Business blogging is starting to mature.
That’s a great thing for marketers. Even if you haven’t done any blogging with your business before there is still plenty of opportunity.
Yes, there are advantages to being an early adopter and gaining the initial traction. But there are also advantages to letting the landscape settle in.
If you’re looking at starting a business blog here are the steps to follow…
Step #1. The Strategy
There is nothing wrong with jumping into something and figuring it out as you go. In fact, if you listen to successful people this is usually how they figured it out. It’s only after the fact that they’ll say they wished they would have known what to do upfront. But I think that’s a myth, at least partially.
Procrastination is a real thing in life. It’s a very real thing in business and marketing. In terms of blogging, many marketers put off initiatives, like blogging, because they’re looking for the best strategy possible.
The best thing you can do is begin blogging. And then continue blogging. You’ll learn along the way.
But what you’ll learn is that blogging and really all content marketing is about answering questions your target audience has about life and work. Most of those questions have nothing to do with your business and even with your industry.
It’s why there are successful blogs from law offices that focus entirely on golfing. The reason? Some law firms know that golfing is a top activity for their target clients. And their clients are much more interested in golf than the law.
It’s why a local realtor might have a blog focusing on local news. Or why a recruitment and placement firm might have a blog that focuses on the interests of new college graduates.
Who is your target audience? What do they care about? What questions are they asking?
Answer those questions as often as you can and your blog will grow over time.
Step #2. The Responsibility
When it comes to answering the questions for your target audience you need to know who will be responsible for the ongoing blogging. Because it’s a long-term commitment. It’s not something that brings traffic over night or really even in the first few months.
Many companies start blogging and then let it die because they have someone on the team that doesn’t know much about blogging spend about an hour a week working on the new initiative. That won’t work.
Blogging involves researching topics and titles. It involves the writing. And later it involves the analysis. It’s at least a half-time job for a person especially if you want to create more than one post per week, which is the minimum you’re looking for. Everyday is a great goal.
Step #3. The Technical Setup
Setting up a blog, from the technical standpoint, has never been easier. However, it’s still good to have someone that you know or that might already be on your team that understands websites.
One of the most commonly used blogging software is WordPress. You can almost always set it up on your current domain with something like a /blog/ ending on the URL. That’s the best case scenario.
You want the blog to be fast so you want a good host. That’s also what you want for your site overall. A good host with good software and somebody to maintain the website.
Step #4. The Commitment
If you really can’t commit to at least once post per month then it’s probably best to avoid starting a business blog. Many people find that this is too much. Not at first. Usually because they have a handful of ideas already for posts.
I read an interesting story about Kurt Cobain. After his band released their third album, In Utero, he said to a few people close to him that he was nervous about the idea of another album. One reason he gave was that he didn’t really have any more songs. That’s common with a lot of musicians that write their own songs. They spend their entire lives up to that point writing songs. They put them out. Then they have to figure out a formula and schedule for ongoing writing.
I find the same thing with blogging.
But once you have to start consistently brainstorming posts and writing consistently every month or week or multiple times per week the appeal wears off. That’s when the best companies that blog set themselves apart.
One of the opportunities with blogging is that it’s not easy. Many companies start and then stop. That’s a challenge, but it presents a great opportunity because those that take on the long-term commitment can move ahead of those that don’t have the persistence.
Step #5. The Analytics
I’m a fan of tracking the traffic and activity on your blog from the beginning. But I’m a big fan of ignoring the stats for at least the first year. The reason is that you’re not going to get much traffic, in most cases, anyway. Your biggest challenge will be to create consistent content for a year.
Focus on that creation. Aim for one or more posts per week for a year. Then pick your head up and look at the analytics. See what topics have been the most popular. From there you can develop a strategy for Year 2. And then you can do the same in the coming years.
If you think that’s crazy consider Seth Godin, one of the most successful bloggers ever. He said that he only checks his stats once a year or even less.
Conclusion
Starting a business blog is easy. In fact, the software and tech are as easy as they’ve ever been. But that’s not the difficult thing. The difficult thing is staying committed once the initial enthusiasm wears off. Will you be able to push through that and move past the other competitors that will quit?