Starting a blog for your business isn’t as easy as it sounds. This article will take you through the process of starting a blog. It will cover topics such as the pros and cons of starting a blog, choosing a topic, and how to build an audience. When it comes to managing your online reputation, having a blog has become one of the most important tools. Your business blog is a communication tool that gives you an outlet to express your opinions and share your knowledge with your customers.
Learning how to start a blog for your business may seem daunting but it doesn’t have to be. While a blog won’t save your business all by itself, it can be a very useful tool in helping you grow and manage your business. In fact, it’s an essential tool for almost every small business.
Pros of starting a blog for your small business
Starting a Blog is a great way to spread your message and reach people locally or around the world. A blog is a powerful marketing tool for businesses big and small, and, with the right planning is easy to set up and update. You can use it to share your expertise on your industry, tell the story behind the products you sell, and keep your customers up to date on the latest news. Here are our top 5 pros to starting a blog for your small business.
- Helps you connect with customers
- Allows you to put your brand out there
- Blogs should generate website traffic
- Create Brand Awareness
- And of course, creating a blog has SEO benefits
Cons of starting a blog for your small business
Unfortunately, there are also quite a few cons to starting a blog. Most of these cons are related to the fact that it takes time and money to properly set up a blog. Here are our top 5 cons to starting a blog for your small business, so small business owners know what they’re getting into before they start.
- Time needed for topic research and planning
- Content creation, editing, optimizing etc…
- Cost of doing all of this
- Marketing your content after creating it
- Writing skills are a must (please refer to this post for more on that)
Remember, this is only a heads up to what you will face when starting a blog. I believe the benefits outweigh the risks.
Choosing a topic
If you’re thinking about starting a business blog, you’re probably wondering what you should write about. When it comes to selecting a topic, there are two important factors to consider: what you know and what your audience wants. As a small business owner, you probably have a lot of valuable information to share with your prospective and current customers. However, it’s important to remember that you have a responsibility to your blog readers to address their needs. In order to do that, you need to ask yourself who your ideal blog reader is.
On a regular, let’s say, bi-weekly basis you will have to write a blog post that introduces a new subject. You could probably write about something that has been discussed on your blog before. But you could also write about something that has not been discussed before. It could be something you spoke about with a customer, or a question you read in a forum.
Building an audience
The internet is a vast place, with millions of people visiting thousands of different websites every single day. Some of these people will find your small business blog within these pages, and will read the content you have created. But is that enough? You want to build an audience for your small business blog: one that gets bigger and bigger every day, one that is more loyal and engaged with every passing week, and one that is more valuable to you and your business than you could ever have imagined.
The first thing you need is to pick topics for your blog. You want to make sure that your topics are not only something that your audience wants to read about, but that it’s also something that will keep them coming back on a regular basis. The key to building a successful blog is to find a niche audience and then cater to that audience’s needs. If you are planning to start a blog to promote your business, you should keep in mind that you are building an audience, not a business. Build your blog by providing readers with information and tools they need to make their lives better. Remember to take a look at what your competitors are offering their audience and try to offer them something different that will make your business stand out.
The term “building an audience” is one that can be intimidating. After all, when you say “building an audience” to people, they automatically think that you are talking about building a community. However, as a small business blogger, you are not trying to build a community, you are trying to build an audience. This may not be as daunting of a task as it seems. Here are 7 steps to building your audience:
- Define an Audience
- Write Engaging Content
- Share it on Social Media (to your target audience)
- Encourage commenting
- Use Search Engine Optimization
- Promote your content
- Collect emails
Final Thoughts
Starting a blog for your business can be a great way to promote your company, increase your online presence, and get your name out there. However, it can seem overwhelming at first. You might not know where to start, or how to create a blog that will attract your target audience. Fortunately, there are a lot of resources out there to help you through the process, from website builders, free blogging platforms, to bloggers who have already succeeded. (e.g. GrowthHackers.com)
