Tag Archives: blogging

Why a blog is important for your small business

Do you publish a small business blog? As a small business if you don’t have a blog you are losing out on many aspects of online marketing, SEO and social engagement.

Having a small business blog has many advantages. Small businesses normally don’t have big marketing budgets and they have to depend on individual effort in order to survive and thrive. Blogging kills multiple birds (I don’t endorse killing of birds for entertainment and leisure purposes, in fact I loathe such acts) with a single stone. Once you have set up a small business blog and accumulated some high-quality blog posts

Your website begins to rank higher on various search engines
Search engines index and rank greater number of pages and blog posts from your website
Your overall keyword density improves
You have useful content to share on your social media and social networking profiles
Your followers and friends get more opportunities to promote your links as you publish fresh content regularly
You establish yourself as an authority due to the expertise you constantly share through your small business blog
Search engines and social media websites begin to regard you as an authority and hence attach more importance to your content
You engage your visitors in meaningful conversations and hence improve your recognition and identity and consequently, strengthen your brand

Having a small business blog is easy

You can either set up a business blog under your existing domain name (something like http://yourwebsite.com/blog) or you can have a separate domain name for your blog and put your main website link there. Although there are many free blog hosting services that you can use; I recommend using WordPress for your small business blog because it gives you full control over your blog in terms of layout and content. Besides, you can freely download it and install it on your server. This is more important especially now when online services are randomly shut down by even reputed companies like Google..

Provided you already have a website and you want to host a small business blog under your existing domain name, it doesn’t cost you much. You can either do it on your own, or you can hire somebody who is comfortable installing WordPress blogs. The benefit of hiring someone experienced is that within a couple of hours you are ready to go.

Maintaining a small business blog demands some time and investment

Of course as a business tool a small business blog cannot be 100% free. Either you yourself will have to create content or you’ll need to hire a content writer for that. Initially, in the fit of enthusiasm you can create a few well-written blog posts but eventually you will need to look out for an experienced content writer who can take over your blog and make sure it always has fresh, relevant and useful content.

Rather than quantity focus on quality

For your small business blog it is very important you don’t get swayed by the keyword hoopla and focus on the broad quality of your content. Getting 100s of keyword-centric blog posts may get you lots of traffic, but if that traffic doesn’t convert into business, you are simply wasting your money and effort. Instead, invest on high-quality content that not only ranks higher on search engines and performs better on social media and social networking websites, but also improves your conversion rate.

Besides, these days you can be penalized by search engines like Google for over-using your keywords. So use your keywords whenever they are necessary and don’t needlessly stuff them. Even your content writer must know that. Sometimes people indulge in keyword stuffing unknowingly and if your content writer is doing that, you will need to remind him or her not to do it.

Does having a small business blog actually help you?

It depends on what you’re looking for. If you think your small business blog will immediately increase your business, it may not happen. It is a publishing platform. It helps you build a communication tool that can help you in whichever way you want. There is traffic, and then there is targeted traffic. Targeted traffic to your small business blog will always have a greater conversion rate compared to non-targeted traffic.

The success of your small business blog also hinges upon your clarity of purpose. Do you want to build an audience that will eventually turn into your customers, or do you want to straightaway sell your products and services via your blog posts? To be frank, whether it makes sense or not, on the Internet people are turned off if you are directly trying to sell them. Of course everybody understands that eventually you need to make a living, and nobody resents that. But if you are providing quality content, just provide quality content through your small business blog. Don’t try to trick people into buying your product or service just because they have come to your blog to read your blog posts.

Yes, your small business blog can increase your business. Use it to increase the level of credibility. Use it to develop a strong readership base. Encourage people to subscribe to your e-mail updates and try to engage them as much as possible. Remember that it is the level of engagement and recognition that will eventually encourages them to do business with you, and this you can be easily achieve by publishing a regular small business blog.

How regular blogging helps your customers and clients

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Regular business blogging isn’t just about improving your SEO and it also isn’t always about strengthening your brand identity, it also helps your customers and clients take better decisions. When you keep your customers informed of all the new developments taking place in your business (strategic alliances, product launches, new services, change in existing services and product features, etc.) they feel a part of your business process and consequently, are more eager to do business with you whenever they need to.

Blogging to help your customers and clients

The greatest hurdle on the Internet is the lack of information. Before you have bought, almost nothing is tangible, unlike in the real world where you can actually extend your hand and types the object you are planning to purchase. At the most on your website they can get a three-dimensional view of your product and use some sort of simulation. So how do you convince them? By providing as much information as possible.

