Top Content Strategy tips for your Hertfordshire business

So most of us know by know that having local content is a very important component of any marketing campaign and if you have a Hertfordshire based business it’s important to included geo targetted content on your website. In this post we will focus on the easiest and most common way to add up to date interesting content and that is blogging. But how do you fit it blogging when you are a small business? Here are our top tips for making content work for you whatever your size!

Finding time to write content

One of the top reasons businesses don’t succeed in terms of producing a steady flow of new and interesting content is down to time. When the phone is ringing and customers are demanding your attention, sitting down to write a blog post just isn’t a priority. I completely get that! So there are a few things you can do to help:

• Block out time in your diary, ideally first thing so you don’t get caught up in anything else
• Be realistic about the amount of content you are going to produce, you are far better writing 1 blog post every month than publishing 10 one month and nothing the next.
• If you have staff, set up a rota so each comes up with ideas about what to write, or even take it in turns
• Make it a priority and create accountability, if you work alone then ask a friend or partner to be your accountability partner
• If you have downtime in your day use it to be productive rather than playing Candy Crush or chatting on Facebook, if you commute on the train, the kids have swimming lessons, any of those snippets of time when you are quite simply ‘hanging around’

Coming up with things to write about

Obviously you know your business better than anyone but when you are so close to the day to day running of a business it can be difficult to come up with ideas of things to write about. You need to start with a title and topic, once you have these the body of your blog post should flow more easily. Here are some ideas to help you come up with those subjects:

• What are the questions you are asked the most, if you answer this in a blog post you are likely to attract new visitors to your website.
• Use a tool such as askthepublic.com to find out what people are searching for online
• Think about anything happening in the news that is related to what you do
• What new and exciting things are happening in the industry
• Create a how to guide for your product/service
• Offer advice on how to overcome problems in areas that you have expertise in. For example, if you are a plumber, then write about how to be more energy efficient in the home, how to bleed your radiators etc.

Planning your blog content

Once you have a list of ideas to write about you need to come up with a plan. Decide how frequently you are going to blog and then schedule those dates in your calendar along with the subject and title that you are going to write about. Think about the aim of your blogs, what is it you are trying to achieve? Is there a particular order of blogs that would help someone travel through the buying process? If you can plan out 6 months to a year in advance it makes the whole process much easier.

Don’t be scared of giving free advice, most people may look for ways to do something themselves, but when or if things don’t work for them, they are more likely to come back to you to ask for help.

Sharing content for a larger audience

Once you have your content in place you need to share it across multiple social channels to gain the largest audience. If you can be sent o be providing valuable information then people will be more likely to not only read your content, but also to share it amongst their own contacts.

Why bother with blogging?

Blogging does a number of different things if you do it properly:

• Increases traffic to your website
• Improve rankings
• Help you to be seen as a trusted company that want to help
• Generate new leads
• Nurture existing leads
• Help to retain existing customers

So why not commit to writing once a month to start off with. Don’t forget to analyse which types of posts gain the best response. Happy blogging!

If you want to find out more about content writing then you might find these blogs posts of interest or if you have any questions please leave them in the comments section and we will respond as soon as we can:

Why is content good for my website?
Guest blogging guide
Why content is good for lead generation