Are you looking for a way to promote your business website? One of the best ways is through blogging. This blog post will go over why blogging is one of the most effective ways to promote a business website and how to create, publish, and promote blog posts that are successful.

We’ll cover topics like picking the right topics for your blog, relating with readers by giving them value in their time spent reading, starting and ending blog posts effectively, as well as some tips on promoting your latest content so it gets seen by more people.

Let’s dive right in.

Why Promote With a Blog?

There are many ways to get the word out about your business. Blogging is a good investment of your time and effort because it has a lot of potential to reach and engage customers.

Blogging is one of the most effective ways to promote your business website because it allows you to control the content that’s published. This gives you an opportunity to show off what your company does best.

You can also use blogs to cultivate relationships with customers by providing valuable information and insights. This can be insights to the industry you’re in, or to the products and services you sell that can help them live their lives better. This can help solidify your brand as a leader in your space.

As they say, the Internet is forever. That means the good you do today will always be available for your customers. Paid ads or more traditional channels might fade away in time, but the value of your blog posts for your customers will always be there.

Effective blog posts serve as a passive way for you to rake in good will for your business, so you can focus on things that matter, like making the sale and collecting those invoices.

It’s never too late to start a blog for your business.

How to Get Started with Business Blogging

It might feel overwhelming, but starting a business blog doesn’t have to be rocket science. There are only a few steps you should go through to get your blog started:

1. Set Your Goals. Just like any other business endeavour, you should set a goal for your blog. Start out with a simple and measurable goal, first, so that you know you’re on the right track. You can set goals to increase your website visitors, increase website inquiries for your products or services, get more sales, or even build a small community or engagement around your brand. Your goals will determine what kind of blog you’ll be running.
2. Set Your Target Audience. Often this will be similar to your business’s target market, but this can be larger or smaller, depending on the goals you set. Try to picture them in your mind like how you picture your target market in your mind. Your target audience will help you pinpoint the tone of voice and topics you’ll cover in your blog.
3. Set Up Your Blog. This depends a lot on what you’re running your website on, be it something like WordPress that already has blogging built-in, another platform like Shopify, or even a single-page website. Check with your website provider on what options you have, but there are also services like BlogHandy that allows you to seamlessly insert blogs into any website easily.

That’s all! You can also think about organising your blog into categories, adding tags or the ability of readers to comment. But remember to start small so that you’re not so easily overwhelmed.

Promote With the Right Topics

Picking the right topic will help you keep focused on your goal and write smarter blog posts that appeal to your target audience.

Start with complete sentences. Your topic should be something specific, not a vague concept that can be interpreted many different ways. For example, instead of writing about how ‘social media is important’, you could write an article on the benefits of using Twitter as part of your marketing strategy versus Facebook.

Plan for a series of posts. We’re not talking of just a series of posts on a larger topic, though that is also a great idea for topics that require a bit more depth. Think in terms of posts that you can link together: after writing about the benefits of using Twitter over Facebook, you can write about how different businesses are using Twitter to promote themselves.

Look at what your customers ask from you. Chances are, the most frequently asked questions you get about your product or service can be great topics for a blog post. If your design service gets questions about your process, you can write a post about how you help a client achieve their goals. If your product gets questions on how to use it properly, a blog post highlighting its best features can minimise those questions as well as market the product for you. Questions and comments you get on social media count!

Study your competitors. If your competitors have blogs, take a look at what they talk about to have an idea what you can write about. You can gain a lot of insight by studying your competitors. Just make sure that you match their topics against the goals you’re going for as well as your target market.

Think about helping instead of selling. Even if your goal is to raise sales, try to mix in some posts that help your readers without directly selling them anything. If you can establish yourself as a credible and helpful source of information, people will be more likely to think of you when they’re ready to make a purchase. That’s a silent promotion for you!

Once you’ve chosen a topic, it’s time to start writing.

Writing Your Blog Posts

You’ve got your topics, and all that’s left is to write them. How do you even start?

