How to Start a Blog for your Small Business

Blogging is a great way to increase the reach of your small business. From raising brand awareness to converting possible customers, blogs are a great way to provide information to your readers while putting your business in front of more people. Here are some tips for small businesses looking to start a successful blog.

Find Your”Why”

A blog without a purpose will not provide the return on investment needed to make it worth your time. When starting a blog, the first step is to decide why you are starting the blog in the first place. Is this blog to generate new organic leads for your business? Is it to bring more traffic to your website? Is it to share the values of your company with the public? Is it promoting new products and services?

All of these are viable reasons for starting a blog. However, it is important to focus on one “why” to effectively start creating the content you need. Once you decide why you need a blog for your small business you must figure out who you are trying to target with your content. Your target audience will help drive your content so that you can fulfill your blog’s purpose more efficiently.

Produce Consistent and Relevant Content

Once you determine why you need to start a blog and who your target audience will be, it is time to start planning and producing consistent and relevant content. When planning your content, it is important to consider what type of content can help you draw readers in to meet your goals. You will also need to consider how frequently you can create and post this content. The more consistently you post, the more likely you are to get in front of potential customers.

When planning content, start by making a list of possible topics that are related to your business. These topics can be directly related to your product or they can be topical to what is trendy at the moment. You can use keyword searches that your target audience might use to find ideas related to your business. Think about topics that will capture attention on social media to increase the organic spread of your blog. You want to be sure to post content that meets your “why” and is relevant to your target audience to get the most return on investment.

Maximize your SEO and Convert More Customers

Search Engine Optimization is the process of using data to determine which keywords to include in your blog to make your site easier to find on search engines. Maximizing your blog’s SEO will make your business easier to find potential customers. SEO allows you to target readers who are already looking for the products and services that your business provides. Putting your business in front of potential customers looking for services like yours will increase your conversion rates. This is more cost-effective than general marketing because you are not spending money putting your business in front of people who will never buy your product.

We welcome you to come back for our next blog in this series.  If you have any specific blogging questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.