To run a successful business blog, you must operate on many fronts.
First you need to consider what kind of content you’ll have to publish.
Then you have to determine whether or not you have sufficient staff to operate your blog, or if you need to hire out talented freelancers, coordinators and consultants.
How can you leverage your content to bring in meaningful results for your business?
Why have a business blog?
Most businesses have some sort of internet presence today.
It might be, for instance, a webpage, an e-commerce site, a social media page or a video channel.
These digital assets are created to tell prospects how you can help them solve a problem.
If you’re a roofer, for example, your webpage may outline your experience, some speciality expertise you have or even your pricing structure.
Even if you’re a professional, perhaps a dentist, you’ll want to let people know more about you and why they should consult with you.
Any web page can help you do that.
But having a business blog takes your company or practice to a whole new level.
It doesn’t just tell people who you are and how to contact you.
But even more, it shows them how you can help them, how you can improve their lives and why it’s to their benefit to contact you.
Write compelling content
In order to show people how you can help them, it’s really important for any successful business blog to develop compelling content that demonstrates that.
Show people you can help them solve their problems and reach their goals.
Notice, I said show people, not tell people.
That’s the power of having a blog for your business.
Let’s say you have a roofing business.
You could put an ad on Facebook that says “we have the best prices” on roofing.
That’s fine, but doesn’t everyone say that?
You’re just telling people your prices are the best.
But what if you decide to create a successful business blog.
Now you can write a blog post titled something like
- “don’t overpay for your next roofing job,” or
- “6 ways to keep the cost down on your next roof,” or
- “a great roof doesn’t have to kill your budget”
These kinds blog posts are more likely to get the attention of your target prospects.
Then you can show them how to keep roofing costs low without compromising quality (hint: by hiring your company to do the job).
Content marketing
Compelling articles, or posts can really help your business blog grow when you market them wisely.
Content is great, but it doesn’t help much if people don’t read it.
So after writing your blog post, give it exposure.
Post a link to it on your Facebook page.
Or you can create images that intrigue people about your article.
Put them on your Instagram or Pinterest account.
Go on Twitter and link to them.
These are just a few examples of how you can market your blog posts after you publish them.
Marketing your content is really the key way that your business blog can become successful, and help you reach your target prospects.
Create a blogging schedule
No single blog post is going to push all your business goals over the finish line.
You need to produce content regularly and frequently.
This will help your business blog become successful in attracting visitors and even regular readers.
In order to make sure you’re consistently getting your blog posts in front of people, you need to create a blogging schedule.
First, decide how often you will publish an article.
Maybe it’s once a week, or once a month or whatever works for your business.
Next, you’ll want to decide who will write the blog posts.
A successful business blog often relies on existing staff to do the writing.
Are there people in your business who could pitch in with this?
Or, if you’re a very small business, maybe you’ll do it yourself.
You could even hire an agency or a freelancer to do the writing for you.
Just assign each blog post to specific authors.
Then make sure they will be able to write your articles according to your blogging schedule.
Assign your articles to a writer as early in the process as you can, and then give them firm deadlines for publication.
This will keep your business blog robust, and greatly enhance it’s ability to become successful..
Brainstorm blog post ideas
We’ve talked about how often you want to publish articles on your business blog.
But what are you going to write?
Well, you need to come up with blog post ideas.
What topics will help your business blog be successful and highly relevant to readers?
The best way to develop your blog post ideas is to get key people in your business involved in a brainstorming project.
Get ideas from as many people as you can in order to build a list a blog post titles that will really serve your audience.
In order to do this effectively, you’ll first want to break your business blog into categories.
For instance, using the roofing blog as an example…
- Our Services
- Shingles
- Metal Roofs
- Testimonials
- Pricing
- FAQ
After you’ve decided on categories of articles, then you’re ready to brainstorm actual titles for your blog posts.
Remember, you’ll want the structure of your articles to be built around your prospects’ problems and goals.
That’s how to effectively brainstorm a list a blog post titles that will really serve your audience.
For a roofing business blog, maybe titles like these would work…
- How do I know what shingles are best for my roof?
- What is something goes wrong with my roofing job?
- How do I know if I need a new roof?
- Can I just repair a leaking roof?
- What’s the best way to choose a reputable roofer?
- How much should a new roof cost?
The important thing is to know what your prospective customers’ problems are.
Maybe they want to know how to pick a roofer who is reputable.
They’ll probably worry about what a new roof will cost them.
You see, those topics are listed above, along with similar ones, as possible ideas for blog posts to help your business blog be relevant to prospects.
Use SEO on your business blog
Sometimes business bloggers discount the value of SEO, or Search Engine Optimization.
But you shouldn’t make this mistake.
Maybe you think it’s too complicated, or too much work.
Perhaps you’ve priced it out to hire someone to do it for you, but found it was too expensive for your budget.
But SEO is a critical piece of blogging.
The most important aspect of it is keyword research.
If you do SEO at all for your business blog, make sure to do some very basic keyword research at least.
That’s because it will keep you constructing content for the right people… your prospects.
You see, when you search for good keywords, you are simply looking for words and phrases that your prospects use when trying to find businesses like yours in search engines like Google and Bing.
By using those keywords in your blog post title and content, you will be writing things that people are actually looking for.
You’ll also be helping the search engines find your blog posts and give them search ranking for your keywords.
Because this helps your articles rank well in the search engines, it is one of the best ways to get traffic to your business blog.
So, if it fits the budget you’ve set for your business blog, get a good paid keyword search tool like SEMRUSH.
If you just want to go the free route, though, nothing compares with the always free (not just a trial term) Google Keyword Planner.
Give people the blog posts they want most
Keyword research is the very least you should be doing to optimize your blog posts for your prospects.
Optimizing your blog posts simply means using SEO practices like keyword placement to give your articles the best chance of attracting your target prospects.
But even more, it gives your readers exactly the content they’re looking for.
When you structure your blog posts around specific keywords, you will be making sure you’re delivering the content your readers want.
For example, if your business blog is designed to get more customers for your roofing business, you can develop keywords like these:
- roofing materials
- roofing company
- roofing construction
- roofing sheets
- roofing types
Good keyword research will tell you that these are terms your prospects are actually searching for on Google and other search engines.
You’re not just guessing.
If you actually do your keyword research as I suggested above, you’d uncover a list the one I gave you above.
Then, you simply write articles using those exact keywords.
Construct them to give people the information they’re looking for.
Take the keyword phrase “roofing materials,” for instance.
To develop content around that keyword, you’d want to tell people what kinds of roofing materials are best for specific situations, and for a variety of different building types.
Then, when somebody types that search term into a Google search, or Bing search, for instance… your article could be found in the search results.
Give that that reader good information and they just may become your next customer.
How to run a successful business blog
A successful business blog can help you build your bottom line in so many ways.
But it won’t just happen by starting a blog and posting to it every now and then.
You have to build a strategy for making your blog an asset to your business.
It’s critical to write compelling content and then market it everywhere your prospects are.
Create and implement a serious blog schedule, and then stick to it.
Publish blog posts that will help your readers.
Now, I’d like you to let me know what your blogging plans are.
Leave me a comment below.
What kind of blogging plans you are considering?
And tell me what you see as your biggest challenge to running a successful business blog.
-Donna
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