You need to keep in mind that when you are providing information to them it doesn’t mean you’re trying to manipulate them. The information in every blog post needs to be very objective and, you’re right, informative. The primary objective of your blog posts is not making sales (although the end result is always this); the primary objective is to keep them informed and interested in your regular communication. Primary objective is to engage them on an ongoing basis and to encourage them to share their concerns with you, whether they want to do it through the commenting section of your blog, or through your social media profile (Twitter or Facebook).

You can also help your customers and clients by amply sharing your wisdom and experience. It doesn’t have to be always business-related. You can share with them how you make business decisions and what factors impact your decision making whether you’re deciding alone or with your management.

You can also help your customers and clients by sharing your social as well as political viewpoints through your business blog, although this is not always recommended. The primary focus of your blog obviously has to be your business or related to the product or services you are offering, but the world doesn’t just consist of the products and services you offer. Our businesses don’t fund shall in isolation: regional politics, economics, social conditions, weather, and many other factors affect the way we do business. So it’s not inappropriate to share your non-business thoughts with your customers and clients. Although you need to share your thoughts of such nature as a person and not as “we believe in this”, or “we would do that”.

Provide valuable content to your customers and clients on a regular basis

What is valuable content? Something they can use to solve their pressing problems. Of course you cannot solve everybody’s problems, but there must be some individuals whose problems you can solve through regular blogging. So whenever you are about to publish a blog post think it carefully, is it providing some solution? If it is simply blowing your company’s horn, immediately delete it, nobody is interested in knowing how great your company is doing unless it is of some use to those people. But then again, it doesn’t harm if you write about your benchmarks and achievements on your blog once you have established an amiable relationship with your readers.

What all must you consider in order to have a successful business blog

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Do you want to create a successful business blog? Any sort of blog that is published while keeping a sense of success in mind needs effort and dedication. As rightly mentioned on this thought-provoking Successful Blog post, a successful business blog takes

Successful Business Blog

Time
High-quality content
Clearly defined purpose
Identifiable personality
Unique individuality

I would also like to add strategy and marketing, and of course, perseverance, if you want to create and maintain a successful business blog. Many people think that marketing a blog means that you are trying to promote your blog just to increase traffic so that you can either sell affiliate products or ad clicks. Even when you are publishing a business blog you need to market it with ongoing effort so that it gets the exposure it deserves. After all you publish a successful business blog to attract people to your main business.

That is why it is prudent to get help in order to publish a successful business blog. It is better to outsource rather than trying to do it in-house. Of course you can hire a full-time writer/researcher in order to produce regular business blog content but he or she won’t come with an entire package the way a professional content writer who works independently does. Anyway, this decision depends on your overall business approach. The basic objective is running a successful business blog.

Starting a blog and then not managing it properly (for instance, having a bad design, or publishing blog posts irregularly and intermittently) can be counter-productive because it can sully your brand – in fact it is better having no blog at all. On the other hand a well-managed blog can bring you unprecedented business dividends. So you have to chalk out a strategy before starting a blog.

As mentioned above you must realize that once you start publishing a business blog you will need to dedicate some time to it in order to make it a success. You cannot simply generate a post in just 15 minutes and that too on an ongoing basis unless you are a prodigy. Individual posts may take up anywhere between 1-2 hours.

The most important ingredient of your successful business blog is going to be the content that you publish. Blogs are known by the sort of content they have. It should be relevant, well-written and engaging. People should find it useful and relevant. This also covers the purpose of your blog: you have to figure out why you want to publish a business blog in the first place.

You want to communicate to your visitors regularly?
You want to update them about your latest offerings?
You want to keep the buzz alive around your business?
You want to educate your prospective customers and clients?
You want to solidify your social media presence?
You want to improve your search engine rankings?

In fact all the points mentioned above are important and they give a purpose to your business blog.

Personality and individuality always help. People rather prefer to interact with people and not unknown business representatives. Talk to your visitors as a person.

Finally, whenever you plan to start a business blog just start it, don’t think of success or failure for at least 5-6 months. Many business representatives find sharing their thoughts on their business blogs intimidating but it is actually quite fun. You get to know some great people, you make new friends and you create new business opportunities for your visitors as well as yourself. Let it evolve gradually. Every day you will learn something new even if you hire a content writer for your blog.

