If you’re a small business owner, you’ve probably heard the advice: “Start a blog!” And your internal monologue probably went something like this: “Sure…because I definitely have time to become Shakespeare while juggling clients, invoices and the existential dread of running a business.”

It’s true, blogging sounds like a lot of effort.  

But here’s the kicker! Blogging for small businesses consistently can help to double their website traffic in under six months.  

And this isn’t just theory; real businesses have done it. Let’s break down why it works and how you can make it happen. 

Think of a blog as a magnet. You throw out valuable, helpful, entertaining or informative articles into the internet universe and suddenly, people start gravitating toward your website. 

Here’s why it works: 

1. SEO Power: Every blog post is another indexed page for Google. The more high-quality content you have, the more opportunities to rank for relevant search terms. According to HubSpot, businesses that blog get 3.5 times more traffic than those that don’t.  

1. Authority Building: A blog is a stage. Every post you publish says: “I know my stuff and I can help you.” The more value you provide, the more people trust you and trust equals sales. 

1. Content Recycling Heaven: A blog isn’t just a post; it’s the gift that keeps on giving. Your content can fuel social media, email newsletters and even podcasts. One post = so many uses. 

Let’s move from theory to reality! 

• Apollo Care Franchising (our very own client)! We created and implemented a blog strategy rooted in real audience queries to support Apollo Care Franchising’s SEO goals and online visibility, leading to an 83.33% engagement rate in just ONE month! 

• GrowthBadger used the “Double Survey Technique” (combining original research with expert insights) and increased their traffic by 843% within a week. That’s not a typo. Insane, right?  https://growthbadger.com/double-survey-technique/ 

• BuzzStream focused on repurposing existing content and optimising it for SEO. The result? Nearly 300% more organic traffic in 12 months. https://www.buzzstream.com/blog/seo-case-study 

• Allen Brothers, a steakhouse brand, launched “Steak Insiders,” a blog featuring high-quality content and SEO strategies. They achieved a 75% year-over-year increase in organic traffic. https://www.goinflow.com/blog/allen-brothers-content-case-study 

These examples prove that blogging isn’t just for lifestyle influencers or tech startups; it works for real small businesses across industries. 

Okay, so now you’re convinced, but how do you actually double your website traffic? 

• Be Consistent: You wouldn’t expect to go to the gym once and get a six-pack, right? Blogging is the same. Aim for one post per week. Over six months, that’s roughly 24 posts. That’s enough content to start showing up on Google for multiple search terms. 

• Focus on Quality: Think of your blog as a dinner party. You could serve fast food or you could serve a gourmet meal that leaves people talking for days. High-quality content keeps people coming back and sharing your posts. 

• Optimise for SEO: If no one can find your posts, it’s like shouting into the void. Research relevant keywords, use headers wisely and make sure your meta descriptions are enticing. 

• Engage Your Audience: Don’t just publish and pray. Encourage comments, ask questions and reply. Your blog should be a conversation, not a monologue. 

• Repurpose Like a Pro: One blog post can fuel – 

• Social media snippets 

• Email newsletters 

• Infographics 

• Podcasts or video scripts 

• This is content efficiency at its finest. 

Even experienced bloggers trip up.  

Here are pitfalls to avoid: 

• Blogging sporadically: Irregular posting makes it harder for search engines and readers to trust you. 

• Overly promotional content: Your audience wants value, not a never-ending sales pitch. 

• Ignoring SEO basics: Beautiful writing won’t help if no one can find it. 

Avoid these, and your blog becomes an engine for traffic and leads! 

Blogging for small businesses isn’t about writing the next Harry Potter; it’s about building visibility, authority and trust.  

Done right, it can double your website traffic in under six months and provide content you can use for multiple marketing channels. 

So, yes it takes effort. But compared to the cost of paid ads or hiring extra staff, it’s one of the most powerful and sustainable strategies you have. 

You pour your heart into blog writing, you hit publish and then… nothing… no converting blogs.

No leads. No website traffic spikes. No phone ringing.

