A blog is an excellent opportunity to showcase your brand personality, or give your customers an inside look into the people behind the brand, depending on your business and industry. They can also be can be an excellent vehicle for building trust and loyalty – and driving sales – which is why an increasing number of business, across all industries, are taking to the blogosphere.
You don’t have to be a seasoned blogger to create a great impression and win over prospective customers. Here are 10 top blogging tips for startups.
1. Consistency
Blog consistently. If your clients find your blog and LOVE it, you don’t want to disappoint them by posting irregularly. You want to give them a reason to come back to your blog again and again, so blog on a regular cycle, if not on a calendar cycle. You might find blogging once a week is enough to keep momentum, or you might find you need to blog every Monday and Thursday so it becomes part of your routine. Find a schedule that works for you, or implement an editorial calendar, and stick to it as much as you can.
2. Brand Voice
Define your blogging brand voice and keep it consistent across your content. This will help build trust, while conveying what you want your customers to know about your business.
3. Use a Developer
If you’re in the process of planning or developing a blog for your business, you don’t have to go it alone and try and figure out a new content management system (even a super-efficient one like WordPress) on all your own. If your lack of confidence is holding you back from having an awesome blog to promote your company, call in the professionals. They’ll be able to work with you to create a blog that looks fantastic, functions well, and integrates seamlessly with your existing well presence and branding.
4. Plugins
Make use of plugins to make your blogging processes easier. There are so many amazing plugins available for WordPress users to increase functionality and streamline your blogging experience, so be sure to check out our wide range of plugin-related posts and recommendations to incorporate a few options that could take your blog to the next level.
5. Ts & Cs
A blog is a more informal online space than say, your website or online store, but that doesn’t make it exempt from important pages such as a privacy policy, terms of use and disclaimers. These are something many newbie blogger forget to include, so add it right at the top of your priority list to safeguard your business.
6. Collaborate
While it’s important to have a consistent brand voice, it can also be incredibly value to have two or more of your team members co-authoring and collaborating on your blog. Each will write in a slightly different style and will offer different ideas and perspectives, which can keep things interesting for your readers, and sharing the blogging workload can take the pressure off.
7. Be Informed
Read other blogs, in your industry and outside of your immediate circle of competitors, to stay informed, remind yourself of your company’s point of difference, and create opportunities for you to share a different perspective on a topical issue.
8. Be an Expert
Position yourself as an expert with Google Authorship. It really only takes a few minutes, and getting your name and face out there on the web will help build brand – and personal brand – recognition and trust.
9. Go Multilingual
If your business works with customers at an international level, ensure your blog is reaching them too by making your content multilingual.
10. Analytics
Making use of web analytics to measure the success of your blog can show you visitor trends, offer insights into what your customers are looking for, and help you improve your web performance overall to drive sales. Be sure to include your analytics code on your blog to see which topics your customers are reading, which they’re discarding, and which they’re actively searching for.
