You have decided that your business needs a blog, you have studied the statistics, you have spoken to other business people who use blogs to drive traffic to their websites and you want to utilise it for your own business, believing it will help you to reach a much larger audience. But you have a stumbling block – you’re not confident regarding your own writing ability and you don’t think anyone else in the company is suitable either, not yet at least. So what do you do?
B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not. Source: Hubspot, State of Inbound Marketing Lead Generation Report, 2010
Well, one consideration is to hire a ghost blogger, but before you go down that route, read these tips for some considerations first.
What is a ghost blogger?
A ghost blogger is a person who is accustomed to business blogging and will write your company’s blog posts for you. No one needs to know that they are written by somebody else, it will be assumed that they are written by a company member.
How long before I start to see results?
It will take time for you to see a result from your blog posts. The length of time can depend on the effectiveness of the keywords used, the competitiveness of your market and the extent of using other social media (such as linked in, twitter and facebook) to spread the word about the blog. I would suggest a minimum of 3 months of blogging before you can truly analyse its true effectiveness although you should be able to see an improvement after 3 or 4 weeks.
But how will the ghost writer know what to write about?
You will have to give the your business blogger some direction. It is best if you meet with him/her and discuss blog topics together, what products or services you want to emphasise in the blog posts, the tone of the blog posts as well as the company’s mission statement, philosophies and targets. He or she will be able to write in the style of writing appropriate to your business and the themes will reflect its attitudes and values too.
The ghost blogger should then analyse competitors’ blogs, use the keyword research tool to ensure that the blog will be optimised well and format your photographs for use in the blog post.
A good ghost writer will be able to adapt their writing style to the tone you want set for your business but do check out their portfolio.
How can I be sure the blog posts are well optimised?
Your discussion with your business blogger should include examining the demographic of your target market and the writing of the blog post will include analysis of the usage of particular keywords. Your goal is to get your blog post into the first page of the search results and preferably into the first four listings(above the fold of the page). This can only happen with a well optimised blog post. Ensuring that the right keywords are incorporated is just as important as writing interesting and engaging content but can be easier said than done.
What else can the ghost blogger do to improve traffic?
The ghost blogger will be able to do as little or as much as you want. He or she can just write the blog posts, leaving the company to respond to comments on the blog. Or he/she can respond to comments, comment on other blogs on your behalf (which will build up links for your website), manage your facebook and twitter accounts and use various social media platforms to spread the word online.
A business blogger can also mentor you should you decide to start blogging yourself after a while, they can support you, offer you advice and introduce you to each element of the social media platform as gradually as you like.
How often should a company publish a blog post?
A minimum of once a week and publish on the same day every week as readers will expect consistency from a business blog. I’d recommend twice a week if it is possible but once a week should be the minimum.
Writing effective blog posts is a skill and just as your website content reflects your business, so will your blog. Your blog can be the shop window for your brand, your products, your services, your staff and your customer service. Use your blog to beckon people in the door.
A good ghost blogger can promote your business, build your brand, drive traffic to your blog and with good calls to action, can deliver leads and sales.
