Introduction
You might not see yourself as a blogger since you’re a small business owner and not a professional writer. But you don’t need to be an expert to write interesting posts.
All you need is a passion for a topic, which you already have as an entrepreneur. At a little expense, a blog may assist your company’s expansion and audience trust-building.
One great thing about blogging is that you own your content, so you have full control over it. This means you can keep the tone and style consistent with your brand.
Starting a blog takes some effort, but this article will help you with the basics and show how other businesses do it.
Why Start A Blog For Your Small Business?
When creating blog material, use the 80/20 rule. Accordingly, 20% of your postings should be product-related, while the remaining 80% should be interesting and helpful to your readers.
Provide informative and engaging material that serves your audience rather than just advertising. A blog would be ideal for this. By providing worthwhile material, you may grow your online community by gaining new followers and engaging those you already have.
Additionally, you may repurpose your blog entries on social media, which provides your company with even more material.
Highlight Your Knowledge
Customers want to know that the brands they buy from are reliable and trustworthy. Blogging is a fantastic way to show your expertise. CEOs, founders, and employees can share their career experiences and insights through blog posts, demonstrating their knowledge and leadership in the field.
Expand On Your Brand’s Values And Goals
You might want to avoid using Instagram Stories or Twitter threads for in-depth conversations about your company’s goals. However, blog entries are ideal for this. They provide you the opportunity to elaborate on your aims and ambitions as a business.
Document And Share Transparently
Although running a business might be difficult, telling your story can help you and your clients. Valuable blog material examples include a history of company achievements, quarterly reviews, and honest articles about obstacles faced and conquered.
Openly sharing their stories helps people find supportive communities and raises brand exposure. Readers will appreciate your openness and realize that you are more than just a company.
Include Keywords In Your Post
Writing blog posts with keywords related to your products and services can help increase traffic to your website. This is a great way to improve your brand’s organic search results.
It might take some time for your posts to rank highly in search results, but if you consistently create high-quality content with SEO in mind, your articles will eventually appear higher on Google and similar sites. Here are some helpful SEO tools to help you learn more.
How To Start Blogging
There are a few things to figure out before you begin blogging, but setting up a blog is simple.
Choose A Content Management System
For your blog, you may select from a number of content management systems. Here are a few options:
WordPress: 41% of websites are powered by WordPress due to its extensive feature set and user-friendly interface. Even though the basic version is free, a lot of businesses decide to subscribe to a premium membership.
Tumblr: This site is great for blogging, even if its main purpose is social networking. Its user interface is easy to use, and it enables popular memes and a more casual tone. Also, there is no cost to use it.
Blogger: This free Google product has been a major player in internet publishing since 1999. It offers straightforward designs, integrates with Google Adsense, and functions with all Google accounts.
Ghost: Ghost is what we use at Buffer for our blog. It prioritizes content creation, has integrated SEO tools, and offers an intuitive interface. Ghost Open-Source is accessible for free; alternatively, you can upgrade to Ghost Pro for $9 per month.
Make Editing Easier
A blog post with typos and grammatical problems can be off-putting for readers, which is why it’s critical to ensure your material has been vetted. Grammarly is an excellent editing tool, especially if you are an ambitious one-person team. Grammarly offers a subscription version, although most common grammatical and spelling mistakes may be fixed with a free account.
Implement A Content Calendar
Just as with social media calendars, you can create a content timetable for your blog. This calendar would include pitches and ideas for blog topics, deadlines for planning, composing, and editing each item, and publish dates. It helps you organize your blog and keeps you on track with your updates.
Generate Ideas
You may have a few initial blog ideas but are unsure how to consistently generate new material. It’s common to feel hesitant about what to publish, but there are strategies to come up with fresh ideas.
Asking your followers for content suggestions can help identify major consumer concerns. Even team members not directly involved in marketing may offer valuable insights. Brainstorming and mapping out key themes can also help generate new ideas.
Managing a blog may feel like juggling multiple responsibilities, but once you find your rhythm, creating articles will become easier. The most important step is to start and remember that you can always adjust your blogging strategy as you go.
How Other Small Businesses Approach Their Blogs
One of the best aspects of starting a blog is the freedom to publish whatever kind of information you choose. These examples from other small businesses can inspire if you’re seeking more ideas.
Documenting Their Journey
Scotch Porter’s
Scotch Porter, a black-owned company that makes hair care products for men, features various posts on their blog.
The Scotch Porter Journal. Their main emphasis seems to be on highlighting company achievements, such as launching products at Target and CVS.
They also shared their exciting appearance on Nick Cannon’s talk show in late 2021 through their journal.
Buffer
While it is always great to highlight your successes, it can also be equally valuable to discuss the challenges and hurdles your company has faced.
Buffer believes strongly in transparency, which is why we share important insights on our Open blog.
In these posts, we address tough issues directly, openly discussing areas where we need improvement and the steps we are taking to make progress.
Highlighting Products
A blog offers a distinct way to promote your products, especially if you typically focus on social media for advertising.
Glamnetic
A cosmetics company specializing in press-on nails and magnetic lashes, often showcases its products on its blog. They also keep the content light-hearted by tying it to popular topics like TikTok, celebrity culture, and current beauty trends.
Passion Planner
Similarly, Passion Planner publishes blog posts related to their main product line, journals. Their blog provides a lot of inspiration for customers interested in journaling, such as The 7-day Self-Love Challenge and 42 planner ideas to spruce up your calendar.
The advice in their blog posts can be applied to any diary or agenda, making Passion Planner’s blog seem less like a mere sales tactic and more like a helpful resource for readers.
Flow Club
Flow Club, a virtual coworking space, takes a unique approach by showcasing customer testimonials on its blog.
In a post titled “How Hustle Fund co-founder Elizabeth Yin beats procrastination with Flow Club,” they highlight one customer’s experience with their product, providing direct quotes and personalizing the service for readers.
Demonstrating Expertise
You have valuable expertise, and writing blog posts about your experiences is a great way to teach your readers about topics related to your business.
Birthdate Co.
birthday Co. creates unique candles for each birthday based on astrology, numerology, and tarot. Naturally, their blog has a wealth of information regarding astrology and horoscopes.
Pacific Cookie Company
Pacific Cookie Company, a family-owned business, keeps their blog simple by focusing solely on cookies. They cover everything from the best coffee and cookie pairings to recipes for air fryer cookies and other baking topics, including recipes without butter.
Passion Planner
Passion Planner also covers self-care and empathy in addition to journaling topics. These values align closely with the company’s mission statement, which aims to help individuals achieve their full potential and improve their well-being.
We hope this post has shown you the benefits blogging can bring to your brand, such as increased audience engagement. Once you’ve published a few entries, you’ll likely find that writing posts becomes easier and maintaining your blog becomes a regular habit. Does your small business already have a blog? Share it with us on Instagram or Twitter!