As a product-based business owner, do you produce your own blog posts but are sometimes left wondering if it's really helping you grow your business? Perhaps you feel worn down by the lack of inspiration, or maybe you’re questioning ‘does anyone actually read our blog?’

It's time to get practical, whilst keeping the end goal of increasing store traffic in mind. 

Is all the effort blogging for my business worth it?

When it comes to blogging to grow your business, it may be easy to question, is all of it worth it? If you are doing it all yourself, without a team, you can often spend hours struggling to come up with topic ideas, then writing the post before actually bringing it together and making it audience ready.

Not forgetting to remember SEO, key words and ensuring beautiful images compliment the article! You then have to publish it and share it on the various social media platforms. This can genuinely feel overwhelming. You are not alone! 

These feelings may become even more apparent when you are getting low statistics, or struggling to come up with topics. It could be easy to give up on your branded blog, and spend your attention elsewhere.

But just when your energy is fading and you're wondering whether to give up, we are here to remind you of the bigger picture - the business growth picture!  You need to keep up that blogging momentum - as regular blog posts are really important for audience engagement, to drive traffic to your website and ultimately for business growth. 

Here's how:

1. Our top tips for keeping up blogging momentum

• Create a clear blogging strategy to follow when it comes to writing your branded blogs.  If you don't have one, then I would highly recommend making a plan. Create a grid in an Excel or Word document, where you can lay out the months of the year and assign blog topics next to each month, with notes and the accompanying social media posts, which are needed. This way you can check back on your blogging plan and know exactly what you need to complete each month. This is half the battle done.
• Remember why you are doing this- you want business growth results. This could be audience engagement, building audience trust and brand authenticity and not forgetting, driving traffic to your website! With these reasons firmly in your sights, they should motivate you to get the best results possible for your business. Keep that motivation in mind when you set fingers to keys.
• Create a writing routine. Like with any routine, it can be difficult to form the habit. But, with consistency and careful consideration to when's the best time to write, you will soon be in a happy writing routine. Schedule and block out this precious time to sit down, create and write.
• It’s easier to batch create content and bulk write, so perhaps you need to do this once a week, fortnight or one a month. But by creating a routine and then grouping like content tasks together, you’re more likely to get it done efficiently.
• Carry a virtual notepad with you. It can be the most random of times when inspiration strikes! By having a notepad ready, you can jot down ideas as and when they pop into your mind.
• Make it fun. Whether you allow yourself a treat after you've hit a certain word count, or you sit in a coffee shop and enjoy a delicious mocha whilst you write. Do something that will help you positively associate with writing so that you are less reluctant to do it each month.
• If in doubt - outsource.  You don't have to do all the hard work writing your content if you really don't enjoy it.  There are plenty of freelance content writers who LOVE writing and will happily write your blog posts for a small fee.  If this is you, your blogging strategy is to delegate everything.  Set out the plan, manage the people resources and review the work as it comes in to check it's all on brand and to your quality standard. 

2. Energise yourself with fresh content ideas and find inspiration

• Keep a virtual notepad handy, as you never know when inspiration will strike. I would also suggest having a brainstorm session once a month with a large cup of coffee and lots of colourful pens. Make it fun!
• Ask your audience which topics they would like covered, you could do this using customer feedback forms, or by creating a poll on social media.
• Ensure that Google Auto-Correct is turned on and then search! Using the Google search bar you can begin to type in your subject or business type and find out what the most common searches are surrounding these. You can then use these search results as inspiration for your topics.  Answering the pain points that often pop up for your audience is key to bringing new eye balls to your website. 
• Research top posts in your industry. You can use social media to research top posts in your industry. Join and engage in local, or national Facebook business groups or use the Facebook search tool and find out which hot topics come up. 

By following some of the above, you can quickly and efficiently generate content ideas and find inspiration.

3. Keep the end goal in mind - Business Growth

Please remember why you are blogging. What are the reasons behind your regular blog posts on your website?  It's all about the fundamentals of online business growth:

• To drive more traffic to your website.
• To have more eye balls on your business, a larger audience reading your content.
• To build trust and a positive relationship between a business and their audience.
• To create brand authenticity.

4. Measure to drive success

It is worth regularly reviewing your blogging statistics in Google analytics. This is to ensure you are getting as much opportunity from your blog posts as possible.

For example, if you can see what your most popular blog posts are, you can keep sharing this on social media and create further content similar to the successful ones. This will drive even more success for your business and your blog post reach.

Make It Happen In Your Business

The above tips should help you keep up the blogging for product business growth momentum, even when your energy is dwindling to a standstill. It is important to write regularly and consistently. If you post regularly, you can look forward to driving more traffic to your website, reaching a wider audience and ultimately growing your business.

Next Steps:

• Pause, take a step back and remember why you are doing all this blogging in the first place!  It is for business growth - more traffic and more eyeballs coming to your website and looking at your beautiful products! 
• Create a routine, research and plan your blog topics well and keep your eyes open for inspiration everywhere you look.
• If you would like to talk to us about how we can help you create a unique plan for business growth, tailored just for you, please schedule a call with me.