The best way is starting with a clear topic: it should be clear from your first few paragraphs what your post is about. Your readers should know what they can get out of the post as soon as possible. Hook them in with a clear reason for them to keep reading.

Make it easy for them to read your post by breaking apart long blocks of text. You can use shorter paragraphs, lists, images, and figures that relate to your topic. This will help keep their attention on what you’re saying as well as make it clearer what you want to say.

Of course, it goes without saying that you should check your spelling and grammar, whatever language you are writing in. Nothing says careless and neglectful as much as bad grammar and typos all over the place. Make sure you triple-check everything. There are many apps and plugins available to help you check your posts — don’t be ashamed to use them!

When you’re finishing off a blog post, don’t just end passively. After reading your blog post, invite them to take action based on what you’ve written. This can be in the form of inviting them to comment on your post, sending you an inquiry, signing up for your email marketing list, or purchasing a product.

How to Attract Readers to Your Blog

If you’ve got a solid foundation for your blog, you’ve done most of the work. What’s left is a solid way to bring readers to your blog, and in turn, to the rest of your website.

Combine your blog posts with a solid social media promotional push.

You don’t need to pay for sponsorship or ads when you share your posts (though it can help). But you definitely should put your blog posts out there! Especially when you’re starting out, putting your posts on your social media calendar can help put the word out there that you have valuable content on your business blog.

Draw readers in with a great highlighted image.

But not just any image will do. You need an image that is both eye-catching and relevant to the topic of your blog post. Choose in what format you want your images displayed on your website — you can use PNG or JPG formats to include in your blog.  Your highlighted image will show when you (or your readers!) share your post on social media, so choose wisely! This is a great way to attract potential customers.

Raise the graphics bar with a shareable infographic or two.

Depending on your topic, sometimes creating an infographic from your topic is a great way to get some extra attention. People love absorbing quick trivia and information visually! Make sure it’s attributed correctly and that people can find your website easily on the infographic itself.

Keep an eye out for pages you can link to.

It’s a no-brainer that linking to other pages on your website helps you — after all, you want to promote your website and your business! But did you know external linking also helps your website? It helps secure your credibility when you link to other trustworthy and credible websites. Your readers will also appreciate seeing your content affirmed by other sites. Additionally, use this opportunity to make yourself known to other websites and build up a partnership with select sites.

Avoid click-baiting.

We’ve all fallen victim to click-bait at one point in our lives. It’s not a good feeling, isn’t it? While a click-bait title will get you a lot of initial clicks, if it doesn’t translate to sales or engaged readers, all that effort will be for nothing. Remember your goals!

Optimise for search engines.

Make sure you take the time to make your website and blog optimised for search engines. Write great content for your target market and keywords and the searches will come in over time. This is a long game, with great results if you do it right

Turn on your network.

Don’t be afraid to reach out to similar blogs or influencers and strike up a partnership with them. Everyone started somewhere, and if you’re delivering good content, you will definitely be welcome. Having other credible websites linking to yours is also a signal of your expertise.

Track your metrics.

If you haven’t installed a tracker like Google Analytics yet, you should get right on it. Knowing your your website is doing is very important when you’re trying to achieve your goals with your blog. For starters, keep an eye on which posts are popular, where your readers are coming from, and how long they are staying on your website. This and more can give you great insight into your audience and help you write better for them.

Power up your analytics.

Once you’re comfortable with the basic metrics, building and using UTM links can help you track exactly which content drives which campaigns and actions on your website. This way, you can see exactly which posts are getting you the most sales or inquiries, and you can adapt your posting strategy accordingly.

Turn Your Blog Into a Promotion Powerhouse

Remember, a business blog doesn’t have to be all about press releases and dry product articles. It can be an effective extension of your marketing arm. With a solid strategy, it can get you not just new customers but an engaged following that will look forward to what you have to say.

The best part? Building and promoting your blog doesn’t have to be rocket science. From full blogging platforms to ones that can easily embed a blog in your website for you, there’s little reason to hold off on starting a blog for your business these days.

Start and promote your blog now – your online presence will thank you for it!