The advice is everywhere: You should be blogging about your business! But how does a small-business owner get started? What do I write about? And who has the time?
As I’ve written before (see “Three Reasons Your Website Needs a Blog”), blogs are no longer online journals. They are easy-to-use formats for giving your customers/clients, both current and potential, chunks of helpful information.
Here’s how to get started.
1) Identify exactly what you’re an expert in.
What makes the difference between a typical real estate agent – or restaurant owner, or indie retailer – and one who truly stands out from the crowd? Specialized knowledge.
If you were lined up with three or four competitors, what would you be able to tell a potential client or customer that the others could not?
That kind of information is what you should be sharing on your site’s blog.
2) Set a schedule.
Even a monthly post is better than nothing. Weekly posts are ideal. As with any other task on your business to-do list, get it onto your calendar – and stick with it.
Search engines don’t like it when the content is the same every single time they look at a homepage.
Neither do people.
3) Consider outsourcing.
How much money did you invest in your domain name and web design?
Whatever the amount, the money is wasted if your homepage has had no new content posted to it in the last quarter.
If you do not have the time or inclination, find a marketing firm like Infusion Studio or an editorial agency that can produce content for you – on your budget. It’s what they do!