Are you ready to take your business to the next level? I’m confident you have new and innovative ideas to share with the world, but you need the right platform to share them! Sounds like it’s time for you to start a blog to promote your business!

Maybe you’re not sure where to begin or even how to write a blog to promote your business? You’re in the right place because I’m going to walk you through the steps to do that.

There are three must-haves for a company blog to be successful, and it all boils down to the content you create, which should be:

1. Rad: If your content isn’t interesting, why would people read it? Make it engaging, write in a conversational style, and talk directly to your target audience.
2. Rich: Flesh out every post with as much context as you can to make the content comprehensive and informative. Use statistics, research, and quotes from thought leaders to strengthen your claims.
3. Relevant: Are you writing about auto mechanics on your pet blog? That doesn’t quite make sense, does it? Your content should be relevant to your target audience, and provide helpful resources.

These three pillars create a solid foundation for your business blog to flourish and your brand to grow. Now that we’ve covered the principles that make a business blog great, let’s get to blogging!

“How do I start a blog for my business?”

If you’ve read any of my other business blogging posts, you’ve learned how valuable blogs are for businesses. Why? A blog is a powerful digital marketing tool that can help your business in many ways! 

The idea of starting a blog from scratch may seem intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be an overwhelming experience. 

Sounds great in theory, right? As with any marketing strategy, starting a business blog has its fair share of pros and cons. You might be wondering…

Is blogging profitable in 2021?

Absolutely! Every year the stats continue to rise. Did you know that by publishing 16 blog posts a month, you can more than triple your web traffic?

I know what you’re thinking: who on Earth has the time to churn out 16 blog posts a month?

Certainly not I, your friendly blogger. 😉

Well, not for my blog anyway, but for my clients, this is rapidly becoming standard. Think about it: would you rather pay for every click to your site with Search Engine Marketing (SEM), or invest in evergreen blog content that only continues to grow over time?

If we’re talking longevity and an impressive ROI, blogging is the way to go!

To start, publish a blog post at least once weekly to boost SEO, bring in organic traffic, and ultimately, build brand awareness.

Need a starting point? More Business Blogging FAQ’s answered in this guide.

Whether you generate income from online sales, affiliate marketing, advertising, or selling your services, blogging for business is too good to sidestep on the path to online success.

Ready to cash in on business blogging? Read on for my tips on how to start a blog to promote your business and make serious waves online.

Blog Consistently. Yes, Seriously, It’s *Uber* Important. 

What is the most important rule for business blogging? Glad you asked, and it’s the one tactic most marketers (and bloggers like yours truly) stumble on: consistency. If you want to start a blog to promote your business, you’ll need a strict posting schedule.

Whether you post every day or once a week, the key to a successful blog is a consistent posting schedule. If you publish five articles one week then go silent for a couple of months, your readers will go elsewhere to find the content they need. 

To prevent this, create a posting schedule that suits you best. A workable schedule will help you:

• Stay organized
• Keep you focused on your goals
• Produce branded content
• Commit to blogging consistently
• Conceptualize new topics and content

Ok, but let’s address the elephant in the room: Blogging takes time. Business owners and marketers already have their hands full, which is why 64% of them offload blog writing to a freelance writer for hire.

It’s unrealistic to devote 100% of your time to your blog. If you feel overwhelmed with running your business and keeping on top of your writing schedule, delegate the task to someone else.

Maybe there’s an employee on your team with a gift for words who’d love the extra cash. If you’re flying solo, do some research on freelance blog writers on sites like Upwork.

I’ve personally outsourced multiple tasks for my biz to freelancers because with all the writing I do, I don’t have time to post to social media, check my email, or keep up with Pinterest.

Hiring a freelance writer is an investment, and in exchange, you gain the most valuable commodity that exists: time.

Find the right freelancer, and the return on your investment will more than deliver in all the organic traffic and conversions you get from your business blog content.

Planning to DIY your business blog?

I’ve got you covered! Download my free guide to business blogging for beginners. I walk you through seven steps to starting a successful blog that’ll grow your business, increase visibility, and increase sales conversions.

Grab the guide here >>> How To Start A Business Blog in 7 Steps!

