Business Blogging: How To Get Started

As we’re all impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, it’s definitely a stressful time for local businesses. Between figuring out if working from home is possible to helping employees navigate unemployment challenges, the past month has been overwhelming at best.

However, what we’ve been hearing from several of our clients at 1Eighty Digital is that they now have unexpected “extra” time to work on projects they wouldn’t have had time to handle prior to Governor Holcomb’s stay home order.

With that in mind, we’re going to be sharing a few blog posts each week designed to give you both the inspiration and tools you need to jumpstart your business’ marketing efforts. We want to make sure that when businesses re-open, you’ll be ready to attract new customers and delight your current ones!

Before You Create Your Business Blog

Before you dive into creating a blog for your business, you need a plan. The best way to start is by answering 6 questions.

1. Why are you blogging?

Think about why you want to start blogging. The overall goal of starting a blog on your company’s website is usually to improve your bottom line.. But go a little deeper and ask yourself a few followup questions:

• Are you trying to improve your SEO for specific keywords and topics using your blog?
• Are you trying to help solve common problems your customers might face with your blog content?
• Do you want to use your blog to share your own specific expertise?
• Is it more important for your blog to increase sales or create awareness of your brand?

For most people, the purpose of their blog is a combination of all four of these goals. Take some time to decide which goal is the most important for your blog so you can better organize the content you create and share using your blog.

2. Who do you want to read your business blog?

Also known as your “target audience”, think about who your ideal audience would be. If you aren’t sure where to start, look at the demographics of your biggest customer group. 

If you’ve been running online ads using Facebook, you can also review those demographics to get a better idea of who your target audience should be.

Target Audience Demographics

• Gender
• Age
• Income Level
• Occupation
• Hobbies

There are more demographics you can consider, but these five can be a good place to start! If you want to dive deeper into who your ideal target audience would be, check out this article by Hootsuite that includes a free template.

3. What can your blog offer your target audience?

This question ties back into why you decided to start blogging. When it comes to content creation like blogging, overwhelmingly pushy sales messages that focus on “buy it now” don’t work.

When you’re deciding what content to write for your blog, make sure you’re really offering your readers something valuable, not just promoting your business. A great way to start is by asking, “what problem am I solving with this blog post?”.

If you want to use the 1Eighty blog as an example, we try to help our readers answer questions they have about digital marketing. Some of our most recent examples are below!

Rebranding: What Is It And When Do You Need To Do It?

1Eighty Answers: No One Reads My Blog

How To Drive More Traffic To Your Website In 3 Easy Steps

4. What tone of voice should your blog use?

Think of your blog as a place where your customers and potential customers can go to virtually meet you. What tone of voice would you use if you were meeting them in person? The answer to this question will rely heavily on who your target audience is. 

For example, If your target audience is mostly comprised of recent college graduates ages 21-30, your tone will likely need to be personal, direct, and even lighthearted at times.

However, if your target audience is older, highly educated professionals you may need to write in a tone that is more formal and educational as you share information important to those in your industry.

Every company is unique, which means every successful blog should be unique. Make sure the tone of your blog matches your company’s unique presence.

5. How will you know if your blog is working?

At 1Eighty Digital, we’re huge believers in analyzing data. After all, how can you know if a marketing strategy is working if you don’t track the results?

Consider why you decided to start a blog and choose the tracking metrics that you can use to gauge how well you’re meeting that goal. 

For example, if you’re writing a blog to improve your website’s SEO rankings, then you’ll want to track:

• Organic web traffic numbers (specifically to your blog page)
• Increased page ranking based on your identified keyword(s)
• Outbound and inbound link clicks

If you consistently keep track of the same metrics for each blog post you publish, you’ll be able to see which topics, offers, and other information your target audience likes the best over time.

6. What action do you want your readers to take?

Every blog you publish should include a “call to action” that encourages the reader to take the next step. This can include anything from signing up to receive your e-newsletter to purchasing a product or calling your business to schedule an appointment.

You can phrase your call to action in a variety of ways that match your blog’s tone, just be sure you tell readers exactly what you’d like them to do after reading your blog post.

Create Your Business Blog Now

People are connecting online more than ever and are constantly looking for valuable information. Now is the perfect time to create a plan for your business blog. If you take the time to clearly identify your blog’s goals, you’ll be ready to start creating content designed to meet them.

Need a little extra help creating a plan for your blog? That’s why we’re here! Give us a call today to discuss how adding a blog to your company’s website could help you meet your goals.