There are literally stacks of companies out there that are using a blog to successfully drive traffic and engage their customers. From the big names to the small scale, here are our tips for starting a business blog and a couple of good examples to get the inspiration flowing.
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Nike: Global Leader in Sales and Content Marketing
Nike is probably one of the most recognizable brands worldwide, and as such, it sets a classic example of streamlined marketing perfection.
Part of their marketing success has come down to involving human emotion in their advertising. You can see this in the Nike blog as well, where they have a number of stories on topics relating to culture and community alongside interviews with various athletes. They don’t necessarily promote their products in the blogs, but the blog itself acts to engage and build a relationship with customers.
Intrepid Travel: Stories to Motivate
Intrepid Travel is another great example of a company successfully using its blog to build a relationship with its audience but also to promote its tours with customers.
The company has grown dramatically from its humble beginnings in Australia to the international travel giant we see now. Their blog, entitled The Journal, captures heartwarming stories from past tour participants and cultural highlights, as well as providing comparison guides to help choose the best trip for you.
Of course, those are both examples of large companies that get content marketing right. What about a smaller company?
Tea Cups Full: Simple, Effective Blogging
Tea Cups Full is a perfect example of an e-commerce store incorporating a blog very effectively. While the company originates from what is essentially tea royalty in India, they have built a neat online store that’s nicely complemented with a blog, providing guides on tea growing estates, information about the health benefits of tea, and tea tasting education.
So, what can we learn from these success stories, and what tips do we have so that you can start your business blog the right way?
Insider Tips to Start a Business Blog:
1. Start With the Right Framework
Obviously, you want to build your blog correctly from the ground up, and hitting the ground running is important. So choose your blogging platform wisely.
No two blogging platforms will offer the exact same features, functionality, or pricing plans. Choose a platform that provides you with the features you need at the moment, but also one that allows you to integrate useful apps and can grow with your blog. It can be difficult to change the platform later if you decide it doesn’t meet your needs.
Another important thing to consider is your domain name. Once you have registered it, you can’t change it. It’s also the first part of your brand that your customers see, so it helps if you can make it short and memorable.
Additionally, in order to get noticed by search engines, you want the website structure to be SEO-friendly. Think of simple site architecture and page loading speed. Make sure your page hierarchy is logical, and URLs are not excessively long. Internal links between your pages will also give your website some bonus points.
There are even some tools to help you build internal links into your site rather easily. Optimize images and minify any code that might be bloating and slowing down your pages.
2. Blog Design Is Important
It’s not just about the written content. The amount of time spent on a page is often directly linked to how engaging and appealing your user interface and design is. Visitors will spend longer looking at videos, scrolling images, and just generally browsing through an interesting, cleanly designed site.
Of course, this does mean you can spend a lot of time designing your site to look just the way you want it. And then, when you add a blog, you might end up spending even more time adjusting the formatting every time to make it match. It can be both frustrating and inefficient.
However, DropInBlog is a unique blogging solution that automatically adopts your existing site theme and formatting, making blogging super easy.
3. Get Serious About Blog Management
Take the management of your blog very seriously. You will most likely end up spending a lot of time and sometimes a lot of money building a blog. If it gets hacked, it will then be down to you to rebuild or upload content all over again. Make sure you put in place a reliable backup solution and plan a regular schedule of site backups.
On a similar note, you will eventually accumulate a significant number of passwords for various accounts. Invest in a password management system – it’ll make your life stress free and ensure your passwords stay as secure as possible.
4. Build an Email List Early
Don’t think that the early days don’t count. Start building an email list from the launch of your blog. Email marketing will boost your blog growth exponentially. It helps you to develop a relationship with new customers and notify them of new posts, but it also helps you to re-engage previous customers and readers who may have drifted off a little.
In terms of lead engagement, research shows that it’s cheaper and more effective to simply re-engage with past customers than to generate new leads.