Get Savvy About Keyword Research

If you’re going to invest the time to start a blog to promote your business, you’ll need to get savvy on SEO. Otherwise, you’ll invest sweat equity into writing your blog posts, but what if no one reads them? Time to wise up on keyword research.

• What is SEO and how does it work? If you’re unfamiliar with SEO, start here.

Otherwise, let’s start with keywords.

Keywords are search queries people type into search engines to find information, products, or services. For example, you may have landed here because you typed into Google:

“How to start a blog” or “Can a blog grow a business?” or “Should I start a company blog?”

I’ve optimized my content and this blog post to target these keywords to best position myself to receive organic traffic and appear in search results. How? By conducting keyword research.

Keyword research is the process of looking up popular keywords that people are typing into search engines, and then using that information to create content for your website.

You can actually use this tactic to develop an entire content strategy based on what people want to read.

The keywords you choose to target should be based on the interests of your ideal audience. For example, say you own a yarn shop and your keyword research tells you that people are looking up phrases like, “how to knit” and “knitting for beginners.”

You can create several pieces of blog content with this information, including:

• 5 Easy Stitches For Beginning Knitters
• How To Knit: A Complete Beginner’s Guide
• Knitting For Beginners: The Basics You’ll Need To Get Started

With keywords, you open the door to a world of content because you gain access to exactly what your target audience needs. And remember, business blogging is all about helping your target customer.

Ready to bring in organic traffic?

How to use keywords to get eyes on your business blog:

1. Google the topic you want to write about
2. See what articles are high-ranking and which search terms are in those titles
3. Customize your content around what’s popular, but make it your own
4. Put your primary keyword in your title and naturally throughout the body of your blog post
5. If you use WordPress, download the free Yoast plugin to make sure every post is fully SEO optimized
6. Use an app like Keywords Everywhere to find relevant search terms
7. Create content that’s optimized for these keywords*

*You want to include keywords naturally throughout your blog post, in the heading and subheadings. However, you don’t want to “keyword stuff” which is the act of saturating your blog post with keywords. Not only is this unnatural to read, but Google may penalize you and remove your content from search results altogether for using this tactic.

All of these baby steps add up to big results! And since 75% of people don’t scroll past the first page of a Google search, the higher you rank the more clicks your post will get!

SEO got ya scratching your head? No sweat. First, visit my blog post to learn about the basics of SEO, and if you need a little more guidance, there are plenty of online tools you can use for keyword research.

Moz is a personal favorite of mine, and they have a free keyword explorer tool for you to use. Plus, the site is chock-full of helpful articles to make digital marketing and SEO accessible. 

Develop A Hawkeye For Detail Or Hire An Editor

You’ve finished writing a post! Woot woot! The next step is to upload it and click “publish”, right? 

Not so fast. Before you publish your work, be sure to self-edit, hire a proofreader, or use the free Grammarly plugin to check for grammar, spelling, and tone.

Editing your blog posts is essential. It can be difficult to catch grammatical and spelling errors as you write, so take a step back and read it again with fresh eyes. If possible, ask a colleague or friend to proofread your posts for you to make sure they are error-free.

Editing isn’t just about fixing typos and catching run-on sentences. If your post doesn’t provide a smooth reading experience, your reader will lose attention and bail.

We certainly don’t want that, especially considering the time and care you put into creating the blog post.

Here are a few tips for self-editing your blog posts easily:

• Cut out all unnecessary words, sentences, paragraphs, or stories.
• Include only what is absolutely essential to convey your message.
• People have short attention spans, so break up the writing with subheadings and short sentences.
• Ditch the big words and academic vernacular. Instead, use words that everyone can read and understand.

Writing a business blog post isn’t about flexing your brain powers, but conveying helpful information in a relatable way. Save the big vocabulary and academic jargon for professional essays or papers.

Even Dr. Seuss understood the importance of good editing:

“So the writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads.”

Hone your editing skills, and “oh, the places you’ll go!”

Engage Readers With Compelling Imagery

What makes a good business blog? The fact is, readers aren’t going to read your entire post. I used to struggle with this fact, but after blogging every day for three years, I’ve toughened up.

