If you’re looking to create a business online blog you’ve stumbled on the right page. This post will take your through the basics to creating a blog of your own for your company.
You already know that other businesses are blogging. You know that blogging brings in traffic, leads and sales.
Now it’s time to get to work to create that business online blog.
How to Create a Business Online Blog
Step 1: Analyze Your Business Goals
Lots of advice out there will tell you to start with the customer first. We don’t believe in this methodology. Of course the customer is important, but we all go into business with goals that will make the business successful. We aim to please some people, but not all people. The latter is just not possible so that is why it’s important to focus on the business goals first.
First, ask yourself why you want to blog. The usual reason is to get incremental sales. The focus can be on getting traffic, but it’s important to focus on overall sales. You want the blog to bring in profit. A business blog does this, but typically after at least two years. So be prepared for the long-term with your business blog.
Second, determine what makes your company different from the competition. We ask this question to all new clients because it’s so important. What makes you different is the reason your ideal customer loves you and we want to make sure that is part of your business blog. It’s why people will read your blog over something else.
Step 2: Determine Your Ideal Customer
Now you can focus on your ideal customer.
A big mistake in blogging is writing for the wrong person. Too often we write blog posts with ourselves in mind. Other times we mix up who we’re writing to when we publish a blog.
It’s really important to have a single ideal customer in mind when you’re writing. It will make the process of writing much easier and the blog will have a defined goal of earning that person’s attention.
With all the content on the Internet the more niche you can go the better. The best strategy is to find people that really love you and follow your blog and purchase your goods and services.
Step 3: Blog Setup
We use WordPress here at GBW. It’s the easiest blogging software to use and it’s free. Have a developer set it up on your site like this (www.yourbusinesswebsite.com/blog/). Your in-house developer should be able to do it. You could also pay a freelancer to set it up for you for a couple hundred bucks.
You should be able to set the blog up within a day or so. Try to keep the blog formatted as mentioned above. You can put it on a different URL, but you’re robbing your business site of building authority on the web by doing so.
Step 4: Ideas and Research
Once you’re all setup you can start coming up with ideas. From there the research will begin. These are two important areas of blogging. People often have a few ideas in mind when they start blogging, but after that the well can run dry. People also underestimate the research portion of blogging.
Here are five ways we come up with ideas at GBW:
- Search the news for current topics
- Search blogs for popular topics
- Ask your customers for questions they have
- Research keywords on AdWords
- Find questions the customer is asking on forums
These are just a few ways you can come up with ideas. Anything can spark inspiration. We keep lists or calendars with our clients at GBW. This way we can schedule time to write and we have a list ready to go. You can also write when you’re inspired, but it’s good to have a list of ideas ready.
As for research, plan on this taking some time. You’ll devote a few hours of research to make a good post. Most people don’t realize this.
Step 5: Publishing and Experimenting
Create a schedule for you blogging. Start out by publishing a post every Tuesday. We’ve found this to be a great day for publishing. Everybody is pretty busy on Monday, but by Tuesday they have some time to read new items.
See if you can handle one post per week. You might be surprised with how much effort this takes. From there you can look to increase the frequency.
Also try to experiment with blog post formats. You can try writing lists or how-to posts, but mix in some longer stories and case studies. Figure out a few formulas that people like and hit them hard.
But always keep experimenting with new formats to keep things fresh.
Conclusion
Now it’s time for you to take action. Use the lessons here to start your own business online blog. You should have a good understanding of the process the best businesses in the world use to setup their business blogs.
If you still have questions check out the full guide at – Business Blogging: The Free Beginner’s Guide