According to Hubspot, B2B marketers who use blogs receive 67 percent more leads than those who do not. Also noteworthy: companies who blog, providing relevant content, receive 97 percent more links to their websites due to others sharing it.

That’s rather strong incentive to start and maintain a blog for your business, no?

Blogging is an important part of a small business content marketing strategy and can help you by:

• Increasing your online authority, thereby building trust and credibility as readers see your expertise and knowledge of your industry.
• Improving your chances of ranking better in online searches. Websites that generate new content regularly are favored over those that do not.

Blogging, however, takes time, creativity, and effort. An infographic from Blogging.org shows that while 60 percent of businesses have a blog, only 35 percent actively update their blogs, and 65 percent haven’t updated their blog in over a year.

As with any content marketing effort, blogging requires consistency to provide results. If lack of topic ideas or time constraints have prevented you from maintaining your company blog, here are a few ideas for making those obstacles less of an issue:

Look to your customers for ideas. What frequently asked questions do they ask about your products or services?

See what others in your industry are talking about. Why reinvent the wheel if you don’t have to? Provided you don’t copy their ideas, unique perspectives, or wording verbatim, you can address the same topic by providing your own take on the subject. (Note that including a mention and link to the blog that was your inspiration can generate goodwill—and it will likely result in that person/company sharing your post, too.)

Share a customer success story. Consider reaching out to your clients about being featured in posts. Featuring how your products or services have helped a customer solve a problem demonstrates your effectiveness in a way that doesn’t appear self-centered.

Capture ideas promptly in either a good old-fashioned notebook or in an app like Evernote. With so many other aspects of running your business on your mind, you might forget those amazingly brilliant topic ideas as quickly as you thought of them. Write them down immediately.

Schedule time on your calendar to work on your blog posts. If you make your blog a part of your professional routine, you’ll be more likely to stay on track.

If you have an employee who is adept at writing, consider delegating the blog responsibilities to that team member. Or consider contracting a freelance writer who will ghostwrite your blog posts for you.

To save time writing, use a speech-to-text app or the feature in Gmail on your mobile device to dictate an initial draft that you can go back and edit later.

While these tips won’t make blogging effortless, they will hopefully help you in your efforts to generate ideas and gain efficiency.

For more guidance about blogging and content marketing, consider contacting your local SCORE chapter. SCORE mentors bring expertise and experience in all aspects of starting and growing a business.

If you would like help with this process, or other aspects of your established or start-up business, the volunteers at SCORE are available to help. SCORE is a nationwide network of over 13,000 experienced volunteer executives offering free assistance to small businesses looking for mentoring, counseling, tools and workshops. You can read about SCORE at www.score.org.  The Polk County Chapter of SCORE can be reached at 828-859-5456 or via email at scorepolkcounty@gmail.com. Article submitted by Ben King, WNC SCORE, Polk County Branch.