Just another post drifting quietly into the digital abyss.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone, and you’re definitely not failing.

But chances are, you’re missing some of the secret ingredients that turn blog posts into powerful converting blogs that generating leads and sales.

At Bold, we speak to businesses all the time who come to us feeling frustrated. They’re doing the blog thing, but they’re not seeing a return. 

Here’s the hard truth: if your blogs aren’t written with conversion in mind, they won’t convert. The good news? That’s exactly what we’re here for. 

Let’s dive into what really makes a blog post sell, and how you can use these blog tips to finally start seeing results. 

Many businesses think of blogs as a place to share expertise or company updates. That’s great… but if you want your blog to sell, that mindset needs to shift. High converting blogs are purpose-driven.

It’s written not just to educate, but to inspire action, whether that’s a sign-up, a contact form submission or a sale. 

You need structure, psychology and storytelling. Miss even one of those ingredients and your blog could fall flat, no matter how much knowledge you’re offering. 

These blog tips will help you bake in strategy from the start. 

Here’s where the emotion kicks in. If your blog isn’t directly addressing the pain points your audience is facing, they won’t feel seen and they certainly won’t be motivated to act. 

Let’s say you’re a financial adviser. A blog titled “What is an ISA?” might be educational, but it’s not likely to convert. Why? Because it’s not emotional. 

Now, change the angle to “The Mistake That’s Costing UK Savers Thousands Every Year” and suddenly, you’ve tapped into urgency, fear of missing out and curiosity, the perfect storm for conversion. 

Blog tip: Always write to the problem your audience is already experiencing and show them you understand it better than anyone else. 

So many blog posts miss the mark by hiding the call to action at the bottom, or worse, forgetting it altogether. 

Here’s a bold blog tip: CTAs don’t need to feel salesy. They need to feel timely. They need to feel natural. And they need to appear more than once. 

Position your CTA as the logical next step. If your blog speaks to a reader’s pain and they nod along in agreement the whole way through, you need to tell them what to do next. It’s not pushy, it’s helpful. 

At Bold, every blog we write is carefully mapped to guide the reader to the next step in the journey. We build trust, we deliver value and then we open the door. 

If your blogs aren’t being found, they won’t convert. That’s why SEO isn’t optional, it’s non-negotiable. From creating attention-grabbing titles to weaving in high-value keywords like ‘blog tips’ (just like this one), your content needs to be built with Google and your readers in mind. 

But SEO doesn’t mean keyword stuffing or robotic language. It means understanding what people are actually searching for and delivering it in a way that resonates. 

Our clients love that we strike the perfect balance between SEO and storytelling. It’s how we help them show up on search engines and in inboxes. 

A long, dense block of text? That’s the fastest way to lose a reader before they even start. 

Here’s one of the simplest blog tips we can offer: format matters. Break up your content with: 

• Short paragraphs 

• Subheadings (like these!) 

• Bullet points 

• Visuals or pull quotes 

• Strong openers and closers 

A blog that looks easy to read feels easier to read, meaning your readers are more likely to reach the CTA. 

People don’t buy based on logic. They buy based on emotion and justify with logic later. 

So, if your blogs are just relaying facts, you’re missing a massive opportunity. 

Storytelling creates connection. Whether it’s a client success story, a relatable anecdote or a personal insight, this is the secret sauce that makes your content memorable. And memorable content converts. 

Blog tip: Weave emotion, narrative and real-world examples into every post. Don’t just write to inform. Write to connect. 

Here’s the biggest takeaway: great blogs take work. But you don’t have to figure it out by yourself. 

At Bold, we specialise in writing blogs that actually do something. We combine creative content with conversion science to help you reach the right people, with the right message at the right time. 

If your blog posts are collecting dust instead of driving leads, let’s change that.  

We’re ready to get strategic, emotional and results-focused, are you? 

