THE BEGINNER’SGUIDE TO BLOGGINGPosition yourself as an industry expert, and communicate more effectively with your customers.

“83% OF CORPORATE BLOGGERS SAW A TRAFFIC INCREASE TO THEIR SITE AND A 62% INCREASE IN SALES WITHIN 3 MONTHS OF LAUNCH.”

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A thoughtful, well constructed blog can be invaluable for any business. On one level it will increase traffic to your main website. Secondly, it can provide you with the opportunity to position yourself as an industry expert, and communicate more effectively with your customers.

If you are considering starting a blog, or have one that you feel isn’t working as well as it should, here’s a few simple points to help you make your impact in the wonderful world of blogging.

THE BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO BLOGGING

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ABLOGGER. FREE. A service owned by Google, Blogger’s big attraction is ease of use and virtually instant setup. You can go from blog-less to publishing your first post in under an hour thanks to its extremely easy set-up process.

BWORDPRESS. FREE. Again a very popular choice and thanks to an absolutely enormous community of followers and developers, WordPress has all the themes, plug-ins, and gadgets of all stripes that you can ever need. The one drawback is that is does require technical knowledge to set-up.

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TUMBLR. FREE. Whilst Blogger is a simple way to set up a fully-fledged blog, Tumblr is an interesting fusion between blog and a Twitter feed. Its style is visual and short and sharp. Combined with the ease of setup Tumblr is a winning combination for people who aren’t looking to commit to a blog as an involved and time consuming project.

THE AGENCY | EBOOKS | BLOGGING FOR BEGINNERS

STEP 01

Choose a platform.There are several very popular platforms, each one with its different pros and cons and it’s down purely to personal choice which one you decide to use. The main contenders in no particular order are:

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STEP 02

Customise your blog

The next step into blogging is making your blog your own – this can be done to different degrees depending on what you want to achieve. If you are aiming to have a very corporate blog that you want to work and look in a specific way, get a professional involved, it will save you hours of pain, and life’s too short to learn the programming needed.

If on the other hand, you need a blog that needs to look professional and you can customise to a small extent, there are a plethora of themes for all the major blogging platforms. The quality varies wildly, and the old adage you get what you pay for certainly holds true here.

B2B COMPANIES THAT BLOG GENERATE

MORE LEADS PER MONTH THAN THOSE THAT DO NOT BLOG

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67%

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STEP 03

Create your content.Its time to start creating content. This is definitely the toughest part of being a blogger. What do you discuss, comment on, or write about? To have any value in the corporate arena, you need to post something that will interest and engage your industry and preferably your potential customers too.

If you look round a lot of company blogs, you’ll soon get the picture that instead of commenting on the latest breakthrough in your industry a lot of people post interesting things that employees have done in the last month. OK, Janet from accounts has had a baby, but does the world really need to know?

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STEP 04

Keep it up to date.Again difficult, but can be done if you’re disciplined and give somebody the task of doing it. If you look close enough in what’s happening in any industry, or what’s new within your own company there is plenty of newsworthy subjects that give your blog a fresh look… just as long its not Janet’s baby.

To sum-up, blogging can be a very valuable tool to build your brand, and ultimately build your sales. However, as with any communications its the quality that counts. If you want blogging to deliver, do it right.

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REASONS TO CHOOSE THE AGENCY

02 We’ll help you articulate your vision, values and purpose so everyone knows what bus they’re on. 06

We are commercial, results driven and give 110%

07 We’ll collaborate and have fun together!

08 We’re a full service communications agency, so we can help you with all your external communications on and offline.

03 We’ll capture your competitive advantage and give you something to be proud of again.

04 We’ll help you bravely take your brand to market.

05 We‘ll build your sales by building your brand.

09 Brand, marketing and business has been our craft for decades.

01 We’ll challenge you to make the difficult decisions needed to take your business to the next level.

10 We have worked with global brands you know and love.

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You’ve got the ball rolling in your mind. You understand the benefits of a strong brand to achieve business improvement, and The Agency can help you get there.

The next step is to give us a call or drop us an email to get a conversation started.

It is as simple as that – a conversation. No high pressure sales calls, no demands, no expectations. All you’ll get is one of the partners contacting you for a chat about what your business needs to grow – after all, that’s what we’re all here for.

We look forward to hearing from you!

WOULD YOU LIKE THE AGENCY TO HELP YOU?

Let’s start a conversation.

CALL US0121 224 8300OR EMAILINFO@THEAGENCYLIMITED.COM

THE AGENCY | EBOOKS | BLOGGING FOR BEGINNERS

THE AGENCY. WE BUILD YOUR SALES BY BUILDING YOUR BRANDIN THE MOST CREATIVE AND COST-EFFECTIVE WAY POSSIBLE.

Our services include: brand strategy • marketing • website design • graphic design • corporate identity • advertising • e-marketing • print • packaging design • exhibition design • direct mail • e-marketing • SEO • social media • web content creation

The Agency Brand Consultancy Ltd Studio 20, Fazeley Studios 191 Fazeley Street Birmingham West Midlands B5 5SE

t: 0121 224 8300

www.theagencylimited.com

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