We are going to look at each area and how it needs to have a strategy for itself so that each area can then be combined into a full strategy that works well.

Following this step by step guide will help you to be more successful than others, or than you already are.

What areas will need to be strategized?

There are a couple areas that need to be strategized separately while still fitting into the goal of creating a successful blog strategy.

1. The hosting site of the blog.
2. The blog itself will need a strategy.
3. The promotion of the blog.

The hosting strategy

When you decide on a host for your blog there are several things to consider.

1. The host sites reputation – do they have frequent downtime or are they known for good quality service. What about customer service? Do they have a good reputation when it comes to service issues?
2. Does the host site have enough speed for what you need to do? Can you run an e-commerce site? A video site? What about a combination of both?
3. What type of upgrades do they offer?
4. What support features do they offer? Site back up? 24/7 support?

If you would like to compare hosting sites, please read the comparison guide for 2016.

The blog strategy

Area one the blog strategy;

#1 Know your targeted audience and cater to those readers. To understand your targeted audience you should create a buyer persona. Use social media to see what your targeted audience age range (20 to 40) is sharing, who they are following, and what their comments are on the types of products or services that you will be promoting your blog. Also understand their demographics –geographic location, income level, marital status, and others. These help you to understand your targeted audience better so that you can tailor your content to those people.

Also understand their demographics –geographic location, income level, marital status, and others. These help you to understand your targeted audience better so that you can tailor your content to those people.

#2 When it comes to content you need to do the following: give the content a new twist since it extremely hard to come up with totally original content, create content that is not available elsewhere by putting your own voice, personality, facts, and trends into it. You also have to post content frequently, at least 2 to 3 times a week. You may wish to look at

You may wish to look at the list of writing services for ideas on content and writers for hire.  One more thing about the content you need a mix of short and long content. A 20% short (500 to 800 words) and 80% medium to long (1000 to 2500 words).

#3 Make your blog an interactive community by engaging your readers to reply to questions, take surveys, ask questions of you, and tell stories of how one of your products or services have made their life easier. Then be sure to reply to those comments in some way to let your readers know that you appreciate their input.

#4 Be sure to have a professional look when it comes to design and layout of your blog and the tone of your posts. That does not mean you cannot add some humor or emotion to your post as it shows your personality but remember it does need to be presented in a professional way if you want your readers to trust you and consider you an authority in your field.

#5 Use analytics to understand where your visitors are coming from, how long they are staying, what they are reading, and if they are converting to buyers as well as other things. Things you should concentrate on are new vs returning guests, time of day, demographics, and bounce rate. Traffic sources are another key analytic to pay attention to is it direct, search engine, or referral.  These analytics help you with your promotion campaigns.

Traffic sources are another key analytic to pay attention to is it direct, search engine, or referral.  These analytics help you with your promotion campaigns.

#6 Be sure that your content is SEO ready and done correctly to get you a better position on the search engine results page.

#7 Name your blog; this should be an easy to spell, easy to remember, and fit into your domain name.

If you would like to learn more strategies on blogging like a pro, you can read these points and strategies to help you be more professional and successful.

Promotion strategies

You now have your strategies for your hosting and your blog; now it is time to set up a strategy for promotion or marketing of your blog.

1. SEO is a must; make sure your posts are SEO optimized as well as optimized for various mobile devices and screen sizes.
2. Keyword research is a must. Including long tail keywords and phrases. These will be used in pay per click and other ad campaigns.
3. Build a network of other bloggers, visit their sites and see what they are doing.
4. Use social media to your advantage. Be sure to comment on your follower’s posts, comments and questions to show you appreciate them and that you do pay attention.
5. Guest post on other blogs and put a link back to your blog or website in your profile.
6. Do not forget to use paid advertising such as Google ads or Bing ads

Tie it all together

Now that you have made a strategy for each section, put them all together and start working on each one. The first and second stages can be worked together so that by the time you have decided what your blog name will be you can get your domain and hosting in order.

Work on your content and start you blog. While you are posting to your blog work on building your email list and getting to know the influencers in your industry. Ask to guest post on their blog.

