You are finally taking the time to start your business blog! That’s awesome! I know you have a lot on your plate, but these blog things can be super helpful. Let’s talk about that first! Why should I be blogging for your business anyway?! How is this important? WHY BLOG FOR BUSINESS Everyone is talking about it and you know you need to get on it. But why is it important anyway...blogging? It helps to first figure out what purpose you want your blog to have. What is the point of writing all of this content, right? My suggestion is to think about what your clientele is looking for when they go online for answers to their questions about your type of business. What is it your customers want and how can you fulfill that need? 1. Client Questions. Help your specific clientele with the valuable answers, tips, and info they are looking for in your area. Answer the questions they have with answers in your blog content. 2. Expert In Your Field. When you blog for your business you show the expertise that you hold. You show your professionalism and abilities to the world, to your community, to your prospective clientele. 3. You Educate! This is a great reason to blog. People are always wondering how something works in your industry and this is the perfect platform to share it. 4. Content to Market. Marketing requires a lot of content creation and sharing. When you have a blog you have the perfect content to share that will route traffic to your website. 5. Search Engine Response. When you blog on your website consistently you not only tell your clientele that you’re serious and professional, you are telling the search engines the same thing. They like that and will show that info in a search request when people come looking for your type of business more often than when someone doesn’t blog. WHAT SHOULD I BLOG ABOUT
After you have your why and your purpose for your business blog you should start thinking about what content you are going to actually create. What is it that your clientele is looking for? What do they want to know? What do they need to know? What types of things do they ask about? Sit down for an hour or so and come up with that list of questions and information your clients need to know. What do my clients ask me all the time? What do the local mortgage brokers ask me? What are you asked about at business meetings? You are asked a million questions in your Real Estate career and this is a great place to start with for your blog content. Once you have a good size topic list. Come up with a set of categories you want to spend your time talking about. Then you can section off the questions and topics you came up with into these categories. This will help keep you organized and help you stay on track with your content creation. After you have this part set up you can just continue to add to it. You’ll always be thinking, how can I fit this into a blog post, and how does it fit into one of my categories. BLOGGING CATEGORIES On a side note, I would like to talk about your blogging and content categories and how they tie into keywords. On with a brief explanation of keywords. Keywords are the very special words that relate to your industry. They are the words you will build your content and ideas around for your specific industry and your location. Focus on words that describe these areas and you’re on the right track. I wrote an article specifically for Real Estate Agents about keywords and finding keywords for your business blog. It applies to many other businesses as well. Give it a read! If you are having a hard time getting started blogging, I recommend you work on a theme for a period of time. For example: Talk about Tampa, Florida for a full month. Talk about financing for a month or two. Sometimes it can help to stay in a particular mindset to keep you moving with your writing. When you are figuring out what categories to go with for your blog. Keep it to 5 or 6 to start off and aim all of your content in those areas. 5 STEPS TO GET YOUR BLOG STARTED EASILY So, now you have a really good list of “stuff to write about”! What’s the best way to get that moving and set up so you can start creating your blog posts? 1. Start with a Content “Calendar”. A lot of people refer to their organized content as a calendar. For me, it’s more of a content collection in a spreadsheet…..with dates on it. Start a spreadsheet so you can keep close track of a number of items: links to new ideas and information about new ideas, your business and community ideas and posts that you’ve already created, titles, and when you’d like to publish your posts each month. Include any other number of things you’d like to track for your content. Maybe you want to set aside a section for notes and comments on how well the post did, analytics, and has it been published to social media. 2. Research. After the content topics spreadsheet is collected and organized, you can do your research. For Example: If you are writing about first time home buyers or how to choose the right dishwasher, find some information on this subject matter - 2 or three resources, and browse through them. If they are going to give you the info you want, keep note of them or put them in a file so they are ready to review when you start to write. 