Starting a Successful Blog in 2023
A new year means new goals for your business, and if you haven’t considered integrating a blog into the mix, we’d highly recommend you take some time to consider it.
Blogs are an incredibly popular way of communicating with current and potential customers in a direct but fun and approachable way. It’s been reported that 77% of people with internet access regularly read blogs, making it one of the most effective (and affordable!) ways to market your services and expertise.
So! If any of your business resolutions this year revolve around giving a voice to your company, boosting your online presence and elevating it above that of your competitors, or inspiring more customer loyalty, then consider this your sign to dip your toes into blogging.
And don’t worry - we have all the tips to get you moving in the right direction.
Define your Blog’s Purpose
Before you do anything, sit down and decide what you want your blog to accomplish. If you’re going to dedicate time and energy towards this avenue, you want to make sure you’re investing those resources well. Think about what you want the nature of your blog to be and what value you want it to add to both your business and your customers.
For example, maybe you want to educate your audience about your business and establish yourself as a credible and innovative leader. Or perhaps you want to establish your blog as more of a marketing tool that adds value to your main company page. Many people use their blog to document their business’s growth and progression, establishing more of a voice for their company.
If you’re looking at starting a business blog, focus on creating content that is relevant and unique to your industry. You’ll also want your chosen purpose to be complementary to the services or products your company offers. Knowing this will help you keep on track and prevent you from veering off into irrelevant topics that don’t support your end-goal.
Know your Content Pillars
If you’ve ever done work in advertising, marketing, or social media, then you may have heard the term ‘content pillars’ before. If not, no worries! Let us paint the picture.
Content pillars are themes that are specific to your brand and reflect the content that is most aligned with your business and your audience. They guide your intention as you're creating shareable content, answering the question: 'what do I want my message to accomplish?'
Most businesses have 3-5 content pillars with content being funneled through them.
For example, maybe one of your content pillars is ‘education’. If this is the case, then you should have blog posts that fall under this theme, educating your audience about a topic directly or indirectly related to your business.
At the end of the day, you want to make sure these content pillars are established before moving towards a blog. That way, your posts will be consistent with your brand’s purpose, values, and positioning as you move into daily, weekly, or monthly publications.
Pick a Custom URL
Now that we’ve got purpose and content pillars under our belt, let’s get into some blog-specific tips like URL creation!
If you’re creating your blog with the intention of supporting your company brand and new/existing customers, then the URL should ideally be part of your company’s website. This means that it would be situated as a sub-directory which would look like: yourcompanysite.com/blog.
However, some websites don’t support this function in which case a sub-domain is the next best option. This means working through a separate webhost that is separate from company web servers. In this case, your URL would look something like this: bloghost.companysite.com
If your blog’s purpose is going to stand independent of your company and its branding, then a dedicated domain name is likely the way you’ll want to go (for example, uniqueblogtopc.com). One thing to note is that you will need to purchase each domain name you want, with typical prices sitting between $2.99-$24.99 depending on availability.
No matter what you decide, resist the urge to use a keyword only domain name. It’s no guarantee to get you a higher SEO (search engine optimization) ranking and a catchy brand name for the blog will take you a lot further in terms of bolstering your readership.
Choose a Blogging Software
Domain name: check! Now it’s time to move on to the software component.
There is an abundance of blogging platforms out there and each of them offer something unique in terms of what they provide and catering to the user experience. The most used platform by far is WordPress (which is what approximately 43% of the web is built on), though platforms like Blogspot, Squarespace, Bluehost, and Wix are also growing in popularity.
However, it should go without saying that you shouldn’t choose a software based on what’s popular!
Instead, pick a blogging platform that is compatible with your website and its host, that is user friendly to you and whoever else will be accessing it, and offers the customization that you need to monetize your content and match your branding.
Customize Your Blog to Fit Your Branding
Once your blog software is installed, you can start looking at customizing the different design aspects and to fit your business’s branding. This also includes modifying the back-end of the platform to improve administration, front-end usability, and SEO-friendliness.
Now, we admit, this part can be a tricky bit of business if you don’t have some coding knowledge and a working knowledge of modifying the CSS, JavaScript, plugins, graphics and other database elements.
If you do, fantastic! If not, then you may want to look into hiring a web consultant to help you navigate the initial set up and walk you through the different functions. Great website developers will usually include basic training for this once they’ve built your site.
There are also plenty of free ‘how to’ manuals on how to customize your blog online if you’re looking for a less costly option.
It’s just a matter of deciding where your time and resources are best allocated.
Create a Posting Schedule
You’re almost ready to begin writing your first blog post now! Woohoo!
But before you start digging in, take some time to consider how often you’d like to post and how much time you want to spend on your blog each day/week. This is especially important if you’re the one that’s going to be responsible for creating, editing, and publishing the content as each blog post can take anywhere from 1-5 hours from start to finish. That’s time you’ll want to account for!
So set yourself a schedule.
Start with deciding what days you want to post on the blog and what time you want to get the post out by. Mark it in your calendar. This will help you establish consistency in your blogging, ensuring that your readers know it’s active and that you’re reliably tending to it.
Next, schedule yourself time each day, week, or month to sit down and write. This will prevent a last-minute scramble for content come deadline time, and also gives you more time and opportunity to ask for help, input, and to navigate any potential writer’s block.
Get the Expert Blogger Support You Need
If you want a business blog but don’t have the time or desire to write content yourself, we can help. Words of all kinds are our speciality, and we can make sure that your audience gets the reliable, consistent, and branded message you want. Your voice, our words! How cool is that?!
For more information, or for a complimentary 30-minute consultation, contact us here. We’re happy to talk to you about all your content creation needs!