Lemongrass Media Limited registered office address: ECL House, Lake Street, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, LU7 1RT. Registration in England & Wales. Registration number: 8596811
Regardless if you are a small business or a multinational company, setting up your website blog is integral to your online content marketing strategy.
Blogging can pave the way to establishing lasting connections with your visitors. By connecting directly with them on your website, your visitors are able to get to know your business or product better.
But what is a blog post and what does blogging entail? A blog is a term used to describe websites that maintain an ongoing archive of information. It can feature diary-type commentary and links to articles on other websites, usually presented as a list of entries in a chronological order. Your website blog houses this list of entries. Meanwhile, blogging is the act of creating short-form content.
Business blogging, on the other hand, is a marketing tactic that uses blogging to get your business more online visibility and getting more online visibility is good for you in all aspects. This could mean your business pops up regularly in search engines, on social media or on other people’s blogs as a guest writer, etc. Business blogging is one way to help get your business out in front of people looking for your products or services on the internet. Keep in mind that when you’re doing business blogging, your blog posts should always be about a particular subject matter related to your business or product.
So again, why blog? Here’s the rundown:
1) It can drive traffic to your website.
2) It can convert that traffic into leads.
3) It can help establish authority.
4) It can push long-term results.
Some pointers for starting your blog:
Assign a Focal Point for Your Website Blog
Although having different blogs for different subjects relating to your website can be a good thing, these should be kept only in addition to the main blog. Try to categorise your posts according to their designated subject-matter for better emphasis.
Dedicate Writers to Your Website Blog
In order for blogging to work its magic, you must be consistent and committed. While it may be tempting to assign blogging to a single person to keep a consistent tone and voice, the more contributors you have, the easier it will be to dole out content on a regular basis.
Build a Content Timetable
Note that it can only take up to two blog posts per week so take into consideration the time it will take you to create them. Blogs tend to get the most visits on certain days of the week. If you only have time to blog twice a week, at least focus on two specific dates. For example, Mondays and Thursdays.
Once you have your group of writers, work with them to create a content timetable. Decide on which days you want blog posts to be published right away and which of those topics needs a little more editing.
Creating a content timetable will hold your blog contributors accountable, and can also give you time to deliberate on posts as many weeks in advance as you have time for.
Establish an editing process
Determine an editing process that will work for you. You’re going to want to receive blog posts from your contributors at least one to two days in advance to allow whoever is in charge of your blog to edit, format, and post. This is particularly crucial when you come to a point where your writers genuinely have nothing to write about. You can provide an alternative solution like highlighting a product or service that your company offers, instead of the usual blog posts.
Write with Purpose and Clarity
Blogging isn’t all that hard and you need not be a bestselling author to produce an impact. Your blogs should not only be a source of information but should also be easy-to-read, conversational pieces. If your blog post is simple and written with intent, it will always be well-received.
Here are a few suggestions for always writing with purpose and clarity:
- Draft your blog post title first since you can always go back and tweak it later. This will also give your writing a focal point.
- Enumerate complex concepts into lists.
- Learn to cut out filler words by using power words and phrases. This eliminates bloated paragraphs and makes your posts appear more polished and purposeful; less is always more. A good exercise to flex the ruthless-editing muscles is to write an 800 word piece, then trim it to 500 while still retaining the key point.
- Write in chunks or sections. Blogs shouldn’t be drawn out like an essay. They should be segmented by different thoughts or ideas.
- Use a textual hierarchy to break up your post and make it easy to read
- Try using numbered and shortened posts like “5 Reasons to Re-Design Your Website” and then assign one section for each reason.
- Be sure to always incorporate photos in your posts. Placing a photo at the top of your blog is recommended and so does placing images throughout your whole post whenever necessary.
- Try to incorporate your own writing style and start being confident about it.
Branch Out
Pick topics you’d want to read yourself – even if they relate to niche industries. The more excited you are about your topic, the more excited your readers will be when they’re reading it. A blog post which has little to nothing to do about the company can still hold great bearing as this will give the impression of the website’s long reach across different issues. Creating several of these blog posts can also add authenticity and provide supporting information regarding your main blog.
An example of this would be a blog post about a security camera company presenting at an exhibition last week and discussing how it all went really well. While a few people might read about this, they are highly unlikely to mention it to their colleagues or friends and even less likely to link to it. On the other hand, a blog post such as ’10 common security camera mistakes and how to avoid them’ is a much more general issue which is far more likely to be shared and will travel much further than a more company-centric, inward looking post.
Share via Social and Subscriptions
Your blog gives you the opportunity to create relevant content for your customers. Use this as a marketing tactic to drive traffic back to your website.
Make the blog on your website the foundation for all of your social media platforms. Your business can expand to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, or anywhere else. Post links – with relevant visuals – of your blog articles to your social sites. Give your social followers a reason to click through to your website.
Additionally, post inbound links directly in your blog articles, to drive traffic to specific landing pages of your website. Each time you post a blog on your website, share it on your social feeds. Also share older blog posts that are still relevant on social media. Make sure to always include a photo in your tweets and Facebook posts, as it is more likely to get clicked.
To Sum it All Up
While you might not see instant results, over time you’ll be able to lure in a predictable amount of traffic and leads for your website without using any additional resources. A blog will take weeks, even months, to get it a steady stream of visits so it’s best not to get discouraged. However, with the right individuals and mindset in place, your blog can become the central piece of your advertising strategy and online marketing.