One big marketing move a lot of business owners miss out on? Blogging!
I get it—blogging can seem like a total headache at first or just another thing to add to your growing list of business responsibilities. But trust me, once you hit your stride, you’ll be swimming in organic traffic, owning your niche, and chatting with a super-engaged audience.
Blogging isn’t just for the professional writers. It’s for everyone!
Got a business? Want to show off your services, products, and brilliant ideas? Then blogging is for you. The internet is the perfect place to connect with your dream customers.
Fun fact: over 61% of global internet users do some serious product research online before buying. So, why not be the one they find?
Benefits of Blogging for Your Business
Blogging is a more subtle form of marketing
What sets blogging apart from other marketing activities is that it doesn’t intrude or disrupt like traditional ads or marketing.
Think of those annoying car commercials yelling “buy, buy, buy!” or the endless direct mailers clogging up your mailbox. It’s so easy to tune them out or toss them straight into the recycling bin, right?
Blogging, on the other hand, gives visitors the info they want on their terms. This way, they feel more in control and not rushed into buying something.
Blogging can majorly boost your website traffic
When you blog for your business, you’re basically creating a little goldmine of valuable content for potential customers and anyone hunting for answers. Search engines like Google and Bing crawl your content for keywords and file it away. Then, when people type in those keywords, bam—they find your blog and, even better, your business. 😉
I like to think of each of my blog posts like a ticket to the lottery. The more you blog, the more pages you create for your site and the more opportunities (and lottery tickets you have) you create for people to find you through information they are seeking.
Blogging builds instant equity for your site and your business. Check out some of the statistics:
Tons of sources back up these numbers, showing how blogging can seriously benefit your biz.
We believe blogging is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your site without spending a dime on ads. Once you’ve got that traffic, you can sell your services/products or run display ads to cash in.
Blogging builds trust and authority
Blogging might seem like a slow burn at first, but it’s an investment that pays off big time in the long run. Posting regularly helps you build relationships and trust, leading to new clients, loyal readers, and awesome business collabs.
Well-researched, in-depth blog posts on specific topics are a super easy way to show off your expertise. As a branding and design studio, we’ve got a ton of blogs on things like websites, color palettes, and typography because that’s our jam—we do it every day and know it inside out.
When your website becomes a go-to spot for valuable info, people will keep coming back because they know they can count on you for the answers they need.
How to Start Blogging for Your Business
Develop Your Blogging Strategy
Create a plan for your blogging efforts to stay organized and on track. Think about how many times a month you want to blog and how much time you have to dedicate to writing each post. Depending on your writing abilities you may need to set aside between 2 and 4 hours to write and edit each post.
The key is to stay consistent. Ideally, a weekly blog post will keep your website fresh for search engines, and will help you build up a backlog quicker, but if that feels overwhelming, start out with one post a month and work your way up.
Just like you may have content pillars or focuses for your social media, you can implement the same framework with your blog. For example, our blogging categories consist of
- Branding
- Fonts
- Color Palettes
- Web Design
- Showit
- Marketing
You don’t need to have this many, but choose 3-7 categories that you feel comfortable talking about and that align with your business.
Regularly doing keyword research can help you brainstorm blog post ideas for each category and keep your content relevant. One of the easiest ways to research keywords? Check out the “People also ask” section on Google. These are terms with high search volume already, so you’re tapping into what people really want to know.
We also recommend tracking your keywords and blog stats in a Google sheet or content management app like Notion or Trello to help you stay consistent and stay on top of how your content is performing over time.
Set Up Your Blog for Your Business
Good news! Most website platforms already come with a way to blog. If you are using, or want to use, a popular website builder such as WordPress, Showit, Squarespace or Shopify, then you can add a blog easily to your website, without a lot of extra work.
This is a preview of the blog feed from our Jenny Showit website template. All of the templates in the K Design Co shop. come with a blog feed page design and single post option.
We set up this blog feed to display popular posts and different categories, but you can opt for just a simple display of all of your posts, or use whatever layout your website theme or template allows.
Related Post: 9 Must-Have Elements for an Irresistible Blog Design
Write Your Blog Post
Once you have your strategy in place and your blog setup, the only thing left to do is write your first blog.
