Starting a Marketing Blog: Where do You Even Begin?

Blogs are a 90s baby, and were first spawned as a sort of online journal for budding writers. Nowadays they’re so much more than an internet diary. From teenagers holed up in their bedrooms to professional B2B writers, it can feel like the world of blogging is pretty saturated. But there are ways to stand out, and marketers shouldn’t be shy of taking the plunge – there are just a few things to consider first.

Where you’ll host it

Though there are many platforms worth researching, WordPress is pretty common and user-friendly for even the most inexperienced bloggers; in fact, about 75 million sites use it and it powers approximately 22% of the entire Internet.

Once you get your head around the basics, it’s pretty easy to use and can be customised to suit your branding. Speaking of which…

Design

The first thing your readers will notice about your blog is how it looks, so consider the design carefully. Even small things such as making sure the colour scheme ties in with your branding can make it look all the more professional. WordPress has a selection of paid and free themes, but if you’re after a specific design it’s worth hiring a web designer to carry this out for you.

Accompanying blog posts with images or illustrations will make them stand out more to the reader, and you could even consider commissioning illustrators to create specific artworks for your posts but there are always open source images.

What you’ll write about

Blogging can be a welcome break from the nitty-gritty of content marketing. This is where you can have a bit of fun, so don’t be afraid to get creative and let your personality come through in your writing. How about bringing in your favourite pop culture references?

And don’t just stick to a long-form post. It’s sometimes helpful to break things up in the form of a listicle or slideshow so your readers don’t lose interest. You have approximately three seconds to harness their internet attention span before they flee from your site, and sometimes a long post can do more harm than good. Start with smaller, more generalised topics to reel them in and they’ll come back wanting more.

Do your research

Setting aside time to thoroughly research the topic you’re going to be writing about is half the job done already, even if you think you’re an expert. Don’t be afraid to branch out into the unknown.

Get it checked over

Have someone else look over your work, particularly if it’s a new topic you’re not sure about. You need to have your content fact-checked, as well as sub-edited for any spelling or grammar mistakes. Ask the person reading your post if they understand it, whether the structure is appropriate and invite them to make suggestions where they’re needed.

SEO

This has been the biggest blogging buzzword for a while now, but it essentially means the process of optimising a website for search engine visibility. You can get plugins on WordPress to help you get started with SEO if you’re unfamiliar, but there are a few basic concepts to remember:

- Research which keywords your audience are searching for about the topic you’re covering, then use these in your text
- Use internal linking: link to previous content you’ve written if you can
- Think of a good title: use the keywords you’ve researched and make it as succinct as possible

SEO seems to know no bounds these days so this is by no means a comprehensive list but it’s a good place to start.

Sharing

Many WordPress themes include the ability to have social buttons on your website – use these well! Make sure they’re visible to the reader – they don’t want to have to go to the ends of the earth just to post it on Facebook.

Similarly, make use of your own social media accounts such as LinkedIn to boost engagement, making sure to include the relevant tags and hashtags to increase your reach. With lead nurturing, blogging can be a useful tool to keep fresh leads engaged by sharing your posts via email to help push them down the sales funnel.

Analytics

Your blog strategy is nothing without the use of analytics. It’s no use expanding on a topic if no-one liked it in the first place, so take the time to look into whether your audience engaged with it or not. There’s a Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, however that’s not the only solution. Find one that works for you and create reports to figure out what’s going right and wrong and how to move forward.

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