Blogging Best Practices
Heather Rubesch
02/22/2012 10:45AM
Last month I introduced you to the benefits of blogging and recapped the features of the Doodlekit blogging platform that is included with every Doodlekit site! This month we take blogging one step further with some practical how to’s for getting you starting.
But what do I write?
When I talk with clients about blogging the question I get most often is “what do I write?” If you have been in business or in your industry longer than 1 year then you know more about your area of expertise than 99% of the general population. I suggest you start a list of the following things:
- For a few weeks write down every question a customer asks you. Separate list into questions from new customers verses existing customers.
- Does your business change seasonally? Do you offer different services in December than in June? If so make a list my month or season
- Is there legislation, regulation or licensing that affects your business / industry? If so write down those rules
- Is there anything innovative going on? New materials, new process, new equipment that older customers might not be up to speed on?
- Is your industry in the news? Set up some Google Alerts based on key words. A super quick blog post when you have no time is simply to post to journalistic news stories that are of interest to your customer base.
- Do you have some happy customers who are willing to do a case study or provide a testimonial?
My guess is that based on the above list you have anywhere from 12-50 possible topics. If you have 50 then you have one per week for the rest of the year. Skip directly to the section below on Editorial Calendar.
If you only have 12 topics then you have enough material for one post every two weeks for half of the year. Still a good start but I want you to keep making the lists above every month. Keep recording customer questions. Keep your eye out for innovation, legislation, etc that you can add to your editorial calendar. Consistency is key with blogging and you need at least one post per week, 4 per month, 50 per year to really have a blog presence.
Editorial Calendar
This is a fancy way of saying “the schedule of what you are putting in the blog when”. If more than one person in your business is going to be a contributor to your blog then it is important to keep the schedule somewhere that all parties can edit it. One of my fellow bloggers on the SavvyB2Bmarketing.com blog created a great editorial calendar template a few years ago and it is free to download.
If you are truly the only one who is going to contribute to your blog then a formal editorial calendar might be overkill but take a look at the template above just so you have an idea in your mind of what you need to be tracking. Then when you are done looking use your calendar program (Outlook, Google Calendar, iCal, etc) to set up a reoccurring event every week to keep yourself honest. Use the notes field of that reoccurring event to track prospective ideas for future blogs.
Have Fun
Writing a blog is not like writing your high school term paper. I should be fun. If you are in a business or industry that you care at all about then let that passion come through. The important thing is to be conversational and authentic. Your blog is your chance to introduce your business and all its benefits to prospective customers. If you aren’t a natural writer then hire an editor or proofreader to help you get started but make sure the tone and collaboration are still true to who you and your business are.
Stay tuned for next month’s installment where we touch on tagging and SEO optimization. For now just focus on getting one blog post a week out there and we will worry about tweaking those with tags and key words after they are written!
About the Author: Heather Rubesch is currently the Director of Content for DemandCon, the only industry conference focused on accelerating the entire sales and marketing funnel. Her penchant for collaboration drew her 3 years ago to co-found the Savvy B2B Marketing blog with five of the most talented content marketers in the universe!
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