Business blogging is the most effective way to drive traffic to your website. Internet marketing software provider HubSpot found that companies that blog 15 or more times per month get 5 times more traffic than companies that don't blog. In the last month, 54% of the pageviews on my website were for blog articles. Business blogging not only drives traffic to your website, it offers you the opportunity to position your company as a thought leader in your industry. Many business owners and manager see the value of blogging, but aren't sure how to get started. In this article, we'll show you how to start business blogging in 5 easy steps.
1. Find Writers
You probably have people with writing talent in your company. Your first step should be to look internally for people who can write 600-800 word articles about topics related to your company and industry. To put things in perspective, 600-800 words is 6 paragraphs. Find people who can write and recruit them as writes for your blog. Keep in mind that not everybody is a writer.
If you don't have enough writers to produce the frequency of blog articles you're looking to produce, consider outsourcing writing to an inbound marketing agency. Whether you outsource your writing or keep it internal, someone on the management team should serve as an editor. Your duties as an editor include approving articles for publication, assigning topics and deadlines and making sure the blog reflects your company's unique value proposition.
2. Develop a list of blog titles and create an editorial calendar
One of the questions I hear most frequently from business owners is, "what am I going to write about?" This shouldn't be a problem for most companies. Here are some of the things you could be writing about:
- Answer customer questions. Talk to your customer-facing personnel and compile a list of common questions that they hear from customers. Write blog articles that answer customer questions.
- Write "how-to" articles. "How-to" articles are just what they sound like - write blog articles that show your audience how to accomplish tasks that they want to accomlish. This article is a "how-to" article.
- Write about developments in your industry. You're an expert in your industry, right? Your audience probably isn't, so they'd like to hear from you on trends in your industry.
- Take a stand on a controversial issue. Many people shy away from writing about controversial topics, but they are usually the ones that get the most traffic. You can take a position and encourage people who disagree to share their opinions by commenting.
These are just a few of the potential topics you can write about. When you have a list of topics you want to write about, create a 3-month editorial calendar that assigns topics to writers and gives them deadlines to meet your publishing schedule.
3. Structure your blog articles so that they're reader-friendly.
Don't assume that readers will read blog articles from beginning to end. Structure your blog articles so that readers can consume bite-size pieces of your articles. Use bullet points, numbered lists and images. Try to keep paragraphs short and sweet.
You should also use targeted keywords to attract the right kind of traffic to your blog. Compile a list of 3-5 word phrases that your customers and prospects use to describe your industry and topics related to it. Use software like HubSpot or Google Adwords Keyword Planner to research your list of phrases and get ideas that can be used in blog titles. When using keywords in your writing, make sure that you use them organically - your reader shouldn't know when you're using keywords. When in doubt, write for readers rather than search engines. Good writing trumps SEO any day of the week.
4. Make sure you have lead generation offers in your blog articles.
If you're blogging for business purposes, one of your objectives should be to generate leads. Thought leadership is great (and necessary for most businesses), but it doesn't pay the bills. Every blog article you publish should include an opportunity download a premium content offer like an eBook, whitepaper or video in exchange for contact information. Your lead generation offer should give the reader a chance to get more detailed information on the topic you're writing about. By sharing contact information with you, you now have the opportunity to nurture that lead with email marketing. Here is an example of a lead generation offer (please feel free to click through and download the 81-page eBook, Introduction To Business Blogging.)
5. Analyze blogging metrics to optimize results.
Marketing analytics software like HubSpot or Google Analytics helps you evaluate your blog's performance so that you can optimize the results you're targeting. Here are some the metrics you should monitor:
- See which blog posts get the most pageviews and use that information to come up with future blog articles. Many of your blog posts will be "evergreen" material that produces website traffic months after they have been published.
- See which blog posts generate the most leads. This will help you determine which topics interest potential buyers.
- See how people are finding your blog articles. Look to see which social media networks and search terms are bringing people to your blog articles. This will help you find the best ways to reach potential buyers.
Summary
Business blogging is a highly effective way to drive targeted traffic to your website and promote your company as a thought leader within your industry. The key to remember is you should be helping people, not trying to sell them something. Follow the steps listed above and you'll see results relatively quickly. Above all, just do it - get started writing and publishing blog articles as soon as you can.
