Who cares about how to start a blog. Why start a blog? For one, search engines keep a record of everything that is posted online. The more content you have, the more bridges you are building, helping customers find your website. Blogs have now become an integral part of the marketing strategies of companies big and small, regardless of their industry or niche, and blogs have plenty of impact with visitors, followers, and customers. Content marketing is key if you want to become a platform creator.
If you’ve yet to embrace this marketing strategy because you’re not sure how to start a blog, there are several ways to do so. You can create a blog on a blog-hosting platform like WordPress or Joomla, embed a pre-existing blog into your website, or devise your own “blogging” application. We’d be happy to walk you through the process. While most blogs are theme-centric and focus on providing information that is relevant to specific subject matter, you can actually blog about whatever you like. For marketing purposes, however, you’d want it to revolve around your company, brand, products, or services in some way, so it would bring more attention to what you’re offering to the public and to your customers.
Blogs are the perfect way to establish more intimate relationships with your audience and to strengthen existing ones, because they give you a platform for connecting that isn’t limited by a product description, sales pitch, or pre-formatted “about us” page. In addition to relationship building, blogs are an excellent way to become more involved in the social and community-based aspect of online marketing and to establish yourself as an industry thought leader or authoritative voice, which only serves to elevate your standing and visibility even further.
Aside from creating your blog, there are a few key things to remember if you are working toward having a successful blog. Posting regularly is essential because people enjoy fresh information and a “stale” blog appears neglected or inactive. It’s not enough to just write posts and wait for readers, either; your content needs to be original and informative, with engagement and appeal that makes people want to read more. You’ll also need to market your blog to bring attention to it and drive more traffic your way. One great way to market your blog is to use cross-platform marketing tactics and include links to your blog posts on your social media networks and in other locations where you’ve established an online presence.
Once you start writing blog entries on a consistent and regular basis, you’ll be able to determine which types of content are most appealing for your readers based on comments, shares, backlinks, and other signals. When you know what blog content is most popular, you can include more of that in your blog to keep the interest level high. Acknowledging feedback or customer comments through well-written blogs that address customer needs, answer questions, or solve problems is another great way to use your blog to appeal to and retain your readers and customers. You can also use your blog to promote your social networks, introduce customers to new products or services, or demonstrate through video tutorials how certain things should be done or could be done more efficiently.The sky truly is the limit with regard to what you can include in your blog and what your blog can do for both you and your customers.
Whether you’re new to blogging or you’ve been doing it for years, it is an invaluable tool for your company’s marketing efforts and an ideal information delivery system for connecting with your customers and target audience. You will quickly find your blogging voice and tone, as well as the ideal content to publish to your blog, and be on your way to successful blogging in no time.