Startup Revenue: How to Grow it with a Blog?
Hello!
First, we want to answer something that we hear often: "I am pre-revenue, I don't need to work on sales or marketing: my goal is to raise capital. I will work on a revenue model later on." This is a big mistake and sorry to be blunt. You need to think about a revenue model from the beginning and having a blog can definitely help you with it. Not having revenue for startups worked a few years ago but now, investors are looking for revenues.
As an entrepreneur, you need to understand that your startup will need to be profitable at some point, it isn't just about raising money. Not having a revenue model is one of the main reasons why startups fail and by having one yours can succeed.
"I cannot grow my startup revenue with my blog"
This is something I've heard often. Indeed, several startups contacted us saying that they did a blog but their blog was not bringing any traffic or any leads. We tell them that they might have a blog but you need to have a strategy behind it. In this post, we are going to show you how to grow your startup revenue with a blog.
Why do you want to have your own blog?
And by the way, what do you consider results? You must set the overall goal of your blog, in line with the overall goals of your startup.
Do you want to start a blog to simply generate traffic? Do you want to increase your startup revenue?
Do you want to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)?
Do you want you or your startup to be recognized as an expert in your industry? Do you want to attract more qualified prospects to your website and improve your conversion rate?
It’s crucial for your startup to know what the goal of your blog is.
What is the mission of your blog?
In the absence of a strategy worthy of the name, your blog will have little to no success. If you want to accelerate the success of your blog (who would not?), the value and visibility of your blog will be your main assets to be quickly found.
How can I add value? Easy… not so much: start by answering the challenges faced by your ideal users. An idea is to write any questions your potential users may ask and answer each by a blog post. Become a real useful resource. You need to find what your audience wants to learn and share as well as what you want to talk about.
It's crucial for your content marketing strategy to be efficient to find the sweet spot for blog content: it should be content about which you have passion, interest and expertise in order to bring value to your audience. Your blog content should resonate with your audience and make them want to know more and share it. Your content should be engaging in order to have an effect on your startup revenue.
According to Orbit Media Studio survey, it usually takes around 2 hours to write a good blog post, the blog posts are getting longer (Meaning that bloggers give more insights in their content) and most bloggers blog weekly. It means that you should reserve time for blogging, have a schedule and blog regularly. Also, it is important to diversify your blog content. Don't only write text, you can create infographics, slide shares, podcasts, videos, charts, e-books, surveys, webinars...
Find your target users / your audience
There are many different channels where you can find your audience. We believe that social media should be your first attempt to attract visitors.
Then, you could also try paid advertising and reach influencers in your niche to show them your content. A growth hacking strategy with a lot of A/B testing, data analysis and optimization will help you find which channel fit your startup blog the most. Tracking your blog analytics is key in order to create more user-centric content and also improve your existing blog posts.
Why should your startup start a blog?
Are you even sure what a startup is? This is a business searching for growth!
Having a quality blog beneficial for your startup. We believe you should start one as soon as possible. Even if you are starting a startup from scratch, having a blog will help you spread your word, giving you exposure, getting feedback and more.
Building a users’ base and get leads
You're probably thinking that attracting visitors to your startup blog doesn’t actually mean getting new users or customers. And you’re right.
This is where other inbound marketing techniques are efficient to get traffic, convert it into a lead or even a customer. Implementing a Call to Action (CTA) button on your website such as a “Purchase Now” or "Learn More" or a newsletter subscription list are examples. For instance, you can get email subscribers by integrating an email subscription form such as Bdow on your blog.
At QUASA, we always tell our clients that their business should never be stagnating. They always need to put in place a startup growth strategy and apply strategies, hacks or tactics in order to always be growing.
Convert leads into sales
Getting a lead is just a first step. You now need to convert them into sales in order to increase your startup revenue. There are many ways to monetize your blog. When a potential customer has already consumed many articles of your blog, you will know perfectly how you can help and the sales process will be much faster. Keep that in mind!
