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Your business and your website are up and running! But traffic is still a little slow.
So now you’re asking yourself, “should my business have a blog?”
You might be thinking to yourself, but I’m not a writer, so how can I write a successful small business blog? Trust me, it really isn’t as hard (or as daunting) as it might seem.
With our guide to business blog writing, we will show you not only why your business should have a blog, but how to write it so it ranks highly on Google.
What Are the Benefits of a Small Business Blog?
These days, a blog for your business is one of the best and most effective forms of content marketing.
A blog will give your business a voice, and help it stand out in today’s digital marketplace. It is an effective way to boost your online visibility, as well as helping you to build relationships and trust with your audience.
According to marketing marvel Neil Patel, the benefits of a small business blog are huge! He recommends 5 steps to correctly setting up a blog for your business:
- Figure out what you want to blog about and the different types of blog posts you can create. Don’t just write about your products or services. That’s boring content. Think about how your products or services can help your ideal customers. Then focus your business blog writing on that.
- Your URL needs to be correct. Set it up as (your domain name) /blog. This is one of our favourite business blogging tips. Subdirectories rank better on Google than subdomains. Google will rank a subdomain almost like a second site. And that’s not what you want.
- Figure out the voice of your blog. Is it written by you? A team? Or the brand itself? This is such an important element of business blog writing and one that we will look at closer later.
- If you have more than one writer for your business blog, then create a content template and writer’s bios. This way content remains consistent and the authors have a name and a face.
- Make sure you cross-link your blog posts in the text. This will help provide additional useful content for your readers and keep them on the page longer.
Optimising Your Small Business Blog
Your words and your content might be beautiful, but unless they are optimised, it could all be a wasted effort.
This is where having a little bit of an understanding of SEO can really count in your favour. SEO (search engine optimisation), is without a doubt our most successful way of attracting new visitors and customers to our brand and most of that is done through our blog.
It is how we write, structure, and optimise our content to make it easy for people to find us, and easy for Google to rank us highly.
6 Ways to easily optimise your blog
- Formatting: We love Hemingway App as it is great at showing you how to format your content in a more SEO way. Just copy and paste your content and it will show you how to improve it.
- Lists: Use bullet point and number lists to help break up chunks of copy. They are great at catching the eye, providing useful content, and make it easier for people to read.
- Heading Tags: Make use of your heading tags. They work by creating structure in your content and break it up, making it easier to read and skim. Use H1 for your main call to action, H2 as a subheading, and so on.
- Paragraphs: Keep your paragraphs short and sweet. Aim for no more than 3 sentences. Having long, lengthy content can put people off. Shorter paragraphs make it easier for people to digest information.
- Keywords: Once you have done your keyword research, you need to place them in your content. Your primary keyword should be placed in your title, your metadata, a heading, the conclusion and the URL. Secondary keywords should be sprinkled in naturally, where they are relevant. But don’t overdo this… always write for the reader. You want to make sure your blog voice feels natural.
- Links: There are 2 types of links; internal and external. Try to include at least 2-3 internal links in your blog (links to other pages within your domain). Also, include a couple of external links to quality and relevant sources. If your post is about blogging tips, then find a great external source that can provide even more help to your readers. This all helps with your Google ranking.
The good news is you only need to know the basics outlined above to make a big difference to your business blog writing.
Developing Your Tone of Voice
Developing a tone of voice is a huge part of a successful small business blog. With branding or business, people often think about how things look, or what is on offer. But developing the right tone of voice for your business and your blog is more important than ever. Especially to stand out from the online crowd.
Ask yourself, what do I sell and who do I sell to? These questions will help you to build your voice. Map out who your ideal customer is and write to them.
What is your brand voice? Is it friendly? Relaxed? Formal? Authoritative? Cheeky?
Your tone of voice is the distinct personality that your business will take on in all communications. This includes your blog.
With blog writing, use “you, your, us, we, I,” as this creates a conversational tone that will speak to your audience. It adds warmth and character and creates a natural tone of conversation.
BUSINESS BLOGGING TIP:
Adding a writer’s profile with a photo and a snippet of information is a great way to add personality to your business blog. You are showing the people behind the words, and that is something that your audience will love to see.
If there is more than one person writing for your blog, then make sure the tone of voice is consistent.
One of the most important business blogging tips is that the content you create should always benefit the readers. Remember this with every piece of copy you create for your business blog.
Choosing the Right Types of Blog Posts
Now your small business blog is up and running, you need to start thinking about content.
Choosing the right types of blog posts can be a tricky thing. Your blog can give your credibility in your niche, so it is important to get it right. That means, providing fresh, relevant, and useful content for your audience.
Give them a reason to keep coming back.
Here are some great blog post ideas to get you started.
Business Blog Post Ideas
- Use commonly asked customer questions to build a useful and interesting article
- Write a post about how you started the business and why
- Create a post highlighting one of your best selling products or services
- Give a behind-the-scenes look at the running of your business
- Create a list of people and businesses that inspire you on social media (a great one for creating links)
- If you offer a service, write a piece of useful downloadable content (for free!)
- Interview staff members to give more of an insight into your business
- Compile a list of useful and relevant posts from other blogs or online sources
- Create a list of your favourite influencers in your niche
- Share a post about what to do and what not to do in your industry
Business Blogging Tips
Conclusions
When you have finished a piece of content for your business blog, ALWAYS finish with a conclusion. In that conclusion, include a question:
What do you think about the marketing trends for 2021? Which one has caught your eye?
