“Plan your work, work your plan.” It’s a truism that applies to just about every aspect of our business and personal lives. It’s especially true when it comes to your company blog.
If you’ve been blogging without any consistency, you’ve been putting forth effort and likely not receiving much reward for that effort. Maybe it’s time to get a little more control over your message and its frequency. Setting a schedule for blogging helps you to focus your efforts toward a consistent message and helps to promote your business.
You know, perhaps better than anyone, that writing can be hard work. From the development of an idea to the actual scribing of the idea, the road is saturated with distraction. But if you’re going to make a commitment to a regular blogging schedule, establishing a plan for it will help you to stay the course.
There are two basic elements to an effective blogging schedule:
- Realistic frequency
- Regular posting days
Obviously, there’s more to blogging than that, but setting a realistic frequency and determining what days you will regularly post are the cornerstones of consistency for a company blog.
This is where a bit of research will further your efforts. Establishing a schedule that includes a consistent frequency and specific posting days also requires that you have some basic information about your intended audience (your customers) and their habits, particularly if you are planning on sharing links to your blog posts via social media. What’s more, blogging consistently furthers your reach; if you’re providing good, consistent, relevant content, search engines will take notice.
An established blogging schedule is only the beginning, however. Frequency and regular posting days may be the cornerstones of a consistent blogging schedule, but you must build upon that foundation with content. Unless you’re clear on what topics you’re going to address on the company blog, you’re wasting your audience’s time. Developing a pool of topics that relate to your company and its core business is essential to creating good content.
What’s the Best Way to Start Blogging for Business?
When you’re establishing your blog, you must make sure that the content contained therein is consistent with your brand. Look at your core business and review your assets. What topics can be addressed that will position your company as knowledgeable in your field? Do you have any collateral that can be repurposed on your blog? Talk with your sales team. What are the questions that your customers are asking? Begin with broad topics, and nest subtopics beneath them. You will find, too, that topics will often beget topics. List your topics and subtopics, and begin to plan their placement on your schedule. Once you have a course of action, you can begin the endeavor of writing.
The tried-and-true methods of writing are the same now as when you were in school. Removing distractions and blocking out a chunk of time to focus on the task at hand will help you to write productively. You can also develop an author pool from your staff roster, allowing you to assign and delegate certain topics and share the responsibility for good content. Many companies are now outsourcing their writing and only have to spend time suggesting topics to their contracted content marketing writer. However you decide to handle the task of creating content, your blogging schedule will help you to stay on topic and on track.
It’s easy to let the everyday business of business slip in front of creating content for the company blog, but remember, blogging is an investment in the future of your business. By posting relevant content with consistency, you create an information pool and a company brand, which goes a long way to earning customers now and in the future.
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