Blogs can be a very powerful tool for SME India, allowing you to leverage content and convert it into business. But starting a business blog from scratch may be intimidating; however, the following tips will surely help:
Make a budget for time and money
For a businessperson, time is money. And since writing a blog can be a time-consuming task, it is important to decide upon a realistic content target that you could meet regularly, without harming your income. Also, since promotions help break the clutter, be mindful and assign a budget for advertising on social media platforms, videos and audio podcasts, alternative promotional means and website hosting.
Determine your main objective
A blog can serve many a purpose. It can be used as a marketing tool, a communication tool, can help obtain leads and also increase the credibility of a company. Decide what you need it for and what you wish to achieve with it, and then go ahead and understand how to use it to grow your small business.
Determine your target audience
Speak the language of the people you plan to target. Define your target audience and know what they are looking for before positioning your content and establishing a marketing channel necessary to reach them. Remember, your TG on the blog will eventually get converted to business clients.
Examine competitor blogs
You don’t want your blog to get lost in the rut. So, see what the competition around you is doing and understand what you must stay away from to make your content as well as product unique and desirable. Be mindful of the competitor’s user communication, keywords, content techniques and topics selected.
Develop a content plan and make an editorial calendar
Creating consistency in your blog planning is the key to its success. To achieve the same, a content plan and editorial calendar must be in place. Take the help of various tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, to help your content become more visible. Use an editorial calendar to stay focused on your topics and posting schedules. Be sure to optimize your blog content and increase its chances of exposure.
Be responsive
Once you have built a rapport with the relevant content, make sure you are always available for responses, conversations and comments on other blogs as well as your own.
Use social media and analytical tools
Since social media is packed out and competitive, it is vital to test and track your results so that you can identify the most efficient strategies. This is where the role of social media monitoring and analytical tools comes in.
Monitoring tools help analyse followers, manage complaints, analyse the reach and results of your posts and identify influencers, along with improving your ROI, in the long run.
Once you decide on a blogging platform, getting to pen down your blog will be a lot easier if you keep the above tips in mind. Always remember to be original and write about topics that are of value to your audience in order to benefit your business.
