Ken
Are you an online business marketer? Then hear this: as the Internet is evolving, so must your strategies for your online business marketing evolve. Nothing less is demanded of you. That is the only way to make the best of your online presence!
Every online marketer understands that the website is the main focus of all online marketing tactics. And so to stay on top of the competition, your business website needs to be updated regularly. Online users have no time for an idle site. For your business, it's simply a waste of financial opportunity.
The question however is, how do you ensure that your business website is updated regularly to remain relevant? The simple way is by adding a blog to it. It doesn't matter what your business website is all about. Even if your business concentrates on local sales of services and products to the community, by adding a blog it can generate additional revenues that you may not realize. An active blog can help line the pockets of your business and help generate an additional revenue stream both from online visitors and physical walk-in customers.
The following are some of the reasons why a blog is an important aspect of your website in marketing your online business.
1. Sharing
The blog for your business website can be a way to share current information with your online visitors whether they live in your area or not. While your primary focus should be those in your location, writing content tailored to everyone could help your website generate income from outside the locale. If your business is located in Michigan, the information you provide on your blog could help someone face a problem or learn something new in Guam. If you have services such as Adsense or affiliate marketing and the person in Guam decides to buy something from those methods, you just generated a certain percentage of the sale for doing nothing more than providing information.
2. Cross-platform
If you use a content management system such as WordPress to operate your blog, you can install plugins that will allow you to link a Facebook account to your content. Whenever you create a new post, you can “link” or “comment” on the post for Facebook which will add it directly to your company's timeline. Any friends and fans you have generated locally will immediately receive the comment and it could spark additional interest to visit your site to read the entire post. And Facebook isn't the only social media site that can be connected to your blog's activity. Google+, Pinterest, Stumbleupon, YouTube, and a vast array of others can distribute your blog's content as well.
3. Interest
You want to keep your customers interested in your business services and/or products. If you launch a newsletter campaign that distributes discounts or coupons from your blog, you can keep those customers informed about any changes or additions your business has made. In some regards, this could work far better than radio advertising or newspaper articles. As long as you keep the content of your blog regular, fresh, and current visitors will come and the interest in the business could solidify.
4. Revenue
As mentioned before, a business blog has a good chance to generate addition revenue from nothing more than your content. By attaching services such as Adsense, any visitor who clicks on an advertisement earns your business an extra few cents to a few dollars. Some popular blogs and websites have been known to generate a great deal of income through Adsense.
Another method that can help generate additional income is the use of affiliate banners. These banners link to specific companies using a tracking number to identify your account. If someone buys a product from these other companies after clicking on the banner from your website, you earn a percentage of the sale. All you need to do is write relevant content on your blog post, add the banner coding to it, and save your post. It's literally that easy.
5. Personable
Blog content is a little different than providing straight facts as in writing general articles for websites. A blog post is usually written in first or second person which helps relate the content between yourself and the reader. It gives one the sense that they are getting information from a friend or colleague rather than a straight forward piece. Blogs are also a great form of personal opinion, or in this case a business opinion, about any given related subject. However, you want to keep opinions related to the type of business you conduct. You don't want to fall into the same soup that Chick-fil-A did in 2012. Keeping your opinions related to your business practices will help keep you from facing the heat from the media.
6. Professional
First impressions are very important when it comes to your business. As most of the large companies have extravagant websites complete with blogs, eCommerce, and other add-ons, people may assume that a successful company needs to have all of these things as well. For instance; if you were walking into a restaurant that served the best grilled chicken sandwich in the world but the dining room looked like a storage unit, you'd probably move on to somewhere else to eat. Having an active website and a regularly updated blog gives people the sense that you are serious about your business. Your business needs to cater to the masses, not based on your own ideals of what you think they want.
7. Collective Knowledge
Writing regular posts of everything your business knows about its specific field could begin building a collective database and visitors will feel safe about trusting the content. Although blogs can be opinionated, which don't necessarily mean the information is based on fact, the information you provide through the blog can potentially help millions.
8. Marketing
Blogs have a world of their own aside from general websites. Communities of all kinds gather across various areas to share information. Blog carnivals allow owners to post content increasing the exposure of their own websites and blog posts. Blog lists appear all over the Internet that can help readers find interesting blogs based on their own personal interests. It's a method that can quickly spread the word of the business blog site across the globe. Within days, your blog could see a great increase of traffic which helps your business using revenue generating methods and customer acquisition.
Conclusion
A regularly updated blog, as a business marketing strategy, can be as powerful as radio advertising for your local customers. Some business blogs will actually perform a great deal better than many marketing strategies you may be considering.
Your business website can be more than merely informing visitors who you are and what you do. It can be a method to share information with the community while generating additional interest from those outside of your locale. The possibilities are great and in today's world, it's senseless to let your website sit idle.
Over to you: The above are nothing but my thoughts. I'll love to hear your views also. What do you think of adding a blog to a business website? Share with us in your comments below.
Well said Ken , Blog is really an unavoidable but most important part of a business website.It is really unavoidable and much more important for small businesses that rely more o search engine for the exposure.
Blogging is very important, I get the majority of my traffic because of my blog. Thanks for the great tips!
Making a blog for a business personable is a tricky one, as you mentioned. Definitely keep the humor dry and the personal opinions to yourself when in doubt. The blog is about the business, not you.
Hi Ken,
You’ve said it well here. Its really very necessary for a business website to also have a blog. The benefits cannot be over estimated indeed.
For the simple fact that a blog is updated frequently is enough to make your website more popular. It will also help to rank the website more higher in SERP.
I really agree with all you said here Ken. Thanks for sharing.
Blogging keeps me busy when i get bored and also it is good to earn few bucks which I am earning.. thnx