You’ve probably heard about content marketing by now and how blogging is an effective way to share your message with your audience. You may have even heard that blogging is less effective but we are here to tell you that it simply isn’t true. If you haven’t started a company blog on your website, you are already behind!
Blogging is a great way to share your brand message, as well as industry updates. There’s so much advantage to starting a blog and we recommend a blog to 99% of our clients. There are so many benefits, including building out organic SEO on your website, updating your website with current and relevant information, giving your staff a chance to share their industry expertise, providing in-house content for social media channels, and more! So how do you get started? Here are five simple steps to get your blog up and running.
1. Get Your Team on Board
Since blogging is so time-consuming, most companies have opted out. But you don’t have to do this alone! Have your team join in to help. But if you don’t have a team, don’t feel overwhelmed. You may not be able to update the blog as often, but add it to your monthly to-do list. We recommend adding a blog in once or twice weekly to update your website, but monthly is fine too. In fact, there is no hard or fast rule; but obviously the more you update, the more relevant and up-to-date your website will appear to search engines.
2. Create a Schedule
Once you have a team on board, or even if you are going solo, create a blog schedule. Hold yourself and your team accountable with a blog schedule or editorial calendar and due dates. Plan a specific day to upload the blogs and start a routine that your customers will be sure to catch on to!
3. Planning Out Topics
Once a schedule is in place, it’s time to brainstorm the type of topics you would like to see on your blog. Plan a team meeting or blog off an hour of time to research competitors blogs and make notes of what could work for you. Plan out in quarters, this way you can cover any holidays or seasonal items that can be of importance to your industry as well.
4. Add a Blog Tab to Your Website
Once you have a schedule and topics planned, it’s time to add a blog tab to your website. This might be where you need to get IT involved or chat with your website developer. We typically recommend building out websites on WordPress for this very reason. WordPress is very user-friendly when adding in additional blogs to update the website, but not matter what platform your website is built on, adding in a blog should be part of the process. We also recommend adding in an SEO plugin on the back end if your website platform supports this.
5. Announce Your Blog
Once your blog tab is added to your website, it will be time to make an announcement. We recommend letting your social followers know about your blog before your first post goes up! Let me know the day and time they can check back and of course, post the blog itself to your social channels. If your company produces a newsletter, this should be a hot topic of conversation as well. These channels are filled with those who are already interested in your brand or company, so these should be the first to know about your new blog!
If these steps are a little out of your comfort zone, no worries, we got you! At TargetMarket, we specialize in setting up and branding of company blogs. Contact us today to set up a free consultation and let us know your thoughts on your business and how you envision your blog – we’d be happy to chat and help take the reins!
