Simple Ways To Kick Start Your Small Business Blog In 2016

Yep I know you hate hearing or reading about it and I know you keep telling yourself you’ll make a start someday, but if you haven’t done it by now then you’ll be waiting a long old time for someday to come!

A blog for your small business is a great way to connect with your customers on a whole new level, promote customer interaction and increase customer loyalty.

OK, so let’s imagine you’re committed to starting a blog for your small business, how do you create content? how do you even get people to come and check out your content and keep them coming back to visit regularly?

Let’s dive straight in!

Kick Start Your Small Business Blog With These 5 Tips

1. Just do it!

The first step of kick starting your small business blog is to actually create one! Ta da… What the? Yes that’s right, stop putting it off for another week or another month or year even and get the job done now, today.

2. Create a content strategy.

Next you’ll need a content development strategy, so you’ll need to figure out who will actually be creating content for your small business blog, will it be you or will you outsource?

What types of content do you want to post on your business blog? For example, do you want to share news on your latest products, projects and innovations?

Do you want to share tips on how to use your products or services more effectively?

Do you want to use a blog to make important announcements and promote special events?

Do you want to share news on special promotions and offers? The list is endless, but the key is to create an effective content creation strategy where you’ll be able to add valuable resource to your blog on a regular basis.

Avoid making the silly mistake of just adding content for the sake of adding content, or using a blog to post silly sales pitches repeatedly.

Avoid writing too many unhelpful self-promo posts that just talks about how great your products and services are and nothing else, or worst still, posting embarrassing photos of your staff at the company Christmas party! Instead focus on adding real value, real useful content and building an audience first.

A great way to decide what content to put together for your small business blog is to create an email marketing campaign asking your audience “hey we’re launching our new blog, what types of stuff would you like to see us write about?”, or if you have a Facebook page for your business, check to see what kinds of content people are engaging with the most.

3. Get experts in to help you.

What I mean by experts is ‘guest writers’ that are currently writing for other blogs in similar industries to come and add value and a new perspective to the content on your business blog. Whether you’re blogging for business or not, finding the right kinds of contributors can be really beneficial in helping you to kick start your blog.

4. Give your clients the option to signup to your blog newsletter.

Create a fresh email list then consider adding a ‘subscribe to blog newsletter’ call to action or button to your checkout pages, website home page or client emails. There are many other more effective ways to capture email leads for your blog, and this is one very effective way to build a targeted audience for your small business blog as well as increase customer loyalty.

Once again if you have a Facebook page for your business, encourage clients to visit and like your page via your blog, this again promotes customer loyalty.

5. Walk before you can run.

What ever you do, don’t expect to achieve massive results quickly as a result of starting a blog for your small business today. Creating content and building readership takes time, so as the saying goes, walk before you can run. Small business blogging has many benefits to your business.

So I hope this is enough to help inspire you to start blogging for your business in 2016 and beyond, and if you already have, I hope you take action today and use the tips to kick start your small business blog in the right direction.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off

The Benefits of Guest Posts on a Small Business Blog

Guest blogging means publishing an article on someone else’s website or blog. There are many advantages for both the blog owner and the guest blogger when this occurs. The following are some of these advantages.

Benefits to Blog Owner

Build Relationships. Allowing guests to post on your business blog opens the door to building relationships with others in the industry since this a form of networking and this may lead to profitable joint ventures.

Increase Traffic. Having a guest blogger who has a loyal fan base post on a small business blog will drive people into your website. The fan base the blogger has will ride along when their article when it’s published on your blog. Therefore, more exposure for your business.

Content Variety. Every blogger that post on a small business website will have different perspectives and different writing styles. The benefit of this is that the blog will not become dull.

Increasing guest blogging opportunity. Guest bloggers that write on a business blog will often ask the business owner to guest post on their blog post. This is very important because you benefit from the wider audience, increased traffic and a boosted reputation and credibility for you and your business.

A Chance to Relax. Although writing a blog is rewarding to the business, it time-consuming since you have to create quality content on regular basis. Having guest bloggers write for you once in a while gives you a chance to relax and focus on other business aspects.

Building Credibility. In every business niche there are experts, having a reputable guest blog on your business website will increase the business credibility from the potential customers. Managing to land a high value guest post is actually a very strong endorsement for your brand.

Benefits to Guest Blogger

Boosts Search Engine. Blog owners should include a link to a guest blogger’s website or blog at the beginning or end of a post. Overtime these back-links will raise the value of the blog on search engines making the bloggers content easy to find.

Networking Channel. Guest blogging gives the blogger a spotlight to all major players in their niche. Most influencers are well connected and the moment they trust you to guest blog, their followers will trust you, also. This potentially opens new business opportunities.

Huge Social Networks. Blog owners share their latest content with their social media followers. When your article is published, a lot of people on different social network will notice your post. This is a huge opportunity to build a social media following.

More Guest Post Offers. A blogger, who manages to land a guest post on a leading website, is likely to be approached by other leading blogs for guest posts job… especially if their post received a lot of shares and comments.

Improving Blogging Skills. For a blogger to get published on leading blogs in his niche, they must produce high quality content. Therefore, they must follow submission guidelines that will sharpen their experience and engagement that are needed on top blogs.

Missy Tincher, Blog Content Marketing Manager, is the owner of My

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | Comments Off