How to Start a Blog for Your Business

Want to drive more traffic to your website? A study by Hubspot found that blog companies have far better marketing results. Specifically, the average company that blogs have 55% more visitors. This episode is your guide to blogging for business. We will cover how to think about your ideal client & different parts of the buying journey to serve them, how to find good keywords, & how to blog to show up in more search results and increase your website traffic.

By the end of this post, you should be able to crank out at least one monthly blog post that gets you found in more Google searches and also attract potential customers to your website.

I don’t have to tell you blogging is important. You’ve heard it a million times.

But what I hear from most of our rebranding clients when we hop on their website tutorial call is that they want to blog but need to learn how to. It’s overwhelming & so it gets pushed to the bottom of their to-do list.

How to Boost Your Business with a Powerful Blogging Strategy

Don’t know how or where to start when it comes to blogging? Let’s change that! According to a study by HubSpot, companies that blog have 55% more visitors to their website. In this episode, we cover different parts of their buying journey, how to find good keywords, and how to show up in more search results.

How to Start Blogging for Your Business

The first thing to understand is that blogging as a business requires a different mindset than blogging as an influencer. Influencers’ main priority is getting traffic to their blog posts for two reasons:

• Their blog posts include affiliate links, which are a percentage of their income.
• The more traffic they get to their website, the larger their audience, and the more they can charge for brand sponsorship deals.

As a business owner, your goals are different. Shift your mindset from short-term rewards to long-term rewards. We are blogging to get found in more keyword searches to grow our brand awareness, audience, and client roster.

Benefits of having a blog for your business

In the digital age, blogging has emerged as a crucial component of any successful marketing strategy. By leveraging the power of content, businesses can reach their target audience, establish authority, and drive meaningful conversions. Here are ten reasons why blogging is a must for your business.

Drive more organic traffic to your website

Blogging is a proven strategy to increase organic traffic to your website. By consistently publishing high-quality content that is optimized for search engines, you can attract relevant visitors actively seeking information related to your industry. Through strategic keyword usage and engaging writing, your blog posts can rank higher in search engine results, driving a steady stream of targeted traffic to your website. This is one of the best ways to create relevant content that can attract potential clients to your business.

Be seen as an industry expert

Blogging allows you to showcase your knowledge and expertise, positioning yourself as an industry leader. By sharing insightful and informative content, you can establish credibility and build trust with your audience. Consistently providing valuable information, industry insights, and practical tips through your own blog will help you become a go-to resource in your field. This perception of expertise will not only attract more visitors but also enhance your brand reputation and increase the likelihood of converting leads into loyal customers.

Drive conversions and leads

Blogging serves as a powerful lead-generation tool. By creating compelling calls-to-action within your blog articles, such as inviting readers to download a relevant e-book, subscribe to a newsletter, or request a consultation, you can drive conversions and capture valuable leads. Offering valuable gated content in exchange for contact information allows you to build your email list, nurture these leads, and guide them through the customer journey.

Educate visitors about your business and brand

Blogging provides a platform to educate your audience about your business, brand values, and unique offerings. By sharing behind-the-scenes stories, success stories, case studies, new content and product/service updates, you can provide a deeper understanding of your business. This educational approach helps build a strong brand identity and fosters a connection with your audience, encouraging them to choose your business over competitors.

Nurture relationships between clients and vendors

Blogging offers an avenue to nurture relationships between your clients and vendors. By featuring guest posts or interviews with industry partners and showcasing collaborations, you can foster a sense of community within your niche. This collaborative approach not only adds value to your content but also strengthens relationships with vendors, increasing the likelihood of referrals and collaborations in the future.

Partner with vendors and influencers

Through blogging, you can leverage partnerships with vendors and influencers in your industry. Collaborative blog posts, sponsored content, or featuring guest articles from industry influencers can expand your reach and tap into new audiences. These partnerships provide mutual benefits by increasing exposure for both parties and establishing your business as a key player in the industry.

Create FAQ articles to repurpose for client onboarding and enhanced client experience

Blogging allows you to address frequently asked questions (FAQs) and provide comprehensive answers. By creating dedicated FAQ articles, you can streamline your client onboarding process and enhance the overall client experience. Providing easily accessible and detailed answers to common queries builds trust and demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction.

Repurpose content for social media

Blogging serves as a rich source of content that can be repurposed for social media platforms. You can repurpose blog content for your social media accounts too. By excerpting key points, creating visually appealing quote graphics, or summarizing blog posts in engaging social media captions, you can maximize the reach and engagement of your content. Repurposing blog content saves time while maintaining consistency across different platforms.

Create more links to increase Domain Authority

Blogging plays a vital role in boosting your website’s Domain Authority. By creating high-quality content, other websites in your industry are more likely to link to your blog posts as a valuable resource. Attracting high-quality backlinks is a key part of search engine optimization too. These backlinks signal search engines that your website is credible and authoritative, leading to improved search engine rankings and increased visibility.

Build a long-term marketing strategy

Blogging enables you to develop a comprehensive and sustainable long-term marketing strategy. By consistently publishing valuable content, you can establish a content calendar, track metrics, and refine your approach over time. A well-planned blogging strategy aligns with your business goals, engages your target audience, and serves as the foundation for your overall marketing efforts.

