Having a blog on your company’s website is a marketing necessity. Content marketing is the least expensive and probably the most effective way to promote your business. Besides, all your competitors are already doing it, so that is the way to go.
Think of the blog as an integral part of your business; don’t approach it half-heartedly. If you invest time and effort in creating it, it can significantly boost your sales and brand awareness. Here’s a list of things you should have in mind before you start.
Blogging is work
It may not seem so at first, but it really is. Once you make a schedule and make it public, it’s imperative to stick to it, or you’re risking the reputation of your business. Also, creating regular quality content becomes harder as time goes by, because you need to stay creative and relevant. The blog will probably generate followers and regular readers, so interacting with them and responding to criticism will become a regular task you need to take care of. It’s also a good idea to create some features or products that will be available just to the blogging community to keep up the buzz.
Technical issues matter
One of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make is what blogging platform you’ll be using and who will be hosting your blog. This seems like technical issues that are of interest to geeks only, but they have serious ramifications on how your blog (and therefore your business) is perceived. With a self-hosted blog, you’ll have access to more storage, larger bandwidth and advanced customer services. Most importantly, it gives you an option to choose your own domain name. On the other hand, a free option is free. A self-hosted blog will appear more professional, but it may not be the best option if you’re just trying it out.
Remember why you’re doing it
Blogging can be used for a lot of things – it can be a platform for you to express yourself or a way to promote your work or an opportunity to get to know your customers better. Identify your niche audience and write for them. Have a purpose in mind with every post. If you’re planning on making money from your blog, you should check out this article here. Just remember to have a larger strategy in mind while you’re doing it.
Promote yourself
Creating good and useful content isn’t enough, but it is an important first step. If you want to get traffic for your blog, you need to get proactive. Use all the social media you can and use it religiously. Don’t be shy when it comes to promoting the blog and asking others to do so. This means connecting to the readers on Facebook and Twitter, but it also means connecting to the influencers in your industry and asking them to give you a shout out, so you can get more traffic and get noticed (especially if you’re just starting out). Also, invite your peers to make a guest post on your blog and share some of their experiences.
Content is everything
When it’s all said and done, nothing is more important than the quality of the content itself. The posts you make and share should be informative, authentic and relevant to both your audience and your business and they should be a good read. Also think beyond the text – try to improve your content with images, infographics and videos. This wider approach will keep your audience engaged and that’s the whole point.
Starting a blog is easy, maintaining it is a bit harder. Think it through before you start and it will pay off.
Leave a Reply