Picture this! Sitting on your sofa, it’s raining outside, you’re tired and you have a running plan to stick to! After weeks of initial enthusiasm and determination, the reality and size of your task kicks in! Gone out the window is your dream of becoming an Olympic hero and suddenly you want to quit!
Running is probably one of the hardest endurance sports to master. It requires practice, pace and patience. It’s also one of the healthiest activities and a great way to get fit. At the turn of every year most people set out to get fit and want to be healthier. People join a running club gym, bootcamp or find a running programme to build up their fitness.
It’s interesting to see people’s determination and excitement prior to starting a fitness programme. On goes the shiny new and expensive runners, shorts, running t-shirts, etc. All of a sudden you feel like you can run for miles and miles. You feel like you can take on the Olympics greats and in your head you think ‘Jaysus I can beat Mo Farrah, I feel this good’. You stretch, warm up, hit play on your IPod and get set for a journey you think is going to bring glory! How hard can this be?
It all sounds good, doesn’t it? You wish you could feel this good and determined before every run. Once you set on your maiden run and get over a certain distance all of a sudden reality hits. With every agonising metre you scream… THIS ISNT GOING TO BE EASY!
Blogging in many respects is like running. People set out with great intentions, plans and goals. They see blogging as the great white hope of achieving astronomical marketing results! However like running people often forget that blogging requires effort, consistency, motivation and persistence. If you have all these ingredients blogging can become a great source to build your brand and be at the centre of lead generation. Blogging should be an important element of your Content Marketing Strategy.
When I mention blogging to clients I can see their faces turn ashen and almost repulse at the thought. They worry about the time it takes to blog and what I commonly hear is ‘Sure, what would I write about. I’m not an author or anyway creative’. The beauty about blogging is that you don’t have to write works of Shakespearean Art or a Greek Tragedy! Blogging is not about perfection or being a literacy genius.
Blogging is a reflection of you, your brand and can achieve great results for your business. Always remember Blogging is not a sprint it’s a middle distance run (if I said marathon it might scare people!)
The main benefits of blogging are:
- Brand Storytelling – Gives an insight into your business, history and brand philosophy
- Creates a personality
- Helps boast SEO, the more quality content you publish the more it helps to rank your website on Google
- Demonstrate thought leadership, influencer and expertise
- Promotional Tool
- Lead Generation particularly for B2B
- Educating customers/clients on your service or product
- Can be used to promote a Marketing Campaign
Now that you can see the beneficial effects that a blog can have for your business, here are some tips to unlock your potential as a blogging Pro:
- Schedule – It’s important to schedule time to write your blog. Ensure to give yourself at least half an hour to an hour to write your blog.
- Frequency – Write at least one blog per week. The more blogs you write the more your brand becomes visible online.
- Structure and Ideas – Before you start your blog quickly write down ideas that you want to discuss and the structure that your blog is going to take e.g. Provide Top 10 tips.
- Length – Decide how long you want your blog to be. There is no rule of thumb of how long your blog should be. Ensure that the Content is relevant, easy for people to consume and is interesting. It’s about Quality not Quantity!
- Personality – Ensure that the blog reflects your personality and brand. Therefore ensure you write your own blog. I know it’s scary as people are conscious of their writing style. Don’t worry we are not talking about writing War and Peace! Write from your heart and head.
- Inspiration– Writers block, there is nothing as worse as hitting the wall in terms of topics to write about! Sources can come from anywhere such as current events in the media, news from your business, people behind your brand, topics on Social Media etc.
- Type of Blog – Usually the most popular type of blogs are Lists e.g. ‘Top 10 Tips’. Other popular types of blogs include How to do, tutorials, reviews etc.
Now wasn’t scary at all and blogging shouldn’t be. Now throw on your bloggers, be motivated, get set and keep on blogging! Just don’t blog when you’re running!
At New World Digital we are passionate about Growing Your Brand through our Social Media Services. For more information on a FREE Consultation use our contact form. We look forward to talking with you.
