As a small business owner, you may be thinking about starting a blog. Maybe you started one, but you’re not sure what to do with it. You might be second-guessing yourself, especially if you’re not seeing the results you expected.
The truth is, a blog can definitely help your business. Having a blog can bring more traffic to your website. You can grow an online following and get people excited about your brand. You can convert web searchers into customers, and increase your profits.
If you’re wondering how to do that or are feeling stuck, you’ve come to the right place. We want to share some of the valuable strategies we’ve learned about blogging to help you improve your blog’s effectiveness and reach.
Drive Traffic
When you first start blogging, there are a few strategies you can use to drive traffic to your website.
- Blog Consistently
The first one is to blog consistently. For some businesses, the magic number is one to four times a week. If you are regularly producing quality content, your traffic should organically increase over time, without any additional advertisement.
- Create quality content (typically longer)
Longer posts can help your blog to rank higher in searches. However, you should always choose quality over quantity. You want to bring value to your readers, and that means you need to provide well-researched information. Longer posts can help you to show off your expertise, too.
If creating long, quality posts on a regular basis is not a viable option, you might want to try another strategy. Using targeted keywords on your blog can also help you to drive traffic to your blog or website.
- Target keywords
Keywords are words that people are likely to type into a search engine when they’re looking for content like yours. Using keywords can make your blog rank higher in searches.
To find quality keywords, you’ll want to either hire someone to do keyword research for you, or use a keyword research tool like SEMRush, Ahrefs or Google Ads Keyword Planner.
To do your own keyword search, simply type in phrases that you think someone looking for the type of material you produce would search for. Then, the keyword planner will generate some keywords. For WordPress, there is a section on the right where you can add your keywords.
If all of this seems overwhelming to you, we can help you to get started with SEO (search engine optimization).
Engage your customers
- Provide valuable content
When people land on your page, you want to keep them engaged. When you provide your viewers with valuable content, they will be more likely to stay on your page and return to it.
- Add visuals
One of the ways you can keep people interested is by creating stunning visuals. By using images and videos, you can help people understand and retain your content longer. In fact, 90% of the information that is sent to our brains is visual, so it will definitely enhance your message.
Image source: https://hub.uberflip.com/blog/show-don-t-tell-here-s-why-your-brand-needs-visual-content
You may also want to consider using interactive visual content, such as augmented reality, a 3D technology that allows your viewer to try out your product or view it from different angles.
While you’ve got your audience’s attention, you can educate them about your services and products. When you prove that you’re a leader in your industry, people will naturally want to follow you.
Being a leader in an industry means you have expertise and are offering someone something they need. You are adept at showing someone the value you are offering, and how it could make their life better. You read up on your industry and stay relevant.
- Tap into trends and questions being asked
When you’re relevant, you show your audience you know their world. You can tap into cultural and industry trends, while maintaining your brand’s unique voice.
You can stay in touch with the questions people are asking, which will require research. You might want to check out Reddit, Quora, Think with Google, and BuzzSumo to get you started.
You can start by asking what people are talking about in your industry. Once you’ve read a number of articles on a subject, you can enter those conversations and share your unique perspective or show how your company is solving some of the issues people are raising.
Be social
- Start with engaging
In blogging, there is a give and take. If you like and comment on other blogs, you’ll find that people will often respond in kind. On a blogging platform, you can connect with others by being social and personable, just like you would at a networking event.
- Collaborate with others
One of the great things about using a blogging platform is that you can collaborate. You can invite guest writers to bring a fresh voice or expertise to your blog. If you invite another blogger in your industry to share a post on your website, they may want you to share one on theirs.
- Share on social platforms
You can also use social media platforms to promote your blog. People often create Facebook groups or send tweets about their blogs.
LinkedIn is the perfect place to share your newest article. You can use Pinterest to attract another group of fans. Each platform will provide a different following, increasing your reach.
- Build an email list
Networking through social media and a blogging platform can help you to grow your audience. You can use your blog as a way to connect with and gather email addresses from potential clients.
You can also create a mailing list and send out newsletters or features on new products or services. You can ask potential clients questions, and encourage them to comment on your blog.
- Listen and review what’s trending
Once you start amassing a following, you can practice social listening by seeing what gets people’s attention. What is your audience responding to? You can also get some ideas from other businesses in your industry who have had success with blogging.
- Find influencers
Social media influencers can help spread the word about your content, too. Influencer marketing has become a crucial part of advertising, especially for small businesses.
Social influencers are people on social media who have already amassed a following. For a fee, they will advertise your product, service, and content to their following.
Influencer marketing can get expensive if you are trying to work with someone with a large following but partnering with micro (1,000 to 100,000 followers) and nano-influencers (less than 1,000 followers) can be an affordable and a quick way to reach large amounts of people who may be interested in your products or services, especially if the influencer regularly advertises products in your industry.
Conclusion
We hope these tips have given you what you need to make your blog a success. If you’re still not sure where to begin, we can help! We’d love to help you to start marketing your blog today.
We can also help you to get a domain name that will increase your visibility and professionalism.
We’re here to support and help you on your journey to growing your business with your blog. Like many other small businesses, you can find a way to stand out and thrive in an overcrowded online community.
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