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"Kostas Papageorgiou\u00A0is Paymill\u2019s resident blogger and\u00A0a professional blogger and content creator who helps startups grow their online presence through content marketing. This post was originally published on Paymill's blog.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nWhether you\u2019re bootstrapping or have just secured a round of funding \u2013 chances are you want to attract as many customers to sign up for your product/service.\r\n\r\nEven with a ton of publicity, like getting featured on CNN and the BBC, the light will fade on your startup, and so will unique visitors signing up as users. Unless of course your startup has an enormous marketing budget that it can just pump into TV ads and radio - but I\u2019m guessing you want to spend your budget wisely.\r\n\r\nThe reality is, marketing can be expensive, especially if plan you on attending all the major startup events. However on the flipside of the coin, it can be relatively inexpensive if you know how to do it right.\r\n\r\nOne way to market your startup on the cheap is through blogging. And before you start telling me how time consuming and ineffective it is, take a moment to check out these statistics:\r\n\r\n\t82% of marketers who blog daily acquired a customer using their blog, as opposed to 57% of marketers who blog monthly which, by itself, is still an impressive result (HubSpot)\r\n\t59% of B2B marketers rate blogs as the most effective content marketing tactic (CMI)\r\n\tBlogging champions as the #1 method for increasing traffic, with SEO in second place (HubSpot)\r\n\tB2B marketers who use blogs generate 67% more leads per month than those who do not (Inside View)\r\n\tBlogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links (Hubspot)\r\n\r\nAnother objection I often hear from startups is that they don\u2019t know what to blog about.\r\n\r\nBut before we dive into the topics you should blog about. It\u2019s important that you get a thorough understanding of who you want to attract to your website.\r\nFind out who your audience is\r\nFirst things first, find out who your target audience is. While it\u2019s easy to go with what you want to blog about, your content will fall on deaf ears if it doesn\u2019t resonate with your audience. To start delivering content people actually want to read, start off by answering these simple questions:\r\n\r\n\tWho\u2019s involved in the buying decision? E.g. CEO, Marketing manager, business owner, etc.\r\n\tWhat does their day look like?\r\n\tHow are they measured for success?\r\n\tHow can your content help them? How does your product fit into their needs?\r\n\tWhat does your audience want?\r\n\tWhat does your audience want to avoid at all costs?\r\n\r\nListening dashboard\r\nNext up is setting up your listening dashboard. Take a moment to listen and observe what your audience values most. Here are a few ways you can stay tuned in:\r\n\r\n\tVisit forums where they spend time online\r\n\tLinkedIn Groups\r\n\tGoogle+ Communities\r\n\tSet up Twitter searches\r\n\tAttend trade shows and networking events\r\n\tSubscribe to relevant blogs and monitor the comments\r\n\tQuora\r\n\tGoogle Alerts\r\n\r\nThe main principles behind blogging for your startup, which you\u2019ll notice from the topics below is to deliver value, build trust and position yourself as a thought leader.\r\n\r\nBelow you\u2019ll find five core topics every startup needs to be blogging about to raise more awareness for their brand.\r\n\r\nFive Topics For Startup To Blog About:\r\n1. Best Practices and Tips\r\nYour blog is a way for you to deliver useful and practical content to your target audience. Most of the content we read today tells us what\u2019s the best way of doing something or how to do it better.\r\n\r\nPeople love reading these kinds of posts because it\u2019s usually based on the author\u2019s experience. The idea here is to write about an issue your target audience has trouble dealing with.\r\n\r\nFor example, if you\u2019re product is an eCommerce platform where people sign up to set up their online store. People\u2019s main concern will probably be about maximising online sales. So a best practices type of post could be: 7 Easy Ways to Increase Your Online Sales\r\n2. How-to guides\r\nWith how-to posts, you\u2019re telling the reader how to do something in a simple to follow, step-by-step guide.\r\n\r\nJust like with best practices, how-to posts are extremely popular because they empower the reader. It helps people build and accomplish something, and when they do, they\u2019ll remember you as the source of inspiration.\r\n\r\nTo continue with our eCommerce example, a possible title for a blog post could be: How to Build a Web Store You Can Be Proud of\r\n3. Industry news analysis\r\nChances are that you\u2019re up to speed with everything happening in your industry. A major part of establishing thought leadership is through displaying you\u2019re extensive knowledge of the marketplace.\r\n\r\nDoing so builds more trust between you and your audience, especially when you add your own views into the mix.\r\n\r\nSimply use the listening dashboard I mentioned in the beginning - pick a news article - and weigh in on the discussion.\r\n\r\nFor our fictional eCommerce startup, a blog post could be something like: How Google\u2019s New Penguin Update Will Impact Your Online Store\r\n4. Answering user questions and concerns\r\nThis is the easiest thing you can blog about, to be honest. All you need to do is gather all the questions and feedback you\u2019ve had come your way and answer them in a blog post.\r\n\r\nAnother benefit here, comes in terms of search engine optimization (SEO), since people will most likely be Googling the same questions - you\u2019ll want your blog to be ranked up there at the top in search results.\r\n\r\nA lot of the questions will fall into the \u201CWhat is ___?&amp;quot; category, such as: What is an in-app purchase?\r\n5. Reporting on future trends\r\nHere is where you can really set yourself apart - by writing what you think will be the future trends in your industry.\r\n\r\nThe reason why this should go in your blog is because it sets you up as a visionary in your field. Another benefit is the uniqueness of the content, since others won\u2019t be having the same ideas and opinions as you.\r\n\r\nFor instance a future trends post would be titled: What will ecommerce look like in 20 years?\r\nYour 5-minute blog marketing plan\r\nNow this all sounds good, set up a blog, start writing about the topics above and a flood of visitors will come. Sadly people won\u2019t come just because you set up a blog. Which is why you\u2019ll need a good old fashioned marketing plan for your blog. Luckily covering the basics only takes a few minutes to implement.\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s a simple marketing strategy to follow for your startup blog:\r\n\r\n\tSet up social sharing\r\n\tGet everyone in your office to share, like, tweet, +1 your posts\r\n\tEnable RSS subscription\r\n\tPost to social media\r\n\tEmail signatures\r\n\tLink to it from your main website\r\n\tPromote at events\r\n\r\nSo there you have it, five topics to help kickstart your blog and start attracting more business.\r\n\r\nImage credit:\u00A0FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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