How to Start a Blog for Your Brand

Blogging. It’s the backbone of any successful website for most businesses. There are many benefits to having a blog attached to your website; it allows you to introduce yourself and your business to your customers, it can boost relationships with clients and you can share useful, relevant information about your industry that will get you noticed in the search engine results pages (SERPs). It’s one of the most effective SEO techniques used to get your website noticed and visited online. But what happens if you don’t have a blog already? We’re on hand to tell you how to start one for your brand today.

Choose a content management system

The very first thing you need to do before implementing a blog is to choose somewhere to host it. This is otherwise known as a content management system. There are several on the market available for you to choose from, from WordPress to Blogger. But you will need to do some research into them first in order to determine which one is best for you, your business and your operations. Some of the content management systems available to you include:

• WordPress – an easy-to-use platform that has some advanced features available for those who need them. The basic version is free to use, but most businesses pay a monthly fee in order to get the most out of their blogging experience
• Tumblr – while this can be used more as a social media platform, Tumblr has a user-friendly interface that makes it ideal for writing and publishing articles. It’s a good platform to use if you want to stay on-trend and, best of all, it’s free
• Blogger – a free platform that’s been on the scene since 1999, it’s been credited as a game-changer in the digital publishing market. It has simple templates available, and it can also be linked to your other Google accounts, including Google AdSense
• Ghost – this has built-in SEO features to make the platform easy to use for those who aren’t sure about the ins and outs of SEO techniques and content. It’s not a popular or widely-used content management system, but it certainly gets the job done 

Keep your readers coming back

This is a lot easier said than done. But the key to having a successful blog is to make sure that you have readers and visitors coming to your site regularly that are engaging with the content you’re publishing. 

Without this, there’s no point to your blog in the first place. What you want to do to make sure that your readers keep coming back for more is to keep your content relevant, informative and interesting. 

You should also look to publish something at regular intervals, either once a week or bi-monthly. This means that your audience will know when to come back for some fresh content. Here are some other tips for keeping your readers coming back:

• Encourage them to sign up to your subscriber list
• Link to other related or relevant posts
• Write guest posts for other bloggers
• Respond to the comments that are left behind
• Give them a piece of your personality, or the personality of your company
• Post regularly and consistently
• Try writing a blog series
• Promote your posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media platforms
• Ask other bloggers to post on your site
• Optimise your content for SEO
• Write great titles
• Add a call to action (CTA) at the end of each post
• Make sure the content is of a good quality

Put together a content calendar 

We’ve just touched on the importance of publishing content regularly and consistently. One of the most effective ways of making sure that you’re keeping on schedule and are on track with your content ideas is to put a content calendar together in some form. 

You don’t have to have fancy, super-detailed content calendars in order to get the job done successfully. It could be as simple as generating something on Microsoft Word or even using Google Sheets to make a content calendar that works for you. 

However, if you’re looking to use something that’s more professional, then there are plenty of free templates that you can download on the internet. But this isn’t always necessary. It’s entirely up to you when it comes to developing your content calendar and the tools you use to get it done.

Generate relevant content ideas

Generating your content ideas is the first step in establishing a successful blog for your business. More importantly, however, those ideas need to be relevant to your industry and to your business. Otherwise, there’s no reason for readers to click on your site and purchase your goods or undertake your services. 

The articles you publish need to link back to the products and/or services you offer in order to generate leads and encourage conversations and sales. In addition, it also generates traffic to your site that you might not have had otherwise. But this will all be a waste of time if your content is random and doesn’t relate, in any way, to your industry or what you’re offering, so keep this in mind.

Choose a domain & blog name

Choosing a domain name or a name for your blog is far easier if you already have a website that it can be attached to. If anything, you’re more likely to already have a domain name, so that’s one less thing to worry about. 

There’s an option for you to have a name for your blog, if you’d like. However, clients who already have a website established often don’t choose another name for their blog. They will simply have the website page labelled as ‘blog’ or ‘news’. 

It’s entirely up to you. If, however, you’re looking to set up an entirely new blog that’s not related to your business, then generating a blog name is your first priority. Here are some tips for coming up with a great name for your blog:

• Make it memorable so that it stands out
• Make sure it relates to your product or service 
• Make it distinctive from other blog names on the market or in the industry 

Make SEO a priority

SEO is the best thing you can do to get your blog noticed online. There are multiple SEO techniques that need to be used when it comes to publishing content, many of which you might not be aware of if you’ve never done this before. This is where getting the help of a digital marketing agency comes into play. We can do some keyword research for you, along with other analytical research that will make sure your blog and the posts you write for it stand out from the crowd. 

Look to the professionals for help

One of the easiest ways of starting a blog is to enlist the help of a digital marketing agency. Here at Kumo we’re able to implement a blog on your behalf and we can even generate ideas and write the content for you in an SEO-friendly manner. This gives you more time to focus on your business and its operations, rather than on getting noticed online. You can leave that to the marketing professionals, such as us here at Kumo. If you’re looking to implement a successful blog on your website, then choose us to get the job done for you.

Kumo is a dedicated digital marketing agency based in the heart of Nottingham. We have over two decades of experience in the marketing industry, so you’ll be able to count on us to propel your business into the spotlight. For more information about our SEO, PPC, content writing and website design services, to name just a few, get in touch with a member of our expert, friendly team today – we’re pleased to serve clients throughout the UK.