Starting a blog for your business is essential. A blog allows your business to engage with your customers casually. Due to its collaborative nature, a blog can be instrumental in gaining feedback from your audience. However, most importantly, a blog will make your business more approachable and human. Below are a few pointers on starting your blog. You can also utilise a blog worksheet to help you prepare your thoughts.
Start by establishing your tone and brand voice
Identify with your audience and let that influence and inspire your posts. Keeping true to this will give you focus and set an objective to your entries. Be sure to check your grammar, spelling, typos before you release it to the world. (unfortunately, I’ve made this mistake before – yikes!)
Keep your content relevant and personal
Readers want to build a relationship with you and not necessarily the company. They want to hear your tips and advice about a topic, not the company lecturing to them. Be sure to keep your entires conversational yet authoritative and informal in tone.
Have useful content
This is an obvious point. Keep in mind the intent; people want to learn a little something when they visit your blog. If you have useful information, people will share it and build links to it. Links drive traffic to your site, and this is what you want, the more links to your site, the better you rank in search engine results! Another tip is to try using infographics; these are great for social media because they can be shared easily.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)!
When writing your posts, keep in mind of using relevant keywords throughout. This is another way to increase your blog’s chances of showing up at or near the top of search engine results.
Post frequently
Readers expect updates at least once a week, any longer than that, the customer retention is weakened. Posting once a month is too long, if you have trouble writing, consider sharing the task with another blogger (tips on time management). Ensure that he or she expresses your brand and shares your similar beliefs, plus, multiple voices can make your blog more interesting.
Make it a commitment
An abandoned or seldom posted blog won’t create engagement with your audience. No one wants to see a blog’s last entry was two years ago! If you decide to start a blog, commit to sticking with it. Use a calendar or planner to chart out a posting schedule and adhere to it. I promise it will be worth it in the long run.
Happy blogging 🙂
“My first template used in Microsoft Word! Super simple, and easy to print at home. I can also use the trim marks to create other cards too!” – Robyn L