• Write with a strategic purpose, not just to inform 

• Lead with your audience’s pain points 

• Use strong, timely CTAs throughout 

• Optimise for SEO and reader experience 

• Format your blog to be easily skimmable 

• Tell stories that create emotional connection 

• Work with pros who know how to turn content into conversions 

The world of content creation is ever changing. In this dynamic digital environment, creativity and strategy go hand in hand. At Bold, we strive to provide you with the top tips and marketing industry news, and in this blog, we’re exploring mastering the art of content creation!

The significance of a well-defined content marketing strategy is not to be underestimated, in fact, it can be the last piece of your puzzle to help your marketing efforts to excel! By strategically planning your content, you can harness its full potential, and connect with your target audience, build brand awareness, and ultimately drive conversions.

When it comes to content creation, having a solid strategy is crucial for success. It provides direction, purpose, and clarity for your efforts. By setting clear objectives and identifying your target audience, you can tailor your content to their needs, preferences, and pain points. This approach ensures that your content connects you and your audience. Crafting a content marketing strategy involves conducting thorough market research, competitor analysis, and defining your brand’s unique value proposition. This groundwork will help to support you with knowledge to create content that stands out against your competitors!

Consistency is key when it comes to content creation. An effective strategy ensures that your brand voice, style, and messaging are consistent across all channels and platforms. Consistency encourages trust and familiarity, allowing your audience to recognise and engage with your brand effortlessly. A well-planned strategy helps you maintain a cohesive brand image, reinforcing your brand’s values and positioning.

A content marketing strategy goes beyond creating engaging content; it positions you as a thought-leader in your industry. By consistently delivering valuable and informative content, you establish credibility and gain the trust of your audience, which is crucial for all businesses! An effective marketing strategy incorporates thought leadership pieces, honest opinions, and well-researched articles that demonstrate your industry knowledge and expertise. This positions your brand as a reliable source of information and will help you create long-term relationships with your audience. For us, each time we find out about news in the digital marketing industry, we hop on it straight away and let our followers know the facts, this is something you can try with your business too.

One of the primary goals of content creation is to expand your reach and engage your target audience. With a well-crafted strategy, you can optimise your content for different channels and platforms, ensuring maximum visibility. Whether it’s through blog posts, social media, videos, or podcasts, your strategy should directly address your audience. By adapting your content to suit the preferences of your audience, you can encourage active participation, spark discussions, and ultimately boost engagement.

Content creation can be a time-consuming process. However, with a well-thought-out strategy, you can streamline your workflow and optimise efficiency. A clear content calendar, defined roles and responsibilities can significantly enhance productivity. By embracing a strategic mindset, you can produce high-quality content consistently and meet the demands of your audience!

In the fast-paced environment that digital marketing is, trends come and go at lightning speed. A content marketing strategy equips you with the flexibility to adapt to these changing trends while staying true to your brand identity. Sometimes, social media and content creation can feel like a minefield, and with trends constantly changing, it can feel like you’re falling behind. But, with our tips on creating your monthly content calendar, you should feel a little bit more at ease.

To maintain a consistent and engaging presence on social media, it’s crucial to create a monthly content calendar. A content calendar helps you plan and organise your social media posts in advance, ensuring a steady flow of relevant and compelling content. Here’s how you can create an effective monthly content calendar for social media:

1. Set Clear Objectives: Begin by defining your social media goals for the month. Are you aiming to increase brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or engage with your audience? Setting specific objectives will guide your content creation process.
2. Identify Key Themes and Topics: Brainstorm the main themes and topics you want to cover in your social media posts. For us, we strive to provide our audience with trending tips when it comes to the marketing world, and so our content often includes industry news and so on. Consider your audience’s interests, industry trends that align with your brand.
3. Determine Posting Frequency: Decide how often you’ll post on each social media platform. Take into account the platform’s best practices and your audience’s engagement patterns. Consistency is key, so aim for a regular posting schedule that you can maintain throughout the month. We tend to post 5 times per week on Instagram, varying the post types.
4. Mix Content Types: Vary the types of content you share, for example on Instagram, you can post reels, stories, carousels etc. This diversity keeps your feed visually appealing and caters to different preferences.
5. Create Engaging Captions: Craft compelling captions that accompany your social media posts. Use hooks, and use active conversational language to spark interest, ask questions, and encourage audience interaction. Incorporate relevant hashtags to expand your reach.
6. Schedule and Analyse: Utilise social media management tools to schedule your posts in advance, we use Later, One-up and Buffer. This allows you to maintain a consistent posting schedule while freeing up time for real-time engagement. Regularly analyse your social media metrics to understand what content performs best and refine your strategy accordingly.

