If you’re like most entrepreneurs, you’re always thinking about ways to generate new business for your company. One of the most effectives ways to create these opportunities is through blogging. Blogging increases your search rank, generates leads, and helps you build trust with prospects.

Here's why blogging is so important, how to create a successful blog, and how to track your success.

Why blogging is important

Educational content is playing a larger and larger role. Companies need to more economically attract strangers, more quickly move them through the sales funnel, then delight customers post sale. This is a tall order for someone who needs to grow top-line-revenue with limited budget. However, by shifting resources toward content creation, namely blogging, you can start to realize these goals.  

 3 reasons to blog

1. Increase visibility

   Blogging increases your likelihood to get found because each new blog post that you write creates a new indexable page. Additionally, high quality blog posts attract inbound links which helps to increase your website's authority.
 

2. Establish credibility

   As you consistently blog about helpful relevant content you will establish yourself as a thought leader. This thought leadership position will help you garner much needed trust as you try and move blog readers to delighted customers.
 

3. Generate leads

   By writing a blog article and pairing it closely with a piece of gated content, you have created a lead generation opportunity on each blog post.

How to create a successful blog

To create a successful blog there are some important practices that you should keep at the forefront of your mind.

1. Align your blog and your buyer

   To excel as a business blogger you need to deeply understand your target buyer. What are their concerns and business problems? Once you have this information you are in a great position to develop highly relevant blog content.
 

2. Research keywords

   As a successful business blogger you need to understand the keywords your buyers are using to find information. Then develop blog posts around those keywords.
 

3. Establish a goal

   It is important that you establish a goal for every blog post that you write. Do you want to teach your audience something, pique their interest in a new technology, or have them think about a problem differently?

 

4. Formatting

   Make your blog look appealing. This might sound elementary, however aesthetics are an important part of successful blogging. Be mindful to do the following: create concise paragraphs, use images, bullets, numbered lists, and finally use headers and subheaders.
 

5. Consistency

   Make sure that you are staying consistent with your blogging frequency so that readers get into a cadence with you posts. Blog twice a week at least. 

Blog promotion and metrics

While blogging is definitely a great way to non-invasively attract strangers to you business, you can additionally promote your blog with email marketing and social media to expand your readership and company visibility. 

1. Social media promotion

   Tap into your company’s and your fan’s network of followers by publishing blog content to social media networks like: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google+.
 

2. Email marketing

   Distribute blog content to your readers via email. This gives readers instant access to the most recent blog content right in their inbox.
 

3. Metrics

   To track the effectiveness of your business blogging you want to frequently monitor metrics like:
   • The number of inbound links
   • Number of views and comments
   • Social engagement metrics like: Linkedin shares, Facebook likes, and tweets 
   • New subscribers
   • New leads generated  

By establishing a business blog you can increase your company's visibility, establish your thought leadership position and economically generate leads. Start by developing a deep domain knowledge of your target buyer then create content that clearly speaks to their business needs and interests. Finally, promote your blog through your website, social media and email marketing channels to fully realize the benefit of this content.