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.
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:
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.
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.
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.)
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:
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.