I am back from my dormant phase, I took a break from blogging to recharge my batteries, I am so happy to re-connect with all of you again. This year will be the best year ever, it is the year of the “Dragon” prosperity will reign! So here we go:
Blogging is one of the most under-estimated tools to enhance small businesses in their marketing plans. Many have come to realize the value of blogging as a means to promote expertise, and establish credibility with their potential customer audience base.
A well-maintained business blog can out-perform a traditional, static business web site in search engines. In more direct terms, this means that a well-maintained blog can provide a smart business person and his/her business with a competitive advantage online that will translate to more traffic i.e. increasing potential revenue.
From a marketing stand-point, business blogs, in general, have demonstrated that they can:
- Generate ways for consumers to discover old and new businesses and their respective products/ services.
- Act as a communication medium that offers marketing visibility opportunities for businesses well beyond the search engines. Business blogs have, in some instances, been known to generate buzz and word of mouth marketing for their businesses (let’s see a static, business web page do that).
Benefits of Blogging for Small Business:
- It tends to be cheaper for a small business to keep up a blog than to keep up a website. For small business owners without the time to learn web HTML or the money to hire a web designer/developer, blogging offers an inexpensive method to get their company’s name out on the Internet.
- Having a well-maintained blog may provide small businesses with a powerful edge vs. larger, “blog-silent” businesses pursuing the same customers in the market-place.
- Blogging has shown time and again that it can be a great marketing tool that boost sales, provides a perfect opportunity for product promotion and helps brand a small business and its products.
- It tends to improve the customer experience since it allows for public, two-way business/customer conversations (value: customers who feel like a company is listening to them and responding to their needs have been found more likely to develop an emotional connection with that company — something important for a small business seeking to build customer loyalty and generate repeat buyers).
Some Words of Warning about Blogging for Businesses Large and Small:
A well-maintained business blog does involve a significant investment of time. Also, it tends to communicate best when its writing is humanized and personal-sounding rather than cold and robotic (avoid using corporate jargon that can turn your audience away).
And although a business person may find it challenging, s (he) must take the time to respond to all non-spam comments left on his/her company’s blog — particularly negative comments. Keep in mind, however, that if these comment responses satisfy an angry customer, that same customer can potentially turn in to an evangelist for the same business down the road.
Once you start a blog, as a business you need to be consistent and start an editorial calendar meaning that you need to maintain your presence by writing regular blogs on your blogging site.
As they say “Content is king”, add useful, clear content that can help readers to become your loyal evangelists or customers waiting for your next blog. Blogs should never be about the business itself abut about what solutions this business offers, what issues it helps overcome, and what advantages it offers to the readers that look for (WIIIFM: What Is In It For Me)
With all the noise in the social media sphere the people’s attention span is extremely short, you need to grab it from the get go, starting by your title using attracting keywords.
Some free resources for blogging:
They are free and paid versions, I would suggest that you start with the free version and see how comfortable you are, then down the line you can shift to a paid version or host one on your website. You can export your blogs later on to your paid blog version if you decide to do so.
Happy Blogging
Sahar Andrade, MB.BCh
Diversity Consultant – Social Media Strategist
Sahar Consulting, LLC. - Home of the D.I.A.L.O.G.™ Programs
Diversity& Inclusion in Active Leadership Organizational Growth™
(Exchanging Ideas through Conversation)™
http://www.saharconsulting.com
(818)861 9434
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