How to Get Started Blogging for Your Business

If you are a business owner or you have been tasked with writing a blog for your company, this post is for you. You've read about the benefits of blogging and how a successful blog will drive traffic to your website. You set up a blog using WordPress or another service, wrote one or two articles and then got busy with running your business. You're not alone, this happens all the time.

Where do you start? We're here to help you learn the basics and give you blogging tips to help you develop your own content strategy and inbound marketing plan.

When planning your blog, it's helpful to think like a publisher. A blog is an online magazine of sorts and it takes a well thought out approach to develop content that people want to read. Here are 5 steps to get started.

1. Write to your customer. Who is your customer and what do they care about? Often it's not about your product, but they have a problem or pain point that your product or service can help resolve. Define your ideal customer persona, understand their demographics and buying power. Where do they get their information and how can your content cross their online search? Identify their biggest challenge and write articles that address their needs.

2. Identify blog topics. What are 3-5 things your customers need to know about your product? What questions do customers ask during a sales call? What are your customers concerns about doing business with you? Use the questions that come up in doing business everyday to define content that will be useful to your customer. The trick is you have to present the solutions in an educational and informative style vs. direct selling. People want to learn about a topic and not be sold. Another tip is to keep a running log of topic ideas. I use the notes app and the audio recording app on my smart phone to help me keep track of topic ideas as they come to me.

3. Schedule. Every successful publisher manages an editorial or content calendar. This strategic planning tool provides the foundation for content development. The calendar helps you plan across several months or even a year at time, which authors are writing on which topics to specific customers. A content calendar will help your organization write a relevant blog and publish with consistency which is important to building and maintaining your readership.

4. Write, edit & publish. If you're like me you have a lot of other responsibilities in addition to writing. Blogging experts say to set aside dedicated time for writing. Some business owners dedicate two hours on a Saturday and others dedicate a 20 minute block of time daily. Try different time slots to see what works for you. Once you've written your draft save it and also allow time for editing and fact checking. Don't stress over perfection and spend too much time editing. Blog posts are meant to engage and inform the reader and publishing frequently is critical to success. Again use your content calendar to set goals for your publishing schedule. If you don't have the time to write find a ghost writer who can work with you, but still identify the topics and key points yourself.

5. Share your content. Use social media to publish your posts and schedule updates to your social media accounts with links back to your posts. You should also include social media share buttons on your blog. When readers share or comment on your posts be sure to thank them and reciprocate by sharing their content when appropriate. Monitor your social media results to know which social media networks are the best fit for your audience and which topics are the most popular. This will help you know where to focus your efforts and it is also a great way to help you identify future topics for your blog.

A blog is a foundational element of an inbound marketing plan. We want to help you define your content strategy and it begins with planning your content. Download our content calendar template and getting started planning your blog today.