Blogging for Fun and Profit: How to Build Your Business Blogging Skills
Your business has decided to take the leap into the social universe, the blogosphere. Blogging can and definitely will benefit your business. However, the world of blogging may still feel like uncharted waters and you must be asking yourself “What should my blog be about? How many posts should I publish, and how often? Who am I targeting? etc”.
We are here to help you in your journey to becoming a pro blogger with tips on creating timely content that meet the needs of your readers.
The basics
A good blog starts with a good plan, and that planning stage is where you first answer the most important questions, the three W’s: What you write about, Who you write for and Why you’re writing in the first place.
- Personas: Who is going to be interested in what you have to say? How do your products or services benefit them? Targeting your content to a specific readership makes it more likely to be seen and shared.
- Keywords relevant to your personas: What terms will they use when they’re searching for solutions? Knowing your keywords and putting them into use can optimize your blog to be found, guide your writing process and keep your copy consistent.
- Set your dates: How often will you write? The more frequent and up-to-date your content, the more you’ll have to offer to your readers, and the more Google’s page rankings will look favourably on your website.
- Short and long term goals: Are you looking to grow your email list and cultivate new leads, or are you focused on making your brand’s voice trusted and authoritative in your field? Whatever your goals, ensure that you have reliable metrics for measuring your progress.
Define your categories
It may be easy to simply write a product feature or fluff up a sales pitch, but it’s important to remember that the point of your articles is to provide value to your audience, not to sell to them. Take a look at your buyer personas’s needs and assemble them into categories. These categories and their corresponding personas will focus your writing and guide you.
You can now begin addressing some general topics.
Another great source of blogging inspiration is your existing customer base. Think about the type of questions from customers that you answer on a regular basis. Many of these represent common problems that can easily be turned into blog posts. For every one customer who comes in with a common question, just imagine how many there are tapping their query into Google in search of an answer!
Content over everything
What sets your blog apart from your competitors is original content. Posting regularly is one thing, but your blog will be as dry as a bone without engaging, diverse content to support that copy:
- Statistics
Provide relevant and substantiated statistics in the form of graphs and infographics—these add credibility to your posts and can provide shock value when used properly.
The number of bloggers is increasing by the day and is expected to reach 31.7 million by 2020. So use your best writer to make sure you have a powerful, gripping, compelling and even viral blog.
- Visual communication
Use visuals to break up the text. The text of headers and subheaders can often be incorporated into a relevant image that draws the reader’s attention and invites them to read further. It can also break up the monotony of plain text.
According to Jeff Bullas, using images in your blog posts gets them 94% more views.
This includes screenshots and photos. They are mostly used to demonstrate your solution in action. Remember that you’re here to provide value, not to sell. Getting to the end of a blog and feeling like you just read a really long ad means that you’re not going to come back for anything informative or authoritative. The more your readers can learn from your post, the more likely they are to return to your blog when they have another question that needs answering.
Tell a story
Compel your readers.
The narrative is a powerful tool and has been used in sales and marketing for a long time. Same goes for your blogs. Storytelling is a tool that will engage your audience and make them more receptive. It puts them within a familiar and memorable framework and shows how your business fits into their lives.
Start with choosing a narrative voice. Anecdotes and stories about your business can draw readers in and demonstrate your unique way of overcoming challenges in ways that others can learn from and put into practice.
A second-person voice (like the one used in this blog) allows readers to visualize themselves acting out your solutions as your offer them, while a third-person voice is suited to communicating stories about how your business has been part of another customer’s success.
Sharing is Caring
Share your new blog and your business’ social media on other marketing channels to gain readers other than Googlers and regular visitors to your site. The more readers that come to see your business as a trusted source of information, the better!
Your blogs should also link to one another. Where there’s an overlap in information or your blog posts address similar issues, have them link to each other! An engaged reader will always be ready to find out more!
Finish strong
Last but not least, bring things home with a call to action. Have you ever gotten to the end of an interesting article, how-to or blog post and been filled with the inspiration to immediately test what you’ve learned? While the point of your blog isn’t to sell, it’s important to give your readers something to engage with that allows them to take action and apply their new knowledge. Whether it’s more content, a link to a product or promotion or a contact form, your readers will have a way to act on their inspiration, and you will have a way to track engagement and turn readers into leads.
Our in house editorial experts know all about content marketing and to find out how it can help grow your business, book a consultation now.
What is Content Marketing and why does it matter?
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action. There are many different avenues for business owners to interact with consumers, and social media makes it easier than ever for business owners to reach potential customers through strategic tactics like content marketing.
Purpose of content marketing
The main purpose of content marketing, or inbound marketing, is to offer consumers value by presenting a solution to their needs, thus influencing the buying cycle. The beauty of content marketing is that it may lead consumers to recognise a problem or need in their lives that they would have otherwise been unaware of. This will draw them to your business when they are ready to buy, rather than knocking on doors or cold calling to try and convince someone to buy something from you now. Utilising content marketing tactics in your business’s strategy also introduces several benefits, many of which are long-lasting. Compared to traditional marketing programs, content marketing costs 62% less and generates approximately three times the volume of leads (DemandMetric).
The buying cycle
The main difference between traditional marketing methods and content marketing tactics is how each strategy affects the buying cycle for consumers. Traditional push marketing methods such as flyers, billboards or commercials seek to influence the comparison and purchase stages of the buying cycle by promoting or offering incentives that make a product or service seem superior to alternative solutions. Content marketing, or pull tactics, aim to increase consumer awareness and provide helpful information about the product or service your business offers as a solution.
The benefits
This method serves as a means for your business to attract, inform and engage with consumers. Here are some of the benefits that can accompany an effective strategy:
- Brand awareness
Publishing valuable content will lead consumers to discover your business and product offerings as they search for solutions to the problem they are facing. 80% of executives and business owners prefer to receive information about a company through articles rather than advertisements (Stratabeat). Therefore, by making content available to consumers, your business will communicate an awareness of consumer needs, humanising your brand with a personality that is friendly and helpful, as well as creating the opportunity for customers to form a relationship with you.
- Brand equity
Content that is relevant to the needs of consumers and offers them a valuable solution establishes your business as a thought leader in your industry, which helps build a trusting relationship with consumers. Attaining this level of credibility will lead consumers to prefer your goods and services over alternative solutions since they are aware of the unique value proposition offered by your business: that you are knowledgeable experts in your field.
- Effective long-term results
If the content your business releases is designed to be a mix of time-sensitive and evergreen pieces, your business’s content library will still be relevant to consumers as time passes. High-traffic content will also improve search engine rankings, and the consistent release of content can serve as a continuous source of interested consumers. On average, conversion rates are six times higher for companies and brands using content marketing than those that aren’t, at 2.9% vs. 0.5%, respectively (Aberdeen Group).
- The main sell
Content marketing is an effective strategy to interact with consumers and introduce them to your business’s brand. By providing consumers with value before they even visit your store, you are building positive relationships and connections to your brand, resulting in long-lasting customer loyalty and brand equity for your business.
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