Blogging for your small business
What are the benefits of blogging for your small business? First check out these pretty powerful stats about blogging: According to Hubspot:
- B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not.
- Marketers who have prioritised blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy positive ROI.
- By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships without talking to a human.
- The only thing blogging costs you: your time.
- Companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website.
With those stats in mind you can't ignore the power of blogging for your small business.
One of the greatest benefits of blogging is that it gives the business owner a place to answer questions they get asked regularly and helps to raise the profile and credibility of the business or the business owner.
The online world is now a competitive area especially for online businesses, there are more tools and information available than ever making it easier than every for everyone to start a business that leverages online marketing. By creating exceptional content be it using a blog, reporting or videos you can still set your business apart from the crowd and get more business than your competitors who are not yet doing it.
How do you get started with blogging for your small business?
Another amazing benefit of blogging is that you aren't expected to be an expert blogger or a literary genius you just need to have the basics down. - I recommend the 30 day blogging challenge with Sarah Arrow to get you started with the how to's and to get you into good habits around blogging. Through blogging you can create a wonderful and educational platform that shows your expertise, your talent and showcases your small business to the world and more importantly to your existing clients.
My personal experience was getting started with blogging by simply writing a list of questions I get asked about social media or digital marketing most frequently and went from there. I feel this is the best way to get off the mark with your own blog. Think of your most asked question or enquiry and blog the answer in detail. This will benefit you in 2 ways. 1. Potential customers may find your blog when searching for the answer to this question (which could end up a nice lead) and 2. You have somewhere to refer people to in your proposals or on social media when they ask that same question which of course in the future could save you a ton of time. This type of blog post is usually referred to as evergreen content because it doesn't change and it can be referred to and shared again and again.
There is no rule for the amount of times you should publish or when you should publish so just go with the flow. Remember good content can be shared on social media again and again.
Quick Tips: Blogging for your small business:
1. Get started by putting together a list of possible blog topics
2. Write detailed answers to your most frequently asked questions (1 for each post)
3. Try and create blogs / content that solves a problem or answers a question
4. Use an online spelling and grammar checker. Nothing say's 'I can't be bothered' more than someone who can't be bothered to differentiate their 'their from their there' and their 'your from their you're' - Tip: If spelling and grammar isn't your strong point just have a colleague or friend read your post over just to be sure.
5. Be personal. There are a lot of people blogging for business now and probably covering the same topics. To stand out you'll need to make your posts special to do this you must be yourself, don't be shy about including your own ism's and quirky ways to your blog.
6. Create a graphic for your blog post to encourage more click throughs on social media. I use Canva as it's easy and there are 1000,s of templates available.
7. Don't make it all about traffic and hits. Trying to engineer the perfect post for SEO isn't always the best SEO! Just writing naturally and making sure your title explains the article content really is a great place to start.
8. Get started!!
