5 Proven Content Strategies for Small-Business Blogging

Blogging is a smart idea when you own a small business because you can get much closer to your customers by simply sharing your ideas with them on social media. However, blogging might not seem easy for small-business owners because they first need to create a consumer base and then get closer to them by blogging.

Not to worry, though; there are some amazing proven content strategies that you’ll be able to use to cement your position as a great small business. People will flock to your blog, and they will find out about everything that’s related to your business. In this article, we will teach you how to start a blog and what strategies to use. So without further ado, here are five proven content strategies for small-business blogging!

Generate a Content Calendar

Your first step (once you’ve established a customer base) is to create a content calendar that will help you manage the content that you put out. It’s meant to help you see the things that people want to read about and your commitment to those topics. The calendar functions as a sort of a ‘counter’ that will help you see how many variables there are to work on. Of course, there won’t be just topics in the calendar but almost everything related to a blog.

In the beginning, you’ll most likely have hundreds of topics, but this shouldn’t scare you because you’ll most likely get rid of more than half of them. After that, it’s smooth sailing!

Let us help you by showing you an example of 10 common topics and variables:

  • Content elements
  • Holidays
  • Budget
  • Seasons
  • Channel
  • Reader profiles
  • Hot trends
  • Date
  • Content creators
  • Reader events

You should also realize that this calendar will not stay the same and will most likely change fairly often (yearly and maybe even monthly).

Follow Blog Metrics

Blog metrics might seem like a lot of work because the data inside is massive, but without checking and analyzing your content strategy, you are bound to have difficulties. You should analyze and monitor information daily, but you should choose only a few key elements to monitor (to avoid dealing with too much unnecessary data).

There are some exceptions to this rule

  • Shares on social media – Social media shares help boost your exposure immensely!
  • Inbound links – This is a critical metric to monitor, as they show how well your content fares with your competitors.
  • Sources and page visits – This is used to measure blog health. You should always try to grow your base of readers.
  • Visit-To-Lead conversion – A lot of hits isn’t necessarily a sign that you’re doing well. What counts much more is the number of customers who click a CTA (Call-to-Action) button.

Audit Your Content

You should think of your content as a young and living thing that requires constant care and attention. Auditing your content means that you need to check up on it every so often. Keeping up with the times is important because otherwise, who is going to read your outdated content?

Also, checking outgoing links is highly recommended because sometimes, pages might shut down and these links become dead. You shouldn’t allow this to happen.

Compile Customer Assets and Insights

This means that you should prepare everything you need to become a successful business. Starting out and not having sales is completely normal because this sort of thing takes time. Also, take some time to think about the audience that you want to sell your products to. Try not to be overly ambitious; plan for your company’s size and possibilities – anything more than that, and you’re risking failure. Here are some of the things you should think about:

  • Common objectives
  • Language and tone
  • FAQ
  • Usual pain points
  • Sales length cycle
  • Demographics
  • Values and priorities

You shouldn’t underestimate customer insights because they will give you an edge over much bigger companies!

Keep Content Consistent to Attract More Readers

You’re going to end up with a consistent customer base that visits your blog to read content that is interesting to them. If you were to change the focus of your posts suddenly, your base would most likely leave. Try your best to keep the content you put out consistent so that your existing customers don’t leave. This will also attract more readers.

In the case of blog ownership, blog post writing, organizing a blog, and other things, consistency is key!
It’s important to give enough dedication and care to your blog so that it grows into a healthy business tool that’s going to bring you even more customers!

Vincent Hill is a contributor to BusinessTown.com.