Blog for yourself

This might sound like a contradiction of what I hammer home in every class – that all communication, be it a blog or social media post or email or web copy should have your target audience in mind – but it’s definitely not!

Your target audience should top of mind no matter what you’re up to from a marketing perspective. I’m talking about the early days of blogging, when you have no following. There are a whole lot of reasons why your blogging will (and should) be for yourself more than anyone else!

But let’s take a step back and remember why it is we’re blogging in the first place. These are just five benefits of blogging for your business:

1. Boost Search Engine Optimisation because search engines love fresh content on your website
2. Establish credibility for your business because people need to feel they can trust you before they hand over their hard-earned cash
3. Give your business a personality and connect people to your brand because they like a business that has heart and feels real
4. Create a viral effect when your followers link to your blog post, tweet it, or email it to others. It’s free marketing and it further validates you as a credible business.
5. Develop and grow your relationships with potential and existing customers because blogging gives you an excuse to talk to your base regularly. New content published on your site gives you an excuse to send a newsletter and draw people to it.

Here are five personal benefits you’ll enjoy from blogging:

1. You will think more clearly and write better
2. You will develop an eye for meaningful things
3. You will be challenged
4. You will become more disciplined, and
5. You stand out and inspire others!

And now, back to where we started. That is exploring why it’s okay for you to blog for yourself when you first start blogging. There are five reasons for this too:

1. It will help you find your voice and speak more coherently
2. It will help you to get inside your customer/followers head
3. It will build your confidence
4. It will build a bank of knowledge you can refer people to when you connect with them, and
5. It will give you a lot of material to reuse and recycle further down the line as your following grows!

So, if you feel like you’re talking to yourself as you start out, don’t let that worry you and definitely don’t let it stop you. Keep telling yourself it’s part of the plan and keep blogging. The followers will come and you will be all the more ready for them when they do!