Things every good blog should have
I don’t think I know one small business owner who hasn’t tried blogging for their business at some point.
“Blog for your business” is advice that is so frequently dished out by everyone involved in raising small businesses’ profiles online. You have probably heard this from every marketing person, web designer, SEO expert, social media manager and of course anyone selling a blogging course.
So many of us have enthusiastically started blogs in the past, full of ideas and good intentions, but then somehow that inspiration trickles away and “I’ll write it tomorrow” becomes next week, next month and then before you know it you have a sad, abandoned blog.
But before I get into what you can do to get your blogging mojo back, I have two caveats:
I’m selling a blogging course right now (Blog Like You Mean It, which has an early bird discount until 3 May).
Despite the title of this blog, I actually really dislike the word “should”.
About “should”
That word “should” is the cause of a lot of issues in marketing circles.
“You should have a newsletter/make Reels/have a YouTube channel.”
“Businesses should all be on Clubhouse right now.”
“You should outsource your content creation.”
My two big issues with this type of “should” advice:
There are no actual golden rules or cookie-cutter “this is how you should do marketing” advice that is applicable to all businesses. It’s because there’s so much of this nonsense around that small business owners feel confused!
There is a lot of shame associated with not following the “shoulds”. For example, when course sellers tell people they should buy the course “if they are serious about their business”. Or when coaches offer a “blueprint for success” and then when people don’t achieve that success, they question their own value or abilities. (See what I said about shame on Instagram.)
So with all that out of the way, here are the things I believe your blog should have.
Good intentions
Have you stopped and asked yourself recently: “Why do I create content?”
Is it because you have been told it’s a good thing to do? Is it because you like writing? Is it because your audience has questions and they need answers from you?
Whatever the purpose is behind your content, it will shine through.
If you’re merely creating content for the sake of creating content, it will not connect with your ideal audience.
If you are creating content because you like writing or you want to serve your audience, then your content will connect with people.
So there’s the first thing your blog should have: good, clear intentions and purpose.
Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash
Delayed gratification
We’ve all been there: created an amazing piece of content, proudly pressed publish, waited for the applause, and then ... nothing.
It stings.
But the thing is that when it comes to blog content for small businesses, it’s unlikely that your blog post – yes, even the really, really, really good ones that truly deserve to be seen by the whole world – will go viral. Or even get the attention it truly deserves.
It’s worth bearing in mind that being seen by lots of people is only one goal of your blog content. Even blog posts that are only seen by a fraction of people will still pack a marketing punch in a few ways:
It is a fresh page on your site, full of text relevant to your business, with keywords being searched by humans interested in what you sell, and this is GOLD for your SEO (search engine optimisation). All your people might not see the content, but Google et al definitely will.
A key function of your blog content is that it forms part of the user journey. What this means is that you want it to move people closer to what you’d like them to ultimately do, for example buy something or sign up to your mailing list. No blog post should exist in isolation – it needs to be a conduit for relevant traffic.
It gives you content to repurpose into multiple pieces of content (on my blogging course I show how you can repurpose a post into 86+ different pieces of social media posts and other content).
So even if you post a blog and there’s no immediate spike in the metric you are looking at (traffic spike, newsletter signups, enquiries, etc.), that doesn’t mean it’s not going to work hard for your business.
It may just take you a bit of time to see the results! A bit like when you plant bulbs in the autumn and then keep watering/feeding them, and believe they are doing their thing underground and will shine when it’s their time.
When you build it but they don’t come
Does the response to your posts ever feel like this? Photo by Luismi Sánchez on Unsplash
Remember the old days of RSS feeds when you would scroll through the latest posts from your favourite blogs and read them at leisure?
I don’t even know if those still exist, but even if they did, nobody reads blogs in that way anymore. We’re all consuming all different types of content across different devices, platforms and mediums, and there is a LOT of noise. It’s much harder to cut through.
What this means for you, dear blog reader and future writer, is that you need to be ready to deliver the content to the people who have asked to see it, and you need to take really good care of these precious people.
For this reason I recommend having a plan for sharing blog content on social media, and to really invest in your mailing list.
A well-done newsletter strategy takes time and effort for sure, but in my opinion it is well worth it in most cases. For starters, it is the only distribution channel over which you have some modicum of control. People have actively opted in and given you their data. They are choosing to open your emails (provided they’re good) - there is nothing incidental about how they are consuming your content. They are quite possibly the most engaged audience you have. This is super precious.
Algorithms change, people leave social media channels in their droves, but email remains that cosy place where people tend to pay more attention to what’s in front of them.
Helen Perry recently described social media as being in a loud club (remember those?!) where you can’t really hear the person next to you, you have random conversations with people you’ll never see again, and you can’t find your mates at the bar.
Email is like a cosy 1:1 meeting in a coffee shop.
A great analogy!
Blog Like You Mean It
So if I’ve inspired you to give blogging a go again, please allow me to tell you about Blog Like You Mean It.
My new course – which is based on the best bits of Blogging to Boost Your Business which I ran last year – will be a live learning experience designed to help you create better blog content with more ease.
It will take place over 6 weeks and feature live workshops, a live Q&A and a private Facebook group where you have direct access to me to pick my brains on all things blog and content creation.
I have an early bird discount available until Monday 3 May (£250 as opposed to £300), and a payment plan available if you can’t pay for it all upfront. And there is a discount for my subscribers, so get on the list if you fancy it!
