How to start blogging for business growth and slow living

When I started my business, blogging always felt like something I had to do. I wasn’t excited by it. In fact, I was a bit daunted by it! I saw it as another task on the seemingly never-ending business to-do list—not as the invaluable tool for business growth it is.

Now that I have dipped my toes into the blogging pool my entire perspective has changed. Not only has it helped me build authority in my niche and helped me serve my audience well, it’s also allowed me to embrace slower living (the surprising result I never expected!)

“But how so?” You’re probably wondering. How could adding another task to my already busy plate possibly help me move through my day at a slower pace? 

Well, that’s because slow living isn’t just about doing less, it’s about making intentional decisions and prioritizing what’s in front of us.

Before blogging, I was overwhelmed by the constant noise of ideas, “shoulds,” and projects circling around in my head. I felt guilty for not starting a blog sooner, but couldn’t seem to find the time to do it all. Then I realized blogging wasn’t just another marketing tactic. It’s a top tier marketing tactic—one that will influence the rest of my strategy (and actually make my workload easier if I prioritized it.) 

So I did.

Now blogging is something I want to do! It receives ample space on my schedule because it supports my business in so many ways. I want to teach you how to do exactly that!

WHY BLOGGING IS IMPORTANT

As I mentioned, blogging is an invaluable tool for business growth. Let’s dive into why exactly that is and why it should come before other methods of content creation.

The Truth About SEO

1. To attract new viewers and audience members
2. To build a relationship with you current audience

Content has two purposes:

Blogging fulfills both of these purposes. It helps you build a relationship with your current audience who may see a “new blog” notification on your Instagram. But it also helps attract new viewers by taking advantage of SEO which stands for Search Engine Optimization. 

When you include keywords in your headline’s and actual meat of the blog, keywords your ideal client is likely to enter into a google search bar, you’re helping your blog show up on that first page of results.

(Because how often do you click to the second or third page of Google? Rarely, if ever.)

The more content you share that uses these SEO-focused keywords, the more likely you are to be a top result. Your ideal clients are much more likely to find you!

The truth is, while social media is an excellent way to connect, it’s rare that social media content fulfills that first purpose of connecting you with new viewers. Even when and if a post goes viral, the new viewers are not likely to be “ideal” viewers. Social media content is better used to build a relationship with your existing audience.

The truth about SEO? It should be your first step. Not an afterthought.

When you focus on searchable content like blogging first you’re putting yourself directly on the path your ideal clients walk. Since content on social media platforms isn’t searchable (aka, doesn’t rely on SEO) you’re significantly lowering your chances of being found by the right people. We want our ideal clients to find us on purpose—not by accident.

If the thought of writing has you overwhelmed already, here’s an alternative!

If you’re more drawn to video or audio as opposed to writing you can absolutely start a Youtube channel or a podcast instead. The KEY is to add those video or podcast links to a blog post on your website—that way you can be found via search engines in addition to the platforms you’re originally posting them to. 

Evergreen Content 

A blog is a way to serve your past, current, and future clients because the content here is what’s called “Evergreen.”

Unlike social media content that has a short shelf life (meaning it’s reach slows wayyy down after about 24 hours) your blog content can be found again and again. When you use SEO keywords in your posts, it doesn’t matter how long ago you posted a blog to your website, if it’s relevant to someone’s search, it will appear for them.

Just like evergreen trees keep their green look in the cold winter months, blog content doesn’t shed its leaves like social media content.

The best evergreen blog content is timeless. By timeless I mean it could be read now and still relevant 5 years from now. A headline like:

•  “Best ways to manage your money in 2022” 

would not be considered timeless or evergreen since it will stop being relevant when the year ends.

A better headline would be:

•  “10 strategies to develop a healthy, lifelong relationship with money.”

Evergreen content is also foundational to your unique brand, meaning it addresses topics that are at the core of what you do, how and why you do it. Topics that new potential clients will always be interested in. (But we’ll dig more into this part later on). 

