For any small business, developing a marketing strategy is vital. However, since many small businesses don’t have the time or resources that large companies do, they have to get creative with getting their name out there.
Luckily, there’s one tool that makes marketing as easy as pie— blogging.
The Benefits of Blogging
Blogging is simply the best option for any small business wanting to cultivate success. As small business owners become more optimistic about the future, it’s easier to jump in and promote their companies when the market favors them. You just need to know the Google basics to get a leg up on your blogging game.
The average person uses Google 3-4 times a day, so it’s essential to figure out how to get your posts on that first search page. By creating quality posts, Google is more likely to index your business blog in search results.
Creating strong blog posts also helps your business to build authority. You can position your company as a trailblazer in its niche with the proper research and strategy. A good blog drives traffic, gets leads, and grows customer bases.
Here are a few tips for establishing your business with blogging.
Research Your Competition
Getting an idea of what people in your field are talking about is helpful for several reasons. On the one hand, it helps you get an idea of what topics to write about, what writing or design styles you can use, and what keywords to incorporate. On the other hand, by researching your competition, you can also see where your niche is lacking. Finding that gap allows you to reach an active audience.
Of course, simply looking at the blogs themselves might not reveal that much. However, the unanswered questions in the comment section below are an absolute gold mine. Besides comment sections, jumping into forums like Reddit can also help you understand what sorts of questions your blog could be answering.
Once you have developed this unique niche, you will need to consider how you’ll approach your audience.
Know Who You Want to Be
Now that you know the niche you’ll be working with, it’s time to figure out how you’ll deliver that content. To establish the right brand voice for your blog, you must first know who you’re talking to.
Figuring out the demographics of your target audience will help guide you on your blogging journey. Researching your competitors comes in handy because you can judge whether their voice appealed to audiences or pushed them away.
Creating your brand voice also has to do with your audience’s expertise. Will you develop posts regarding specific industry questions or general informative posts? Will you write for DIY enthusiasts or professionals?
Once you have established who you’re writing to and how you will deliver your message to them, you can start planning your content.
Creating Tailored Content
Gathering the knowledge you’ve collected about your target audience, you can write posts in their preferred formats, such as how-to guides or lists. Above all, creating content for each part of your audience’s buying cycle is incredibly crucial.
This means creating informative content that helps readers learn about a new topic just as much as writing guides to help them make their final purchase. For example, an online casino company could create a post describing a new category to inform gamers about how that genre will work. Later, they can create posts that list the genre’s titles, and possibly summarize each game’s description. By catering to different cycle phases, the company covers much more ground.
As a general rule of thumb, remember to write thorough, insightful content, especially at the beginning of your blogging journey. Your audience will appreciate the time and effort you put into one good post over sifting through several short posts.
Promote Your Content
Nothing gets done in isolation. You can write the most fantastic blog post, but it won’t mean anything if you don’t promote it.
In the growing phase of your blog, promoting is key to ranking high on Google and driving traffic. There are many ways to promote your blog posts. The most popular option is social media, which is helpful, but it limits you to your followers and your followers’ followers.
Collaborating with fellow blogs is a wise way for your business to reach more audiences. This could mean guest-posting on someone else’s page, which exposes your business to a similar but untapped market.
On the other hand, you can also work with well-known bloggers who will talk about your business’s products in an engaging, organic way.
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