How to start a business blog? Start writing, I guess. That seems appropriate and logical, but blogging that way is blogging without a plan, so if starting a business blog is one of your New Year’s business resolutions, read on to make sure you have the three fundamentals covered.
Why start a business blog?
Fresh, client-focused content attracts search traffic. Blogs provide answers to search queries. These are questions your potential clients want answered. A business blog tells your clients you’re no idiot because you know stuff, and they need you to know stuff coz that’s how you earn trust.
3 must-have fundamentals:
1. Strategy before content creation.
If you’re a disorganised, car-crash of a human, don’t start blogging. Blogging consistently, coz that’s what it takes, is for the list maker. Why are you blogging? Who is it for? What do you hope to achieve? These are all questions to ask before you go off piste and attempt several half-arsed posts.
Reasons to blog:
- To be found on search engines and LLMs
- To demonstrate expertise
- To build topical authority
- To help and inform
- To build trust
- To answer client questions
Content with an SEO focus:
If the main aim is to attract search (organic) traffic, you’ll need some SEO smarts for search engine visibility, so familiarising yourself with SEO content writing is a very good idea.
👉🏻 >>What’s SEO content writing: 6 things to know<<
You’ll need to research the appetite for industry-based content. Plugging a handful of keyword phrases into a keyword tool reveals what the market is like. Google’s People Also Ask (PAA) field is a great place to see what else people search for around your main topic.
Content for clients who know who you are:
Unless the topics are insanely searchable, blogs for current and returning clients don’t need SEOing. Non-search content also helps potential clients who know your business but haven’t taken the step to buy. Non-optimised blogs are about new products and how they benefit existing clients. They might be FAQs that reassure potential clients who are on the cusp of getting in touch.
2. The audience comes first.
Self-absorbed business blogs are awful. They’re like going on a date with Selfish Matthew. The first part of the evening is him banging on about his time as a commercial pilot. Without coming up for air, Matty bores anyone in earshot about his current occupation: CEO of a wealth management company. The only time Matthew mentions his date is when he says, “I usually only date women with a perfect waist-hip ratio, but you’re lucky, you’re the exception to the rule due to your tremendous knockers”. Thanks, Matthew.
It’s easy to go off on a self-indulgent tangent. Our brains release dopamine when we talk about ourselves, so we can be forgiven for being our own favourite subject. But your clients won’t get industry-based information from a business blog that writes about the founder finding themselves at a yoga retreat in Nepal. Unless you’re selling self-awakenings at yoga retreats in Nepal, keep the subject matter strictly business.
Until you know who the audience is, you’ll struggle to put them first. Until you have your ideal client nailed, I mean, really crucified, starting a business blog is going to be harder than a hard thing.
3. Choose your weapon (style).
Everyone’s blog has a vibe. Even if you don’t set out to write in a particular style, the audience will decide regardless. (Being impartial or neutral is still a vibe, btw.) I recommend cultivating a tone for your business. In the age of generative AI, I have a hunch that sounding unique and having something to say, particularly something unlike everyone else in any given industry, is going to be one way to stand out. Don’t be afraid to be different. This is no time for shrinking violets.
SIDE NOTE: Whatever your style and tone are, make sure to be consistent. Discrepancies in style stand out like an erection in church. Every line throughout your marketing should sound like your business.
What about jargon?
There’s plenty of reductive writing advice on the internet, especially on LinkedIn. A business blog speaks the way its audience speaks. If you supply precision machinery to an aerospace company, you’d better talk to them accordingly. If, like me, you’re selling a service to folks unfamiliar with the subject, ease off on the technical language.
There’s a difference between industry terms and corporate speak. Corporate lingo is the protracted, incomprehensible style that’s favoured by business websites across the land. Businesses insist on writing their web content like that because it’s regarded as ‘professional’. Times have changed. It’s totally cool to use contractions.
👉🏻 >>Stop murdering your copy with clichéd phrases<<
Article first published, 27th June 2024.
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