Tips for Getting Your Business Blog Started

As you get ready to start your company’s business blog, know that you are not alone. Fifty-four percent of companies want to grow traffic to their website over the next 12 months, according to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2018 report, and blogging is a great way to do that. 

Starting and maintaining a blog can feel overwhelming, especially since you have to create content on an ongoing basis.

Here are a few tips on what you should consider before starting your business blog.

1. Define your blog's purpose. Why do you want to write a blog? What information do you want to provide to your audience? It's important to understand the purpose of your blog so that you can deliver a reliable experience to your readers.

2. Identify your audience. Who will be reading your blog? Think about who your audience is and put yourself in their shoes—what content will help them solve their problems?

3. Set clear, measurable goals. When setting your goals, make sure they are SMART—specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. For instance, a common goal for business blogs is to increase your organic search engine traffic at least 6 percent per month.

4. Focus on quality, not quantity. When first starting, aim for a new blog post every other week or about two blogs a month. Pretty easy, right? You want to make sure the blog content you're creating relates to your blog’s purpose. Check out these 15 tips on how to beat writer’s block for blog ideas.

5. Connect with industry influencers. What is influencer marketing? HubSpot defines it as tapping into an existing community of engaged followers on social media. Influencers are specialists in their niches. "These individuals have influence over an audience you might be trying to reach.” Make it a goal to connect and build a relationship with one new influencer each month.

6. Research keywords or topics. Do you have a blog idea but want to take a fresh angle on it? Google your keyword or topic and see how it ranks. Consider creating a spreadsheet to keep track of popular topics and who is writing about them.

7. Allocate resources. This is an important consideration as you need to determine who will be creating content and maintaining your blog’s appearance. Make sure everyone knows who is doing what, whether it's your own marketing team, an outsourced team, or a combination of the two. Together, your team will delegate strategy, execution, and analysis to achieve and measure your blog's goals.

Need help with your inbound marketing efforts? Check out our content creation services.