WHAT TO HAVE IN PLACE BEFORE YOU START BLOGGING

Before you jump head first into blogging for business growth you want to be sure you have a few things solidly in place. Namely, a professional brand and website. This doesn’t mean you need to spend thousands of dollars to make this happen before starting a blog (I certainly don’t want this to hold you back too long). 

There is so much value in a custom brand and website, but I understand a custom option may not be in your budget right away. Instead you could look into a mini package to cover the basics or consider a DIY route with a strategic and beautiful website template.

Why does this matter? Because if you want to build credibility you want to create a sense of professionalism and consistency. A well designed brand helps position you as an expert others can trust.  If you’re blogging from an outdated site, no matter how great the content is, you’ll lower your credibility with your audience. 

Be sure to check out this post on professional brand building for more tips.

HOW TO START BLOGGING (WITHOUT BURNING YOURSELF OUT)

The key to not burning yourself out with blogging is to start small. Don’t overwhelm yourself by overcommitting to creating content and posting. Once a month is a fine place to start. As you get the hang of things you can increase to twice or month or even weekly.

Try to stay as consistent as possible with posting so your audience knows when to expect new content from you. If Friday’s work best for you then try to post new blogs on Friday’s! Just don’t be too hard on yourself if you miss your regularly scheduled day every now and then. Sometimes life happens. Events, holidays, vacations, and other other projects may push your post back a few days, that’s okay! (We’re not big fans of chasing perfection around here anyway!)

Brainstorming Topics

Brainstorming blog topics in advance truly saves me time and allows me to live the slower life I mentioned at the start. That way I can intentionally select the topic I want to write about before actually sitting down to write.

The best blog topics will be resources that you can send potential, current, or past clients to. Not only will these be insightful posts, they will also save you more time! Instead of answering the same question multiple times, you can write a blog post and consistently refer your clients to it.

Here’s a few things I like to consider when brainstorming blog topics:

• What do my clients struggle with?
• What information would prepare clients for work with me?
• What questions frequently come up during discovery calls?
• What questions come up while I’m in the middle of working with clients?
• What questions come up from past clients?
• What industry ideas, terms, or strategies, should my audience understand before they could work with me (aka: what’s important to them that they might not even know to ask about?)
• What are some false beliefs my ideal clients have about my line of work?
• What would be helpful for past clients of mine to know?

Sit down at your computer or with good ole fashioned pen and paper to start brainstorming your own blog ideas. Set a timer for about 30 minutes and see what you can come up with.

Keep that list hands and be on the lookout for comments or quotes from your ideal clients that could easily be turned into valuable posts!

 Working With Categories

You may have heard of the “content bucket” strategy when it comes to social media. This involves rotating through various “themes” that are relevant or interesting to your audience to keep your content fresh.

The same strategy can be applied to your blog (and should be!) Blog categories can help organize blog posts into categories that make it easy for your audience to search through. It also helps you plan a variety of content that touches on each area of your business.

Some examples of blog categories are:

A Yoga Studio:

• Meditation
• Journaling
• Yoga
• Dosha’s

A financial coach:

• Budgeting
• Passive income
• Investing
• Mindfulness

I also recommend having your main categories be business related and another category that encapsulates your brand or a value of your brand. For example, I have an “eco-friendly”  blog  category since caring for the earth through life and business is so important to me (and my most ideal clients). It is a way to seperate myself from other designers who may be posting similar content to their blogs.

You can wait to set up blog categories until you have a few posts under your belt. Once you’re ready, try to add a piece of blog content to each category before repeating a category. Remember that one post can fall into more than one category, so tag it as such and add it to both.

For example, a post on “How to incorporate breathwork into your day” could fall under a “Yoga” blog category and a “Meditation” category.

Creating An Outline

Even when you know your topic it can still be overwhelming to start blogging and find your flow. I always recommend using an outline. Below you’ll find an example post outline that you are welcome to use and adjust to suit your business.

