Creating a Blogging Strategy

Are you blogging for your business when you get around to it or in your spare time? If you are, you’re missing out on a critical tool to help grow your business.

Blogging as a hobby is totally fine! But it’s not the best approach if you’re using your website to attract and convert customers. To do that, you need consistent, targeted, planned content with a purpose. You need a blogging strategy, and we’re here to help you understand the why and how of it all.

Why You Need a Blogging Strategy

Think of a blogging strategy as a game plan for your blog. Details aren’t necessarily planned down to the minutia, but the overarching goals are clear and purposeful. Think less “business plan” and more “I’m going to Target for five things, but I know I’ll probably buy more.” It’s essentially goal-oriented flexibility. 

A blogging strategy keeps your goals in mind while considering your ever-changing industry and what’s happening worldwide. Your strategy should include a content calendar, blogging tools, task assignments, and keyword strategies. 

When your audience reads and shares your blog posts or your site ranks in search, it drives more traffic to your business’s website and makes you an authority in your industry.

Benefits of Blogging for Business

You may already have a blog for your business. If so, you may need to tweak your approach to improve it. 

If you don’t have a blog or you’ve been treating it like a hobby, you probably don’t truly understand all the benefits one would give your company. That’s why we’re here!

Benefits of blogging for business: 

• Generates Brand Awareness. People take to the internet to get information. When their question relates to your industry, you want to be one of the first sources of information they see in the search results. Being in the top search results is how blog posts create awareness of your brand. Your blog post might be the first piece of content someone sees from your business. Boom! You’ve piqued their interest and potentially gained a new supporter.
• Establishes Credibility. Over time your business becomes recognizable and is a reliable source of information. You become known as a credible source and industry leader. 
• Drives Site Traffic. The majority of web traffic comes from search. Utilize SEO best practices that send consumers to your website. If you do SEO right, Google and other search engines will do a lot of promotional work for you.
• Builds Online Community. Posting regular content means you’re helping your audience solve their problems. Doing so will help them feel connected to your brand. They’ll become part of your community and share your messages with others.

Creating a Blogging Strategy

Now that you have a better idea of the benefits of having a blog for your business, let’s talk strategy. The blogging strategy you develop for your business won’t look like anyone else’s. It should be unique to your brand and represent your short- and long-term goals. Things may change along the way, but don’t use that as an excuse not to strategize. 

When creating a blogging strategy:

• Define Your Goals. What do you want to accomplish with your blog? How will it serve your audience while furthering your business goals? Define the goals for your blog, so you always understand the why behind your actions. 
• Identify Your Audience. Your blog’s audience likely is your ideal customer. Understanding everything you can about them will help you better write to fulfill their information needs and eliminate their pain points. 
• Research Keywords. Researching and writing with keywords helps search engines recognize your content as what searchers are looking for. It’s how you get organic traffic through search results. 
• Choose Topics. What you blog about should reflect your audience’s needs. Your blog’s subject needs to be broad enough to inspire many topic ideas but specific enough to help people and tie back to your business. 
• Determine Who Will Run the Blog. The best way to stay consistent and cohesive with your blog is to know who is in charge. In other words, who will write the content, edit it, ensure it’s published, and promote it on social channels?
• Pick a Publication Schedule. Be realistic about the frequency of your posts. How often can they be written, edited, scheduled, and published? Can your team do it themselves, or do you need to outsource content creation and posting? We recommend posting on your site at least twice a week. 
• Create a Content Calendar. Your content calendar doesn’t have to be fancy, but it should keep your blogging team organized and on track. Read our post on Creating the Best Content Schedule to learn more.
• Produce Original, Valuable Content. Your blog posts can turn readers into customers if you meet their content needs. Ensure each post gives them the information they desire and is easy to read and understand.

We understand that these steps are time-consuming and difficult to add to your daily routine. If you don’t want to take the work on yourself, it could be a good time to outsource your content writing. Blogging can be one of the biggest revenue building opportunities and by not engaging you are leaving money on the table.

Consistency is Key

A blog will serve your business now and for years to come by helping your website appear in search results and sending traffic to your site. There’s no question about the value of a blog for your business. But we also understand that running a successful blog is a lot of work. Content Journey can provide that assistance if you want help on everything from keyword research to social media content promotion. Book a call today, and let’s discuss how we can grow your blog while you focus on running your business.