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Blogging is the most cost-efficient business strategy any company can have in the midst of this dire economy. People on both the buyer side and the company side are reaching out to the Web and utilizing it.
As Jennifer Evans Laycock of Search Engine Guide explains in the above video, consumers have less money to spend and therefore research their purchases more. Companies see their revenue falling and put a stronger effort on understanding their consumers. Usually the companies and consumers end up meeting through social media.
Interestingly enough, many of these companies are small businesses that compete on a global level as a result of the abilities of the Internet. Social media is the key in making this possible since it does not require a large budget. Speaking specifically about blogs, Jennifer lays out several reasons why a business should have a blog:
1. Showcase your personality
2. Create a feedback cycle
3. Build a loyal community
4. Create an emotional investment
5. Increase your credibility
These reasons for having a blog are also benefits of having a blog. Time is the only drawback to having a blog. It takes a lot of time and is a full time commitment, but it produces many benefits as evidenced in the points shown here.
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One of the most wonderful things about blogging is that it is free and once you post your articles, with an RSS Feed anyone looking for your thoughts can find your blog, it is much more cost effective than (PPC)pay-per-clicks. Blogs are a great way to show case your business.
Good post! I’m glad it inspired some response.
I agree with what Aaron, Ceri and Barbara have said above, while at the same time I completely understand Richard’s position. I’ve run personal blogs that have gone nowhere in the audience department, even with a healthy resume of backlinks.
However, I also have success stories, and I’ve found that the net benefit of a successful blog more than makes up for a bad run of failures. It’s kind of like the recording industry. A record label like Sony or EMI will sign dozens of acts that sputter and die before they land a Kelly Clarkson or Justin Timberlake, and for sure that’s all money down the drain. But one Justin or one Kelly is all they need to stay afloat.
Likewise, all you need is one good blog.
Working for the ailing travel industry, my company had scrambled in the past few months to come up with a cost-efficient online alternative to traditional and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. One thing we did was focus our travel resources into this blog: http://www.wrsol.com/usatravelguide/
Within two months we had achieved a Google page rank of 5, and have since been able to channel that rank power in favor of our clients by giving their Web sites valuable backlinks of their own.
Essentially, by finding a low-cost way to boost Internet traffic for our clients, we’ve managed to scrape through a cancerous economic season and come out on top.
Perhaps it’s been said, but one thing that can’t be stressed enough is the importance of quality. Blogs that do nothing more than regurgitate the company line are useless and expensive. Granted we’re a company of writers to begin with, but one thing we learned forming USA Travel Guide is to start with passion. That’s why I do most of the writing for the blog … I want to! I’m passionate about the subject matter.
The small businesses that Barbara mentioned are concerned about the time investment, and rightly so, but they can hedge their bets and improve their chances of success by starting with passion. If no one around the office wants to do it, go out and find someone who does. Not only will the content be more natural and of higher quality, it will come out faster, somewhat alleviating the treacherous time-sink of a well-managed blog.
This evidence is, of course, anecdotal, and every industry is different, but the results are there for the competent, hard-working and, to an extent, lucky.
Travel Blog, Travel Tips and More at USA Travel Guide
Most small businesses complain about the amount of time it takes to keep up a blog. The best way to leverage your time is to leverage your content. So you might do an e-newsletter, you take an article in your newsletter and you repurpose the content for a blog article. They you might Tweet (twitter.com) about your blog article. You could also take the article and create a press release to send to the media.
I completely agree. In my experience a good blog gives a much higher ROI than many other forms of online marketing including pay per click. So is definitely worth investing the time.
Ps Written in the middle of the night sorry about the typos. Ric blog: http://orglearn-managementthoughtfortheweek.blogspot.com/
I am still not convinced on the benefits of blogging at least from a marketing perspective.
I wrote a blog for two years regarding a philosophical subject that I was (am) rather passionate about. The articles I wrote would on average take four to six hours to research and write and I admit many of them still get a few hits a week even some years after they were written. I followed all the typical advice on how to promote the blog and still only managed to get a few readers week in spite of some great recommendations and link backs by other better known bloggers.
More recently I have started two new blogs on one “how to write a resume” which I update infrequently and one updated weekly that covers management tips on topics related to my consulting business (management, leadership, teamwork communication etc). The second two blogs seem to do a little better than the the first however the time invested from a purely commercial point of view probably makes them uneconomical.
So why keep blogging? For me I guess its a great way to record something of yourself that will perhaps stick around long after you (I) have gone. Perhaps also when you put your ideas out there you my just add some value to someone else’s life. Its a bit like conducting training, you know that a lot of your customers are there because the company said they had to attend then you realize there also a few that a listening, participating and learning and that is rewarding in itself. Then of course every now an then some one will step up to you an say ‘you changed my life’… and thats a buzz.
My ‘business student’ advice site has been around for 10 or so years now traffic has grown steadily. As with my site blogging and making an impression takes time however unless you have a large promotional budget or are a particularly brilliant blogger I still think there are better ways to find your sales leads and prospective customers, in good times or bad. In “the old days” the advice was to do a “business bulletin” to promote your organization. The best response I got from that exercise was when I ceased it after three years (again weekly management tips) which resulted in a large number of emails, including one university lecturer and a number of senior executives (who didn’t buy my services) complaining that they enjoyed and valued the information and wished I would continue. I guess everyone likes something for nothing.
Me I like blogging, I like the occasional thanks for the great advice and I do get a few jobs from the site and blogs however I don’t thing a blog as a business promotional tool is cost effective.
Ric http://www.orglearn.org
Pertty good video, but did not give a lot of detailed information. I am looking for ways to promote a line of custom wedding and anniversary gifts that I am sure will be a big success. I am trying to figure out to get the word out to the world. Canyou share more about viral marketing?
Oscar
Crystal Images USA
http://www.crystalimagesusa.com
I believe viral marketing and social media is very important to the dynamics of blogging. Blogging is definitely one of the most successful online revenue income streams.
Social media the search engines such as Google.com Yahoo.com and MSN.com work off of fresh content…..that means social media bloggers cash in off of writing unique content.
Heather Lloyd Martin is definitely an innovator of unique was I would suggest watching Heather Lloyd Martin’s interview by Mike McDonnell on unique SEO copywriting at Web Pro news media broadcasting system. writing unique content meaning the way you phrase in bold is highly anticipated by a bloggers ability to do excellent writing. what ever bloggers intend to write about my beliefs to structure should be relevant to the title of each blog. Writing unique content for the search engines is definitely a valuable asset - bloggers keep in mind if you’re writing for business profiles you should focus on business meaning writing excellent contentfor your client. the element of SeO copyright surrounded by the bloggers ability to be very relevant and resourceful… thanks again Web Pro news