I was perusing the Small Business News earlier and came across this post on business planning and how it applies to your blog and/or website. I have to be honest, the concept of a business plan for the blog was something that struck me as being slightly over the top.
What was actually being suggested was ensuring that you have goals and plans set for your business blog rather than the full scale monster business plan that we are all familiar with. This made complete sense to me.
Unless your blog is a hobby and you are literally writing purely to share your ideas/views with the world, then the chances are you are hoping that your blog will bring customer traffic to your site. If this is the case, then the message that you need to put on it should be relevant and compelling to the person reading it – especially if you are going to convert them into a paying customer.
So what should I put in this blog plan?
When you consider this, having a business plan or set of goals for your blog is critical to your success. It needs to answer the following questions at a minimum;
What exactly am I trying to achieve?
Increase in sales, brand awareness, product awareness, customer information portal… Once you have determined this, then the next question you should try and answer is;
What message am I going to put out there?
Demonstrating subject expertise is the number one reason for blogging in business. Show what you know, help people out and let them find you if they want more of your help (product or service). Make it relevant to your product and/or service without doing a sales pitch.
Some examples; Jim and Danny are a couple of experts at doing this. They don’t ram their services down your throat, they let you know what they know about and give you the opportunity to find them if you are interested in working with them.
How do I construct a decent blog post?
The first thing that I would say is “be yourself”. Use your own language and phrasing and don’t be forced. If you are, it comes through over time and people will stop reading you.
If you’d like to read a seriously detailed and relevant (I thought) “how to” on writing a blog, check out this post from Lisa Barone who knows a thing or two on the subject!
How am I going to measure its success?
There are two matrices that are relevant from my perspective;
1. Increased readership.
2. Click through to the place on your site where they spend money directly or that will lead them to spending money!
Build into your plan how you are going to measure these things and what actions you will take to ensure that both things are happening. Remember, it’s a slow process and things may go wrong.
Don’t worry, it will pay off in the end if you stick to your plan.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Barney Austen. Barney Austen said: Do you have a plan for your blog? http://cot.ag/9G6sh6 (Todays post) [...]
What a fantastic post!
So many people ignore the one basic of blogging, regardless of whether it's personal, business or otherwise – what am I hoping to achieve?
Go into blogging without this one simple target laid out, and you'll pretty much wander about all over the place until you really find your voice/niche. And that can be a loooong time otherwise…
Thanks for the shout out, too – really appreciate it, and Jim and Lisa are awesome bloggers.
Have a great one!
Solid advice. Business blogging is a different beast from personal blogging. It requires some advanced planning to execute a blog that achieves goals for the company. These plans can be written down, or even an idea in your head that is always in the forefront.
My advice – Don't listen to a-list bloggers that say pick a large niche/topic, so you can reach more people. If your niche is small and specific, then your blog should match that niche. So you only get 20 readers. Those 20 readers are probably worth 200 or 2000 general visitors to a larger topic blog.
You want to reach your ideal client. That client may be few and far between, but you want to reach them nonetheless.
Hello Danny. Thanks for visiting and the comment. Agree with you on the simple target, sometimes need to check ourselves to make sure we're sticking to it.
Welcome on the shout-out, always enjoy the read at yours
Best
Hello Rob. Thanks for the comment. I like the concept of the niche. I know a few people who only have a few readers —- but they got business from them, which is what they were aiming for. They are all niche players and it's working for them.
Thanks for sharing.