How Often Should My Small Business Post Blog Content?
Regular scheduling of useful, relevant content helps you grow your business. How frequently should you post?
You’ve been told that you need to create engaging posts for your blog in order to build your brand and attract better quality leads.
Now what?
Once you’ve made the commitment to content marketing there are a few things to consider before you get going. The first thing might be: what are you going to write about? Next, you might be thinking about the frequency.
How often should I post my blog?
When you ask digital marketing experts the question ‘how often should I post my blog,’ invariably you will get answers ranging from once or twice a week to daily. Sometimes multiple times daily.
So, what’s the answer?
The truth is, it depends.
Which, perhaps, you already suspected. Every business has different needs and different objectives. Some might want to increase organic traffic from search engines while others might be focussing on building a brand.
They have different resources too. Small businesses generally have a smaller marketing budget than larger outfits. Larger businesses with more hands on deck can sometimes publish once or twice a day.
If you are a small business asking the question, then chances are you need reassurance that you are posting often enough, rather than too much. You may have limited time to focus on content marketing - especially if it’s a marketing department of one. Maybe you can only post once a week.
The benefit of posting regular content
The key benefits of posting regular content include driving organic traffic from search results and building brand awareness.
Organic traffic
Google rewards relevant, useful, fresh content with higher rankings in the SERPs. It isn’t enough to build a website - no matter how well written for people and optimized for search engines. Search engines visit pages more frequently when there is updated content to index, which means regularly updated content gives you more opportunities to rank higher. Don’t forget, this doesn’t mean that you should start pumping out content willy-nilly. It still has to be of high quality.
The key is to publish as much high-quality, optimized content as possible.
Brand Awareness
Content marketing isn’t the same as advertising. You aren’t trying to persuade them to buy your product or make a sale. Your goal is to inform, educate, and entertain with each post to make them come back for more. You want them to look forward to your content in anticipation.
The key here is to diversify content and provide useful information.
And when your audience is ready to buy you will be the obvious choice.
Content marketing is a long game. Don’t get despondent because it seems like it’s not working. Posting regularly helps you to build your brand, even if you don’t see a leap in sales right away.
Brand building blogs don’t need to be as frequent as those for search engine optimization.
What does the data say?
The inbound marketing experts at Hubspot advise 11+ posts per month to generate more traffic.
Traffic does not necessarily lead to more conversions, but if you are publishing relevant and useful content you are more likely to attract quality visitors who may turn into leads. Hubspot discovered that businesses that prioritise content marketing are 13x more likely to see a positive ROI.
That being said, it isn’t easy for a small business to keep up with a large schedule of blog posts. That’s why it’s best to start out with what is realistic for your business. If you can only manage once a week, that’s ok.
In time once you build up a back catalogue of content you can update posts to make them more relevant. This helps boost SEO. You can also repurpose posts into shorter emails or Facebook posts.
And if you have been active on social media, why not take inventory of your posts and see if they can be expanded into something longer for your blog?
Figure out a strategy.
There’s a lot to think about, which is why you should take the time to sit down and consider the best way forward.
As we have seen, how often you post your blog content depends on several factors:
You resources - budget time/money
Who writes it - Will you be doing it yourself? Do you have a marketing person who can write it? Will you be outsourcing?
Your marketing goals
Whether you want to increase brand awareness, SEO, or both
Plan a schedule of when you want to post and stick to it. Make sure it’s realistic for you. Look ahead to any offers or events you’re planning and consider what content you will need to promote it. Brainstorm ideas for posts so that when it comes time to write, you know what you want to say. A clear strategy will help you keep on top of things.
Conclusion
When it comes to blogging, frequency is important. The key to getting results is to stick to a consistent schedule. This is where you are publishing on a regular, reliable basis.
Quality should never be sacrificed for quantity. Always ensure your blog articles are useful, relevant, and optimized. Make sure the content aligns with your audience’s needs. As long as your information targets customer intent with well-researched keywords and provides value you have a higher chance of attracting the right people.
Be realistic with what you can achieve. Don’t burn out trying to do too much, letting the quality - and your peace of mind - suffer.
If you struggle to write the content yourself, you could always try a blog writing service.
That way you receive high quality, SEO optimized content when you want. It takes the pressure off you to do it all.
At CopyHunter, I not only help with writing your blog but can help with content strategy - including planning topics, keyword research and scheduling. This gives you more time to concentrate on your business.