3. Write. Now, you have scheduled an hour (or two) and you are ready to write. Take that time and just sit at your desk to create one post. I like to set my timer to stay on track with my allotted time. Review your research and combine those ideas and concepts with the information you already know and just start to write. (No copying, just a reference. If you do quote from someone, make sure to give credit. Maybe even contact them to make sure it’s ok.) Think about what your clients want to read about while you are writing. Think about them when you are writing. It can help to think about them just on the other side of your desk… write to them the way you would speak… you can always adjust and edit when you’re done. 4. Length Of Article. So, you’ve written for a whole hour and you’ve probably come up with a pretty good post. Try to make the length of the post article about 500 to1000 words. That’s really not that much. If it’s much longer than that, consider breaking it up some. 2 smaller topics on the same theme, maybe? 5. Edit. And, now you’re ready to edit and rework what you’ve written as necessary. 6. Blog Content. Then, copy and paste into your blog platform. 7. Find a good photo to include on the top. There are many sites, just search for “Copyright Free Images”. Or better yet, include a photo that you have taken. If the image is of a person you don’t know, make sure to get their approval. Do the same if it’s a business or building. Ask owners of houses if you can use images before you post. You also might want to consider an image release so you have that approval in writing. 8. You have your first post! So exciting! Now, schedule it! Start with this concept to build up your blog articles once a week and build from there as necessary. Pick a day every week and stick with that. BATCH PLANNING After you’ve done this process once from beginning to end, you’re ready to batch plan your blog posts. Maybe a month or two of posts at a time. Start by pulling together your ideas and research information for 4-8 posts at once. This will put together all the writing resource information and organize all your subjects in a large list for when you are ready to write. Try to avoid working in sporadic intervals to apply batch creation to your content creation plan. 30 minutes today, 1 hour the next day, and then not come back for a week makes it harder to accomplish anything. Trying to work in blocks of time to do your content creation is called “Working in Batches”. Doing a lot of the same thing for a longer period of time. 1. Pull together all the blog topics and your research together all at once. (some people might even do this for 6 months to a year at a time) 2. Then set aside a block of time to write. Say it takes you an hour to write one post. Do 4 instead! Yep, set aside a ½ day or a full day if you need to and just write like crazy. And, then after that ½ (or full) day, you’ll have 4 whole posts! All the posts for a month in a short period of time. That’s really amazing when you think about the results. And, you can apply the batch process to most of your month so you can focus and produce great results. Yeay! 3. Share your content all at once as well with a scheduling plan. CONGRATULATIONS So, You did it! Awesome. Your first Blog Post Article! Of course, this will all come faster the more you do it. And, this is just the beginning. Maybe next time you want to include a handout with your blog. Or you can start to include video? Think about other items to kind of spice up your posts and make it as interesting and helpful as you can. You’ll get better. You’ll change and develop what works for you. But, now you know what’s important and why! That should keep you going when you’d rather go online and shop or heaven forbid… do the dishes! This business blogging is important! And, there you have it. In a nutshell, you really have to just schedule the time to do it and then… do it. Put on your shoes and go for the run! And, then… maybe have a little treat! Because you should celebrate… you’ve earned it! YOUR WRITING PROFESSIONAL Let’s face it, writing content for your business takes a lot of time. It also takes expertise to follow SEO rules and standards. When you hit a point where you are ready to bring someone in to do the job for you that takes on this type of writing on a daily basis, look to me for help. My writing is featured on home service and small business websites throughout the US. I am proud to say my work is useful for businesses to spread the expertise and availability of their business. Content creation for a blog is a powerful product. It shares your proficiency in business and competency in your industry. From here you can share it with the world! Reach out to me with a quick email and we can review your needs moving forward with your content creation! Comments are closed.
|
Voiyoo
Content Creation and Business Writing Specialist
Hi!
I'm Jennifer Ressmann with Voiyoo Business Writing. You've been thinking about how to get more exposure for your business! Now we can make that happen. My job is helping you... with your business marketing & brand awareness. People are looking Online for you and your expertise. Make sure you're out there and you look good! I work providing relief for you and your business by creating content for your blog and marketing or lead funnels. Let's make sure you're out there and getting noticed! 😀👍 Get Your Starter Marketing Kit - Start Your Marketing Today!
Content by Category
All
Voiyoo Business Writing - Writing To Expand Your Brand. Providing Written Content and Business Copy with Optimized Graphics for Established Businesses. Copyright
© 2018 - 24 All Rights Reserved |