how to blog for business - natasha courtenay-smith€¦ · • generally, there are are business...

HOW TO BLOG FOR BUSINESS GROWTH

1. Blogging: where are you at? 2. How blogging works as a business and

how it works FOR businesses. 3. Why bother 4. What to write about 5. Opinion content 6. How to market your business online and

where blogging fits in in your wider strategy

Blogging for business growth

• Ex journalist at publications including the Daily Mail, women’s magazines.

• In 2008, I set up my own online PR/press agency business, Talk to the Press.

HELLO, I’M TASH

• Understanding, using and keeping on top of internet marketing strategies and tactics……

• Our twice weekly content strategy kept us top of Google even against MAJOR media brand.

The success of the business depended on

• I sold the business in 2014. • Started working digital

marketing strategist & publicist. • Agency: website design, social

content, PPC, publicity & everything in between.

BUSINESS & BLOGGING - THE BUSINESS MODELS OF BLOGGING

• Andy Weir is a former computer programmer who blogged about space and science.

What is your business model?

What is your business model?

• Generally, there are are business models for pro bloggers or for making money from your blog

• a) you’d like to become a blogstar in your own right (ie like Madeline Shaw or Zoella)

• b) you’d like to become a go-to expert in your field

• c) you have a real world bricks and mortar type business and you’d like to use content to build your business.

Blogging as an expert• You’d like to become a go-to expert in your field.

• I’m not trying to sell adverts or sponsored posts.

• Ultimately what matters most is gaining enough reach, sharing and eyeballs to engage enough people to supply you with work as an expert/consultancy/agency.

• You might want the other opportunities that blogging can bring: ie speaking, book deals, media

Blogging for a ‘real world business’ (aka content marketing)

• For business purposes it is all part of creating and sharing valuable free content in order to………

• Get more leads

• Turn potential customers into customers

• Increasing recommendations

• Claim your market authority/Building trust and reputation

• Build your business

WHY BLOG FOR YOUR BUSINESS…?

• Weddings

• Luxury lodge & shedroom sales

and lettings

• Visitors

• Loyalty

• Awareness

What do you want more of?

WE HAVE NEW GODS…

• We live in a world where we have several gods: Google and the large social platforms.

• All of them reward content creation with visibility.

• Each time you publish a blog post to your business website, traffic spikes and it increases your chances of being found in the future.

• Each time you publish a social update, eyes come on to you.

Content creation = visibility

WHAT MAKES GOOD CONTENT FOR BUSINESSES…?

• Writing only for your customers and future customers.

• Solving the problems that you know customers ask you.

• Demonstrating this through a mix of ‘expert knowledge’ and ‘in action’ content

Focus on

• Train yourself to see ideas everywhere - look at the things you routinely say and do and find the content angle in it.

• Use your industry news for inspiration.

• Those taking a thought leadership approach need to do the following…..

Focus on

• Be one of the first to offer a comment or opinion on major industry developments or suggestions as to how your industry can change/improve.

• Take a topic in your industry news or a wider story that affects you

• Move it on to the next level

• Disagree with it

• Offer an analysis of a topical solution

Content ideas for thought leaders

• Most print publications have a ‘voice’ that writers of that publication need to learn: generally it is chatty and fairly informal.

• They also have a structure and a format, and run the same categories of articles week after week.

• Reduce your thinking time by creating regular categories for your blog posts (this is where ‘beauty hauls’ have come from, just easy, regular content)

What can we learn from print publications?

• Many people agonise over writing.

• Your content must be of a quality to reflect your professionalism, but nobody is expecting Pulitzer prize-winning journalism.

• Simply write how you talk

• Your headline is the most important group of words in your post. They answer the “What’s in it for me?” question (and also get picked up by Google)

How to write quickly & easily

• Think about skimmability - we consume online content differently so it needs to be written differently to traditional business content.

• Subheads, one sentence paragraphs, changes in format, images - all capture attention.

How to write quickly & easily

LET’S TALK ABOUT TIME…

• Traditional marketing & online marketing have one thing in common.

• They have to be done consistently over time.

• You can’t just write one or three blog posts and expect them to transform your business.

• Consistency is the key

Let’s talk about time

MARKETING A BUSINESS ONLINE: WHAT TO DO

PHASE 1

• This phase involves website design/landing pages and branding/positioning/and launching or relaunching on social content.

• It doesn’t matter if you already have a website. You still might need to go through this phase.

Phase 1

PHASE 2

• This phase of work involves BLOGGING/social content/newsletter content/PR.

• This is about attraction and ‘free’ reach and getting incoming interest and increasing website traffic, improve SEO and building social followers.

• Website visitors are important for everyone, but especially important if you are considering moving on to phase 3.

• Your website visitors will form the basis of your custom audiences.

PHASE 3

• If you want to up your game and get more leads into your business, then you’re going to want to run ads (whether Facebook or Google) and be considering attraction magnets like webinars or free downloads.

• There is no point in doing that unless DEFINITELY Phase 1 and ideally Phase 2 are all undercontrol.

When it comes to business, blogging is one part of a wider strategy in which all parts

become inextricably linked and interdependent on each other

Q&A COMING UP

ONE TO ONE MENTORING

ONE TO ONE MENTORING

I’ve loved working with Natasha, it’s been great to work with another

women who is driven and ambitious. I love her passion and she’s always

upbeat and so encouraging. It really helped me gain clarity on my work ideas and where I want to head as

well as (all importantly!) taking action to get there.

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