Blogging Tips for Small Businesses
Start a Blog for Your Small Business with These 5 Easy Blogging Ideas
Small business owners know that there is nothing SMALL about managing your own business. It is up to you to come up with the big ideas, manage your team, and of course, market to your customers to get your fantastic product or service in front of your ideal client. By now, you’ve probably heard that one of the best ways to get your small business seen online is through starting a blog. Small business blogging helps to expand your website authority, increase SEO, and basically earn your small business a higher ranking than the big guys on the Google search results page. Starting a blog for your small business probably seems like a BIG job. Don’t worry. I’m going to reveal some expert advice that other writers won’t share to help you out. Let’s get started with why you need a blog for your small business. Then, we’ll move on to critical blogging tips small business owners should keep in mind. Finally, I’ll help you jumpstart your small business blog with your first five ideas.
Why an Online Storefront isn’t Enough to Market Your Small Business
Just because you have a small business doesn’t mean you should have a small website. Websites with very few pages of text don’t rank as high in Google. You need to position your website as a resource. Would you go to a library with only a few books, or would you go to a library with hundreds of resources?
An online storefront is made to sell. A blog is made to connect. Listing your products or services isn’t enough to convince someone to buy online. Blogs are the perfect way to explain your offerings and establish an emotional connection.
People don’t share product listings, but they do share information. Creating relevant blog posts with eye-catching images, infographics, and highlights can increase your business’s Facebook shares by 3x as much!
Why Blogging Will Help Your Small Business Get Customers
Adding relevant keywords for your business to your blog posts will help you rank higher in search results. For example, a San Antonio coffee shop should include “San Antonio” and “coffee shop” in most of its posts.
Blogs are a soft sell. People stumbling across your blog are probably in the research phase of their customer journey. Give them information to make a decision, and even offer them freebies for joining your email list. When it’s time to buy, they will come back to you.
Blogs can help you promote and share your business across social media. Reuse your blog content to create an entire social media and email marketing strategy for the month. Get other people to promote you by asking them to share your blog. People are way more open to sharing information than a product. Be a resource, not a salesman.
Blogging Tips for Small Businesses That Other Writers Won’t Share
Did you know that businesses with blogs receive 55% more traffic than companies without blogs? Now that you see why a blog is essential to growing your small business let’s dive into tips to get started! Keep these blogging tips in mind to approach each post with confidence.
#1 Stay Consistent
First words of advice, don’t bite off more than you can chew! When it comes to blogging, consistency is key. For my blogging clients, I recommend publishing a blog once a week. However, for a small business owner wearing multiple hats, this can prove to be too challenging. It is better to publish a blog once a month than to start posting every day and dwindle down to weeks at a time with no content. Google gives this kind of blogging behavior a red flag, and your customers won’t appreciate it either.
#2 Create a Content Bank of Ideas
Don’t wait for blogging inspiration to strike the day it’s time to post. Chances are it won’t! Instead, create a content bank of ideas you add to as you think of them and then pull a few ideas that fit together to create a theme for the month. This will make planning your blog content strategy easy and efficient.
#3 Repurpose Blogs into Email Campaigns and Social Media Posts
Once you write just one blog post, you have probably created enough content for a week of social media posts and an email campaign. Instead of creating brand new content, recycle what you have into different forms! Pull quotes from your blog to use as social media captions and promote your blog in an email campaign that invites your subscribers to read more. Promoting your blog is easy when you recycle what you’ve already written.
#4 Publish Holiday or Themed Blogs in Advance
Unlike social media posts that have a lifespan of about 24-48 hours, blog posts continue to grow for basically as long as the internet is here. Blog posts typically reach their SEO peak about one to three months after publishing. So, if you are posting holiday or themed content, make sure to do so in advance. Posting a Christmas-themed blog the week of is pretty much too late. It may feel weird writing about Christmas during October, but it will pay off later!
5 Easy Blog Post Ideas for Small Business Owners
#1 Explain Your Small Business’s Product or Service
Blogs are the perfect place on your small business website to go into deeper detail about your product and service offerings. Explain how something is made, why someone would benefit, and any fun facts that go into creating them.
#2 Tell Personal Stories About Your Small Business
Telling a personal story is an easy small business blogging tip that anyone can write about. Use your blog to give the history of starting your business, explain the inspiration behind the brand, or highlight new hires.
#3 Highlight a Success Story on Your Small Business Blog
Show how your product or service has helped one of your customers. This is a great way to connect to readers, share testimonials, and establish trust.
#4 Create a Community Roundup of Local Businesses
Use your blog to network with other small business owners. Here’s an idea. Create a local holiday gift guide and ask other local business owners to contribute their gift ideas to include in your blog. Ask all participants to share and get everyone more exposure while making some friends in the process.
#5 Answer Commonly Asked Questions in Your Small Business Blog
Do you always get the same question over and over in your business emails and DMs? Make a blog post about it! Chances are those commonly asked questions you get are also being typed into Google, making them keyword gold. Plus, when someone asks again, you can simply send them a link to your blog post instead of typing out a lengthy response!
Are you ready to start your small business blog?
With these tips and ideas, you are sure to make a BIG impact with your small business blog. If you need some more help, feel free to reach out to me! I’d love to help you share your big idea in any way I can.
Let me write your blog and share your voice.
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