writer had you exactly in mind when writing. It addresses your pain points, speaks to your needs, and offers a way out.
Always write for your audience. Before you start blogging, you should understand that you are talking to people through text. This means creating a buyer persona to have an idea about your target audience. They may never meet you but write the way you talk. There’s something in Journalism called K.I.S.S which means ‘Keep It Short and Simple’. It’s not necessary to use huge words that would need your audience to have dictionaries with them anytime they are reading your posts.
When you blog, it should be conversational. Your audience should feel like they are having a face-to-face chat with them.
Think about your business, its clients, and its customers. Focus on writing topics that will be of interest to them. Share insights into your business, introduce new products, promote your company culture, or even use your blog as a platform to answer frequently asked questions. All these allow your readers to get to know all about your business on a more personal level.
3. Good Headline
Remember the popular saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, that’s what the headline of your blog post can determine. A reader can see your headline and keep scrolling because it doesn’t look like it will give them the information they need.
When deciding the kind of headline to use, think of your reader. Is he a beginner or an expert? Asking yourself questions like these will help you know what to use. For example, for beginners, headlines that start with “how to” will grab the attention of beginners.
Try to capture what your article is about in a few words to grab the attention of your target audience. Use action verbs and even ask a question to draw readers in. Think about what your customers or clients may type into a search engine to find what you are writing about, or consider how your headline could make someone browsing the web want to stop and read more.
CoSchedule is a great tool for testing your headlines. It analyses the length, type of headline (list or how-to), keyword, and how common or uncommon your headline is.
- use a catchy headline
- use powerful words that drive emotion
- keep topics relevant
- include keywords
- use numbers
4. Optimize for search
Yes, having a business blog increases your visibility, but that’s only possible if you optimize your blog post for search engines. What keywords are you trying to rank for? Do keyword research to know what your audience is searching for. You need to ensure that your content is well-optimized with the necessary keywords so that it can appear high on the search engines.
5. Include images and links
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? Growing up, it wasn’t fun reading books that didn’t have pictures.
It’s important to give your audience a visual depiction of what they’re reading by giving them pictures, infographics, or stats to make their reading easy and fun.
With regards to links, it’s important to refer them to a site or a previous post you have written so they can read further. It’s like providing references in a textbook for students to understand the subject better.
It’s reported that articles with images get 94% more views. An infographic is a great way to add another element of communication to your article whilst making it more visually appealing to the readers, more so if it’s a longer piece.
6. Have a content calendar and be consistent
Do you know what content is going out next? Having a content calendar keeps you on track with what to post next and when to publish it. It’s nothing complicated. A content calendar can be anything from a Microsoft Word doc, Excel sheet, or Google doc. It includes what blog is going out, publishing date, author, target audience, buyer’s journey, keyword, and marketing offers.
Always plan when you will post what. Let’s assume that you are in the fashion industry. You could choose to post about clothing this month the shoes the next then bags. Also, consistency is key. You may not get a plethora of readers in the beginning but keep going because it pays.
It can be difficult to come up with interesting topics at a moment’s notice so like most areas in life, to be successful you need a plan!
There are no set rules when it comes to posting frequency. Whether you post once a week or every day, the most important factor is that your blog is on a consistent schedule. Publish blog posts at the same time every week.
7. Engage and interact with your followers
Always have one clear call to action (CTA) in each post. If you’re seeking newsletter signups, ask readers to sign up for your weekly/monthly newsletter. If you’re seeking new leads by giving away a free e-book, ask readers to download the e-book.
8. Promote and Share
It’s not enough to write a beautiful article. You have to share it with your audience. Don’t expect your readers to catch every single post you write when you don’t share them. Share links to your blog on social media, on your website, and in your newsletters to encourage people to click through.
Share your content for your audience to be aware that you are interested in making everyone see your content. If you don’t share your content, you cannot generate traffic which means no leads and then no sales.
9. Analyze the data
Remember to keep track of the performance of your blog. Which blog is performing well? How many views, shares, and engagements do you have? This gives you insight into what to blog about next. If a particular blog is performing, you could repurpose it into a video or an infographic for your audience.
Analyzing this data will enable you to improve future articles and become a better business blogger.
In conclusion
Business blogging is a great way to improve your reach online and build stronger relationships with your customers. It comes with so many benefits like making you a thought leader in your industry, gaining your product and service credibility and trust, giving your site website traffic, and generating leads for you which means more sales.
To create a successful blog, pick quality over quantity, know your audience and write for him/her, have a good headline, include images, stats, and links, have a content calendar, and blog consistently promote, share, engage, and analyze data.
If you have any more blogging tips that have worked well for your business, kindly leave a comment below.