You may be the best blog writer in the world, but if you present your followers with a wall of text, chances are they’re going to go somewhere else for the information they need. 

A successful business blog incorporates engaging visuals to keep the reader interested.

Branded visuals include:

• Original images
• Stock photos
• Video content
• Infographics
• GIFs or Memes
• Custom graphics (Canva is my absolute favorite tool for creating beautiful, branded imagery, and I use it for all my blog graphics!)

When you start a blog to promote your business, your content needs to capture your audience’s attention. Why? 

Because articles with images get 94% more total views!

Including visuals in your blog posts is an essential practice for growing your readership.

That said, you don’t want to throw any old images in the blog post. Your blog images should be branded and support your content.

I recommend using infographics or charts to highlight key points from your articles. In turn, people spend more time on your page consuming the content because it’s digestible and scannable.

It will also help users remember your content since 65% of people are visual learners. 

Invite Guest Contributors To Write Blog Posts

There’s no disputing it: maintaining an active blog requires you to constantly create content, and it’s time-consuming. A great way to neutralize the content demand is to feature guest contributors on your blog!

You may be an expert in your field, but there are probably one or two related topics that someone else may know more about. Or, maybe you want to feature specialists in your field to weigh in on a particular trend or strategy.

Connect with colleagues through Instagram hashtags, Facebook groups, or Twitter.

Reach out to them and invite them to write a guest post.

You’ll provide an educational opportunity for your readers and further position your blog as a thought-leader in your niche. Who knows, you might also learn a thing or two! 

Guest contributors also provide you with a great opportunity to reach a new audience. When someone writes a guest post, they’re likely to share it with their network and social media followers.

The result is more traffic and links back to your blog, and more exposure for you and your business! 

Ideas for guest posts:

• Feature colleagues in a spotlight series, like this one from Freelance Writing Cafe, called “Drinking Coffee With Writers”
• Do a roundup of advice from experts, like this blog post I was featured in, “How 12 Power Freelancers Broke Through”
• Create a Google Form with streamlined questions for a feature series, and direct prospective guest post writers to the form. From there, use their answers to craft a blog post!

Promote and Share What You Write 

Ok, you’ve learned how to start a blog to promote your business, now what?

It’s a competitive world out there on the internet. There are over 4.4 million blog posts published DAILY, according to Worldometers. How can you ensure your blog posts stand out and get read?

If you want people to keep coming back to your blog, you’re going to have to stay active and get in front of their scrolling eyes.

When you create the writing schedule we talked about earlier, include time each week for promotion and marketing.

Short on time? At the very least, you can promote your blog posts with these tactics:

• Share links to your blog posts on all your social media channels
• Create a newsletter that automatically notifies your subscribers of new posts
• Include a link to your blog in your email signature
• Go Live on Instagram or Facebook to tease your latest blog post
• Create branded Pinterest Pins from customizable templates in Canva and create a board for your blog content

I created this branded video in Canva in two minutes, see how engaging visuals break up the text, and bring the post to life? 

Ultimately, your goal is to start a blog to promote your business, but more importantly, your content should serve your target audience. I implore you not to skimp out on marketing and promoting your blog post. Otherwise, it’s kind of like running the marathon and falling short of the finish line.

I’m on the other side with ice water and a megaphone cheering you on, and I know you’ve got what it takes to cross that finish line! Speaking of which…

Business Blogging Is A Marathon, Not a Sprint 

Many marketers and business owners fall into the trap of thinking a blog will magically resurrect their online biz. Keep in mind that blogging is a long-haul game. The content you publish now might not bring in results for months.

However, when you lay the framework for a solid blog, you will see results if you remain active. The single most important takeaway from this post is to publish relevant, high-quality content on a consistent basis.

Slow, consistent, and steady wins the race when it comes to blogging.

It takes time for a blog to build momentum, grow your readership, and create a following. But when you invest in your business blog strategy? The reward is by far worth the wait!

If progress is sluggish, pivot your strategy to best serve your audience.

Follow these steps to start a blog to promote your business, and when you look back a year from now you’ll be amazed at how far you’ve come. But of course, as with every marathon, you’ve got to take that first step.

You’ve got this!