If you are new to the content marketing bandwagon, you may not have a blog yet. There are probably a million questions running through your mind right now about how to start one. What tone of voice should it have? Who should the blog be written for? If questions like these are crowding your brain, do not worry because this post will give you all the right first steps to take when starting a blog.
Follow other blogs
The best way to write a great blog is to research other businesses that are already doing it well. But be careful with which blogs you choose to follow. If you are a business that sells baking supplies, do not go and follow a fashion blogger. The two industries do not connect and you will receive no relevant content that pertains to your business. Find influencers in your industry and read up on their blogs. This way you can learn an immense amount about your industry and what forms of content will be the most successful with your audience.
Learn the vocabulary
Each niche and industry has its own vocabulary that is used constantly in blog posts and other content forms. In order to position your business as a player in the industry, you must begin to learn and use this jargon in your posts. As you read other popular blogs, you will start to pick up on this unfamiliar vocabulary. Do not brush it off and dismiss it as unimportant knowledge. Simply conduct a quick Google search of the word and write it down somewhere you can reference later to include in your own posts.
Select a blog topic
Here is your first attempt at writing your own blog. The initial step in this process is to select a topic. When determining what you should write about, try to make the topic as specific as possible. Broader topics will be lost in the crowd of content saturation that already exists on the Internet. To make your post stand out, write about a specific topic that is of interest to you. Another perk of having a narrow topic is that there is less research required so you can have more focus when writing your first blog.
Research… a lot
Now that you have selected a specific blog topic, it is time to conduct research on that topic. Google will become your best friend in this stage, making it easy and fun to learn more about your blog topic. Read as many sites as possible and take notes along the way to remember key statistics and information regarding the topic. One of the best research tricks is to quote professionals in your blog. As a new writer to the blogosphere, you have not established any credibility. Thus, it may be hard for readers to refer to you as a knowledgeable source on a certain topic. To dismay this, quote professionals in your blog who have plenty of experience. As you conduct more research, the key points of your blog will begin to develop and you will become eager to begin writing.
Be yourself
Readers are able to notice when a writer is authentic and when a writer has ulterior motives. To prevent this from happening with your blog, just be yourself and your audience will notice. Maintain confidence in your posts and show off the research you have conducted. As someone who is passionate about the industry, you most likely have an opinion on the updates and trends occurring. Many people are wary of communicating their opinions, especially on the Internet, but you should not be afraid to do this. Your readers will appreciate that you displayed your opinion in remaining true to yourself and your values.
Your first blog will not be perfect. You will come back to it years from now and most likely cringe at some of the things you wrote but this is okay! Just write and allow yourself to experiment with your first blog because the more practice you get at writing the better you will become.