Email marketing remains a powerful tool for nurturing relationships with your audience and driving conversions. Creating a monthly content calendar for your email campaigns helps you stay organised and deliver targeted and valuable content. Consider the following steps when designing your email marketing calendar:

1. Segment Your Audience: Divide your email subscribers into relevant segments based on demographics, interests, past interactions, or buying behaviour. This segmentation allows you to tailor your content to each group’s specific needs and preferences.
2. Determine Campaign Goals: Define the goals you want to achieve with your email campaigns. Whether it’s promoting a new product, sharing educational content, or increasing customer loyalty, clear objectives help you align your content with your business objectives.
3. Plan Campaign Themes: Map out the main themes for your email campaigns throughout the month. Align them with your overall marketing strategy and consider any events, holidays, or product launches that you can leverage.
4. Craft Compelling Email Content: Develop engaging and personalised content for each email campaign. Include a mix of informative articles, promotional offers, curated content, and exclusive sneak peeks to keep your subscribers excited and eager to open your emails.
5. Establish Sending Frequency: Determine the frequency of your email sends, keeping in mind that you want to stay top-of-mind without overwhelming your subscribers. Balance your sending frequency with the value and relevance of the content you provide.
6. Automate and Measure: Utilise email marketing platforms to automate your campaigns and schedule sends in advance. Monitor the performance of your emails, including open rates, click-through rates, and conversions, to gauge their effectiveness and make data-driven improvements.

(FYI, we use Mailchimp for ourselves and our clients’ email marketing)

Developing content can be a fun way to spend your working day. You can write blogs, make graphics, record videos and more. However, as a busy business owner, it’s likely you don’t often find the time to update your website or your other content channels, so the impact of your content strategy gets lost.

Businesses that adopt content marketing into their wider growth strategy receive an incredible 126% more leads than those who don’t bother, so it’s well worth making the time for.

Yet how do you craft valuable and entertaining content without scratching your head and getting lost in the rabbit hole that is the internet?

Here are a few fun and exciting ways you can create blogs and social media without the headache of desk research.

People are curious beasts, and any excuse to peer into the life of your business is welcome. Everyone’s got a smartphone, so it’s straightforward to create a recording you can use as the basis of your blog. Even an audio app will do the job just as well.

All you have to do is plan some insightful questions in advance and send them to your colleague for them to start preparing an engaging response. Don’t be mean and make them perform on the spot as their nervousness will come across in the video.

Once you’ve got the clip you want, you can either upload it as is to your video hosting service (YouTube or Vimeo, for example), create some clips in iMovie or another free video editing tool or use a tool called Otter to transcribe the audio and you can start editing your text or copying and pasting quotes.

Getting to speak to influencers in your field to make valuable, magazine-worthy articles requires a comprehensive digital PR strategy. However, if you work in B2B, your customers are already your industry experts.

You can create a free form in Google Forms to write out your questions. Send them to five or six of your favourite customers and Google will collect the answers in one place.

Say you have 5 questions in your survey, you then have five blog posts in your “Experts Series”, each blog focusing on five different opinions on the same topic.

A typical Google search brings up a variety of similar-looking articles which have all been based on the same press release. You then have to plough through them all to have enough information to create a vaguely original piece of content for your blog.

Instagram is a much fresher medium with original content that’s visually appealing. You’re far more likely to find an array of engaging responses to the topic your researching. If your business is garden design, you’ll find an abundance of beautiful images that illustrate the latest design features and trends. Pick four or five posts, and write a blog around them. Give a credit to the author, and kudos for their appealing images.

We know this works because newspapers adopt this tack all the time.