By ending with a question, you are encouraging your readers to respond and leave a comment. This is great for engagement, sharing, and rankings. Just make sure you always respond to every comment.
Cross-links
Another great business blogging tip is to cross-link in your blogs. This will not only provide additional content and context to your readers, but it will keep them on your page for longer.
Business blogs examples of this would be this post, which you are reading now. It is about copywriting for your business blog. Having a blog is an essential element of content marketing. So, what I have done here is linked to another School of Marketing blog post all about the benefits of content marketing.
This should be a helpful piece of content for anyone wanting to know more about blog posts and marketing. It should also help answer questions for you, the reader. And that is the main goal of great copy.
Use the AIDA Formula
Your blog post’s introduction is so important. You need to make sure your copywriting is spot on to grab your reader’s attention.
This handy little formula is great to apply to your business blog’s introductions, and any other marketing content you write. AIDA stands for:
ATTENTION. INTEREST. DESIRE. ACTION.
Let’s have a look at how you can apply them to your business blog writing:
ATTENTION: Create brand awareness and a hook. Start generating that interest and leave fluff writing at the door. Make your readers aware of what is coming in the copy.
INTEREST: Keep your reader interested by speaking to them. Connect what you are writing to a problem they might be experiencing.
DESIRE: Let your reader know why this post is so important. Tell them how you can help them. Give an idea of your offerings and how it can solve the problem they are facing.
ACTION: Invite your reader to do something. If you are applying this formula to your introduction, then the action would be to continue reading your blog post. You can also use it as a call to action on a sales page.
Be Consistent
If you want to see results with your blog, then it is vital to be consistent with your posting. By consistently publishing quality content and well thought out business blog writing, you will create a strong platform for your business.
You will be able to provide more value and information for your audience. This will turn to leads, which can lead to improved conversion rates, sales, and customer retention.
Great Business Blogs Examples
Following other business blogs is a great way to pick up tips, ideas, and information to help take your blog to the next level.
Here are a couple of our favourite larger business blogs examples, to help inspire you.
Moz
The Moz blog has always been one of our favourite business blog examples. Moz is a leader in SEO and their blog posts are spot on for advice and help. They provide resources to help throughout your SEO journey, whether you are a beginner or an expert.
What makes the blog so great is their mix of quality content. They upload written articles, infographics and videos. The subject lines are clear and concise, and we love how they speak to their ideal audience.
SEMrush
SEMrush is another great content marketing and SEO website. Their blog is a brilliant addition to their website and tools, providing fresh and valuable content to their audience.
Their articles are written in an easy to read way, with heaps of internal links to further expand your research and understanding. They use a combination of blogs, news, opinion, case studies, tips, and more, all written by industry experts and specialists.
Hobbycraft Blog
We wanted to include a product based business in our little round-up, and Hobbycraft is the perfect example.
Why? It is basically an online crafting magazine. Full of easy to follow tutorials, recipes, tips and tricks, and lots of crafty content, that appeals to their ideal customer. The layout is clean, attractive and easy to navigate round.
They basically have their blog spot on, and once you are on it, you’ll stay on it for ages.
A couple of brilliant small business blog examples
The Thrifty Stitcher
The Thrifty Stitcher is a small business set up by Claire-Louise Hardie, the former Sewing Producer for The Great British Sewing Bee. Claire-Louise is a sewing educator, costumer, pattern maker, and a writer. Her business is all about teaching people how to sew, through easy to follow online courses.
We love her blog because it ticks all the right small business blog boxes. It is consistent, quality content, that speaks directly to her ideal audience. Her content is formatted beautifully and includes tutorials, tips and tricks, news, interviews, and tutorial videos.
First Aid for Life
First Aid for Life are multi-award-winning first aid experts, who provide first aid training to groups and individuals.
Their blog is a great example of how a small business blog should be. It is clear, easy to navigate and provides extremely valuable content about all things first aid. From advice, to tutorials, to the latest news and updates, this blog is a very useful source of information.
They also produce content consistently, in a well-formatted and easy to read way.
Here Are Your Next Steps to Get Started
Now you know the secrets to creating a successful blog for your business, it’s time to get started!
Follow these steps to get you on the right blogging path:
- Learn your SEO basics – This will help you make the most of your blog and help it rank highly in Google
- Develop your voice – Before you start writing, you need to find your voice. How do you want to come across to readers and potential customers?
- Understand your audience – Your blog posts need to be focused on how you can help your readers. Do your research and write content that will be of value to them.
- Write consistently – Get into the rhythm of writing. Consistent content is key to making a blog successful. Just make sure you are producing quality content.
- Make your headlines attention-grabbing – And your introduction too for that matter. Draw your readers in by creating a catchy and enticing headline and intro that just begs to be read.
Finally…
Be Patient and Consistent
When it comes to a successful small business blog, you have to be patient. It can take months for you to start seeing results, and that is normal. This is a long-term play. Keep writing consistently keeping all of these tips and tricks in mind and you will see results.
REMEMBER! Business blog writing is not about you. It’s about how you can help people.
Have you started a blog for your business? What are some of your favourite blogging tips? Come and tell us what you think over on our Facebook page.