A successful business blog also requires a sustained effort. Even if you cannot produce quality content always, it is your persistence that eventually pays. In fact your blog readers don’t expect you to produce exceptional blog posts all the time. They just want you to be there in one form or another. Sometimes you can create blog posts of more than 1000 words. Sometimes you have just 100 words to say. Sometimes you just want to post a photograph or share a video. In order to create a successful business blog, there should always be something happening over there.

Blog success has got a lot to do with persistence

Why your business needs a blog (20 reasons)

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Why does you business need a blog? If you think this question has already been put forth thousands of times, you’ll notice social media experts like Chris Brogan are still raising it. It means how important it is, and it also means there are still some people who wonder whether they need a business blog or not.

As Chris has rightly stated, not every business needs a blog, but if a business has a blog, that business has an edge over other business. Blogging is a great communication tool, especially if you have built up an audience for it. And if you are a big company, even the press knows about your blog.

When you have a business blog you don’t need to depend on media and other PR agencies to reach out to your core market. Of course it’s easier said than done. It takes effort to build an audience. If you simply keep on publishing formal press releases full of corporate jargons people are not going to throng to your blog. You need to publish content that really makes an impact. People should find it useful.

That’s a reason why many businesses shy away from starting a business blog. They know it’s a long-term commitment and a blog that is not well-managed can sully the image of the company.

Nonetheless, a business blog can be a great asset.

How a blog can help your business

Every blog, whether it is a personal blog, a business blog or whatever you may like to call it, is a platform once you have built an audience. You can take some examples from real life. In real life, some people have a certain reach. They wield an influence and we often admire them for that and secretly also fantasize to achieve the same status. When you have a reach your voice can be heard. You are never isolated when people are eager to listen to you. If something goes wrong and you need to communicate your point of view, people know where to reach you. This is where your blog can help you, provided it is targeted and the people who should actually listen to you come to your blog.

Building an audience of course, takes time and effort. Unless you have a big budget your business blog cannot evolve into an exciting platform just in a couple of weeks. So in order to build a successful business blog, you have to accept that, and prepare accordingly, that it is going to take time and effort. After that, it just becomes a routine, but this is a topic for another, dedicated blog post or article.

A business blog also improves your search engine rankings. After a while it becomes difficult to go on adding content to your business website, but you can easily do that on your business blog. Search engines are constantly looking for new, fresh and relevant content and they often find this content on blogs because blogs are updated frequently. Most of the blog posts are also subject-specific. This makes their content structured and easy to index as well as rank. You normally create a blog post to write about a particular subject.

When you have valuable content on your blog people have a reason to link to your individual blog posts, consequently, giving you genuine back links. Search engines like Google want people to link to you for the value you provide rather than the amount of money you’re ready to pay for the back links. This they might be doing for their own monetary gains (because they are selling their own link advertisements) but this is the reality.

People like to do business with entrepreneurs they respect and can trust. Chris Brogan, for instance, whose blog post I have linked to in the beginning of this blog post, is a trusted name. He has developed this authority by continuously publishing high-quality content on not only his own blog, but also on other blogs and websites. Your business blog allows you to establish you as an authority figure in your field. Since you are constantly sharing your expertise, and this expertise helps them, they respect you for that and eagerly do business with you.

Again, whether you want to have a business blog or not is up to you, once built, it is certainly a platform that puts you in a formidable position vis-à-vis your competitors.

20 reasons why your business needs a blog

Here’s a quick list of 20 reasons why your business needs a blog, gathered from various sources on the Internet.

To create hundreds, or even thousands of pages that the search engines can index and rank.
To educate and inform your customers and clients.
To tell your visitors how you feel about your product or service.
To engage your visitors in meaningful conversations.
To build a vibrant and responsive community around your brand.
To build and sustain your own communication and broadcasting platform.
To keep all the stakeholders in the loop.
To establish your authority in your field.
To share useful information with your visitors.
To tell your current and prospective customers and clients that you aren’t just looking for business, you are also interested in establishing long-term relationships.
To show your non-business, human side.
To tell your side of the story.
To showcase your ability.
To tell the world how you change the lives of your customers and clients for better.
To give your company or organization a unique voice.
To attract inbound links.
To improve your author rank.
To solidify your social presence.
To give people a reason to come to your website regularly.
To improve your conversion rate.