Blogs can be a great way to build up an audience and raise awareness of your brand. However, it can be time consuming and difficult creating regular fresh content.

There is a lot of conflicting advice over how many blog posts you should produce and how long they should be. However, one thing is known – the more frequently you post useful information, the more results you are going to see.

If you want to streamline your blogs and gain the most benefits, a blog strategy can help. However, it’s important to keep it realistic. If you don’t, you’ll find it impossible to follow.

Read on to learn how to create a realistic blog strategy for your small business.

Like with anything in business, you need to have a goal in mind for your blog. What will its main purpose be? Some of the main goals businesses have when publishing regular blog posts include:

• Driving foot traffic to a local store

• Attracting new customers

• Increasing sales

• Educate your audience

• Build up brand awareness

Of course, it’s possible to do all of these things over time. However, it helps to understand your main focus before you get started. What is the most important goal you should work towards?

When you have a good idea of the goals of the blog, it’s time to decide where you are going to host it. There are two main options here. You can:

Host the blog directly on your website. This will help with driving organic traffic to your site. It can also indirectly help with increasing sales as the reader is already on your website.

Or

Host a standalone blog. This will be published on a separate site with its own web address. Businesses can benefit from this type of blog, but typically it is better to host one directly on your website.

When it comes to creating blog posts, you need to know the type of content to produce. For this, you are going to need to carry out extensive market research.

Look for where your ideal customers and clients hang out. What are their main pain points and which type of content do they most enjoy consuming?

The more you understand your target audience and their needs, the more effective your blog strategy will be.

Now that you have a good idea of where and what to post, it’s time to come up with a list of topics.

There are lots of ways to do this including looking at what your competitors post and using keyword research tools. The latter will give you a good idea of what your target audience are searching for. You can then create posts that solve their common search queries.

Having a list of blog topics ready to go can save you a lot of time in the long run.

Another thing that’s going to make your life easier is creating blog posts in advance. Just like with social media posts, you can schedule blog posts to be published at certain times.

If you create a batch of blogs while you have time, it lets you focus on other things throughout the month. If you don’t have the time to create blog posts in advance, consider outsourcing. Many local businesses outsource their blog content. Not only can it save you time, but it can also ensure the posts you publish are high-quality.

Each blog post you produce should have a strong Call to Action. That doesn’t mean being too promotional at the end of each post. It could be that you are trying to encourage more engagement. In this case, asking a question and getting your audience to answer in the comments would be a good CTA.

If you follow these tips, you’ll be able to put together a great blog strategy for your local business. Don’t forget, if you want to see results from your blog posts, you’re going to need to market them. Link to them on your social media channels and include a link on any emails you send.