One of the most common mistakes I see wedding vendors make is creating blog posts without a content & keyword strategy.

Blogging Content Strategy

This is what topics we are creating a blog post about. To be most beneficial when using our time to blog, we have to think about our ideal client & what questions they’re googling before they’re ready to hire us.

For example, suppose you’re a destination wedding planner & you want to book more couples planning their wedding. In that case, blogging about the best honeymoon spots may not be the most effective topic because they are not the right fit of an ideal client or are too far ahead in the planning process than your ideal clientele.

But creating a blog post with the top destination wedding spots for 2024 would be a great topic. It will target a keyword growing in popularity and capture an ideal client at the right time in their planning journey.

A great way to generate topics is by thinking of any frequently asked questions you get asked on consultation calls, joining Facebook groups with your ideal clients & peeking at what questions they’re asking, or taking a Gen Z approach and using ChatGPT to generate some ideas for you. They won’t be perfect ideas but they are usually enough to get your creative juices flowing and give you something to riff off.

A lot of wedding pros want to use full client galleries. So they’ll create a blog post titled Jake & Mary’s Wedding in Florida. This a good start, but it could be better. Instead of using the city, use the venue name and remove the couple’s name.

No one is searching ‘Jake & Mary‘ on Google. You’re losing precious space. Secondly, Florida is vague. But a couple may have already booked at a venue & are trying to find a vendor or inspiration from previous weddings there. It’s also a more niched keyword, so you’ll have a better chance at ranking.

But what if the blog post pulled double duty, and you answered a question in the blog post while using a client’s gallery?

Something that can be hard is finding the words for a blog post when it’s strictly about the couples day.

A tool we use is SEMRush. It is a paid tool. But if you’re getting serious about blogging and want to see results, then it’s worth it.

Inside SEMRush, you can track important keywords & keep a pulse on where you’re ranking, but you can also use it for keyword research.

You want to ensure the keyword you’re targeting is actually getting searched once we move into keyword strategy.

Blogging Keyword Strategy

Let’s say I’m an event planner & I want to blog about a recent 50th wedding anniversary party. How can I:

• Make the Portfolio Post Educational for My Audience
• Target a Keyword That People are Searching

I will use SEMRush to do that. First, I started a search using ‘wedding planning‘ and then added ‘anniversary’ to my list.

Finding the Right Keyword When Blogging

Targeting ‘50th Wedding Anniversary‘ is too granular, meaning not enough people search for it a month. But if we zoom out and use how to plan a wedding anniversary party that gets 20 searches per month with low competition.

That’s an okay keyword, the competition is good, but the searches are low to be worth the time.
So I returned, removed ‘wedding’ & searched ‘Anniversary Planning.’ The how to plan an anniversary party. It gets 30 searches per month with low competition. We can also add in the venue to rank for that venue. So the blog post title might read How to plan an anniversary party | Anniversary Party at [Venue Name]

This will allow you to rank for two different keywords potentially. One that answers a question and finds your ideal client in the beginning stages of their journey. And a keyword that focuses on a venue & might have warmer leads.

Now that we have found the keyword we will target, it’s time to write the content. I don’t recommend going into your blogging platform & writing there. I use Grammarly. It monitors my grammar and spelling but also gives me my word count—the longer the blog post, the better. In the same breath, we want to maintain quality for quantity. You want to aim for at least 500 words at a minimum. If you’re answering a question, that target should be easy.

Using Yoast to Enhance Your Blog Post’s Chance of Ranking

Next, you want to install Yoast if you’re using WordPress to blog. It’s my favorite plug-in to use to monitor the chances of my blog post ranking for the targeted keyword. Inside my free blogging toolkit is an in-depth tutorial on how to set up & use Yoast. You can download it at carrylovedesigns.com/blogging-toolkit

Yoast will give you either a red, yellow, or green smiley face with tips on improving your chances of ranking when blogging for your business. Here are some quick tips:

1. Keyword Targeting

You want to ensure you’re using the targeted keyword throughout your article. The more you use it, it’ll raise the Keyword Density, which is a good indicator to Google that your article is talking about the keyword you say it is.

2. Headings

Use the targeted keyword in H1, H2, and H3 headings and break up chunks of text using headers. You want your blog post to be easy to skim.

3. Image Compression

Compress your images before you upload them so they’re small & keep the page load time manageable (this is currently my fav compressor).

4. Image Optimization

Add images to your blog post and change the title and alt text to related keywords.

5. Internal and External Links

Add outbound & inbound links to the blog post. Outbound links to external sites, like the venue you’re blogging about. Inbound is linking to other pages on your site. If you pitch your services at the end of the post, add a link to your portfolio or contact page.

A common myth I hear about blogging for business is that you must blog regularly if you want it to be effective. You don’t have to blog once a week for it to be worth your time.

You want to focus on quality. Providing 500+ words, great graphics/images to support the content, & worth sharing.

Creating great content can serve your business in the long term. Increasing your online visibility and attracting new customers to your website consistently.

Even if it’s not you who is specifically blogging for your business, this is a great post to pass along to a VA or team member who will be handling it, but you need to understand the basics to know if you’re team member is doing a good job.

You SHOULD be able to crank out at least one monthly blog post that gets you found in more Google searches, but if you need to dive deeper & get video walkthroughs, then download the free blogging toolkit.