Why Companies Should Start Blogging

Over the past few years, there's been a major shift in the perceived value of 'Blogging for Business' among marketing managers and business owners. While there are a number of reasons for this change, I think their motivation to start blogging can be attributed to the fact that they are beginning to understand the power and exposure it provides.


Unlike most internet marketing strategies, where companies create campaigns to promote their products and services with various calls to actions attempting to convert targeted customers; blog marketing focuses on sharing fresh, relevant and interesting content for the purpose of engaging and interacting with its target audience. Blogging also opens up an entirely new spectrum of opportunities to market your business online which is simply not possible with just a website.

So what are the benefits I can expect from blogging for business?

Building Credibility - A professional, well-designed website should portray your company in a positive light, educating visitors about your company, your employees and the products and services it provides. However, your blog is something very unique. It has the power to project the passion, the wisdom, and the expertise your company maintains within your field. Blogging has the power to elevate your company into being viewed as an industry leader or resource.

Building Relationships - Blogs are not only great resources of information for starved consumers interested in learning more about your business and what your company is saying, it is a tool for building relationships. So keep the communication lines open between you and your audience. Like social media, a blog provides businesses the opportunity to listen to what your readers have to say about your company. They should be a two-way conversation that allows readers to express themselves.

Unlike websites, which are typically straightforward and lack emotion, blogs allow companies to either be serious or not. Southwest Airlines has one of the best company blogs titled, "Nuts About Southwest". Their blog is at times humorous, yet informative. It provides visitors a peek inside its operations and the culture at Southwest, while interacting and building relationships with its customers. Your company's blog should also be viewed as a place to effectively communicate with your customers about stuff that matters to your company.

Expand Your Audience - Interesting blog posts have the potential to reach new readers that are interested in your services or products. These readers are unlike the ones that are reading traditional advertisements or even your company's website. So write content that enables your readers to better understand how your services or products can help solve their problems. Offer case studies to illustrate how your services are used. Allow visitors the ability to comment on your blog posts.

Remember, one of your primary goals of blogging is to converse with your audience. If your content is interesting and your readers find it useful, they may leave a comment and begin interacting with you.

Improve Website Rankings - For many business owners and marketing managers, the decision to begin blogging was made in an effort to improve their website rankings on search engines.

One of the greatest challenges for most business websites is trying to continuously develop new quality content. At a certain point in the evolution of a website, it becomes rather difficult to continuously add original content to the website. However, adding a blog to your company's website eliminates this problem opening up a wealth of content opportunities.

Since a blog post is also indexed as a page by search engines, blog marketing is an excellent strategy to quickly increase the number of pages on your website. A well written, highly optimized blog post will immediately get indexed by search engines, helping to improve your website page rankings.

Ron Haggerty

http://www.wsib2b.com

Ron has been a certified internet marketing consultant and a managing partner with WSI Internet Marketing since January 2006. During his tenure with WSI, he has worked as a web developer, designer, team leader, project manager, and as a business consultant. His greatest strength is that he understands what it takes for small to medium sized businesses to be successful. Prior to WSI he opened numerous successful small to medium sized businesses and was responsible for every imaginable aspect including concept design, start-up, marketing, day-to-day operations, and P&L oversight.

If you're looking to improve your internet presence please contact Ron. He will evaluate your current online presence and help you establish a strategy suitable for your company's needs.
WSI Internet Marketing has offices in Orlando-Winter Park, FL and New Orleans, LA

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