For some new businesses, it’s hard to get their digital marketing on track because they don’t pay enough attention to the planning stages of content. A content plan can be simple to implement if you know what you’re doing.

You need to know some of the tenets of content. What is it for? Who is it for? What are you trying to achieve? What do you want from the person engaging with your content? Ask yourself these bigger questions before you begin to map out your plan. Some companies find it helpful to create customer avatars to gear all their content towards. Once you can answer these questions, you can begin developing your content funnel.

Not all content pieces are relevant to all customers, and not all customers are ready to buy. That’s why you develop a content funnel to help you coax your prospects to the conversion stage and beyond. The call-to-action for the content should lead your prospect neatly to the next stage in the content funnel.

The main stages you want are: awareness, consideration, conversion and then finally retention. Your content takes your prospect on a journey.

Start to think about a piece of meaty content you can create to, first of all, get people into the “awareness” stage of your funnel. This could be an ebook. Then, develop a suite of blogs, vlogs or an infographic.

This type of long-form content has the ability to cascade into smaller nuggets of content for your “little and often” channels, such as social media. For advice on developing chunky content, we recommend the following:

Reading links for chunky content:

• Creating your own content: keeping your social channels fresh with one initial idea
• 10 Blog Formulas To Help You Generate Ideas
• The Go-To Video Marketing List for the Creative Entrepreneur
• Video Marketing Ideas to Turn Your Facebook Page into a TV Channel
• 11 Ways to Tell Your Story Through Digital Channels
• Easy Steps to Planning Your Video Project: Briefing, Storyboarding and Scripting

Start creating this content first and foremost, and batch it if you can. This makes it easy to produce social media posts and email content later down the line.

You can also use chunky content to build other bigger content, such as infographics, video presentations and SlideShares. By reformatting your content, you’re making it fresh and teachable.

Content created from other content is what I like to call the content cascade. When it comes to the content cascade, don’t underestimate your content types and themes. Types are, for example, videos, images, gifs, quotes, statistics, promotions etc. Your themes are centred around key topics. Mix up your types and themes to create a varied selection of content that doesn’t get boring.

Reading links for social media content:

• What Am I Supposed to Put on My Social Media Calendar? 20 Ideas
• 15 Easy to Forget Social Media Activities that Build a Bigger Picture
• 6 Practical Social Media Tips to Give You More Hours in Your Working Day
• Using Instagram for B2B Success

Having some time away from the office is essential to generate fresh ideas as it figuratively and literally offers you a fresh perspective for your content marketing strategy. Ensure everything is placed in a content calendar, starting off with sticky notes on a wall, a whiteboard or, if you love software, an online project management board. The “Calendar” power-up in Trello displays all your tickets in a calendar format, which we find really helpful at this stage.

Get your list of chunky content, together with your identified mini content nuggets and start placing them into your rough and ready calendar. Then you’ll have a template. For example, quotes every other Wednesday, a video every Friday etc. Take a photograph of what you did and then, once in the office, transfer this into a spreadsheet or add some finesse to your digital content calendar.

Your little content snacks should be easier to create now you have your content calendar up and running. Use Canva to develop simple graphics to make your social posts eye-catching in the social streams. If you’ve prepared your content templates (batched and prepped like a boss!) then each post should take you mere minutes.

Reading links for design tips:

• Simple Design Tips and Tricks for Newbie Marketers
• 5 Stages to Producing Richer Content: No Design Skills Required
• 4 Simple Ways to Style Your Content to Look Instantly Professional

Once you’ve gone about the creation stage, choose your content scheduling tool and post away. We tend to use Hootsuite, but other options are Buffer and Later for Instagram.

With all of our clients, we strongly recommend that their new website includes a blog. Fresh and relevant content regularly posted on a blog is a vital part of attracting visitors to your website, as well as helping your chances of improving your positioning in search results.

Many of us think that the hard work is done once a blog post is published, but there is still a little bit more to be done to complete the job.

