We have written many articles about why a small business blog can help improve your search engine ranking, increase your profile with the public, and even augment your sales. However, while blog marketing through a small business blog can help your business, actually writing and maintaining your blog is another matter.
It is recommended that you post at least 3 to 5 times a week to your small business blog. This frequency of blog marketing has proven successful at showing search engines that your small business blog’s content is regularly updated and pertinent. But doing the actual writing, not to mention coming up with topics and blog ideas, can be time-consuming and can even turn into dredge work.
To help inspire you with ideas and motivate you to continue your small business blog marketing consistency, here are some helpful tips.
What Makes an Engaging Small Business Blog Post?
While not every single post or article has to be journalistically perfect or Pulitzer-worthy, there are some considerations when writing:
Keep it interesting
What topics and content is meaningful to both you and your audience? Remember your small business blog should fit a special niche in order to attract an audience. Keep your posts meaningful and interesting to your overall theme and passion.
Be honest
Your readers and customers want to know you are human, not some blog post robot production machine. It is normal to express your thoughts and opinions about your business and industry.
Be consistent
Remember to post at least three times each week. Avoid posting five articles one week and waiting another three weeks for your next blog post. Keep your posts evenly consistent.
Be brief
Attention spans are short on the web. Keep your posts between 350 – 500 words or under, but feel free to create a few 750-word comprehensive resources too (which not only are helpful for the reader, but SEO as well).
Include photos or graphics
You can enhance your blog marketing with appropriate images. Use a photos and graphics, but only when they complement your content.
Include links
In your small business blog, you may reference another website. Include a link and even additional resources to help educate your audience.
Types of Blog Posts
Now it’s time to give you ideas about types of posts to write. Here is a list of proven winners:
- Lists – Readers love lists. Chose to write a “best of” list or a list of other popular and pertinent blogs. Make lists part of your ‘anchor’ content.
- Tips – Whether it’s through magazines or online blogs, readers love to receive tips. Educate them on tips to drinking your wine or managing hairstyles from your salon.
- How-To – Much like your tips articles, write “how-to” articles as well. These will further educate your customers and readers on how to accomplish a specific task such as cooking with your “world famous” barbeque sauce or how to create a specific report from your database software.
- News – Keep an ear to the ground on news within your industry. Google Alerts are a great way to be notified when news articles are posted with certain keywords or phrases you define. Write your opinions on published news, or share a story that may affect your business or customers.
- Customer case study – A successful way to improve your blog marketing is to show potential customers how past customers have succeeded with your product or service. Write a brief (or even lengthy when appropriate) article highlighting a customer who enjoyed your product and how it improved their life/business.
- Staff highlight – Again, readers like to know your business has a human element. Don’t be afraid to write an occasional highlight of an employee, their bio, background, hobbies, what they do in your company, etc.
- Interview – Try approaching leaders and high profile individuals in your industry. Their words not only can be helpful to your audience, it also improves your expertise profile with your “celebrity” contact.
- Poll – Ask your readers what they think about a certain topic, or even your product.
- Share a video – You can sometimes share a video you have filmed and edited, or even embed a pertinent YouTube video to show your readers.
- Guest posts – You don’t even have to write all your small business blog posts. Consider having guest writers on occasion. They could be employees, industry specialists or leaders, other blog authors and owners. This gives you a break and gives your audience something fresh.
