How to use blogging to grow your business
It’s a fact of life today that every business needs to have an online presence. People tend to pick up their phone and Google something, check social media or shout at their smart speaker. A website is yours to share targeted information with potential customers, and it will perform so much better for you if you update it regularly. The quickest way to do that? With a new blog once or twice a month. In this article I’ll share how to use blogging to grow your business, whether your business is in the equestrian, fieldsports, rural lifestyle sectors – or any sector – because the same general rules apply. So, let’s get started…
Having a website is more important than ever
When we need to find a business – whether that’s a new horse feed supplier, a gunsmith to service a firearm or a country brand for some smart new wellies, most of us use Google. Sometimes we’ll ask for recommendations from friends or ask in a Facebook group. Other times we find new products or brands thanks to Instagram, Pinterest or TikTok. But I always recommend that businesses – no matter how big or small they are – have a website. That’s because you own that website and, provided you keep it secure and continue to pay for hosting, no one can take it away from you. You can build authority on something you own… which brings me on to my next point!
You don’t own your social media profiles
Social media isn’t so secure. Once or twice a year you probably see people posting that one social media site or another was down. In fact, for Meta brands (Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp) that’s more like once a month now. For some brands, who sell thousands of £ or $ of products via Meta platforms every hour… well it’s not good, is it? If you use Instagram to market your business, you can’t have failed to notice that something has changed this year. Reach and interactions are down, and it’s harder than ever to reach customers. If you rely on it solely for leads and brand awareness, that’s problematic for your future sales.
And, as I saw on Threads recently, some people are of the opinion that when you spend your energy posting on Instagram or Facebook, you’re providing content for Meta and its principal owner Mark Zuckerberg. A rich, powerful man and you’re creating content for his website. I find that an intriguing idea! But I digress… For now, let’s think about that another day and for now get back to how to use blogging to grow your business.
A quick recap of why blogging helps grow your brand
I shared an article at the start of the year with my top 10 reasons why you need a business blog in 2024. Here’s a very short summary of that:
- It boosts SEO
- It helps generate leads
- You can guest blogging to build backlinks
- It can boost brand trust…
- And builds your industry authority
- You can improve audience engagement with your brand
- It can set you apart from the competition
- You can (and should!) repurpose the content. Free social captions!
- Blogs are evergreen content
- Writing blogs helps you clarify your offering!
How to use blogging to grow your business in five steps
You might read that and be thinking that yes, this is the month you start blogging. But where on earth do you start? That’s why I’ve put together this five-step process to help you. If you follow these steps, you’ll be well-placed to use blogging effectively to grow your business. None of them are difficult, but they will help you focus on creating blogs that work hard for you. If you’re going to spend the time writing blogs, make sure it’s time well spent! 1.Know your audience and their pain points
1. Know your audience and their pain points
This should inform your content pillars, tone of voice, keywords and where you share your blogs, so it’s very important. Think about who your perfect customers are. Will they expect to see lighthearted copy or very clear, professional blogs? Think about what they need and want to find when they search online for a business like yours. What are the worlds that they will type into google or shout at their Siri?!
2. Write blogs that are informative and valuable
How annoying is it when you click on a google result and the content is just rubbish? Well, not only is it annoying but Google is taking steps to push crap content down search results, or de-index it. That’s why you need to make sure your blogs are interesting and serve your readers. Don’t use AI unless you’re very good at picking through the nonsense it generates and editing it to read like a human. Websites stuffed with AI blogs are being de-indexed rapidly and losing huge volumes of traffic.
3. Back up your knowledge with stats where possible
If you haven’t heard about Google’s EEAT guidelines, I wrote about them here. In short, it’s important to be helpful (see point two) and, if relevant, back up your ideas and statements with your knowledge and supporting links. That will help your site rank higher and make your blogs more interesting to read.
4. Proofread your blog and add an images
Check your blog for spelling, grammar and punctuation. If you know these are not your strongest areas, then please use software or ask a friend to help. Here’s why ‘sloppy copy; might undo all your good work. Then, choose an image or two. Did you know that people absorb information more readily if there are images alongside the words they read? That’s why adding images is a really good idea. Plus, it keeps your website looking good and you can reuse images on social media.
5. Repurpose and share your blog wherever you can!
That means sharing it to your social media followers, consider adding a link in your email signature and share it in your newsletter if you have one… Make sure you repurpose the content too. Use the blog to create copy for newsletters. Or take the summary points and share them on Instagram stories or as reels. Why not tweak the blog and create a week’s worth of Facebook posts with it?
A final note – your blog is YOURS!
I’m lucky to balance writing for businesses in the rural, equestrian and fieldsports sectors with editorial writing. That means I get the chance to tell stories and meet amazing people! I also get to work with inspirational business owners and help spread the work about their brand. I also write seriously snappy conversion copy that’s 100% engineered to get someone to take action when they read it. That mix of work keeps my busy brain very happy indeed.
What you’ll also find if you beetle around my blog, is the occasional personal article. Just something I fancied sharing (or, on occasion, ranting about). It’s my blog, so sometimes I’ll write about whatever I’ve been thinking about at any given time. Not linked to my content pillars or what my audience needs to know… Don’t for a second feel guilty about sharing fun news, personal updates or your opinion on industry issues. It’s your blog and you can take a day off SEO. That personal content can help points four and five in the list of 10 reasons why you need a blog, and it could help your site rank for EEAT!
If you’ve read all this but just know that you’ll never have the time to write blogs, I might just know someone who can help. That person has 16 years of marketing experience, six of those years as a full-time copywriter and writes over 20 blogs every single month… It’s me! Send me an email and we can arrange a chat and virtual coffee here.