“A goal without a plan is a dream”…
“Failing to plan is planning to fail”…
“Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning”…
How many more cliches about planning and strategising can I throw at you?
Well, probably a lot more!
There are lots of sayings about planning because it is such a vital part of success.
Having a strategy in place and a plan for how you will execute that strategy will mean you take constant and consistent steps towards great end results.
Blogging is no different.
It is a business activity that you complete, hoping to generate good results from it.
So, you need a blogging marketing strategy in place.
What is that?
Well, let’s answer that very question right now!
What Is A Blogging Marketing Strategy?
Blogging is a powerful marketing tool for your business.
When done right, it generates web traffic, builds a strong connection with your audience, allows prospects to know more about what you do and how you can help them, plus, it creates opportunities for sales conversations.
The key part of successful blogging is making sure you do it right.
You can’t just throw one blog on your website and expect clients to flock to your business. There has to be some element of marketing strategy around it.
This strategy will help you connect with the right people in the right places and give them the kind of content that will be interesting and compelling.
Let’s explore how you can do that:
Building A Strong Marketing Strategy
At the heart of any marketing strategy is your ideal client.
Yep, that old chestnut!
If you don’t know who your target audience is, then your blogging will not be as effective as it could be.
However, if you understand who has need for your services, who is willing to pay for them, and who you can help the most with your solutions, then you can create some really targeted content.
Your blogging strategy should be part of your overall marketing plan. That way, you can capitalise on all the benefits across each of your channels.
You can use your blog as cornerstone content that all the rest of your other content is drawn from. Work smarter, not harder by pulling social, video, email, and advertising content from the one place.
This creates a consistent message and means you don’t have to come up with hundreds of different ideas every month. It saves you time and brain power, huzzah!
Creating Your Strategy
So, how do you create a blogging marketing strategy?
Well, once you have your ideal client figured out, you want to use your strategy to connect with them and entice them towards your business.
Form a list of potential blog topics that align with your marketing focuses for the year. These topics could be evergreen content, specific to certain times of the year, or aligned with one off events. Don’t forget to cover off popular holidays or industry specific dates.
Refine those topics into a loose content plan for the year. Decide how many blogs you will produce each month and lock them into your diary. Consistency is a really important part of blogging, so keep this in mind when strategising.
Remember that blogs are only good if people know that they are there. So, also add ways to share your articles into your marketing strategy. That could be on social media, to your email database, in online groups you are part of, or via paid advertising.
Don’t forget to include ways to make your content go further every month.
This could be breaking the blog down into 5x social media posts, creating 2x memes from stand out lines in the article, creating a newsletter introduction for each blog to send to your database, and a video post to accompany it.
Implementing Your Strategy
Having a marketing strategy is one thing. But, that strategy is not going to do you any good unless you implement it!
So, you want to carve out time in your diary to actually do the tasks involved with the strategy. Set aside time windows to research and write your blog. Plus, also allocate time to pull the other content from the finished piece.
Having someone to hold you accountable for getting this implementation done can be really helpful. It is very easy to flake on yourself. But, if you have a VA waiting to publish your content, it is a lot harder to pike out!
If you don’t have a VA, then you can use your business coach, a mentor, or even an accountability buddy to keep you on task and getting that stuff written!
Or, if you are looking for a super productive space to regularly get your content written, then why not join my Blogging Club?
With fortnightly focused time to write and access to a bunch of cool blogging resources, you are guaranteed to remain on track with your implementation.
Book a time to chat with me to see if The Blogging Club is for you.