5 Things You Should Do Before Starting A Blog

Jun 6, 2019 | Blogging

Kevin Fouche

5 Things You Should Do Before Starting A Blog

Posted by Kevin Fouche, Pixel Fish Director

Kevin handles the planning, design, launch and training of every website that Pixel Fish creates. He ensures that every website is highly engaging and aligned with our client’s goals. With over 20 years of design and web industry experience to draw upon, Kevin aims to pass on his knowledge to our clients and like-minded businesses wanting to grow their online presence.

Blogging can be vital to the success of your marketing. Targeted content cannot only support your business, but it can also reinforce your other marketing efforts. Here are 5 Things You Should Do Before Starting A Blog.

Learning how to start a blog and write blog articles ensures you will have something to promote on social media. Blogging can position you as a voice of authority with your leads and customers whilst providing the perfect opportunity for you to include that crucial calls-to-action to generate inbound leads organically.

Before you make excuses as to why you cannot blog, take a breath and believe me when I say that anyone who knows their subject matter well enough can certainly blog about it. In fact, they are the best person for the job! If you are an expert or an authority on a given topic, then this means you are precisely who people want – and often need – to hear from.

If you aren’t blogging at the moment when people need the information you possess to help them answer a query, how will they find it? If they search the web on that topic your blog needs to be there, positioning you as a specialist in the field.

Okay, so I will bet you are wondering where to begin.

Before you even think about writing, there are a few things you need to know before you start your blog:

1. Define your blog’s purpose

What is the reason you are starting your blog? Do you want to position yourself as an expert in your field? Do you want to generate more leads or boost traffic to your website? Be clear and specific when you list what you want to achieve with your blog and your blog posts.

2. Identify your audience

Before you begin, ask yourself to whom you are writing to. Who is your target audience? What information do you have that they are seeking? What will help them? What do they need? What are they interested in reading about?

Create a buyer persona to help form a clear image of your target audience in your mind. (Often it is helpful to begin with product personas, and then create buyer personas from there). HubSpot offer a fantastic tool for defining your persona, you can find it here.

When you write, be sure to speak directly to your buyer persona as if it were a real entity, remembering to “tell, not sell” – your blog exists to offer some form of benefit to your audience, be it information, guidance or an answer to a query – it is not a sales pitch.

3. Set Clear, Well Defined Goals

Goals are smaller steps used to move towards a larger vision. Consider what you want your blog to help you achieve and take the time to write down these goals.

The SMART acronym offers a simple way to write your goals as a statement, describing what you will do to achieve your desired outcome/s.

SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound:

S = SPECIFIC

Setting a specific goal ensures a higher success rate than setting a non-specific goal. Ask yourself:

  • What do you wish to accomplish?
  • When? Set a realistic time frame.
  • Where? Identify a location. This can be a digital location, such as “X number of followers on LinkedIn”.
  • Why? List the benefits or reasons for achieving this goal.
  • Who? Who do you need to work with to achieve this outcome?

M = MEASURABLE

When you measure your progress, you are more likely to stay on track and stick to your target time frame. Ask yourself:

  • How will I measure my progress? For example:
    • How many likes?
    • What % increase in newsletter sign-ups?
    • What % increase in email opt-ins?
    • What % increase in web traffic?

A = ACHIEVABLE

Goals can seem too overwhelming if they are not broken into smaller steps. If you need to develop a skill or deepen your knowledge on a particular subject, these obstacles can be overcome when they are viewed as progress towards your ultimate end goal.

  • What smaller steps are involved in achieving my goal?
  • Is there any skill I need to develop or knowledge I need to attain to reach this goal? If yes, what steps do I need to take to do this?

R = REALISTIC

Be realistic when setting your goals. Often factors that will come into play are outside of our control, such as personal, financial or situational factors that may negatively influence our ability to achieve a set goal. Think about your other commitments and be realistic in setting your goals. Ask yourself:

  • What will achieving this goal requires or cost (do not only consider financial cost but consider the cost of your time and your physical well-being as well)?
  • Is this really achievable given my circumstances?
  • What might I need to help me to achieve this goal?

T = TIMEBOUND

You need to put real-time frames around each step you plan to take toward achieving your goal and make the commitment to the deadlines you set for yourself. Goals without deadlines are easily brushed aside when life’s unexpected demands arise. Ask yourself:

  • How long will each step take me to achieve?
  • When am I able to begin?
  • How much time will I have to allocate to this task?
  • How long do I expect achieving this goal (all the steps involved as a whole) to take me?

Sometimes another S is added to the end (making the acronym SMARTS), which stands for SHARED. Sharing your goals with another makes you more likely to succeed as you have another person who can hold you accountable for your commitment to reach a certain target. Ask yourself, “upon whom can I rely on to keep me accountable in relation to achieving this goal?”

This can be a simple thing to implement, but it is really effective at keeping you on track for success. If, for example, one of your blog’s goals is to result in a 6% increase in email opt-ins month on month, resulting in a 100% increase over the next year, you may choose to meet a friend for coffee once a month and ask your friend to check-in with you and your progress.

4. Include CTAs

Create a call-to-action (CTA) for every action you want your reader to take. Whether it be an email opt-in, a newsletter sign-up, a follow on your social media pages or a click-through to another page you want your reader to view, be clear in what you are asking your reader to do next.

Including clear and direct CTAs will help you to convert your blog readers to subscribers, leads and eventually, customers.

5. Focus on high-quality content

If you want your audience to find you, focus on your content. High-quality content is important if you want to rank well on Google and other search engines, and it is also imperative that you offer your audience valuable content.

Google before you begin, selecting your topic or a keyword to see what is already available. Don’t create noise- be original and the best! When dealing with information-rich content, try to break it up into easy-to-digest sections. Likewise, when you are writing about a topic that is quite technical, try to avoid boring your readers and concentrate on making delivering the information as interesting as you can. You can grab some tips on clever content here and  more website tips can be found here.

Taking the time to plan and define the purpose of your blog before you begin will ensure your content is both targeted and effective.  Starting your blogs by clearly describing each post’s purpose and explaining how it will benefit your audience will give your reader a reason to keep reading, and hopefully, the benefits of doing so resonate with them. When you know what direction your blog wants, you can begin thinking about the steps you need to take to set your blog up correctly.

Blogging should be a significant factor in every online business’ inbound marketing strategy. We would love to help you set up your blog if you don’t already have one or are in the process of setting one up. Feel free to have a chat with us if you have any questions that crop up along the way.

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Kevin Fouché, Pixel Fish Director