Setting goals is critical when you want to achieve something. Many businesses and marketers I talked to over the years about their blogging think of it as just another activity they have to do in order to have a notable web presence. Think about how much more powerful their efforts will be if they are focused on specific results, which can only come by having specific goals.
Now there are tons of analytics you can paw through, but I want to take you further up the chain to setting blogging goals that have some real teeth to them. I mean they elicit some real passion and purpose to keep you motivated. When consistency is blogging is a major facet, yet 70% don’t update their blog and 69% abandon them altogether, then there is some work to be done.
First thing is first, know why are you blogging.
- Gain influence
- Be seen as an expert
- Generate revenue
- Get more traffic raising web presence
- Enhance brand awareness
- Build audience engagement
- Reinforce competitive differentiation
- Increase satisfaction levels
- Grow community following
- Rapid conversion of prospects
Ironically, knowing why you are blogging is a basic that is often overlooked. Take these quick steps to get to the heart of the matter. You are going to want to end up with three goals. There will be one primary goal that is the clear winner. The others should be supporting goals to give it more legs.
- Choose first from the list about from your gut. Star the first goal, then check off the next two that you feel fit. As we all know, our first instinct is usually correct and should not be taken lightly.
- Next, bring logic to the process. What are your overall business goals. Your business could be blogging itself. Either way, if blogging is a content marketing tool you choose to spend your precious time on then it must tie to something bigger.
- Put the lists next to one another and rank away.
- Whatever you land on as your primary goal is your golden thread that ties all of your blogging activities together from content to distribution–even to how you answer comments and what backlinks you choose.
If you or your team cannot answer the question of “Why are you blogging?” this simply, then go back to this exercise to make sure you can in the future. None of us have effort to throw away. Hone your focus to deliver the results you need.