1. Choose your blog topic & create an outline
Use the categories you set up in your strategy as a starting point for deciding on a topic to write on. Using ChatGPT can be great for getting the ideas flowing.
Here are some prompts to get you started generating blog post ideas with ChatGPT:
What are some frequently asked questions or misconceptions about [a particular aspect of your niche] that I can address in a blog post?
What are some current issues or challenges in [your niche or industry] that would be worth exploring in a blog post?
Once you’ve chosen a topic, creating a simple outline of your blog is the best way to get past blank page syndrome. You can use Chat GPT for this too, just make sure you using it to enhance and accelerate your writing process, not fully replace it.
Check out this blog for even more ChatGPT prompts for blogging.
2. Format your blog content so that it is easy to read using headings, bullets and numbered lists
List posts, or listicles, are one of the easiest ways to dive into blogging. Basically, you pick a topic and create a list of 3-10 things, writing a few sentences about each item. This not only helps you get comfortable with writing a post but also makes it super engaging for your readers. Plus, it’s a great way to share a lot of valuable info quickly and keep your audience hooked.
Blog post, done – Easy-peasy! ✅
3. Write your content with keywords that you are targeted for your business
If your blog post is about ‘how to blog for your business” then you’ll want to use that exact phrase throughout the headings and body text of the blog, but also similar phrases such as ‘blogging for business,’ and ‘business blogging’.
Just make sure you don’t stuff your blog post with too many keywords or else Google may penalize you for black hat SEO. Most of the time, I write my blog post first and then go back through it to see where certain phrases could be replaced with my keyword or a variation.
4. Include links to relevant pages/blogs on your website
You’ll see a few underlined words and sentences in this blog post. Those are links to other related blogs or pages. This boosts your site’s search engine value and keeps visitors around longer. Just remember to update both new and old posts with fresh links as you create more content. The more you write, the more opportunities you’ll have to connect everything together.
5. Shoot for a word count between of 1000 words or more
Tailor your blog length to your specific audience and the topic you are writing on. Some audiences prefer shorter posts while others prefer longer so there is no perfect blog length. However, some recent research suggests that longer articles, those with over 1000 words, tend to perform better in search. Just something to keep in mind.
6. Include at least one image
But we often recommend more.
Use images that relate to what you’re talking about and add value to your points. Some great resources for free stock photos you can use are Unsplash and Pexels. Or check out a paid stock photo service like Haute Stock*. (You can even download 20 free photos right now without a subscription!)
Related Post: How to Write Alt Text for Images
7. Make the title descriptive, unique and click-worthy
We usually wait until after our blog post is written to finalize our blog title. That way we can be sure it captures the full idea of what the post is about and the process of writing, can also stir up some inspiration that we didn’t have before.
The best length for a blog post title is 8-12 words, and should include your target keyword phrase. We’ve also found that blogs with titles that are more specific tend to attract the most interest and engagement.
Here are some examples to get you started:
- 10 Low-Key Reasons Why…
- 5 Juicy Tips on…
- How to or How I…
- 7 Expert Lessons in…
- 3 Things You Didn’t Know About…
Pro-tip: Our best ranking blogs that bring us the most traffic, almost always have a number in the title!
8. Create a call-to-action at the end of your post
What do you want the reader do next? Visit your website? Contact you about services? Get more information on a certain topic? Download resources? Make their next step clear and easy.
9. Promote your blogs
A great way to get your blog posts out there is through social media and email. If you’re sharing your blogs on social media (and you should be), encourage your followers to engage with and share your posts as well. If you aren’t sharing your blogs, you will be doing a disservice to all the hard work you put into writing.
Every time we post a blog, we also send out a newsletter letting our subscribers know there is more valuable content for them and their biz!
10. Make Blogging Part of Your Routine
Blogging works best for your marketing when you’re consistent and crank out quality, helpful content. But let’s be real, sometimes you just don’t feel like writing at all, let alone crafting a great blog post.
Some of our favorite tricks to stay consistent and motivated are setting deadlines, having an accountability partner, or sprucing up old blog posts.
And if none of that works, shut the laptop and give it another go tomorrow!
Related post: Blogging Tips: How to Blog Consistently (Even When You Don’t Want To)
Interested in learning more about how to set up a blog for your business? We geek out about this stuff and would love to help. Contact us here!
