Learn what a business blog is, if it’s time to start one for your business or organization, and how you can start one quickly to drive more traffic to your website.
Quick definition: A business blog is a collection of content on a business or non-profit website that’s designed to bring in more customers to the business or organization.
Are you tired of seeing your competitors outrank you in search results? A business blog can change that.
Your customers turn to Google for everything they need to know. It’s where they find restaurant recommendations, learn about tricky subjects, and deep-dive into whatever celebrity they’re interested in this month.
You can be sure they’re researching about your industry, too. But without a business blog, you can’t provide them with those answers.
Instead, they’ll find a competitor with the content they’re looking for. Then it’s only a matter of time before they become a customer of your competitor instead.
In other words, the time to start your business blog is now. So in this post, we’ll talk about what a business blog really is (and how it differs from other types of blogging), how to know if you’re ready to start a blog, and the steps to take to start your blog in the next 30 days.
What’s a Business Blog? (How It Differs From Other Types of Blogs)
A business blog is a collection of long-form, helpful content on your business or non-profit website.
A business blog can help you to:
- Bring in more website visitors through search engines that promote your content
- Share more in-depth information with customers and prospective customers that can help them make a decision to do business with you
- Build trust with customers by helping them learn new things and achieve their goals through your content
…and this is just the beginning! Check out all the cool benefits a blog can bring you in my post about the benefits of blogging for business.
Not All Blogs Are Business Blogs
It’s important to understand that there are many types of blogs out there. So when you search for blogging advice or blogging tips online, you want to be careful that you’re finding advice for business blogs, and not other types of blogs.
This website you’re on right now is specialized for business blogs ONLY—so you can be sure that anything you find on this blog will have the right advice for you.
You’ll also see:
- Blogs as a Business. These are things like lifestyle bloggers and recipe bloggers. Their blog is the whole business that makes them money. They don’t have another business on the side. Through their blog, they get paid sponsorships, sell books, resources, or courses, or sell ads to make money. For example, Sally’s Baking Addiction is one of my favorite recipe blogs.
- Affiliate Blogs. These blogs are designed to get lots of traffic from Google Search and then promote products from other businesses through platforms like Amazon. Any time someone buys something through their links, they get a cut. (Recently, Google has been punishing these blogs and they don’t rank as highly as they used to.) New York Times has an affiliate blog called Wirecutter.
- Publications. Finally, you have your publications, like news outlets and magazines. These make money from selling ads, but the content itself is the product. One example is Search Engine Journal, which I often check for SEO-related news.
Business Blog Examples to Learn From
ZOE
Nutrition program ZOE publishes authoritative content about nutrition and women’s health on the ZOE blog, which they’ve named the ZOE Health Academy.
This content positions them as an authority in their field, and helps women find answers to their most common health issues. (And as they read, they learn about ZOE’s products and services that can help.)
MakerFlo Crafts
This is a client of mine! MakerFlo serves crafters, makers, and business owners who customize products like tumblers, t-shirts, and pens.
Their craft blog is full of helpful guides to printers, new craft methods, craft ideas, and more to attract crafting enthusiasts to their website.
The Pool Co
Building a pool comes with a LOT of decisions to make. The Pool Co.’s business blog answers every different question a new customer might have, like “How Deep Should Pool Lights Be Installed?”
For industries like these, where there are many factors to consider, it’s helpful to have all these topics explained on your blog for new customers to learn. That helps them learn to trust you and want to buy from you when they’re ready to commit.
CleanHub
CleanHub works to reduce trash in the oceans, and their blog helps get the word out about the plastic pollution problem and ways to help (including their proprietary solution).
It seems to bring them a few hundred organic visits per month, but optimizing this would help them get a lot more traffic for their business.
Are You Ready to Start a Blog For Your Business or Organization?
Yes, blogs can be an amazing boost to your business. But they aren’t for everyone.
Here are some factors to consider before getting started:
- Does your business type need a blog? Some businesses, like restaurants or bakeries, don’t often have blogs. You’ll find enough traffic from people searching nearby for your type of food. You can still write one, but you may not need it to get traffic.
- Is your business established? If you’re just getting off the ground, it might not be the right time to start. Especially, if you’re not yet an expert in your field, or don’t have experience yet, I would caution you from starting. The best content comes from real-life experience and expertise. First, build something and get that experience, then write your blog.
- Are you able to commit to this for the long-term? Building a business blog takes time and consistency to see results. Are you able to make the time every week (at least a couple of hours) to write, publish, and maintain that content? And can you keep up that pace for the next few years, at least until you can hire someone to help you? (Or do you have someone to do this for you as part of their job?)
Not the time yet? No worries. You can still bookmark this post and come back when it’s the right time.
Everything checks out? Great, then let’s talk about how to start your business blog in the next 30 days. 👇
How to Start Your Business Blog This Month
- Define your main target reader. This is the #1 most valuable customer persona for your business or organization.
- Understand what topics your reader wants to learn about by doing keyword research and/or interviewing some of your best customers. (Keyword research doesn’t have to be complicated at this stage. Just do some Googling to try to figure out what keywords your readers might be typing in. Or look at competitor’s websites for topic ideas to start.)
- Make a list of keywords or topics you want to target for your blog. Organize them into a content calendar in the order you want to tackle them.
- Decide how often you will post and how you will set aside time to write and publish these.
- Follow my blog-writing process to write your blog posts fast!
- Publish on a regular schedule. (When you’ve run out of topics, do some more research and start again!)
Keep publishing regularly until you start to see traction with SEO. (Just keep in mind that publishing good content is only one part of an SEO strategy, and you’ll need to consider other factors to get the best results.)
Bonus: Identify other ways you can get traffic to your blogs before you start to get traffic from search engines. For example, you can promote posts through social media or through a FB group or mailing list, or even have your salespeople or customer service reps share your content with customers who need it.
Final Thoughts
That’s it! You’re officially ready to take the leap and launch your own business or non-profit blog.
Don’t get frustrated when your competitors rise above you in the search results. Take action by starting your blog now, and soon you can become the go-to resource in your industry where everybody goes to get their answers.
So what are you waiting for? Start brainstorming those blog post ideas, and get ready to watch your business or organization grow!
