If you’re running a business, a good way to get eyes on you is to start a blog. Every business has a website, but what would really make your products and services stick in the minds of the people visiting it, is that little something extra.
Writing a blog will allow your customers to leave with a piece of advice or knowledge that they can carry around and apply to life. When they are telling someone about the best recipe for carbonara they got off this website, they will add that the site was for your restaurant.
Blogging is a good way to demonstrate the effectiveness of your products and services, as well. You can tell your customers about how your product can make their lives easier, who can use it, how it works, etc.
Starting a blog can be easier than you’d think, and it doesn’t take much to start. Read our guide to understand what you need to know to get going.
Branding
What brand you go for in your business website will entirely depend on the business. Think about what your product is and what it stands for. The latter is a question that all businesses should ask but few do. It doesn’t necessarily mean your product is an activist, simply that it has a set of ideals behind it. For example, if you are selling shaving cream, what is making it different from all the shaving cream products on the shelves in the store? Is it high quality? Made for women? Affordable? Animal friendly? For sensitive skin?
The next step is to think about your demographic. Sometimes this can overlap with its ideals, like the shaving cream for women for example, has an obvious demographic built in. But others will need some thought. If you were to go with a product for sensitive skin, for example, your demographic can be a range of ages, genders, sexualities, races, etc.
Keep all these ideas in mind when you are writing your blog. Make sure that everything you write is relevant to your demographic and is something that will keep them engaged. Let them leave your blog with more than they came in with.
Writing
Every student knows the horror of staring at an entirely white Word document, waiting for inspiration to strike, feeling words fall out of your ears until you don’t know your own name. It’s a scary concept that seems like an endless void.
It’s not. As the great and wise Tommy Wiseau once said to a fan asking how to start a screenplay: “start”.
Disregard everything you just read about branding for now. If you’re having trouble, the hardest part is to just start. So don’t worry about demographics and ideals and simply write whatever’s in your head.
Soon you’ll feel yourself get into the swing of things, and suddenly you’ll have loads to say about your business and you can eventually incorporate more of your branding. Plus, there’s always the option of writing about what you want to write about and finding a way to link it to your business. There is no right way to write.
But don’t forget about the format and graphics. Much like the words, they should aim to engage your demographic and showcase your branding.
Marketing
Once you have your blog, you’ll need to get people to read it. You can use services like the OTT services from Red Bee to distribute your blog across platforms and monetize it or you can DIY it.
Digital marketing can take a little bit of know-how so look into some guides or taking a course so that you can understand your SEO from your affiliate links.