So you’ve got an idea for your next blog post and you’re certain it’s going to be your best yet! You’ve drafted the article, tweaked it and proofread it… it’s bang on! Before you press publish, ensure you’re blog post includes these vital features:

• An engaging title
• Intriguing introduction that explains what your post is about in the first few sentences
• Eye-catching images and/or videos
• Informative content that’s optimised for the search engines
• Strong calls to actions
• Social share buttons

Tick, tick, tick… you’ve got it!

Many bloggers assume that after pressing the Publish button, large amounts of website traffic floods in, but ask yourself this – How will people know that your blog post exists? Does your colleague sitting next to you know what you’ve just done? Do your customers know that the answer to their problems are currently sitting on your blog? The most likely answer to these questions is No.

The thing is, how will people know that your blog has just been updated unless you let them know about it? You might be the best writer in the world but if people aren’t aware of your article, nobody it going to read it, so you need to drive traffic to your site and maximise the amount of people who see your post. And the best way to do this is by using social media.

Facebook – Share it on your business page and ensure your post description is engaging. Include a link to your latest blog post as well as an eye-catching image.

Twitter – Share a link to your article with the use of relevant hashtags. Think of the keywords that are used in your post and these will help you to generate effective hashtags. Remember, you’re limited to 140 characters so make your tweet punchy!

LinkedIn – Utilise LinkedIn groups, share your article link and explain to people why your latest blog post is a must read. Make sure you share in a group that you engage with regularly and think about what you’re posting. Remember, most people will only read articles that are relevant to them.

Pinterest – If your blog post include an eye-catching image or you’ve designed an amazing infographic, Pinterest is the best place to share your blog post. Pinterest is well known for generating high levels of traffic from images, so another reason for finding high impact images! Remember to include a short description too.

YouTube – If your blog post includes an engaging video that you’ve produced, your best bet is to share it on YouTube. Include a link to your blog post with your video upload so that if people discover you on YouTube, this gives them an avenue for them to visit your site.

Instagram – Instagram is another good platform so share eye-catching images. As with Twitter, make sure you utilise effective hashtags and a short description about your image. Play about with filters and give your blog post image that extra wow!

Use these tips to help increase your blog posts awareness and regularly check your Google Analytics to see if your efforts have paid off.

Let’s face it, ranking on the first page of Google is getting increasingly difficult as time goes by. With just over 1 billion websites live on the internet in March 2016 it’s hard to know what’s the right thing to do in order for our content to rank and be discovered.

Google likes to change their algorithms and policies frequently which leaves us all in the dark and wondering what to do next. However, blogging is one thing that the search engines still reward you for. Follow these 5 points and see how blogging boosts SEO.

Regularly updating your blog with fresh and relevant content will win you big points with the search engines. Each time you publish a new blog post, this will force the search engines to crawl and index your site which could improve your search engine rankings. This doesn’t mean to write any old blog post, you still need to write relevant content to encourage readers to come back for more. Using relevant keywords and engaging content will not only help with your search engine rankings but will help you to position yourself as an expert in your field.

Using images in your blog posts isn’t just for visual purposes, they are another avenue for people to discover your content. By naming them according to your keywords and adding relevant alt-tags, your chances of being found online will increase.

The use of keywords has changed dramatically in recent times – no longer do the search engines reward you for cramming as many keywords as you can into a blog post. Nowadays, using keyword phrases will increase your chances of ranking high. Instead of focusing on one specific keyword, think about the question your blog post is answering and what people will search for in order to find your content. This will help you to come up with a strong keyword phrase and could increase your chances of discovery.

Just like images, video can play a bigger part for your SEO and help you to rank higher in the search engines. If you’re going to include a video in your next blog post, make sure it’s relevant and informative. The last thing you want is for people who have found your content to then leave your site as this will increase your bounce rates and could jeopardise your SEO efforts.

By connecting your blog to your Social Media accounts like Facebook and Twitter, search engines now reward you in search results. If your keyword phrase was searched and you shared it across your social media accounts you’re giving the search engines one more thing to find. They will look at both your website and your social media accounts which in the long term will help you rank higher for your specific keyword phrase. It’s a win-win situation!