Not only does blogging drive website traffic and promote your products and services, but it also helps you build trust with your potential customers.

The benefits of blogging for your business

Blogging is an inexpensive marketing strategy that allows you to open a dialogue with your audience and provide useful information, all while keeping your brand top of mind.

One of the big challenges that has been identified on our courses and webinars, is creating content. Now, blogging for your business helps you get discovered via social media. Every time you create a new article, you’re creating content that people can share on social, which helps expose your business to a new audience that may not know you yet. Blog content also helps keep your social media presence going.

Blogging is great because it is multi-functional, for example you can repurpose blog content for social media, which is so useful. Instead of creating brand new content for social, your blog can serve as that repository of content.

Your blog can become a way of strengthening your social reach with blog content and driving new website visitors to your blog via your social channels.

The best business blogs answer common questions their readers and customers have. If you consistently create valuable content for your target audience, it’ll establish you as an industry leader or authority in their eyes. Just think about the impact of creating valuable content for your ideal customer that answers a question for them and adds value? It is another crucial way of your building loyalty and trust as well as positioning you within your industry.

Another benefit blogging affords ever small business is a platform to share your story, and for those who have been on my webinars before, you will know how important I think storytelling is! Blogs can contain not only articles but also news that highlight what you have been up to in your business.

Here are some ideas of news you could share:

  • Fundraising you are up to
  • A brilliant case study that showcases your products of stories
  • Efforts you have been making to become more sustainable
  • A new appointment on your team
  • An event you are hosting or attending

Not only does sharing company news on your blog humanise your brand, but it also helps your audience see that you’re not always about selling.

BLOGGING 101

You now know why, or at least some of the reasons why, so now let’s do the HOW.

What is the purpose of your blog?

You need to have your ideal customer at the heart of your blogging plan, just as you would any part of your marketing output. So, with your ideal customer in mind, what is the purpose of your blog?

Do you want to

  • share information?
  • create a dialogue with your audience?
  • increase web traffic?
  • improve SEO?
  • build brand awareness?
  • Competition is good!

I love competition. At Buy-From, we are constantly looking at what our competitors are doing, so that we can learn, develop, and get better at what we do. What better way to draw inspiration than to look at your well-established competition?

Before your start on your blogging journey, it’s worth looking at popular blogs because their strategy and execution is what got them to grow in credibility. The purpose of doing this isn’t to copy these elements, but to gain better insight into what makes a quality blog.

What will you write about?

So, you have identified your purpose and you understand what your ideal customers’ needs and wants are. You have also read some blogs to see what interests you and understand what your own brand voice needs to be. What’s next? You need to decide what to write about!

Will you:

  • share your knowledge or expertise?
  • solve a problem for your readers?
  • share your opinions on trending debates?
  • teach your readers how to do something?

Ultimately you need to write about something you are passionate or knowledgeable about. If you are new to blogging, then the only way you are going to really get those words written is if you choose a subject you know about. Your business. Your products or services.

WIX suggests these content frameworks, which I think are quite a useful way of starting to content plan:

  • A how-to post that instructs readers how to do something with clearly ordered steps

  • A curated list that offers a set of recommendations for your readers

  • A tips and advice post that provides expert guidance and resources.

  • A definition-based blog post that helps explain the meaning of a term or topic

  • A top trends article that highlights what’s currently popular

  • A personal or business update that lets you unveil something fresh or recently unknown

These ideas are designed to give you the inspiration to start but make sure you stay focused on:

  • Ideal customer
  • Goal of your blog
  • Purpose of your blog
  • The structure of your blog

INTRODUCTION

You need to grab your readers’ attention in the first few sentences. Establish what the problem is you are solving, begin with a relevant quote or statistic, tell a short story, or share an interesting fact. Then, set the tone for the article by sharing a summary of what you’re going to talk about in the body text.

BODY TEXT

Your body text should be clear and compelling. Avoid fluff and repetition, and instead offer deep value by sharing your knowledge, research, and insights. Try to use sub-headings where possible as well, as it makes your body text easier for Google to index.

CONCLUSION

You can tie your main points together using a short, bulleted list, or by sharing some closing thoughts in a few sentences. Make sure you end on an engaging note and include that valuable CTA we discussed earlier.

How do I promote my blog on social media?

Sharing your content on social media is a great way to promote your blog and drive more traffic to your site. Here are some tips for doing so:

  • Choose the most relevant social networks for your blog
  • Engage with people on those networks and build relationships
  • Contribute to social media groups to share your expertise

Social media is about community building so you need to make sure that you are communicating on there. Don’t just post and leave. Take your time in-between sharing your content to engage with others so that your blog content feels relevant, and valuable.

If you have any questions or would like to speak to one of the team about your marketing and communication needs, drop us an email at info@buy-from.com. We’d love to talk to you.