No matter what your target audience is, all entrepreneurs usually consider starting a blog to attract more clients. It’s even more on-trend in today’s society because everyone goes to the internet for information and advice! A blog is an easy way to give free perks to your consumers by providing them with your own personal research and experiences on topics that are directed towards your audience and their goals or interests. You’ve got a lot of knowledge, so let’s set you up with the necessary tools to get your blog started to grow your business even bigger than you imagined!
Brainstorming
Before you jump right into creating content for your audience, you need to make sure that you have enough background information to get started. For example, if you’re a woman entrepreneur, you’re probably focused on appealing to other women, or maybe even moms in particular, so use this as your starting point in determining your goal for your business’s blog. Look at what other mom blogs are doing and decide what you like/don’t like about them, and how you might adapt for your own content. But stay out of comparisonitis and never just copy what others are doing – make your own path.
Find Your Niche
Speaker at business workshop and presentation. Audience at the conference room.
Once you target your audience, you’re able to decide the type of content you want to put out there for them. Start by thinking about what you want your ultimate message to your followers to be. If you’re focusing on business strategies, you’ll plan your content around tips and tricks for women entrepreneurs to conquer the business world. Maybe you’re targeting fitness coaches and you want to focus more on health and wellness in your blog. Whatever your topic of interest may be, it’s important to map out a general idea of your niche audience so that your blog fits into a theme and feels organized for your followers. But you don’t have to be so niched down that you close off completely – be flexible too.
Choose a Domain and Blogging Platform
Your domain name is what people will type into the search engine to get to your website. Your domain URL should be something that has to do with your blog’s theme, or it can even just be yourname.com. There are so many options and usually when you choose a platform to set your blog up with, they’ll show you suggested domain names. There are also some fun domain generators that you can find online that can help you come up with creative ideas. Just make sure that whatever you choose for your domain name it’s memorable and not too wordy. You’ll be using this blog domain on your social media pages and you might even print it on your business cards or other handouts, so make sure you choose something appropriate for your business.
Decide on a Design Template
Most people use WordPress to build their websites, as it comes with so many user-friendly features. Once you choose your blogging platform, you can start the creative process! If you’re using WordPress, now is the time to watch any of the introductory tutorials and start playing around with some templates. There are so many design choices to make, so choosing a template makes it so simple to bring your vision to life. You can adjust colors and insert your images and text seamlessly as you go to create your ideal design. How fun!
Plan Your Content
To get your blog up and running, you’ll want to plan your content ahead of time. You’ll need to decide when you’re going to publish your blog posts, how often you’ll publish content, and then you’ll have to create the content. This might sound a little daunting at first, but you can start slow and build your way up. Start by posting every other week, or maybe once a week if you’re feeling up for it. If you have a newsletter for your business, you can begin including links to your blog posts weekly as well. Plan this out in a spreadsheet or a calendar so that you can keep track of your schedule. This will help you monitor the progress of your blog and adjust your schedule as needed. Do some research and find blogs that fit into your niche online. This can help you get an idea of what people are looking to read about and you’ll be able to follow the trends in business.
Monetize Your Blog
Although you’re not going to be looking to make money off of your blog from the get-go, your goal might be to get there eventually. You can sell products or services related to your business to make money from your blog. For example, if you’re a fitness coach, try including a promotion for a virtual training session or a virtual group class that your followers can enroll in for a small fee. This can be advertised within your blog and you can promote your business without costing you much time or money. You might not have any desire to sell your own products or services, but you can always find ways to partner with other brands or enroll in an affiliate program (Amazon has a great one!). Doing this will allow you to promote products you love to your followers and direct them to purchase them with your customized link. This way, you make money every time someone buys a product from your affiliate link. This can be so helpful if you’re just starting out and you’re not sure where exactly you want to target your services.
Consult a Professional If Needed
While this whole process can be a bit overwhelming in the beginning, there’s no need to do it all on your own! There are so many amazing resources out there to help you grow your own blog and appeal to your ideal clientele. While you may have an idea of your branding and the message you want to send to your audience, you might need some help with actually creating the content. Contacting marketing professionals or editorial contract workers is the best way to grow your team and take advantage of the available resources to grow your business. There’s no shame in collaborating with a team to make your dreams come to life.
Growing your business through a targeted blog will take your brand to the next level. You’ll see the payoff over time and your clients will thank you for all of the information you’ll be able to provide them. Entrepreneurs have developed into much more than just business owners. As you know, being an entrepreneur is all about providing a personable approach to your clients and a blog is the perfect place to start! Start your blog and grow your business with me today: click here!
