This is a copy of a previous blog entry as it was published on our last website. We feel this article is still relevant so we are republishing it here.
What is business blog? Why do it? What are the benefits? Who can start a business blog?
These are the most commonly asked questions on this topic and I will try to answer them right here.
When I was working with Howie Clare from BulletPoint Marketing (by the way a brilliant marketing consultant) on our report called “13 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website”,one of the options mentioned in there is “Business Blogging”.
What is a blog?
A blog is essentially a web page made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically—like a what’s new page or a journal. But especially a blog for business encompasses much more. There is a lot of benefits you can use to build up your brand and indirectly increase sales.
Why start a blog?
Some of the great benefits of business blogging include: Brand Building, Competitive Differentiation, Relational Marketing, Media & Public Relations, Position You as an Expert and Reputation Management. If you are interested in more information about business blogging, please don’t hesitate to contact us at your convenience.
What are the benefits of of blogging for small businesses?
Build an online community
Blogs provide your small business with a chance to share your expertise
and knowledge with a larger audience. This opportunity to connect with
a wider audience and build a community is a strong benefit for example
for consultants and knowledge workers.
Increase your Search Engine Rankings
This is quite an important aspect that should not be overlooked. A website is only as good as the amount of business it helps you generate. If you have a visually stunning website that no one can find, you might need to re-think your online marketing strategy. With the costs of many SEO services between $5,000 to $10,000 per year, business blogging offers an affordable solution for small business. Blog offers the opportunity to promote your web site for hundreds of different keywords. Search engines like crawling through blogs because they offer a large amount of text content that is updated and added to on a regular basis.
Build up your brand awareness
A blog gives you a good opportunity to buld up your brand awareness. The more a customer hears your company name, the bigger chance of remembering it. By blogging you might also spread your influence in areas of potential customers you would not be able to target otherwise.
Competitive Differentiation
How will your potential customers know what makes you different from
your competitors? Tell them on your blog! Show them how you
work, why should they contact you and how your solution to their challenges is unique.
Increase sales
Building up brand awareness goes hand in hand with increased sales. As indicated by Business Weeks’ Olga Kharif in “Blogging for Business”,
Jonathan Schwartz, president and chief operating officer of Sun
Microsystems discivered his blog was a gold mine when his sales people
started reporting they were selling deals faster to the readers of his
blog. Blog also gives you an opportunity to mention your latest special deals and promotions in a more casual form than your main website.
Appear accessible
You and your company will appear to be more
accessible especially if you allow freedom for all your visitors to
post comments. Accessibility is often a stumbling block for many
potential customers that still prefer to deal with companies offline. A
blog makes you more approachable and makes it seem easier for your customers to contact you.
Position Yourself as an Expert
Are you an expert in your field? Well tell the world on your blog. If
you really know what you are talking about people will pay attention and read your blog on a regular basis.
Communicate with your audience
Blogging provides several benefits in communicating with your customers. One of the biggest benefits is enabling a RSS feed for your blog that lets your readers know whenever you post a new article. Blogging also keeps you in touch with a lot of interesting people, expands your views and provide you with new ideas for your business. By allowing your customers to leave comments on your posts, you can communicate with them on another level. You can also track which posts are being read more often and which generate a greater number of clicks. This is an important market research information that doesn’t cost you anything.
Social Media Marketing
Social bookmarking
sites like delicious, Stumbleupon and digg can produce astounding
results. If you are lucky enough to have one of your blog articles go
‘viral’ on one of these sites you should brace yourself for a surge of
new website visitors and possibly some high quality inbound links.
Who can start a blog?
Because blogging software is the first true easy to use solution for small
business and free agents allowing one to create, publish, manage,
share, and syndicate communications to new and existing customers,there are no limits as to who can have a blog.
If you know how to browse the internet, you will have no problem publishing a blog. Simply write your thoughts, link to other articles and publish your blog with only a few clicks of a mouse. You can either use some of the free publishing services like blogger.com, or you can have a blog featured right as a part of your current website, much as this blog here. Please don’t hesitate to contact Digital Arts for a free advice on how to setup your own blog.
Maintaining A Successful Business Blog
While there are free blogging services available they generally offer ad-supported blogs with a restricted amount of templates and options. To truly take advantage with a business blog your best bet is to use a commercial application or pay for a commercial service. These enable you to integrate the blog into your own domain incorporating your own design. This ensures that you offer the full benefit to site visitors while making it easier to point blog visitors toward the appropriate pages of your site.
Regular content is imperative to the success of any blog. This content needs to be informative, accurate, and written in a way that will appeal to your visitors. Every blog demands different content and by producing the right content on a regular basis it will pay dividends.
In some posts you should try to find an opportunity to link to at least one page on your main Web site. Try not to get carried away by placing too many links or linking from all your posts but if you mention a particular product, link the name of that product to the corresponding page on your site.