Remember that this will not be instant, plan on a year before seeing major results,

Conclusion

By using this guide you will be ready to start your blog and market it successfully as long as you are willing to put the time in.

You came up with a great product or service that people will use, you started your small business, and now you need to market it.

The problem is you are a startup business; you do not have a marketing department or a marketing budget for that matter. You are the business owner, operator, marketing department, production and shipping department all rolled into one.

What are you going to do to get the marketing out in front of the people who will use your product or service? Then you realize that you are not only competing with the other businesses in your line of product or service but the millions of other businesses out there that are also marketing their products.

Now you’re hyperventilating and thinking oh my god why did I quit my job?  Take a slow deep breath, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Relax; we have 6 digital marketing tricks to help you get your product or service in front of people who will use it.

Before you start your digital marketing you need to brainstorm, figure out what makes your product exciting. Write down the reasons your product is exciting – how will it help people, save them money, make them laugh, enhance their skills? Use these answers to get people excited. The tone you start out with to brand your product and market it will determine how it is going to end up; something people are excited and want to know more about or just a ho hum ok it’s a new product big deal. You want to make sure it is the excited I want to know more tone. Here are 6 affordable digital marketing tips to put you ahead of the pack.

Social media

Let’s talk social media and how to make it work to get people excited about your product. Before you set up accounts on any of the popular social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on you need to plan.  Read about using social media what will work what wont. Then plan for each one that you will be able to use and monitor as well as contribute to.  You will have to manage these accounts and post regularly so don’t set up more than you can possibly do without taking time away from other important aspects of your business. Use your personality when posting on the social media sites, use the excitement, and use your wit and humor. This works well for startups since there are no corporate opinions or regulations to deal with so you can be yourself. Remember though, you need to be consistent in posting.

Content

When it comes to content it needs to be informative and hold value to your audience. It should be written in a conversational tone and toss in some humor. You need to create brilliant content for each social media you decide to use; you want to post a different post to each of your social media accounts. This sounds daunting but planning will help. Here is an example; you have Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In so on Monday post to Facebook, use the comments from that post to tweak that post for future use on Twitter. On Wednesday post to twitter a different post again use the comments to tweak that post for future use, in 3 week repost the tweaked post to opposite social media; the one you posted to Facebook post to twitter and so on. So when you are planning you posts, plan 2 weeks ahead this gives you 2 weeks to write for the following weeks. You have to be consistent with new content just like posts or people will stop coming to you for that information that you have been providing. Do not forget about a blog you can use that for your content as well.

SEO

Make sure your site is optimized for all platforms, if it is a site for ecommerce you have to make sure it is secure, and most of all use your tags, headers, descriptions correctly. Use your keywords in your content correctly; do not stuff your content with keywords in order to get higher page rankings.

Newsletter

By running a regular newsletter you can create your future customer base, just make sure the newsletter is filled with information that pertains to your industry. Start out simple with a monthly newsletter which lets people know how your product is working, any changes you have made to make the product better; eventually if you are able you can do a biweekly newsletter.

Network

Once you have produced an incredible piece of content network your social media, reach out to other industry forums, LinkedIn groups and contribute. By contributing to other trusted industry sites, you can reach other potential customers. Show the industry leaders that you are reputable and then ask if they would possibly contribute a guest post to your blog or social media.

Reward your loyal customers

We’ve seen this with brick and mortar stores where you need a card to get special sale prices. In this instance you need to offer something for free, maybe a small E-book or E-report that details tips for your industry an example – 5 ways to save on your heating bill, or 7 things you can do to save on your food budget. Offer more than one if you can and a discount of 10% or 20% on their first order. Ask for referrals and offer them $5.00 credit on future purchases for anyone who signs up and makes a purchase.

These steps alone will not be enough but will provide a starting point for your business to grow on a small budget. Later when you have more of a marketing budget you can upgrade your marketing to include other things that you can’t afford now. Until then this will get your product out in front of potential customers and get the word out in order to get people excited about it.