Are you thinking about starting a blog for your business but not sure where to begin? You’re in the right place. Starting a blog is one of the best things I ever did for my branding and web design business. My blog currently brings my website about 6,000 monthly visitors, which translates into daily subscribers and weekly inquiries. Keep reading to learn how to start blogging in order to scale your business’ reach and revenue.
Why your business needs a blog
Before we dive in, let’s take a moment to address why blogging is so beneficial in the first place. A common misconception I hear about blogging is that it’s outdated; with short video content like TikTok and Instagram reels on the rise, no one reads blogs anymore, do they?
Well yes, in fact, they do! But don’t just take it from me.
Here are a few powerful statistics that show that blogging is still relevant in 2022 (source):
- 77% of internet users read blogs.
- Each month, approximately 409 million people view more than 20 billion pages.
- Businesses with a blog experience twice as much email traffic as businesses without.
- Businesses that prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to see an ROI for their efforts.
- 57% of marketers say they’ve gained customers specifically through blogging.
Also hi, you’re reading a blog post right now!
Blogging is the number one way to grow your website traffic organically while positioning your brand as an industry leader. But in order to stand out from the crowd and get your content seen by the right people (aka your ideal clients), it’s essential to have an effective content strategy. Without one, blogging may not be worth your while.
If you’re interested in diving deeper into the power of blogging for your business, click here to join the waitlist for my upcoming course, Blog, Money, Magic. In this course, I’m breaking down everything I know about writing intentional blog posts that help me book out my services into a step-by-step process that any kind of business can implement.
How to start blogging in 3 simple steps
Have you ever sat down to write a blog post and ended up just staring at the empty page for several minutes without any clue what to write about? Or maybe you’ve poured your heart and soul into writing a meaningful blog post that you were certain your audience would resonate with, but after hitting publish, all you heard were crickets. I know I’ve experienced both. If you’ve struggled with blogging, the problem is most likely a lack of planning and not anything to do with your writing talent.
Keep reading to discover a simple, 3-step process for planning and writing blog posts that will actually help you grow your reach and revenue.
1. Research topics
Before you write a single word, it’s important to get clear on what type of content your blog is going to focus on and why. In order to do this, you first need to figure out who your target audience is. Every blog post you write should be written with your target audience in mind. For instance, if you own an online shoe store, do you think your audience wants to read a post about your recent trip to Peru? Probably not.
Your target audience needs to know a few key things about your business and industry in order to make a buying decision–whether your business sells products or services. These include:
- How the product or service will alleviate a problem they’re experiencing
- Benefits of the product or service that they weren’t previously aware of (some people don’t realize what their problem is until they discover the solution)
- The cost and any potential risks involved
- For services, the process of working together
A blog is a perfect way to address all of the above points. If you’re able to touch on most of your audience’s pain points, questions, and concerns through your blog, you’re making it just that much easier for your audience to trust your brand.
If you need help clarifying who your target audience is, click here to grab a copy of my free brand clarity workbook.
In addition to understanding your target audience, it’s also important to outline your goals for your blog. For instance, one of the reasons that likely drew you to learn how to start blogging is to increase your website traffic. But what will that website traffic actually do for your business? In other words, what do you want your audience to do after they read one of your blog posts? Think about what type of content you could write that would both give your readers a quick win and prompt them to engage further with your brand, whether by booking a call, subscribing to your newsletter, or something else.
2. Write consistently
Once you have a list of topics to write about that will educate and inspire your audience and help you reach your business goals, it’s time to start writing. This is the hard part of blogging. Writing is a skill, just like graphic design, woodworking, photography, or any other profession. Therefore, it takes practice. The good news is that you don’t need to be an amazing writer in order to write good blog posts. In fact, blog posts can be fairly informal, almost like having a casual conversation with your reader.
In my experience, one of the keys to a successful blog is writing consistently. When you’re starting out, you might write just one blog post per month. That’s a completely acceptable place to start. It’s better to consistently publish one post per month than to spontaneously publish three posts in your first month, then nothing for two months, then one post, then nothing again… and so on. The trick is to make writing a habit, whether it’s monthly, weekly, or daily. Once it’s a habit, you can push yourself to increase the frequency of it.
I currently publish two blog posts per month. But, I’m working on cultivating a daily writing habit that will allow me to eventually start publishing weekly posts.
If you really want to start blogging, but writing feels like pulling teeth, consider outsourcing your blog content. There are tons of qualified blog writers out there who will happily take this task off your plate so you can focus your time and energy elsewhere!
3. Drive traffic to your blog
Last but not least, the third step in starting a blog is driving traffic to it. Without a traffic strategy, your audience may never discover your blog, and in turn, your wonderful business. So how do you get traffic to your blog? Through search engine optimization (SEO) of course.
SEO is a strategy for increasing your website traffic organically through search engines like Google. Organically in this context means for free, or without paying for ads. The beauty of SEO is that the growth it creates can have a compounding effect. Every time you publish a new blog post, you create the opportunity to rank for one or more new keywords. And unlike on social media, your old content can rank forever on Google, so long as you make some effort to keep it up to date.
There are three types of SEO that you can implement to improve your search rankings:
- Technical SEO: This means making sure search engine bots are able to crawl and index your site.
- On-page SEO: This involves researching and implementing targeted keywords and is the most important aspect of SEO.
- Off-page SEO: This is a way to improve the domain authority (DA) of your site by getting backlinks from other reputable sites.
SEO can sound intimidating, but it’s an essential skill to have if you want to learn how to start blogging. This is exactly why I created my free SEO masterclass. In this 45-minute training, I’m breaking down all the basics of SEO so that you can start implementing it on your website and blog right away.
Ready to start your blog?
I hope this post helped you see the potential in starting a blog for your small business. I truly believe that any kind of business can implement and benefit from blogging. Not only will blogging help you connect with your target audience, but the practice of writing itself will also force you to think more clearly about your brand, your offers, and all the ways you can help your customers.
For additional support, check out these resources:
- Join the waitlist for my new course, Blog, Money, Magic, to learn everything you need to know about creating a profitable blog and content strategy for your business.
- To dive deeper into SEO, click here to sign up and get instant access to my Free SEO Masterclass.
- Follow me on Instagram for weekly inspiration, tips, and motivation!
Pin this post for later!
