Starting a blog for your business in 2022?

Fun fact: Before I was a destination wedding planner, I was blogging about destination weddings. It’s actually how I ended up starting my own destination wedding planning business. So I know the importance of starting a blog for your business and I am a big advocate for it. As a small business owner, I know that you are introduced to so many marketing strategies that you should implement in your business. I am glad you are here so when you are ready to pick up your pencil, you can avoid making some rookie mistakes so you can see an ROI faster.

New around here? I am Kara and I am a small business owner (Love at First Travel Destination Weddings). I also offer content marketing services for fellow womxn in business because I am INSANELY passionate about content marketing. An investment in a solid content marketing strategy pays off over and over again.

SHOULD WE WORK TOGETHER SO YOU CAN SPEND LESS TIME ON MARKETING AND MORE TIME DOING WHAT YOU LOVE? CHECK OUT MY DFY MARKETING SERVICES HERE.

Prefer to skim? Here’s a quick summary of what you should avoid when starting a blog for your business

• Blogging about topics nobody cares about (or nobody is searching for). Research what your ideal people are searching for before you start writing.
• Are you sharing information or experience? Your blog will convert more if you include stories/personal experience instead of something any google search can answer (ie. instead of writing about how to set up an Instagram account, write about how to set up an Instagram strategy for wedding businesses).
• When you blog, always keep in mind how you will continue the conversation and/or close the sale.
• Bring a Pinterest strategy in from the beginning so that you can get traffic. Check your analytics so you can monitor any “holes” in your sales funnel. Check out my “Should you Outsource your Pinterest” post here as well.

Mistake #1 Blogging about topics nobody cares about (or nobody is searching for)

We have all done this. When you start a blog, you might just pull topics out of a hat. Let me just tell you, there’s a better way. I actually have a WHOLE system for deciding what topics I am going to blog about so that I make sure I am not wasting my precious time. I break this down a little more in my fast & slow marketing guide, and you can grab a free copy here when you sign up for my email list. Inside, I share my favorite places to find blog ideas people are ACTUALLY searching for, so you can save a lot of time.

Did you sign up for the list? Okay, great. I am going to talk about that below in mistake #3 which is not having somewhere to continue the conversation. If you get distracted in the next five minutes and never read until the end, it’s okay. I am going to email you my best advice & behind the scenes information so we don’t have to lose touch. Boom! Email marketing at it’s finest.

Mistake #2 Only sharing facts, not stories

We have all heard that facts tell and stories sell. But there is another reason why using stories/examples in your blog posts is important! Telling stories and sharing your experience will help your readers connect to you (and then buy from you). Anyone can teach them to use hashtags in their Instagram post but you can share your experience on choosing hashtags that convert for your audience. Assuming you are blogging to sell a service, you don’t want to show your readers you can regurgitate what you found on the internet. Show them that you are the expert with real life stories and watch them start inquiring.

Mistake #3 Having no CTA or way to continue the conversation

If you are starting a blog for your business, chances are the goal is sales. Maybe you are more concerned with brand awareness, but chances are even then you want the awareness to lead to sales. When you start to blog, Google is going to start directing traffic to your blog posts that they believe to be helpful. Make sure your blog posts are set up in a way that if someone had never heard of your company before, they have a quick introduction.

Make sure throughout the post, you are pointing them to helpful resources throughout your site (as relevant, of course). This gets easier as you have more content too! Your website should always guide them on what to do next, regardless of what page (or post!) they initially land on.

Do you have a way to continue the conversation if they aren’t ready to make a purchase the same day they find you? Email marketing is not dead. There are certain email lists I am on that I actually enjoy getting every week. We will save the conversation about effective email marketing for another day, but if you don’t have an email list to continue the conversation with your readers, you are going to miss out on sales. Your audience WANTS to continue the conversation, but they might have squirrel brain. Provide value through a solid email strategy and it won’t be long before you are always top of mind.

Shameless plug: Want to get on my list? I give you a free marketing roadmap as bait. You can grab it here.

Mistake #4 Not starting with a solid Pinterest strategy in from the beginning.

Are you using Pinterest for marketing your business yet? If not, you should be. I talk about setting up your Pinterest profile/website for success with Pinterest in this post: 5 things you need to do before Marketing on Pinterest. Tailwind is a MUST for Pinterest so if you use this link you can enjoy a month free (it is an affiliate link but honestly I consider Tailwind essential for both businesses). Assuming you have already done that, let me bring you this thought.

Have you ever heard that if you come into money, it amplifies your current qualities (good or bad)? The same goes for Pinterest. Pinterest traffic will exaggerate problems your business or website already have. No amount of traffic will make up for a website that doesn’t convert or services that you can’t execute properly. This is why it is so important to check your analytics frequently.

Wondering if you are ready to hire someone to take over your Pinterest Marketing? I wrote a whole blog post about whether you are ready to hire a Pinterest manager here.

If you aren’t ready to commit (yet!), make sure to save this post for later.

Starting a blog for your business

Oh boy, we covered a lot here in these four mistakes. Although it might seem basic, these are mistakes I see over and over again. The last mistake I will leave you with (which isn’t for “rookies” necessarily but you might be a culprit if you have tried this before) is leaving dates on your blog posts if you aren’t going to be consistent. Dates can add credibility if in your archives your viewers can see that you blog weekly,  but if your last blog post was from 2017, remove the dates.

Although starting a blog for your business may seem like a lot of work, it is important to remember it is a long term strategy that you can reap the rewards from again and again. Unlike your social media posts which are lucky to still be seen a week after they are posted (and who KNOWS what will happen with IG bringing back the chronological feed!), people can find your blog posts YEARS after you post. Part of having a content marketing strategy is keeping older blog posts updated so that they can continue to bring in customers forever. In fact, this blog post was originally published in May 2020 and has been revamped in January 2022.

Okay, so should you hire someone to write your blog?

If you DO see the value but can’t commit right now, should you consider outsourcing? I did a quick intro at the top but my name is Kara and I offer done for you content marketing services. This means I pitch you a quarterly content marketing strategy aligned with your business goals and I handle the blog post (optimized for SEO and combined with a solid Pinterest strategy) for you! Seriously – should we talk? About how I can help, but also just breathe a sigh of relief that you’ve found someone on the internet who actually wants to do the work (and not *just* teach you how to?). LEARN MORE ABOUT WORKING WITH ME HERE.

Not ready to outsource your blog, yet?