My answer to most is yes, for most businesses, it pays to craft a blogging strategy and stick with it. Many clients groan, but we find a way to work it into their content plan and it usually pays off. According to Hubspot – business websites with active blogs receive 55% more traffic and 70% more conversions (defined as purchases, sign ups, downloads, customer interactions). Those are compelling numbers.
How to Create a Small Business Blog that Works for you AND your Customers
First determine your resources.
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Are you comfortable writing?
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Is there someone on your team who is a comfortable writing?
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Can you outsource it, then revise what is written for you to make it more personal/work for your customers?
Once you have decided. Then look at who your customers are, and what are the main 3-5 topics they are interested in. People don’t want to hear about your new staff member or new tweak of a product, at least not most customers, or not that often. Your goal is to provide useful information about the topics related to your business that are of interest your customers. Once you have built that – then you can add in a few company-driven posts. Example my customers want to know about social media (tips, new trends, how to, new tools), blogging, websites, small business and email marketing. I covered all of those, but I’ve never really focused on email marketing…hhhmmmm another post idea. Then create and editorial calendar and slot blog posts that cover those topics into your calendar. I admit, even I don’t blog as often as I should, my excuse…I’m helping clients set up and promote their own blogs.
How Often Should a Small Business Post Blog Posts?
Once a week is ideal for most sites. Once a month should be the minimum. Some other sites, especially sales-oriented sites – selling affiliate products or surviving on ad revenue – there is evidence that blogging multiple times a week, or even several times a day drives both more traffic and more sales. Although that is not practical for many businesses, and not necessary for most. A book seller could interview authors, talk about new books out on the market, an insider’s view of attending a big insiders book event, talk about a favorite book, interview customers etc. Think about answering the questions you hear often from customers.
A Real-world Example of how Small Business Blogging Can Work
A potential client contacted me about help with his website. He and his wife were tired of doing it themselves and wanted someone else to handle their updates and site tweaks, so that he could concentrate on blogging. The surprise was he’s a contractor…not the type of business you think of when you think of a blog. He said, “I’ve got to get this site cleaned up. I am a contractor – I fix anything in your house… and I get business leads every week from my blog.” He looks at the questions he gets daily from customers, then turns them around into blog posts.
I get clients all the time from my blog. I pride myself in being able to break technical info down into easy to understand concepts that makes it easy for non-tech types to “get it.” I say on my site that while I speak “geek” I talk or translate into plain English. I often get new clients who comment on how the liked the easy to understand blog posts, and that’s a part of why they contacted me.
Why Does Small Business Blogging Work?
Blogging can be an effective way to drive traffic to your small business website. If you write clear headlines that include a few selected keywords (words your customers might search for) and is catchy (a tough balancing act), and back it up with good writing in the post – search engines will serve it up as the answer to customer search queries – i.e. – it will show up on Google or Bing. Blog posts work well over time. You can have a blog post from 3 years ago bring someone to your site today. Posts also give you something to post to your social networks that showcases what your business is about, and how you give them helpful info, without directly promoting your business, but when they click to read the post, they are presented with your website and blog and all of your business info. They can hopefully sign up to get your blog in their inbox (what’s called an RSS feed), sign up for your enewsletter, or call you with a question or buy your product or service.
One last business blogging tip: if you can – launch your blog with 3-5 posts rather than just 1. Give prospects info to read once you get them to your site. Give them a reason to hang around. Posts don’t have to be long 400 – 800 words – 600 is ideal, and an occasional longer or shorter post works too. Get it on your calendar and your blog will work for you while you are doing other things.
