No one is a bigger expert about your small business than you! That’s why you should be shouting about everything you know from the rooftops. And there’s no better way to hoot and holler about the amazing things you do than by blogging. Your blog is your creative (and strategic) outlet to share your thoughts, ideas, advice, and opinions. It’s your space to share your expertise so others can benefit. It’s also the place where your customers will learn more about your business, build trust in what you do, and discover the ways you can help them.
Most importantly, in a world where“content rules,” blogging is a powerful SEO tool that can help you get more more people on your website...which ultimately can turn into business leads and customers.
Think about it. If you have a copywriting business, you can share tips, ideas, and ways to write persuasive copy for emails. Then, if someone were to Google “How to write persuasive copy” the search engines could take them right to your blog post which is the backdoor to your business’s website. Sweet, right?
How to start a blog
Now, let’s get you on the path to a successful blog. It all starts with the basics of setting up the blog on your website. Most general website building platforms like WordPress or Squarespace have a blog component built in so that once you’ve built your website and set it live, you can start blogging. If your website is fully custom and was coded professionally, there are plug-ins to attach a blogging platform that are usually simple to install—reach out to the person who built your website to get squared away.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The keywords you use in your blog post will help customers find you. This is called Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and trust us when we say you can totally do this yourself! Anyone telling you otherwise is lying to you.
Keywords are the labels search engines (like Google) use to understand your business. And when search engines understand what you do and who you do it for, they can help potential customers find you. Optimizing your blog posts and website takes a little practice because the writing may be awkward at first as you learn ways to incorporate SEO keywords into your sentences. But it will get easier over time, and as you build out your blog with optimized (and helpful) content, you’ll start to see an increase in your website traffic—which can mean more customers for your business.
Pro-tip: The best place to start with blog topics is answering the questions you know your potential customer or clients have. So writing about your FAQs is a great first piece to write, and then work through all the questions you get asked or think people are searching for on Google.
Repurposing the content from your blog
Another cool thing about your blog is that you can repurpose the content of each post on other marketing channels. This opens more ways to bring potential customers to your website and closer to purchasing your product or service—and saves you tons of time! Here are some time-saving ways to repurpose the content from your blog to get in front of more people.
Tease an idea (with a post or short form video) and then share the link to your blog post on social media - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest are great places to share links back to your blog for more details on an idea, product or service
Share the link to your blog post in your email newsletters. Sometimes it makes sense to create an entire email campaign around a particular topic. For example, if you wrote about ‘How to write persuasive copy’ on your blog, you could have an email campaign that shares an overview of your top tips and then link back to the blog post for more details.
The advantage of repurposing content is two-fold. Not only do you increase ways to drive traffic to your website, you save so much valuable time. You’re using your blog copy in different ways instead of rewriting the same thing in various marketing channels.
Blogging is one of the best ways to drive traffic to your business website. It’s a lead generator but it also positions you as a go-to expert in your field. So start blogging and watch your website traffic grow!