Blog.

Many organisations launch a blog as part of a website launch or revamp, with all the initial excitement that goes along with it. After all, a successful blog can attract more visitors to your website, and act as a testament to your expertise. But how can you keep the momentum going and make your hard work pay off?

What’s the point in setting up a blog anyway?

Content is at the heart of any powerful website, helping to guide visitors through their journey and towards the most desirable outcomes. “Content is king” is a phrase that exists for a reason. So blogs and news sections are a great way to keep a website fresh and give people a reason to keep visiting, fuelling social media feeds and newsletters.

Blogs can be used to…

• Inform: Effectively communicate your aims, goals, objectives, vision and passion
• Educate: Translate complex ideas and notions into easy-to-digest blog posts and articles
• Engage: Invite visitors in, through the use of interactive content and two-way communications including email newsletters
• Entertain: Connect and build relationships through shared delights and pleasures
• Influence: Encourage alternative ways of thinking with thought-provoking pieces
• Demonstrate: Showcase your team’s talents, skills and interests, and build your organisation’s brand
• Share: Reach out to new audiences via social media and guest articles

When a blog becomes a liability

So what gets in the way of your blog making a difference to your marketing efforts?

Cut to three years after your blog launch – someone visits your website, and the last post was dated 18 months ago. So even if the rest of the website is up to date, this makes the user wonder whether you’re still in operation.

It’s ironic that something which is supposed to draw more website traffic can end up putting people off, but that’s exactly what can happen. We’re all busy people, and when the novelty wears off, time pressures mean sitting down to write that next blog post gets put on the back burner.

This is why it’s important to remember that a blog is a living entity – a successful blog needs feeding and regular attention, and consistency is one of the keys to blog success.

Websites with active blogs have 434% more indexed pages and 97% more inbound links than those without, so it’s worth doing to get your website on the map.

Tips for long-term success with your blog

Here are our 7 top tips to maximise the effectiveness of your blog over time:

1. Write down your ideas
   Every time you have an idea for a blog post, write it down somewhere – create a special Word document for them or use a notes app on your phone.
2. Get organised with a schedule
   Create a schedule, with reminders for you to write a post. Even better, block out a little bit of time in your diary.
3. Get the team involved
   If you work in a team, enlist everyone to write the occasional post, and assign each of them a slot on the schedule. Many heads are better than one! See our tips on how to encourage your team to write blog posts.
4. Stockpile your posts
   Before launching your blog, get a few posts written so you’ve always got some in reserve. Successful blogs are all about consistency.
5. Invite guest posts
   Ask guest authors to contribute, in return for a link to their website.
6. Repurpose and reuse
   Be inspired by existing content – is there a case study where you’d like to write about a specific aspect? Is there something that is mentioned briefly on your website that merits further exploration?
7. Just write
   Don’t get too hung up on having to write the most original, stunning insight. Just start writing and see what comes out, you’ll be able to use it somewhere even if it doesn’t end up being a blog post. What’s obvious to you might not be obvious to your target audience.

We help people build successful blogs

If it’s overwhelming or time-consuming to keep your blog up to date, why not let us write your blog posts for you? We offer several plans which provide you with regular content for your blog, website or mailing list.