• Headline (come back to this at the end)
• SEO keyword: Which search term do you want to rank for? You’ll want to sprinkle it throughout your post.
• SEO Meta Description: The first few lines someone will read when you post appears in search results. Be sure to install the free Yoast SEO plugin on your WordPress blog to set your meta description and keyword. (It also gives you a boatload of other SEO suggestions)
• Introduction: Share a story or a perspective shift to introduce your topic
• Body points: Shoot for 3-5 sub points to break down your overall topic
• Body point 1
  • Data points or links (will you be linking to any outside sources or other blogs you have in this section?)
  • Quotes (Do you want to include any quotes from your clients or outside sources to illustrate your point here?)
• Body point 2
  • Data or links
  • Quotes
• Body point 3
  • Data or links
  • Quotes
• Continue if you have more body points
• Takeaway: How can you summarize what they just read?
• CTA (Call To Action): What do you want your audience to do now that they’ve finished reading? Follow through with an exercise/activity? Download a lead magnet of yours? View your services? The possibilities are endless, just don’t leave them hanging!

This outline can also work as a starting point for writing scripts for youtube videos or podcast episodes if you intend on sharing those to your blog in place of a long-from written post.

Putting It All Together

Now that you have your outline you can begin putting your blog post together. For the best reading experience and better conversion you’ll want to remember these formatting notes:

• Make your content scannable

Nobody likes reading blocks of text (so they won’t read it). Be sure to break your post up into a Headline, headings, subheadings, and body copy. You can break body copy up even further by using paragraphs with 2-4 sentences, bullet point, lists, and photos.

• Personalize your footer

Consider adding a short bio and a photo of yourself to the footer section of your blog page. Readers might stumble on your post before ever clicking on your about or home page. Being able to put a face to the content they just read is great for building brand recognition!

You can read this post here on how to format your finished post within the WordPress blog editor! This is also where you’ll want to dive into the Yoast SEO plugin settings I mentioned earlier. 

Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle

Lastly and most importantly, I want you to make the most of your blog content! (You worked so hard on it after all!)

Business growth and that slower way of living your yearning for is made possible when you work smarter, not harder. 

Repurpose for Social Media

So now that you have your finished SEO-focused blog post it’s time to plan relationship-building social media content that will support and promote the topic you just wrote about. From one blog post you might be able to make a week’s worth of social media content by breaking down quotes, data, and body points that you discussed in the post. 

Turn the blog into:

• An Instagram Reels series
• A shareable graphic
• A post to your story 
• A TikTok video

One of the most valuable ways you can repurpose content is to create a Pinterest Pin. Pinterest is the only social media platform that doesn’t really function like social media. It, like Google, functions as a search engine and uses SEO! Sharing your blogs to pinterest is a great way to get your content searched and seen.

My other recommendation for repurposing blog content for business growth is to turn it into an email newsletter! You could simply attach the post to a newsletter you already have scheduled, or write a new one that teases the information your ideal clients could learn if they click through to the blog.

Repurpose In Your Client Experience

Finally you can use your blog posts to enhance your client experience! When clients are working through homework, preparing for your session, or going through a program of yours, think about any blogs that you can send their way to support their progress.

For example, when my design clients are working on their copywriting I automatically send them my blog post on how to DIY your own copy, along with how to write your about page. It’s a resource they can come back to again and again (and saves me time from answering a lot of copywriting questions).

Not only does it show that you’ve thought ahead and understand your clients needs, it’s a way of going the extra mile. Really tying together every part of your client’s experience.

Save time and make your blog content work for you, it’s only doing half its job if it’s just sitting on your website waiting to be found.

THE TAKEAWAY

There are so many ways to make your blog your own. From the topics you share, to the categories you select, and the frequency with which you post. You can share written posts, videos, or podcasts to your blog! 

When starting your blog just make sure you’re:

• Blogging from a professional site and brand
• Prioritized SEO-focused blog content over social media content
• Following an outline for consistency and to save time
• Creating content categories
• Repurposing blog content to create smaller posts and promote your business