5. SEO Is Important
Many blogs simply never get found, and not because they don’t include worthwhile content. Statistics today show that 63% of purchases will begin with an online search, even if the purchase is finally made in-store. The content of your blog may be great, but if the content is not optimized for search engine success, you’ll drown amongst the competition.
We discussed building your site structure to be SEO-friendly, but you also need to optimize the content. Start with keyword research. Know your target audience and your competition, and select keywords accordingly. Ensure you add things like meta tags, page descriptions, and alt text to images.
SEO is so important that it’s well worth investing in a blogging platform like DropInBlog that gives you a full range of functionality and includes a built-in SEO Analyzer.
6. Repurpose and Reshare Content
People often think it’s a big no-no to reshare old content. There is no reason you can’t reshare old content, especially when there’s a relevant season or situation. Social media is a particularly good place to reshare old content to put it back in the spotlight.
You can also adapt and repurpose content – it doesn’t always have to be fresh. For example, if you have a blog talking about the difference between loose-leaf tea and tea bags, you could then repurpose it and make another blog about the benefits of loose-leaf tea specifically.
When you’re done refreshing an old piece, you can also pin the post at the top of your blog list or on the homepage to highlight it. It’s almost guaranteed that this will draw some attention.
7. Keep a Collection of Blog Ideas
There will be times when you’re out of ideas for blog content. One of the best tips is to keep a list of ideas for content that come to mind. You can also develop content ideas from comments you receive or topics you notice becoming popular within your niche.
It’s important to stay relevant and consistently publish content, so you can’t afford to hit a blank. This is a fantastic and easy way to ensure you have a steady stream of great content coming through at all times.
8. Engage on Social Media and Be Real
Use social media to your advantage. You’ll be able to reach different demographics this way, and sharing a post is basically free advertising. Make sure you adapt your post for each social media platform to get the best results. For example, using hashtags in your Instagram posts will make them easily searchable, but hashtags don’t work the same way on LinkedIn.
Seek out relevant Facebook groups and become an active member, sharing feedback and tips, but also your blog posts. That way, your blog posts won’t appear as spammy self-promotion but rather helpful information shared with the group.
Some people think you have to create a fake persona or be someone you’re not to have a social media following and to blog professionally. In fact, the opposite is probably truer. By blogging as your honest and real self, you’re likely to do much better and attract a genuine following.
9. Get Feedback from Those Who Know You Best
Definitely get feedback on your blog from friends and family. These are the people that understand your point of view and know you the best. They will be able to provide gentle encouragement and feedback. Just don’t ask your mom … because you will definitely not get unbiased feedback – she loves everything you do!
FAQs
What are some good SEO practices that I should always keep in mind?
Practicing good SEO entails a combination of many factors. However, there are a few top tips for improving your on-page SEO:
- Keyword research is the backbone. Select your keywords based on search volume and search intent and include long-tailed keywords.
- If you have a lot of content, go back over it and update the details, facts, and images. This will revive those posts and make them “like new” without you having to write all new content.
- Optimize your pages for speed. Slow pages will kill your ranking, and your visitors will have a poor experience when navigating the site.
Is publishing frequency important for my business blog?
Some will say publishing frequency is critical, and others will say it’s less of a factor driving success. Technically, both are correct. You need to focus on publishing quality content. If you publish six pieces a week, but they are poor quality, it will benefit you less than if you’d published two high-quality articles.
Final Thoughts
There you have it, our top tips for starting a business blog that drives traffic and hits your targets. Don’t take shortcuts when it comes to the setup and management of your blog. The early stages are critical – seriously consider the platform you choose and build an email list from day one. SEO is important, but so is producing quality content that actual humans want to read.
You are creating this blog to be enticing for others, so always consider how your blog appears from the customers' point of view. Make sure your site is easy to navigate and the pages load fast. Add your own personality to the design and the content you produce – this will give you an edge that is unique to you alone.
Your business blog doesn’t need to be a massive undertaking – it can just as easily be simple and effective. Happy blogging!
