What
does a successful business blog entail? How can entrepreneurs use it for on-line marketing? Read on to find out.
By
Unmana Datta
For
small businesses, maintaining a business blog is a great way to get more
visibility and to promote your business. It helps tremendously with improving
your search engine results, and if you’re a B2B business, it’s the best way to
showcase your expertise and help convince your prospects to work with you.
But
what exactly does having a business blog involve? How often should you blog?
What else do you need to do? I answer some of these questions below.
Business blogging tip
1: Blog regularly and frequently
How
often do you need to blog to get results? The answer usually is “more
frequently than you think.” According to HubSpot:
“Companies that blog 15 or more times per month get 5X more
traffic than companies that don’t blog at all.”
That’s
at least one post every two days, or 3 – 4 posts a week.
You can get results with fewer posts as
well (again, from Hubspot):
“B2B
companies that blog only 1-2X/month generate 70% more leads than those that
don’t blog at all. In other words, blogging even just a little bit can make a
big dent on your leads goal if you previously weren’t blogging at all.”
I’d say
having 5 great blog posts might help you more than having 15 mediocre ones. But
the general rule is, the more often you post, the more results you can expect.
Business blogging tip
2: Research and use keywords
You
don’t just want visitors to your blog; you want visitors who convert (buy from you, download your ebook,
sign up for a free trial, or however you define this). This is why keyword
research is important. What keywords do your customers use to refer to your
products? How are they searching online for products similar to yours? You need
to find the answers to these questions, either by asking your customers or
using Google’s Keyword Tool.
Then
use those keywords in your blog posts. You need to not just get people to your
blog, but get the right people. So if you are an online grocery store that only
serves Bangalore, for example, you need to use Bangalore as a keyword in your
blog so that local people get to you.
A word
of caution: don’t use so many keywords that your posts don’t make sense or that
search engines penalize you. Always remember, you are writing for your
customers first.
Business blogging tip
3: Make your blog easy to find, read, and follow
Make it
easier for your readers and encourage subscriptions to your blog:
- Put
up a prominent link to your blog on your website and on your social media
pages.
- Set
up your RSS feed and a “subscribe by email” option.
- Keep
your blog design clean: don’t clutter it with too many columns and options.
- Keep
the font and colours readable. Dark text on light background is easiest to
read. Keep the font size 10 or bigger; don’t use a script font or much
italicized text.
- Add
alt text to your images. This is great for SEO, and is also a good
practice for accessibility and
readability (in case the images don’t load).
Business blogging tip
4: Track performance
Start
by tracking
your blog on Google Analytics or
even WordPress or Blogger stats. (Here’s how to set up Google Analytics.) Look not just at visits and page
views, but at metrics that tell you whether people are reading or engaging with
your content, such as pages per visit, time on site, bounce rate, and so on.
Set up conversions on Google Analytics and track those carefully.
Once
you’ve looked at your stats for a month or two and know what to expect, set
goals for
yourself. Don’t just setvisibility objectives (visits and page views); set
engagement and conversion objectives.
Business blogging tip
5: Comment on other blogs
Now
that you’ve set up your blog and have started posting regularly, you need to
promote it. One easy way of doing this is by posting comments on other blogs.
Don’t spam (“read my blog”): contribute to the conversation, but make sure your
commenting profile includes a link to your own blog. If you leave interesting
comments, the blogger or other readers are very likely to visit your blog as
well. Most bloggers love receiving comments (as long as you’re polite, contribute
to the discussion, and don’t spam).
Business blogging tip
6: Post on other blogs
After
you’ve read and commented on some other blogs and hopefully built a
relationship with a few bloggers, try submitting guest posts to their blogs.
Guest posts need to be relevant to that blog’s audience, so read some of that
blog’s posts to figure out what might work. Posting on others’ blogs is a great
way of reaching out to new audiences and also getting quality backlinks to your
site.
This is
all a lot of work, I agree. But blogging is an effective and inexpensive online
marketing medium (except for the vast amounts of time and effort) for small
businesses. Start small and slow, expect it to be a long haul, and make sure
you always respect your audience and provide something of value.
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