Do you have a social media strategy in place for 2012? Have you set goals for your business blog? Your business blog is there to bring you in sales and leads, to showcase your products and services. Following on from this post I spotted over at Problogger and as this topic came up at our KLCK bloggers network meeting on Monday night, I thought it would make a good topic for consideration.
Image: Digital Photos
Problogger sets out some suggestions for new bloggers to ensure they maintain their blog regularly.
e.g. I will write ______ blog posts per week/month equalling _____ posts a year
I will write _____ guest posts per month equalling ______ guest posts a year.
I think this is a very good idea as it keeps you focused. However, I am going to make some more suggestions to ensure that your business blog delivers on your goals.
- Decide on the main aim for your blog – is it to increase sales or is it to define you as an expert for example? It could be both.
- Aim to write a realistic number of blog posts per week, be it one, two or more.
- Consider having a topic that you use every week (this really helps to focus the mind and timetable as you can schedule this post in advance and you will find you’ll always have something for it). For example, I make Wednesday my ‘Wallpaper Wednesday’ post on my Garrendenny Lane blog.
- Always use the keyword research tool (see here for how to use it effectively) and evaluate its success by analysing the visits daily – what keywords are being used by those people finding your blog?
- Decide how you will evaluate the success of the blog – will you measure by creating a funnel within Google analytics and see how many sales or leads come from your blog? Will you rely on asking people how they found you? Will you judge by the interaction within the comments and on facebook and twitter?
- What are your ‘buying readers’ looking for? Information? Quality products? Great service? Bargain prices? Expertise? Trends? Reassurance? Friendly customer service? Decide on your targets and these are the messages you have to communicate within the blog posts.
Your aims might be something like:
I will write ______ blog posts each month for Jan/Feb/March using the keyword research tool. I will evaluate the reasons for increased site traffic and to what extent business has increased as a result.
I want to focus on ______ (a particular product or service). Hence, my blog posts every Thursday will be about that type of service/product.
What are my goals for my blogs?
For Wallpaper Review – I will be evaluating the effectiveness of the keyword analysis tool (the only tool I am using to attract traffic) and seeing if it results in significant increased traffic and sales over to my online shop.
For Garrendenny Lane – I recently wrote my thousandth blog post (in just under 4 years). I intend to write 3 blog posts a week – providing readers with tips and suggestions rather than simply telling them about new products and incorporating a degree of personal details/personality into most posts.
For Write on Track – I plan to write two blog posts a week. One will be focusing on blogging tips for beginners and I would like to create an e-book from those particular blog posts by the end of the year.
Now that my goals are written down and published, I will do my best to stick to them!
Do you think this is a good idea? Have you already decided on your goals for your business blog? Do let us know your thoughts in the comments. If you need help putting together a strategy for your business blog for 2012, do get in touch with Marie or I.
Happy and successful blogging for 2012, Lorna
Pingback: Goals For Your Business Blog - Write On Track