The small business world is an exciting one. There are tons of directions you can take your marketing, you have the flexibility to do so, but not necessarily the funds. Blogging is an excellent cost-effective marketing tool that is becoming more and more popular. This marketing approach allows you to generate dynamic content to share with your audience that helps build traffic to your website. If you think the idea of blogging appears daunting, fear not! It is very easy to do, and there are plenty of tips and tricks out there to help you along the way. Here are a few:

Create a realistic, manageable schedule

Blogging is only as time consuming as you make it out to be. If you don’t have the time to blog much, try and create one article a week. It should only take a few hours to research and write. The time needed for this will also drop the more you blog as you get it down to a science. You should never force yourself to blog when it comes at the expense of something that is potentially more profitable for your company. Also, realize that building a following by blogging does take time, so by creating an article a week you will help lay the groundwork for more exposure in the future. People will be impressed by the depth of your content database, as well as your dedication to blogging. A good schedule will help to keep your business top of mind among consumers, and put you at the forefront of options when they are ready to buy.

Create and keep an idea file

There are many excuses thrown out there as to why it’s hard to blog. One of the more common ones is that ‘there isn’t enough to write about.’ A great way around this is to keep an idea file, where you place article ideas every time one comes to mind. You can also try researching trends or best practices in your target industry since other people will probably have already written about them. Compiling a list of ideas and sources to pull writing inspiration from will help smooth out the learning curve.

Make it shareable

The entire point of blogs is to get people to share your content. Putting social media links to share articles is an absolute must. Promote your articles on your social media accounts as well to maximize exposure. If you give people the option of sharing content they will do so. Email campaigns for users who subscribe to your blog are also great for keeping your company top of mind.