Blogging: How It Can Benefit Your Business

Did you know that 346 million people worldwide read blogs? Imagine how many of these people could be clients or customers of your business. It sounds cliché, but the possibilities with blogging are endless.

A blog, originally known as a “weblog” is merely a web page made up of short, frequently updated entries or posts. Many blogs are personal, informal and set up like an online journal. A business blog, however, can be a low-cost, highly effective marketing tool for any business.

According to Holly Suso, the founder of MymompreneurTM and an active blogger who offers a blogging boot camp workshop, there are three key reasons why businesses should blog: improve visibility, demonstrate expertise, and increase profit.

Improve Visibility
“In terms of visibility, blogging allows you to meet your audience, customers, and colleagues where they are,” said Suso. To put it another way, a business blog will help you and your company be found online.

According to new research released from The Nielsen Company, Americans spend a third of their online time (36 percent) communicating and networking across social networks, blogs, personal email and instant messaging. That means your potential clients are definitely online and they are reading blogs, so why not take the opportunity to engage with them?

Business owners often will say that they are already engaging with customers through email marketing with a newsletter. While a newsletter can indeed be a valuable source of information, a blog does not have to replace it, but rather it can work in conjunction with it. You can use the newsletter to drive traffic to your blog.

Demonstrate Expertise
With a business blog you can offer knowledge, expertise and experience via quality content that will make you a resource your audience will value and follow.

“We've all heard that content is King. Blogging reinforces you as the expert in an authentic, credible way,” said Carolyn Ortman of CKO Marketing and Training Group. “Providing in-depth commentary on a blog about what you stand for in the marketplace is an excellent way for others to get to know you and your company, build your reputation and enhance your brand.”

Note that providing quality content is the key here. You want to be seen as an expert or a company that offers valuable information (oh, and you just so happen to provide a product, service or solution). You do not want to be seen as a pushy salesperson.

Beyond sharing your expertise, it’s also important to show your audience that you care. Remember, one of the key benefits of a blog is that it is interactive, meaning it allows for two-way communication between you and the readers. Once you create a post, readers will read it and often they will post comments back to you, asking questions and sharing insights.

Tip: Make sure you respond to blog comments. If you’re not visiting your blog, why should anyone else?

Increase Profit
As you establish a relationship with the readers of your blog and they begin to see you as an industry expert, you will see a boost in sales and subscriptions.
According to a Hubspot report, blogging can have a very positive effect on your company’s branding and growth. Reportedly, companies with blogs gathered 68% more leads than companies without blogs.

“Your blog can be used as an effective lead capture tool. Blogs can offer incentives such as eBooks, coupons, specials and information products in exchange for leaving contact information on email forms,” Suso added. “Data can then be compiled and segmented for sales usage via newsletters, upsales, and evites, for example.”

People are likely to do business with you if they like what you have to say, enjoy reading your ideas and can see your passion and drive within your words (or video) on your blog.

Moving up the Ranks
Another key benefit to blogging is that blogs are search engine friendly. If you’re like most business owners, you’d like to achieve high rankings among the search engine giants like Google and Yahoo and thereby see a jump in the number of people who visit your company website. Blogs are not only frequently updated but often contain keyword-rich content, which is a must for search engine optimization.

While monetary costs associated with blogging are minimal, your main investment is time. This could be a huge drawback because as any business owner knows, time is a precious commodity we all wish we had more of. In an interview with Technorati, a blog search engine, Fred Wilson the managing partner of two venture capital firms and a well known blogger at AVC.com said, “It's not easy for an entrepreneur to find the time to blog. But for those who do it, it is a great tool to communicate with the various stakeholders in their business and build a reputation for thought leadership.”


Joan Burke Stanford is the owner of Jazzy Pen Communications. With a journalism background, she has more than 15 years of experience writing and editing for a variety of companies and publications. Visit http://www.jazzypen.com/ for more information.