Most likely, you have never imagined becoming a blogger. After all, you run a small business and probably don’t have any writing training. However, to write posts that are both compelling and engaging, you do not need to be an exceptional writer. Being passionate about a particular subject is all you need to start a successful blog, which is something you already possess as an ambitious entrepreneur! A blog can also be a low-cost way to spread the word about your small business and build trust with your followers, making it a win-win situation.
Another benefit of blogging is your posts are “owned content,” meaning you have complete freedom to create your blog as you please without relying on third parties. All the material on the site will be within your control, ensuring the tone and style of your blog are consistent with your brand values. It takes some effort to start a blog from scratch, but this article will help you get started with the basics and learn about how other businesses blog.
Why should your small business start a blog?
The popular social media tenet states that while it is acceptable for businesses to devote up to 20 percent of their marketing strategy explicitly promoting their products, the remaining 80 percent of posts should be entertaining and helpful for your audience.
This is useful to reference when thinking about the content you want to include on your blog. The idea is that instead of bombarding customers with promotional ads, you should enrich their experience through interesting, edifying, or educational content. A blog is an excellent medium for enhancing your customers’ lives in some way, which is likely your goal! Sharing this content will not only attract more customers, but it can also open a dialogue with your existing followers, creating a stronger online community. Blog posts can also be repurposed on social media — generating more content for your business.
Blogging is a wise investment for the following reasons:
Highlight your knowledge
Blogging is a great way to share your expertise in your field, and customers want to know that the brands they buy from are dependable and dependable. CEOs, founders, and other employees can learn a lot about thought leadership by sharing what they’ve learned throughout their careers through blogging. Integrate your brand’s values and objectives. When you want to write about your company’s mission in depth, Twitter threads or Instagram Stories might not be the best option. Blog posts, however, are the perfect medium for an in-depth look into your company’s principles as you can.
Expand about your goals and aspirations as an entrepreneur
Document and communicate openly. Running a business is no easy feat, and recording the ups and downs of the journey can be a beneficial experience for both business owners and customers alike. Sharing some useful content to include would be a timeline of company milestones, quarterly reviews, and a post honestly depicting the obstacles in running your business and how you overcame them. Individuals who are building in public have seen many positive returns, like finding community and gaining brand exposure.
This honesty will also be appreciated by readers, who may even be able to see the humanity in your brand rather than just another business.
Include keywords in your post
By writing blog posts that contain keywords relating to your products and services, you can start driving more traffic to your site. This is a cost-effective strategy for increasing organic search results for your brand. Just know that it will take some time for your posts to rank high for SEO. Still, if you consistently generate solid content that is crafted with search engines in mind, your articles can eventually start ranking higher on Google and similar sites. Here are some SEO tools that can assist you if you are interested in learning more.
How to Start a Blog
Although starting a blog is fairly straightforward, there are a few details to consider prior to writing.
Select a Content Management Platform
There are a ton of content management systems you can pick from for your blog. Here are a few possibilities:
- WordPress — WordPress is used in 41 percent of websites, and for good reason. The platform is simple to use while also offering more advanced features for those who need it. Although the basic version of WordPress is free, most companies and brands will probably need a plaid plan.
- Tumblr — Although Tumblr is commonly referred to as a social media platform, the platform’s intuitive user interface is ideal for writing blog posts. It’s also a great choice if you want to infuse your posts with trending memes and a more casual tone. The best part? Tumblr is free.
- Blogger — A free Google product, Blogger has been around since 1999 and has been credited as being a game-changer in the online publishing space. Blogger can be linked to all of your Google accounts and offers straightforward templates that are simple to use. A plus? Google Adsense can also be integrated into your site.
- Ghost – We use Ghost for our blog at Buffer. We like the user-friendly dashboard, built-in SEO features, and platform’s commitment to putting content first. Ghost Open-Source is the website’s free version; Ghost Pro, which offers more features, costs $9 per month. Make it easier to edit. It is essential to ensure that your content has been reviewed because it can be jarring for readers to read a blog post that is full of typos and grammatical errors. Grammarly is a great editing tool to use, especially if you’re an ambitious team of one. While there is a premium version, a free Grammarly account should take care of most major grammar and spelling errors.
Implement a content calendar
You can use a content calendar for your blog in the same way that you would for social media. The calendar would include pitches and blog post ideas, the timeline for completing each post factoring in the outlining, drafting, and editing process, and the publish dates for each piece. This will give you an organized look into your blog and ensure you’re staying up to date with your posts.
Create Concepts You may have a few top-of-mind ideas for your blog, but are wondering how to churn out content on a regular basis. Feeling unsure of what to post is common, but there are several ways to develop new topics to write about. It’s always a good idea to ask your followers what kind of content they’d like to see because they can point out important issues that customers have that they want addressed. Even if their position is not directly related to marketing or communications, asking the rest of your team for pitches can still provide an insider’s perspective on the blog. And finally, creating a mindmap of relevant topics and doing other brainstorming exercises can allow you to think outside of the box.
Running a blog can feel like juggling multiple tasks at once, but eventually, you’ll settle into a good rhythm of creating content. Getting started is the most important part, and remember, you can always adjust your blogging strategy along the way.
How other small businesses approach their blogs
The flexibility with which you can share content is one of the best aspects of blogging. If you want more ideas for getting started, these examples from other small businesses can give you a jumping start.
Documenting their journey
Blogs offer the perfect medium for customers to catch up with important news and updates from brands.
Scotch Porter
Scotch Porter — a black-owned business that makes hair care products for men — has a variety of posts on their blog aka The Scotch Porter Journal. However, it appears that sharing company milestones, such as announcing their launches in CVS and Target, is their primary focus. And when they were featured on Nick Cannon’s talk show in late 2021, they dropped the exciting news via their journal.
Buffer
It’s always nice to talk about your successes, but it can be just as rewarding to talk about the problems your business has had to solve. At Buffer, one of our core values is defaulting to transparency, which is why we document important learnings on our Open blog. We don’t shy away from difficult subjects in these posts; rather, we talk openly about the things we need to work on and the steps we’re taking to get there. We have written about how to improve our remote team’s sense of community, the difficulties our engineering team has faced, and security breaches at Buffer. We hope that by being open about sharing information, we can encourage and assist others in their small business journeys. Promoting products A blog is a creative way to promote your products, even though you may be accustomed to doing most of your advertising on social media.
Glamnetic
Glamnetic is a beauty brand that sells magnetic lashes and press-on nails. On their blog, they often talk about their products, but they keep it fun by linking back to other hot topics like TikTok, celebrity culture, and popular beauty trends. Want nails like Kylie Jenner?, How to remove press on nails — a viral TikTok hack, and 2022 spring beauty trends you need to know about are among their articles.
