The way we blogged in 2009 isn’t effective today, especially not for businesses. The days of using your blog as a public diary are long gone. Stream of consciousness posts don’t belong on your business website.
Today, your blog is strategic real estate that can help grow your business.
Your website’s blog is one facet of content marketing that we know works especially well. But, without the right strategies, it won’t be effective.
If you’re wondering how to grow a blog for business, keep reading. These are the top tips for blogging in 2019.
Start with a Topic
Create a list of possible topics you could write about in your blog. These should be topics that your target customers care about.
One strategy is to find out what questions your customers ask. Use the auto-fill feature in the Google search bar. Type in your industry and see what it populates with.
Scroll down the results and look at the “people also ask” section. These are all questions you could potentially answer in a blog post.
Then, reflect on some of your previous customer’s experiences. What problem did your business solve for them? How could you help them further with that problem through a blog post?
If you don’t even have a business website yet, you need to create one. See here for the basics of starting a blog from scratch.
Write with Authority
The best tone to write in is the “friendly expert.” This is a professional but kind style of writing that makes consumers feel welcome.
Use facts and data to show you’re an authority in the industry. By showing you’re an expert, readers learn to trust your opinion. Customers want to buy from companies they trust.
Avoid using industry-specific jargon. Use language that your customers understand.
Write in an “active voice” that is direct and engaging. Passive voice is wordy and tends to take longer to read.
Link to credible sources in your industry. If you can get these sources to provide backlinks to your website, you’ll also seem credible.
Use SEO Strategies
Google “crawls” websites to see if they’re worth showing to searchers. They assess your content, your authority, and the user experience of your website.
Search engine optimization (SEO) strategies make your website appeal to Google’s crawlers.
Keyword research is a popular SEO strategy. Do some research into what words and phrases your customers search with. Use a variety of them naturally throughout your content.
Ensure your website speed is on par with your competitors. If it takes too long to load, more than three seconds, users will move on.
Consider working with an SEO specialist to optimize your blog for Google searches.
Create an Effective Layout
The layout is just as important as the content in your blog post. You could include tons of relevant, useful information. But, if the layout isn’t appealing to users, they won’t read it.
To make it look appealing, avoid writing long walls of text. Break your text up with subheadings, bullet lists, and white space.
White space is the empty areas around your text. It’s crucial that you leave enough white space in your posts so the reader doesn’t feel overwhelmed by the text.
Include relevant images and video media where appropriate. Many successful business blogs include a video version of their blog along with the text.
Understand Your Funnel
Your marketing funnel is similar to your sales funnel. It depicts the journey of someone who lands on your website.
The phases include awareness, consideration, and decision-making.
You should write blog posts that target each phase of the marketing funnel. Blogs for awareness should be educational and inform the reader of the problem your business solves. They might not directly discuss your offerings.
Blogs for consideration dive deeper into the user’s problems. It might explain different solutions and discuss how your business can help.
For the decision-making phase, prompt readers to buy with special opportunities. Blog about why buying your product or service is important right now.
Promote Your Blog
Blogging is a crucial part of inbound marketing, but it doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s important to go where your customers are and promote it.
This can mean promoting your blog post on your social media pages. Include links to your blog post in the captions.
You can also promote your content on other websites. Quora and Medium are two excellent platforms for sharing your content. Include a backlink and you’ll direct readers from the post to your site.
Guest posting on reputable websites in your industry is one strategy for promotion. These sites attract their own audience who might also become yours if they see your content.
Tell Readers What to Do Next
Always include call-to-actions in your blog posts. Even if you don’t have many offerings right now. The least you could do is tell them to contact you for more information at the end of your post.
Ideally, you’ll have an offering for each level of the marketing funnel. It could be an e-book to download, a newsletter to sign up for, or a sale to check out.
Perhaps you want to boost engagement on your site. At the end of your blog post, instruct them on what to comment below. Or, ask them to share the blog post with their social networks.
You can also include these call-to-actions within the body of the post but be subtle with them. Instead of telling them what to do, hyperlink a relevant phrase to a landing page for one of your offerings.
Want to Learn More About How to Grow a Blog in 2019?
If you want your blog to help grow your business, you must use current strategies. The old ways of blogging aren’t applicable today.
Always write for your target consumers. Focus on providing them with value through your blogs.
Follow the tips above on how to grow a blog in 2019. If you need assistance with any of the steps, feel free to contact us.
