As with any marketing endeavour, strategy is an important tool that can guide you towards success. In this article, we’ll be discussing the route to successful blogging, and providing you with a template to follow when devising yours. With this, you’ll be able to grow your organic reach and save both time and money in the process.
Blogging is an integral part of any business’s content strategy. When someone visits your website, they expect to see a blog section where you share insightful information. This has many benefits, from increasing your ranking in search engines to providing valuable added benefits to your audience.
Since there are so many blogs out there on the internet, you’ve got to ensure yours serves its purpose optimally and stands out among the rest. To do this, you’ll need to have a blogging strategy. This will help you plan, achieve and find success with this medium. It’ll provide you with direction, ensuring you’re covering the right topics in the best possible way, which will result in maximised blog performance.
When businesses are successful with their blogging strategy, they’ll see it reflected in improved organic reach over time. Once content starts to pay off in this way, you can save time and money that would otherwise be spent on advertising your website and content online through search engine marketing.
To create a strategy for your blog, you’ve got to tackle the major questions, namely the who, what, where, why, when, and how. Here’s a template you can use as a guide when creating yours.
Research is an integral part of the process when it comes to blogging strategies. This covers various factors, such as:
Goal setting needs to be specific and based on informed information, so refer to your research where necessary. Why do you have this blog and what do you want to share on it? Be sure to set short- and long-term goals. Include KPIs where possible so that you can measure the performance of the blog posts as well. Some goals can include:
Create a content calendar to ensure you have a consistent stream of blog posts. Determine the overall structure for your blog posts and the topics you’ll be covering. Once you’ve got that down, you can begin creating the content. This is all about creating a smooth flow of blog posts. To improve the process further, include the keywords for each blog post in the plan so that you can create seamlessly without missing any key points. It is also ideal to arrange and add in your promotional plans if you have any - for example, which social media channels you’ll be sharing the blog posts on.
Once all of the planning is said and done, it’s time to write the blog posts. This should be based on research and insider knowledge to ensure that you’re providing value. Best practices include having a style guide to keep the blog posts consistent. Once the write-ups are ready, be sure to have an editing and proofing system in place to double check content before it is published. The blog posts can be shared manually or scheduled for publishing on a more regular basis.
Optimization is an integral part of creating successful blog posts; your strategy should include the following:
The tools you use to analyse the performance of your website and blog will depend on the platform you use. You can also implement Google Analytics for extra insights to various platforms. It is important to remember that content marketing is a long-term strategy, so measure the results accordingly. Be sure to measure the analytics in accordance with your KPIs and look at metics like:
Based on the guide above, you can see that creating a blogging strategy is a necessity, but also relatively easy to follow. By following these steps, you can ensure the content you create matters and gets seen, thereby improving your rankings and perceptions among audiences.
Nexa is a digital marketing agency based in Dubai. We’ve got a team of content creators that can help implement this strategy for your blog. To begin boosting your blog's performance with us, contact us to get started.