If you’re reading this, chances are you’re also a small business owner with limited time and resources. You probably don’t have the budget for a team of marketing specialists or the luxury of being able to experiment frequently with different types of content.
In other words, you have to be smart about how you spend your time and money on your blog if you want to see results. This guide will show you how to create an effective business blogging strategy that will give your company a measurable ROI—all while keeping it realistic.
Get ready to learn how small businesses can use their existing resources, audience, and content in order to grow their blog and create a measurable return on investment.
How to Create an Effective Business Blogging Strategy
Before you dive in to create an effective business blogging strategy, you need to first ask yourself why are you blogging in the first place? What are your company’s goals for blogging, and how can blogging help you achieve those goals? That being said, most companies blog because they want to increase traffic to their website, build brand awareness, and ultimately generate more leads.
1. Define a goal for your blog
Next, you’ll want to define the goal of your blog. This will be helpful as you begin to create your editorial calendar, and you can use it as a guide when deciding which types of content to publish.
For example, if your goal is to generate more leads, you can use that as your guide to decide how much time and effort you want to spend on creating long-form content (such as blog posts), short-form content (such as social media posts and videos), and lead magnets (such as eBooks, guides, and checklists).
Once you know your goal, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision about where you should be spending your time and effort.
2. Plan your content calendar
Once you know what type of content you’ll be creating, you’ll want to start planning your content calendar. This will ensure that you’re publishing consistently and on time and will make it easier to plan your other marketing efforts throughout the year.
Most companies that blog publish at least one new blog post per week, but it really depends on your goals and audience. You may want to publish more frequently, or you may want to publish less frequently.
3. Decide on the type of blogging you’ll do
Once you’ve decided on the type of blogging you’ll do, you need to decide how you’ll execute that type of blogging. This will vary depending on what type of blogging you do, but there are a few things that are common to all forms of blogging.
These are things like creating a mission and purpose statement for your blog, choosing a blogging platform and software, and setting up email notifications to make publishing even easier.
Once you’ve decided on the type of blogging you’ll do, you need to decide how you’ll execute that type of blogging. This will vary depending on what type of blogging you do, but there are a few things that are common to all forms of blogging.
These are things like creating a mission and purpose statement for your blog, choosing a blogging platform and software, and setting up email notifications to make publishing even easier.
4. Develop a strategy to generate leads
Once you’ve decided what type of blog posts you’ll be creating, and have a basic strategy for how those posts will drive more leads for your business, it’s time to start writing your first blog post.
For each blog post, you’ll want to start with a subject line, followed by an introduction, followed by a conclusion. You’ll then want to lead your readers through your blog post with a strong narrative, providing useful content, and closing with a call-to-action (CTA).
5. Write effective ad copy and headlines
After you’ve created your content, it’s time to create some ads. A great way to do this is to start with your best blog posts and turn them into ad copies. When creating your ads, you’ll want to keep a few things in mind. First, you want to make sure that your ad copy and headline are targeting the right audience.
If you don’t, you won’t see any results from your ad campaign. Secondly, you want to make sure that your ads are compelling. You can do this by telling a story with your ads, and by including strong, unique copy. Strong, unique copy ensures that your ads stand out from the rest of the noise on social media.
6. Plan your ad campaign
Once you’ve written your ads, you’ll want to plan your ad campaign. For example, if you publish three blog posts per week, you may want to run one ad per blog post per week.
This allows you to create a consistent presence on social media and keeps your budget consistent. Although you can create great content, if you don’t promote it, no one will ever see it.
Create a strategy for when and how you’ll promote your blog posts. For example, you can promote your posts on your company’s social media accounts, in an email newsletter, and at live events.
Summing up
Business blogging may seem intimidating, but it can be a great way to build your brand and generate leads, provided that you have an effective blogging strategy that you’re following.
The key to creating an effective business blogging strategy is to start with a plan. Then, make sure that you’re consistent with your blogging, and that you’re promoting each post.
Once you have these three things in place, it will be much easier to achieve business blogging success.
