There are a lot of rumors over the last few years that blogging is dead. Video is king, and platforms such as Youtube, TikTok and of course IG reels are starting to take over. However, I’m here to tell you that blogging is still incredibly important to your small business. In this post, I want to share a bit of why blogging is so important, and the top ways to market your blog posts.

As a small business, reaching your ideal customer is the first step to growing your business. Without them finding you, they may not hire your service or purchase your product. However, there is so much more that happens after they find you. You have to win them over.

Blogging can help with that. And here’s how.

Blog posts are an incredible way to build a connection and gain trust, pretty much immediately.

Ready to learn how?

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How blog posts help grow your small business

Marketing is a beast of a topic. There are so many branches that fall under the marketing category, but the most important thing you must understand is that we as humans love connection. Today more than ever, we want to understand the brands we are buying from. We want to support the small businesses that we feel are making our lives better in some way.

So how do we, as small business owners, connect with these potential customers? The simple answer: our brand mission and voice.

Blogging is an incredibly simple way to connect and share your small businesses voice. It’s a way that you are able to share inspiration, helpful advice, and make a connection. Whether the potential customer is looking for a quick fix, some inspiring stories, a step by step guide, or even facing a challenge, your blog posts can be that missing piece for them.

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The Top Ways I Market My Blog Posts

What I’ve learned throughout my business is systems and processes make daily life easier. They allow us to get in a routine, which in turn gives us time back for our personal life. I’m addicted to trying to find ways to automate, grow my business easier, and allow my business to work for me.

Would you believe me if I told you that 90% of my inquiries come from my SEO optimized blogs and website? Well, it’s true. These are all blog posts that I wrote one time. Blog posts that I wrote two years ago are still driving all the traffic to my website and getting me the inquiries to keep my business going.

So over the last few months, I’ve tried narrowing in on this. Why put more energy into platforms like Instagram that are a complete time suck, and put in processes with my blog posts to promote my business? Below I’m going to share the ways I market, and how I’ve systemized my blog post flow. Let’s get into it!

1.Choose a consistent time

Consistency is key to get in a routine not just for yourself, but for your readers as well. Setting a day, whether it’s weekly or monthly, to post a blog is going to build trust. Your potential customers will start to see the pattern, and look forward to that specific day that a new helpful blog post will go out.

If you decide to batch your blog posts, there are ways to schedule them out to automate this workflow. In WordPress (which is what I use), you can go to your post and you’ll see publish – Immediately. Click on immediately and choose your new date in the future!

What I do: For me, I decided Tuesdays at 9am. Every Tuesday I would have a new blog post that came out, and I would start my marketing in the afternoon. I choose the blog posts I want me and my team to focus on for the month, then I love to batch them the week before the month starts. That way, we are all working towards the same timeline and have the same goal.

2. Market on social

Once the blog post is published, now you can schedule your social media posts to tell your audience a post is up. I do this a few different ways:

• Instagram post: Share an Instagram post with the caption being a little bit of what your blog post is about. Try making it engaging so that they want to read more. For example, if you’re a photographer, you could post just the first part of someone’s wedding day, then caption it saying “you won’t believe how their part 2 adventure went. Head to the blog post to find out!”.
• Instagram story: Sometimes even more viewed than IG posts, stories are incredibly important. There are a few directions you can go in sharing your blog posts in stories.
  1. Canva Template: I love creating canva templates to share a few visually appealing links to click to draw them in.
  2. Photos: Share some photos and text to give a little insight into your blog post. Again, you want these to be visually appealing so the audience wants more.
  3. Show up yourself: Yep, we all love seeing others on their stories. You can show up and talk about your blog post, and maybe include a few photos as you’re talking.
  4. Links: Make sure to include links and a clear call to action that you want them heading to your blog post.
• Facebook: Facebook isn’t something I put a ton of energy into, but the success of sharing a helpful blog post to your page will actually surprise you. Facebook has some real dedicated users, and while they may be older, they may be the parents or grandparents of your future clients. Write a little caption of what the blog post is about along with the link. Who knows who may share it!

What I do: All of these ways of sharing is what I do. I do all of these on Tuesday afternoons, and for each of them, I batch create and automate. I have a calendar with my team on when the blog posts will be complete and scheduled, so we are all working on the same timeline. Each month as I plan for the weeks, I incorporate into my marketing strategy on when and how I will market the blog posts.

3. Pinterest

I am putting Pinterest into its own section because I truly believe this is more of a search engine than a social platform. Pinterest is one of the most incredible ways to market your blog posts, because like SEO, they live on forever. The more you post on IG or Facebook, the quicker the posts go away. However, on Pinterest, they could live on the first “page” for months and even years.

Do not sleep on Pinterest. It is a tool that will not just help you get people over to your website. The more traffic to your site, the better your SEO and rankings. Pinterest can help with that.

With your blogs, I recommend two different ways to share to Pinterest.

1. Pin ideas: These are ways you can use videos, multiple images, and even stories. Get creative with these, because Pinterest is favoring these types of pins. *Video is king*.
2. Individual pins: Ok so, this is something that is important. The more “new” pins you post, the better. Pinterest favors new pins. This could be a new photo pin, or even a new canva graphic pin.

If Pinterest is something you’re interested in, then also look into Tailwind. While it is a bit of an investment up front, it helps you automate which helps save you a lot of time. I use and love tailwind, and have for years. There is a free version, even just to test it out! Take a look at my blog post all about Tailwind here.

What I do: I personally have a virtual assistant who manages my Pinterest. However, I learned Pinterest back in my travel blogging days, so I understand the ins and outs of how it works. Before you outsource, I always recommend trying to learn the specific skill first. If you have the funds to outsource, this is an amazing part of your business to take off your plate. My VA creates the Pinterest graphics, schedules the pins on Tailwind, creates the keywords, and creates story pins. The most important aspect of outsourcing is making sure that it either is making you money, or freeing up time so you are able to make money.

4. Email List

Email lists can really help drive traffic to your blog post. These potential customers on your email list signed up for a reason. They are excited to be a part of your network and hear what you have to say. They are waiting for your email and to drop in to say hi every now and then.

Sharing helpful information in the email AND blog post is what drives them to your website. It’s kind of like doing your formula on social media – give enough information that they are wanting more. Do that through your email and drive traffic to your site. Some of these members on your email list might not be customers yet. Potentially that one email and blog post you send brought them from being on the fence, to clarity of why they should buy from you.

That is the value of sharing your blog post through your email list.

What I do: There have been a few ways I’ve been testing this out. I have a monthly newsletter that goes out with my most popular and recent blog posts and updates. I’ve been also starting to share my elopement planning blog posts weekly to show up more and consistently. I will share back on how this is working! Also, as of right now, I use Flodesk. This is a great platform to use if you’re just getting started with email marketing. It makes pretty emails and is veryyyy simple to use! Click here for 50% off your subscription!