How To Create An Effective Business Blog
How To Create An Effective Business Blog
Blogs are mediums for online presence. They are not spaces used like brochures. Instead they are places to share useful content. A business blog enables you to self-promote by demonstrating your leadership via writing creative articles on topics relevant to the products or services you promote. A business blog should be more in the form of sponsorship than a sale. 80% of the business blog should be dedicated to sharing knowledge, and 20% on promotion.
Business blogs:
A blog is an online space, where employees can interact with customers and prospects in their own unique styles. The business blog enables in-house contributors to demonstrate collected knowledge and expertise and have informal conversations with customers and prospects. The business blog is a well-written and informative newsletter. It is designed to be easier, faster and cheaper than other mediums of marketing.
Creating an effective business blog:
First and foremost select a blog hosting service that is easy to use and offers maximum advantage. You could also consider hosting the blog on your own existing business web site, after checking the RSS feed capabilities and the dedicated Track-back functionality.
Decide on who will write for the blog. Your options include somebody in the company. Whether offered in house or outsourced, you should make sure that the person or person’s writing for the business blog have decent writing skills and knowledge of the value you wish to offer customers and prospects. You could source the job to the customer service reps or outside consultants or in the case of technical information being imparted, you could include the in-house engineers and technicians. The marketers, executives, basically anyone with thorough knowledge of your products or services and with a direct access with the business customers could contribute to the business blog.
Ensure that your business blog has a contact link somewhere on the site. This is very important, if you really want to drive business with your blog. You could even add a contact email link at the bottom of every posting. By adding contact information to each post, you could streamline multiple contributions to a single business blog. Keep the business blog content fresh and updated at least weekly. Also avoid being derivative. Instead drive your effort towards creating unique and interesting content, to establish yourself as a leader and expert.
You should ensure that the posts on your business blog are related to your business and industry. You need to make sure that in the case of wide-ranging and relevant topics, they are of interest to your customers and prospects. You should always keep in mind the nature of blog traffic and the fact that blogs often source their visitors. Each post should be designed to add value by being useful.
In a business blog, provide a ‘really simple syndication’ to control the information received. The RSS feature is adopted because the medium is free and prospects and customers eventually expect it. You could even have your visitors sign up to receive new blog posts via email, regularly. The sign up feature helps you to know the visitors to your business blog. A well-crafted business blog is successful promotion and earned revenue.
