How to Create & Manage a successful Business Blog
Managing a blog can be overwhelming as there are a thousand things to take care of. Whether you’re starting a new business blog or looking to revive an old one, there’s a lot to do.
But don’t worry. Here is some practical advice to assist you through each stage of setting up and managing a blog that will benefit your business.
#1: Define your Blog Goals
Before you start blogging, ask yourself these important questions:
- Why am I starting a blog?
- How will it benefit me?
- How will it benefit my audience?
Your answers to these questions will prompt you to identify key business goals for your blog. Set specific blogging goals that are aggressive, yet realistic no matter where you are in the blogging process.
#2: Discover the value and purpose of Your Blog
For most people, a business blog site is more about gaining exposure for their brand and less about making money. Defining the purpose of your blog is different from setting business goals. Goals are brand-centered, while purpose is reader-centered.
Find out with these questions:
- Why should people visit my blog?
- What makes this information so special to my audience?
#3: Research about Your Audience
You cannot please everyone all the time. And that is why have to know exactly whom you’re targeting and why. Who is your audience? To attract the ideal audience to your blog, you have to understand who they are and what they need. That way you can craft content that is both relevant and helpful to your readers. You can use your customers’ demographics, needs and behaviors to create buyer personas, which will help you, focus your content.
#4: Determining Blogging Frequency and setting a schedule
How often should you blog?
How much time are you willing to dedicate each week to creating valuable content on your blog?
How many posts can you write or assign without spreading yourself too thin?
You need to set reader expectations and commit to a reasonable schedule when blogging. It is important to be consistent. It will reduce the pressure you may feel to blog every day and try to create a blogging schedule that will work for you.
#5: Selecting Blog Writers
As part of your blog strategy, you need to decide on the primary and contributing writers… and where you will find them. You may even benefit from using guest bloggers. Blog writing is very essential you can hire freelancers too!
You can both use existing talent within your organization or hire writers externally. When finding writer externally, try to find someone who can write authoritative content for your industry and look for people with a proven track record.
#6: Develop an Editorial Calendar
An Editorial calendar is a virtual To do list that will make you accountable to follow your scheduled dates and concepts. Developing an editorial calendar is a strategic exercise that will significantly impact your business blog and efficiently maintain their content strategy.
#7: Writing a Blog Post
To make your readers coming back, you have to consistently write compelling and engaging content. Although blogging for business isn’t a science, if you take certain steps you can ensure your posts stand out.
#8: Sharing and Promoting Your Blog
Next, you’ll want to distribute and share it with as wide an audience as possible. Even after you hit Publish on your business blog, there’s still a lot more work to do and find unique ways to drive traffic to your blog. Facebook, Instagram, Slide Share, and Pinterest can all be used to share your content and get new readership.
Check out the Series 2 – of How to Write a Business Blog
#9: Gauge your Blog’s success
It is important to check success metrics of your blog. No matter what the topic, industry or purpose of your blog, you need to know whether your blog is being read and if your efforts are paying off. You have to come up with a statistical measure of the things that are most relevant to your blogging goals.
How to BLOG – Series 1 How to Blog – Series – 2
How to BLOG – Tips – Series 3 How to Blog – Series 4
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A blog can help you extend your reach, while giving you a platform to share your expertise. It’s a lot of work with substantial potential for reward. The most important step for starting a business blog… is to get started.
I hope this helped 🙂