Blogging – especially for your business – offers two benefits: it answers the public’s questions about your products and services, and generally keeps people in the loop about everything from behind-the-scenes news to company awards (or indeed anything else you want to make public about your business).
The second benefit? Blogging regularly boosts your SEO.
SEO, which stands for ‘Search Engine Optimisation’, is the process of improving the number of visitors you get to your website (or a specific web page). By taking advantage common SEO tactics, you can direct people (referred to in the marketing and SEO world as ‘traffic’) to your site. You can do this by ensuring specific key words (words and phrases that are common within your industry) are used regularly throughout your website content.
What can companies blog about?
Thinking of blogging more for your business? As I tell existing and prospective clients, it makes great sense for your business – especially if you’re a young company who desperately needs to attract their first customers.
Before long, particularly if you have a good blogging strategy in place, customers will find you of their own accord – through your site or via word of mouth marketing. In the early days particularly, it’s a good idea to utilise the blog section of your site to pull in that coveted traffic.
So, what can you blog about?
If you’re at a loss, here are some blogging ideas:
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Team news – including award wins, new staff members, a change to your service offering, new premises, or anything and everything in between
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Industry news or trends – what industry developments are currently on everyone’s lips? Share your thoughts and, again, make the article all about how said news or trends benefit your customers (and not you)
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Case studies – if yours is a service-based industry, how about including a case study on your site, displaying how you’ve helped a particular customer (by helping them overcome a specific challenge, for example) and how their life or business has since enjoyed a boost as a result
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Provide a how-to’ guide – A good few years ago now, I wrote for a company that specialises in helping people unblock their drains. Believe it or not, a boost in their enquiries came from providing a how-to guide on ‘how to unblock your own drains’. The thing was, people would try the DIY methods, often to no avail, and then guess who they’d call when that didn’t work out? Yes, the drainage company. ‘How-to’ guides are favoured by Google, as well as helping the customer. So why not share one or two?
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Treat customers to an offer or giveaway – Want to see a huge spike in traffic to your site? Post about a competition, giveaway or offer – and make sure you link it from your company’s social media pages, to direct traffic to that page.
Of course, there are lots more blogging ideas to tap into besides those, but hopefully that handful or so will help get you started.
Should you write your own blog posts?
Absolutely! But do you have time?
Also, ask yourself these questions before you begin:
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Will I have time to keep it up? Writing one blog post is great, but when you’re business inevitably gets busier, will you have time to keep at it? Sure, if you’re busy, there’s a tendancy to think you don’t need to blog – but you really do need to keep the blogging cogs spinning if you want to ensure a constant flow of traffic to your site. I’ll be completely honest…when I don’t post blogs regularly here on my own site, I notice a drop in my online enquiries. Could be coincidence, but the facts are the facts.
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Do other areas of my business demand my attention first? Blogging is important, of course it is. But if another area of your business requires immediate attention, you should tend to it. Blogging can wait – in the short-term. That said, you could outsource your blogging requirements and still see to that important business task. Win-win!
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Am I a good enough writer? Okay, so you don’t have to be an award-winning copywriter to write a blog post (many a copywriter will tell you that, but that’s because they want to win your business), but it is beneficial if you can not only come up with ideas, stories and articles people are interested in, but write them well. A good enough grasp of grammar and punctuation will stand you in good stead too; you may be fantastic at what you do, but if your articles are poorly punctuated, some customers may well be put off.
Do all copywriters specialise in blog content?
Many copywriters specialise in writing blog content, but some don’t. Some instead offer services that include writing ‘short-form’ copy.
Short-form content includes:
Long-form content writers, meanwhile, will write everything from blog posts to case studies and interviews for your company brochure or email newsletter. Basically, anything that is, say, more than 300 words will fall under the long-form content category.
How much does a blog copywriter cost?
Blog copywriting is a worthwhile investment, for small, medium and larger businesses. For start-ups, it’s particularly important to blog regularly, as doing so will ensure your site is found much easier – and probably even quicker – by prospective customers using Google to search for your services.
My blog post packages start from just £300 per month – and I’ve worked with everyone from start-up brands to household names.
Here are just a few testimonials about my blog copywriting services specifically:
“I’ve worked with Lauren on a number of projects and would highly recommend her to anyone looking for a quality copywriter. Great communication throughout and very easy to work with.” Jonny Russell, SEO and PPC Lead Generation Consultant
“Lauren has worked with me on various client accounts. She’s a gem of a person and a pleasure to work with. I know that I can rely on her to never miss a deadline and the content that she produces with such ease is creative, engaging and well-written. I like to think of Lauren’s touch as being like a sprinkling of fairy dust…and she comes highly recommended from me.” Sarah Holbrook, Working InSync Marketing
“Thanking our lucky stars we have found Lauren. Within hours of an initial enquiry she has injected energy and excitement into our business. Her enthusiasm, positivity and talent is infectious! We have a new and fast growing business and were on the look out for someone to write some blogs for us as we were really struggling with this side of things. Within 24 hours we have our first blog and couldn’t be happier, the tone of voice is great, it reads amazingly, tells an awesome story and one which we are so proud of.” Mark Bell, Jacqueline and Edward wedding rings
Need a copywriter to write your blog posts?
I offer several packages, which include everything from:
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providing a monthly or annual marketing content plan to help you map out your own content (this includes blog post ideas and suggested key words to weave into your content)
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writing your blog posts on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis
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writing and uploading your blog posts onto your site, publishing them on your behalf to ensure you can concentrate on other areas of your business.
