Starting a blog for your green business? Already have one that's not working for you? These 7 steps will help you build a strong green business blog to bring the results you're looking for.

1. Sneak preview inside:
Discover a business blogging eBook to kickstart your business blog!

2. 
Answer the following questions. They will
become your business blog plan.

Date your plan. In a year you’ll revise it based on
what you’ve achieved.

Take your time. Think about your answers. The
stronger your business blog plan, the more
you’ll stand out in the crowd.
FrontlineCopy.com

3. Step 1:
Make a list of the goals you want to achieve with your
business blog:









Lead generation
Increase website traffic
Sales
Special promotions
Build brand reputation
Improve customer service
Industry influence
Product/service education
Show community participation (volunteer efforts, donations,
etc.)
 Other (if you have goals not listed above, add them
here)
FrontlineCopy.com

4. Goal #1:
Time frame:
Goal #2:
Time frame:
Goal #3:
Time frame:
*Be realistic about your time frame.
You’ll think about how to achieve these goals in Step 7.
FrontlineCopy.com

5. Step 2:
Estimate the budget you have to achieve your goals.
Perhaps one of your goals calls for investment that’s outside
your current budget. That’s OK. Put it on your “to-do” list and go
for it later. Then add a new goal to your top three list.
Consider these budget areas:

Start-up/launch costs

Ongoing management costs (domain name, host, blog designer,
outside writers, etc.)

Unique campaigns (product education, video
production, new product launch, etc.)
FrontlineCopy.com

6. Step 3:
List the top ten business blogs in your industry. For each choice,
note this information:
Company Blog #1:
URL:
Is the blog on the business site?  Yes  No
Why I like it:
What’s missing:
Who’s their audience:
How often they blog:
What they blog about:
Most popular posts:
Free downloads:
From that list, choose the three company blogs you think should be
at the top of your list. Familiarize yourself with everything about their
blog and write more notes if necessary.
FrontlineCopy.com

7. Step 4:

Just as you have customer personas for your business,
you need reader personas for your business blog.

These personas can include customers, but they can
also include other groups like industry influencers.

Reader personas make your blog feel personal to your
readers.

You’ll want to write each of your posts to one or more
of your reader personas, just as though you were talking
to a real person.
FrontlineCopy.com

8. …
Each reader persona you develop should include the
following information:

Demographics (age, gender, marital status, etc.)

Psychographics (what concerns them, inspires them, etc.)

Applicable keywords (keywords/keyphrases they use in
search engines)

Photo (to make your reader persona … real!)
FrontlineCopy.com

9. Here’s where you develop your Unique Selling Proposition
(USP).
To get started, answer these questions:
Take time to think about this. A good USP is key to showing your readers
what makes your business blog different from all the others.
FrontlineCopy.com

10. Will you admit
mistakes? Remember, people appreciate
honesty, so set your policy now.

What “voice” will you use for each post? Will it
be a business voice, personal, or a combination
(depending on the type of post)? Again, set
your policy now.

How is this different from your three
top business blog competitors?
FrontlineCopy.com

11. Step 6:
In Step 2 you discovered the type of content
your competition is producing.
What works (or doesn’t work) for them will
probably be your experience, too.
Let these discoveries guide you as you build
your own content list.
FrontlineCopy.com

12.  Product information posts
 Story posts
 Manifesto posts
 Videos (vlogs)
 Podcasts
 Reviews
 Industry news
 How-To’s
 Free download announcements
 Other
Take time to investigate and write down all the
content possibilities you can think of.
FrontlineCopy.com

13. Step 7:
Your marketing plan is what underwrites the success of
your blog. Build it by answering these questions:
1.
Have you set up each post to include:

Easily available share buttons?

An email sign-up form?

A comments section for reader interaction?

Appropriate call-to-action buttons/hyperlinks at
the end of each post for further contact?
FrontlineCopy.com

14. 2.
How often will you publish?
3.
What’s your editorial calendar?
4.
Who will write your posts?

Do you have in-house help?

Will you hire outside freelancers to write blog posts?

Will you invite contributions from guest bloggers? If
so, have you developed guidelines for guest bloggers
to follow?
FrontlineCopy.com

15. 5.
How will you publicize your business blog?
Online
Offline
6.
Who will integrate your GreenBiz blog into
your other social media channels?



Me
An employee
Outside consultant
FrontlineCopy.com

16. 7.
How will you attract readers to your company
blog?
SEO
retweets
 free content downloads
 open comments
 share buttons
 keyword-rich headlines and meta titles
 guest posting
 articles posted on other sites
 email sign-up
 other


FrontlineCopy.com

17. 8.
How will you build your audience?









Notify existing personal, company & industry contacts
about my blog
Announce my blog with posts shared on my social media
channels
Give away freebies
Join industry groups
Comment on other blogs
Respond quickly to comments on my posts
Guest blog
Keep on top of my SEO strategy
Other:
FrontlineCopy.com

18. 9.
What are your strategies/tactics for achieving
the top three goals you listed in Step 1?
Choose ideas from items 5-8 you think will best help you attain your
top three goals. Set up your answers for each of your three goals
like this:
Goal #1: Strategies/tactics from I will use to achieve this goal:
Ideas from Item 5
Ideas from Item 6
Ideas from Item 7
Ideas from Item 8
FrontlineCopy.com

19. You’ve now created your GreenBiz blog plan.
You’re on your way to becoming an
influencer in your industry!
Need more help developing your blog plan
or writing posts?
Call us at 855-263-2985 or contact us here …
We’ll help you turn your business blog
into a winner!
FrontlineCopy.com

20. FREE DOWNLOAD!
Kickstart your green biz blog with this must-have eBook:
The Tao of Business Blogging
How to become an influencer in
your industry with a powerful
business blog
by Faith Attaguile and Valérie Leroyer
A how-to-manual for business people
who want to roll up their sleeves and take action.
 Nick Usborne, author, coach & copywriter
In this 120+ page eBook, you’ll discover how to:
build a strong blogging plan for your green business
grow your eco-friendly audience into a faithful, vibrant
community
structure smash-hit blog posts
find great content that resonates with your readers
create a robust social media presence
…and lots more!

21. Faith Attaguile spends most of her time at
FrontlineCopy.com offering copywriting, blogging and
empowerment marketing services to eco-businesses
working for a greener world.
She’s been trained in business blogging by Corbett Barr
(Think Traffic), has guest-blogged at
KayakCanoeBlogger.com, and writes regular posts for her
own website blog. Recent articles can be found in East
County Magazine and The Coast News.
Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn.
Valerie Leroyer at KayaCanoeBlogger.com also contributed to this presentation.
Special thanks go to Corbett Barr at Think Traffic and Pam Foster
at Content Clear Marketing for ideas we built upon.

22. We wrote this for you to share
with everyone.
But please, don’t sell or
change it!
This work is licensed under the Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. To view
a copy of this license, visit here.
FrontlineCopy.com