Episode 18 - Blogging for Business

Esther

Good morning and welcome to the Monday morning marketing podcast. I'm Esther.


Melanie

And I'm Melanie.


Esther

And today we're talking about blogging for your business. Why should we do that?


Melanie

Well, simply put, if you don't, it's much, much harder to get your business found online. Now, the hope is that you start your business with a website, I know it can be quite expensive, especially when you're first starting out, but you can get simple one-page websites that you can update relatively cheaply and you can get them just initially just to get your business started, and then, later on, you can get a proper paid professional website done by people like Esther.


Esther

Thanks to the plug. Yes, we do websites. Melanie, on the other hand, does blogging. So, Melanie, answer some questions for us, what is the point of blogging?


Melanie

Helps you become an authority, first and foremost, if you can actually put in writing what your knowledge is about and kind of make it as general as possible to appeal to a wider audience, you've got a greater chance of attracting people, sales from it. I mean, everybody has to think of a sales funnel, fundamentally, that's where you have to start from, building awareness is first and then ultimately conversion is lost, so by creating awareness, by writing about what you know and by sharing it with people freely, it makes it much easier to convert eventually, later.


Esther

So what should we be writing about?


Melanie

Well, the type of business I'm in and you are in replacing in social media marketing as well as your designing websites is I tend to write down what questions I'm asked during the week, and sometimes you forget what you know. Have you noticed that?


Esther

Yeah, yeah, all the time.


Melanie

And so it could be the most basic question to us but could be getting actually started, rather people's write down the questions that people ask you and you'll find that there will be some frequently asked questions that really do need covering, certainly for your particular market, and it doesn't really matter what kind of market you're from, but if you put those out maybe one or two a month and then you share it out consistently and regularly, bearing in mind the hope is, is you're going to be attracting new audience all the time. Well, that's the hope, anyway.


Esther

Yeah, yeah, so what should we say, top tips, five things to do, 10 things to do. Is there a magic number?


Melanie

No, I've not found one. I know that some people refer to the odd number because it stands out better, but I honestly don't think it really matters, one thing I don't like a lot of people doing, as I say, the reasons why you're doing it wrong, the reasons why you're making five great big mistakes and I find it all so negative, I mean, maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I try not to say just how much of people are being, I try and say, look, this is how you improve, this is how you can advance yourself, this is how you can better your time slots and that sort of thing, rather than saying they're making huge mistakes.



Yeah. Like don't kick a man when he's down, you know? So you touched there a second ago on SEO, which is how people can find your blog, and what would you recommend people do or use for their SEO's is their secret sauce?


Melanie

If only now? Well, first of all, SEO search engine optimization and it's mostly key words about your business, how you would describe your business and more importantly, how others would describe your business as well.


Esther

Yes, yeah, very important there, as Melanie said, you know, think about the questions you've been asked recently. That's what people are searching for. That's what people are looking for, how to X, Y, Z, what do I do if?


Melanie

Yeah. And you know, try not to be too techie in how you explain things either, certainly in blogs, because this could well be the first and possibly only time you speak to these people, and if you just baffled and no go elsewhere and get a clearer, better explanation from someone else and they won't bother looking anywhere else on your web site, but blogging for business doesn't have to be just on your website, blogging for business can be done on Google My Business, which is rapidly becoming my favourite secondary web site, if you like. You can also blog, if you like, on Facebook, which is a section called Notes, and unlike your Facebook news feed, which scrolls slowly down each time you add a new post, there's a section called Notes that you can add on to your template, and it will keep your blog posts, if you like, for want of a better word, much more discoverable in the notes section, on your Facebook page when your business pages.


Esther

Yes, that's a good tip for people. What about LinkedIn? Because you can write articles there.


Melanie

Yes, there are articles that you can write on LinkedIn. I find that they're not as easy to find again as it is in Notes on Facebook, but one hugely good thing about LinkedIn is it's updated daily, so every time you put up fresh content, it is notarized and found and echoed every single day by Google, and that means that your content gets found far more easily.


Esther

Yeah, that's good, and also guest blogging, like Melanie you would write blogs for other websites as well.


Melanie

Yes and yes I am going to plug the mess to thank you for the key, so what I do write for Irish Tech News and I do write for startup mindset and I do write for Women's Spy Network as well, and you know, it's great, great people to write for, to be honest with you, startup mindset is an American one, women's inspire is based here in Ireland, in the Republic of Ireland.


Esther

But it is international.


Melanie

And Irish tech news, although it's called Irish Tech News, is actually rapidly becoming European.


Esther

Yeah. And what would you say to people who get asked to guest blog but are also expected to pay to appear on those guest blogs?


Melanie

It very much depends. Sometimes it is worth doing, but you need to do your research first, you need to find out who their audience is, how they are going to be plucking you because the whole point you're paying is for them to pay to promote you afterwards if they're not going to promote you and they can't give you a concise enough breakdown of the audience that knows the people are going to be visiting your website, there's absolutely no point doing it, I have been stung by that before in my youth.


Esther

Yes. Yes. Before we get all the experience behind us, we have to have a few fatalities along the way and a few failures along the way, but we learn. It does. But there are you know, you have to be aware of there are scammers everywhere online, unfortunately, and just be careful of who you're getting into bed with, so to speak.


Melanie

But there are tools that can help you if you're not using other people's websites, although they are valuable, battling the web lies, some of them can be fantastic links, some of the tools I use for my blogs because let's face it, I don't know how long it takes you to blog, but it could take me days to blog post 14, 15 hundred words, 2000 sometimes, and you sweat over that and then you share it, and some people never share it again, which is bonkers. So it's the habit of using tools like Missing Letter, which says it for you, it is a powerful platform granted, then you can put it on, Post-Planer, you can put it on Quuu Promote, you can put it on, Buffa, I mean, they're all paid for areas, alternatively, if you're disciplined enough, you can share it out for free on HootSuite, you can have up to three platforms completely free on HootSuite and you share the link using a link which is free, and then you can use I mean, you can use the Hootsuite Analytics, but I personally prefer the analytics on Bitly, I find them easier to read, and so and then you can understand where it's been shared, it's been shared by even the genders.


Esther

Yeah, yeah. And it's important to remind our audience that we are not being paid by these people to promote them, but they are platforms that we have used and liked in the past. So what would closing up what would be your top tips for somebody who's just starting out and blogging?


Melanie

Writes a list of the next 12 months of seasonal blog titles that would be useful, also, try and think of how you can answer people's questions, make sure it's clear enough that their future queries are answered, make sure you share it afterwards, please.


Esther

Yeah. Yeah, and one more question. How often should people blog?


Melanie

Absolute minimum once a month. Absolute, absolute minimum. But if you're writing for other people like I am, then it's like once a month with each of them.


Esther

Well, this turned into more of an interview to you than a chat between us, but Melanie is the go-to person when it comes to blogging and getting your blogs found online, and it's because of all the blogging that she did before that she was fined by Irish Tech News and asked to collaborate, so I mean, keep up the good work, Melanie, and thanks for all your top tips for our audience. We'll be back next week for another episode of the Monday morning marketing podcast. Stay safe, everyone.


Melanie

Bye.