To convert your leads into sales, you need to put in place a sales funnel. You have many strategies to escalate your sales. What we recommend is to create an email marketing strategy. After getting emails of subscribers, you need to keep your subscribers in the loop by creating great email marketing campaigns. You can send them your new blog posts, newsletters, special offers or create a drip email marketing campaign. Your sales funnel and email marketing strategy have to be A/B tested as well. The headlines, the CTA, the time you send the emails, the format, the colors... everything has to be split tested in order to find what brings you sales.
Blogging will make you save on advertising
By publishing high-quality content consistently on your blog - content that resonates with your audience, you will be able to use your blog to strengthen your SEO as well as increase your sales. When you get your blog content positioned in search results, you are investing in an asset, since the articles you post will allow you to capture your target audience and visits will come continuously without having to make any additional spending.
This does not happen when you bet for paid advertising because when you stop investing, your website stops appearing. The advertising of this type is based on a monetary investment through some specific keywords. When the money stops, your blog will no longer appear in the top positions. It means when your advertising budget stops, the revenue you get from it will stop too.
This does not happen with organic content, allowing you to attract traffic continuously and sustainably. This is why a blog and having a content marketing improves your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as opposed to a paid strategy (SEM = Search Engine Marketing). Therefore, a blog is cost competitive compared to advertising.
If you just start blogging for your business, there are chances that the domain of your blog is new. The search algorithms such as Google or Yahoo often give preference to the old and famous blogs. This is why it is generally considered that it takes about six months to begin attracting visitors from the search engines.
Integrate ads on your blog
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a great way to make some extra earnings. This is the process to take a commission by promoting other company's products. For instance, if you like a book on Amazon, you can have an affiliate link directing to it. If a person clicks the link and buys this book, you will get a commission. For instance, you can check the Amazon affiliate program to know more about it.
Brand recognition and reputation
The safest thing to say is that not all visits you receive on your blog match your target audience. Even the captured leads may not be your target, or they might not be interested in buying your product or service at that time.
However, you are adding value to your blog and your content, and this translates into a solid relationship that will position you as an expert and a leader in your field. Thus, it is possible that when the time comes, those leads will prefer your company. It's a good investment for your startup branding and for the future!
How do I gain visibility?
Implement a social media strategy for your startup by developing a strong presence in social media and try to share your content on each platform your business is present.
However, be sure to avoid uniformity. User behavior varies depending on the platform and the top marketers, who know perfectly well social media, write messages in line with the different social media channels. To summarize, if you publish a blog post on three social platforms, you must write three different messages.
The six-month rule
If you are just starting to blog, take your troubles patiently.
One of the main flaws of bloggers is impatience. Everyone must read your article. After all, you consider yourself as a thought leader with many years of experience in your industry.
Then, when visitors start to flow from the search engines, after about six months, you will realize gradually that your old items contribute significantly to your overall traffic and the traffic will start to grow substantially. It’s at that point that you begin to see peaks in traffic, the number of subscribers to your blog will increase and you will really start converting through blogging.
How long does it take to grow your startup revenue via a blog?
But, you should not think this way with a blog. Blogging and content marketing are long-term strategies because it will allow you to increase your traffic, get leads, improve SEO and convert leads into sales. So, to see a substantial impact on your startup revenue, we usually say that it takes 6 months.
This is why a content marketing strategy is a long-term focus.
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So, how to grow your startup revenue with a blog?
In order to increase your startup revenue with the help of a blog, you need to know well your audience and your readers. What do they want to read? What are they interested by? You need to find the sweet spot between what your audience wants to discover and what you want to say. Blogging should be part of the overall marketing strategy you defined.
It's also important to know how to promote your blog. Indeed, you could write the best piece of blog but no one will find it if you're not able to promote it.
Blogging should be part of your inbound marketing methodology. A blog is made to attract visitors but attracting traffic is not the final goal. You need to have a strategy (Such as email subscription, call-to-actions and email marketing tactics) to transform traffic into leads and then convert leads into sales through the creation of a sales funnel.
Blogging will have a great impact on SEO and also on your startup branding, visibility and recognition. But, you have to keep in mind that it will take you several months to significantly grow your startup revenue with a blog. Resilience is key for your startup success. To get extra tips on your blog, we invite you to read these 10 content marketing tactics for your startup blog.
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