How Do I Start a Blog?
You are busy running your business. No matter your industry, you’re working to provide your clients with top quality service, products, and care. With all that you have on your plate, you may ask, “How can I start a blog?” While the thought may be overwhelming, but blog writing is so essential for boosting your SEO and conversion rate.
If you’re not convinced that you need to start a blog to boost your business, you should check out this post on how blogging dramatically affects your business.
If this task is something you’ve been putting off, we have put together a step-by-step guide to help you start a blog in a way that won’t overwhelm you. With some of these simple strategies, it’s possible to write amazing content that converts and gets you more clients while saving you time.
Start a blog by creating Stories, Not Topics
Don’t overwhelm yourself by writing down hundreds of topics and trying to figure out when you will write them all. Instead, think of blogging as storytelling. Come up with the compelling stories that are specific to your work. These stories should be stories about the work you have done in your industry that only you could have done.
Did you save a client in an emergency situation? Did you fix a problem only a professional as you could have? Think of a list of stories or problems that you solved with your work. Once you have come up with a dozen or so stories, schedule them out on a calendar for when you will write them. These stories do not need to be pages and pages long. Start by writing each story out between 250-500 words. Make that your goal to start.
Do an Interview
If you’re having trouble fleshing out your stories, try conducting an interview.
Interview one of your employees, or one of your favorite customers about their experience with your company, their likes, things that mean a lot to them and general questions about the services you provide.
One of the best ways to get blog topics is to ask a friend (unconnected to your business) to interview you. If your friends don’t know things about your work, your potential clients don’t either. Ask a few people what questions they have about your business and build topics based on their questions.
Work ahead of time
Content marketing isn’t breaking news. Don’t set yourself up for failure by writing your posts the same day you plan on publishing it. Plan on writing your blog at least a week before it’s scheduled to be published. That way you will have plenty of time, not feel pressured, and have plenty of time for gathering content and proofreading. If you schedule to write your content at least a week before posting, you’re allowing yourself time for unexpected emergencies. The best strategy we recommend is to create all of the blog content at the beginning of each month. Working ahead of time in batch working sessions relieves the stress of writing and frees you up.
Be Flexible
Your hours in the office might be 9 to 5 but figure out the time of day you write best. Maybe it is before you head into the office. If you can clear one hour, once a week to write a blog post you will be way ahead of your competition.
Be flexible with your time, or hire a freelance writer to help you out. And always remember that when it comes to your content, your employees, and clients are your best creative partners.
Distillery Creative offers blogging services to businesses that are want to hire out their blogging. Contact us today to set up a blogging service consultation.