Blogging for business in 2020: yes, it still works!
Think business blogging has had its day? Don’t be too quick to judge. Business blogging still packs a mean punch when it comes to small business marketing (and it’s easier to be successful at it than you might think).
In fact, for a marketing strategy centred on content, blogging remains one of the cornerstones for everything from search engine optimisation to conversion.
Last week I did an Instagram Live with Instagram coach Katya Willems about why we still love blogging as a marketing tool.
Here are some of my top reasons why most small businesses can benefit from blogging.
[NOTE: If you are ready to get in depth and tackle blogging for your business, check out my new 5-week course Blogging to Boost Your Business].
Showcase your expertise and unique approach
Social media is great for letting your audience get to know you, and that is really important. But when it comes to showing off that you really do know what you’re talking about, there’s nothing better than a blog.
Not only can you get into a lot more detail with a blog and set out your ideas in a more digestible format, but you can you can add far more value and help solve your audience’s problems better.
Own your content property, don't rent
What if Instagram folds tomorrow, or Facebook changes its algorithm and makes businesses pay to reach audiences?
What will happen to your content? Will your audience come looking for you?
Even if nothing this dramatic happens to your favourite social media network, the truth is that while you put all your effort into one channel, you remain at the mercy of the algorithm and any other rules the platform brings in.
With blogging, it is different. Your blog, your rules. You can say what you want. You choose the format and the number of words. There are no word limits and no restrictions on your photos or words.
Yes, you need to make sure search engines can find you, and be clever about keywords so that you attract the right audience, but you have far more control when it comes to a blog on your site compared to social media.
Blogging for SEO
Speaking of search engine optimisation (SEO), blogs are GOLD for improving your performance in search.
A dreamy setup for business blogging (not mine, sadly!). Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash
Google and other search engines love sites that have regularly updating content (e.g. a new blog every week or two), and that are big. A site with many pages suggests to Google you have a lot to offer visitors, provided the content is of sufficient quality.
Here are a few factors you need to bear in mind when planning your blogs with SEO in mind.
Keywords
Which search query will your ideal audience put into Google to solve their problems in relation to your business? For example, I am a marketing coach, but small businesses who I can help won’t necessarily search for marketing coaching services. They are more likely to search for things such as “help with small business marketing” or “small business marketing advice”.
Therefore I need to include those keywords in my content so people can find my site, engage with my content, and realise they could use a marketing coach!
Internal linking
Internal links (from e.g. one of your blog posts to another) help your visitors along on a journey through your content. But it also shows to search engines that your content pieces relate to each other in a meaningful way, which means you have lots of relevant content around a certain topic area.
Links to your blog
Other sites linking to the useful content on your site is also a good indicator to search engines that you know what you are talking about. You must be, if other sites - particularly those in your niche or impressive, well-known sites such as national media.
Metadata
Metadata is the extra bits you need to add to your web pages so that search engines can easily understand what your content is about. Metadata includes stuff like image tags (a bit of code saying what your pictures are about) and the all-important H1 and H2 tags (the code for your headline and subheadings, prime locations for including your keywords).
If this feels intimidating, I highly recommend Paul Jardine’s SEO for beginners workshops. He explains what you need to do to perform in search in very practical and non-jargonny terms.
Social media rocket fuel
If you have a full blog schedule with pre-planned topics, it takes away the “what shall I write about/put on social media today” pain of content creation.
A blog post can be chopped up into multiple social media posts, for example Instagram posts and stories, Facebook posts, LinkedIn updates and multiple tweets, fuelling your social media presence.
Content ideas for business blogging
But of course, to have a full blog schedule with pre-planned topics, you need the actual topics!
Here’s how I approach content planning: content pillars. These are the themes you will cover in your blog and social media. When I work with clients, we develop content pillars by looking at their values, passions or interests, expertise, and the specific needs of their audience.
It can also be really helpful to look at your website analytics and social media insights to see what kind of content topics really resonate with people. This way you can see what you should do more of and what needs tweaking.
You can also look at reusing or repurposing your best-performing content, e.g. turning a very successful Instagram post into a blog, or a great landing page into a video for social media.
This blog you are reading is a repurposing of the notes I made for the blogging Instagram Live I did with Katya!
Finding the time to blog
I’m sorry, but the time isn’t going to magically appear. You have to make the time. You have to dedicate some time to it upfront, doing the planning so that the actual creation goes much quicker.
Batch the planning work together: coming up with the content pillars and topic ideas. Plan it and stick it in a realistic content calendar, and then block the creation time every week/month.
This means that the time is in the diary, and when you sit down to create the content, you have done a lot of the prep already: the headline, format, who it is aimed at, maybe even the subheadings you will cover.
If you cannot dedicate the time to creation - or you don’t want to - get a copywriter. Copywriters can take your thoughts - whether written down or discussed with them - and turn them into compelling content that will serve your business.
No more excuses
Blogging can have an enormous positive impact on your business if you are strategic about it and commit to showing up consistently. It will not bring overnight results. Instead, you need to keep chipping away at it, showing up consistently, until you reach a snowball effect. It will be worth it.