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So, you FINALLY want to start a blog for your business?
YAY! That’s exactly what I want for you too, but before you announce your blog for the whole world to read, there’s 4 main things that I encourage you to do FIRST!
This 4 step process is the exact process I followed for myself when launching my business blog almost a year ago (feels crazy that it’s been that long!) and continues to be the process I follow when I’m working with clients who are launching their blog from scratch.
While it might seem like all you need to do is write your first blog post, press publish and VOILA✨, if you want to be strategic AND consistent with your blogging efforts, this 4 step process is a must!
4 Step Blog Content Planning Process to Launch Your Business Blog From Scratch
Step 1: Determine how many blog posts you want to post per month 🖥
The number of blogs that you publish per month will look different for every business owner and should be structured in a way that works best for YOU and your business.
For you this might look like once a week, twice per month or multiple times a week.
For clients, I like to suggest they commit to either 2 or 4 blog posts per month starting out so that you can build your content bank on your website fairly quickly.
When you do this well, you will find that you have plenty of content to then use on social media and other platforms – which is why I always say that you’re able to work smarter, not harder when it comes to content creation in general when you start with your blogs first.
The key here is that you don’t pay attention to what other people are doing.
Be honest with yourself and don't overcommit. Otherwise, it will start to feel like something you dread each week, which defeats the entire purpose!
The reason this step is so important and is where I want you to start is because the consistency of your blog posts matters for 3 reasons:
It holds you accountable.
For example, early on I decided that I would post a new blog weekly and I’ve chosen Wednesday to be that day for me. Every single week when I sit down to plan my calendar, I know that I need to write a blog post and that commitment alone is what ensures that my blog content comes before anything else that I do in my business. I don’t even think about my social media before I write a blog for the week.
It trains your audience to know what to expect.
You don’t necessarily have to announce your blog posting schedule publicly, but if you stick to a consistent posting schedule, your audience will naturally start to catch on and know what to expect from you.
This keeps them excited for fresh content AND builds in an extra layer of accountability for you because you know they’re counting on it.
It boosts SEO.
Now, I don’t teach SEO because I believe that implementing blogs in your business is important for way more reasons than just that (I talk more about that HERE), but that’s not to say that SEO isn’t important.
It definitely is and honestly it’s not as complicated as it may seem. There are a lot of SEO basics that you can learn that will boost your rankings (I love learning from The Duo Collective!) and posting your blog posts consistently is one of those.
Step 2: Brain dump your topics 🧠
Once you’ve decided on your blog posting schedule, it’s time to brain dump your potential blog topics. DON’T SKIP THIS STEP!
Just like there’s panic posting on social media (meaning you randomly post because you feel pressured to post), there can also be panic posting when it comes to your blog if you don’t take the time to carefully define your topics and plan accordingly.
This brain dump list will be what you refer to when it comes time to write, so lay it all out in this step. It doesn’t have to be pretty right now. Whatever is in your head, simply write it down. ✍🏼
If you struggle with this step, there’s a few things you can do:
If you already post on social media pretty frequently, you can audit your social platforms and see what content you’ve done in the past that people connected with.
If that doesn’t work, ask yourself these questions: What questions do people ask you? What problems do you help people solve? What do people come to you for?
Your answers to those questions can help you brainstorm potential blog topics.
Step 3: Consider any upcoming events, holidays or internal business promotions 🎄🎃
Now that you have your brain dump list of potential topic ideas, it’s time to consider any current trends, the current season, upcoming events (internal or external), holidays, national days, promotions, etc.
This is where the strategy comes in and allows you to approach your blog content with more purpose and intention.
Now, this step may not apply to every single blog post and there will be times that your blogs will just be evergreen topics that you post whenever. But sometimes you will be able to frame your topics in a way that makes them a bit more relevant to the present moment – although the content itself should still be as evergreen as possible.
Note: Evergreen simply means that it’s not date specific and if you published it today and someone reads it a year from now, it’s still valuable for them.
The way I approach blog content and teach others to do the same is to take your evergreen topics and make them a bit more time sensitive by connecting them to the current season, a current trend, a holiday, a random national day or any internal events happening in your business when you can.
When you do this, your blog content starts to stand out in your industry and grab people’s attention in a new and different way!
This piece of the puzzle is where your creativity will really start to shine as you put a twist on your evergreen content in a way that other people aren’t doing.
To achieve this for your blog, I encourage you to take a look ahead at the next 3 months and list any major holidays, national days, internal business events or promotions, such as a launch, that you may have coming up that you think you’ll want to capitalize on in your blog content.
For example:
a boutique owner could capitalize on Christmas with gift guides on their blog featuring products in their store
a business coach could use New Year’s as a way to provide guidance on yearly planning and then promote their yearly planning workshop
an AirBnb owner could get creative on “National Take a Hike Day” in November to create a blog post about the best hikes in their area (which would still be considered evergreen!)
NOTE: this is something that will be ever evolving and you can build on it as you go!
Step 4: Divide the content up into quarters 🗓
When you have your blog content topic ideas and you’ve considered any upcoming holidays, events or internal business promotions, it's time to divide your content up into quarters so that you have an actual plan and know exactly what to take action on first.
Q1 - January, February, March
Q2 - April, May, June
Q3 - July, August, September
Q4 - October, November, December
By doing this, you’re eliminating the urge to panic post and can instead be more strategic, because you know exactly what’s coming up and can plan accordingly.
NOTE: this plan doesn't have to be rigid! You’re allowed to change it as you see fit.
The point is that it gives you somewhere to start and frees your brain from having to think about what to post last minute. When you have a plan in place, you’ll likely find that you’re more creative and new ideas will come up more often!
And there ya have it – my tried and true 4 step blog content planning process to help you implement blogs into your business with ease!
To keep things extra organized, I’ve created a Quarterly Blog Content Calendar Template that you can use to keep all of your ideas in one place and plan your blog content effectively.
If you want to dive deeper into this planning process and launch your blog with confidence, RSVP to the Q3 Blog Content Planning Party where you’ll receive a more in depth training for this process, have the chance to plan your Q3 blog content in real time AND ask me any blog related questions on the spot.
Happy blogging!
- Natty