SMEs and Blogging

Bloggers blog for many reasons, but for businesses it is a no brainer. For comparatively little expenditure of time or money there is an opportunity there for unlimited exposure for the business or service.
Successful blogging can have many positive benefits for businesses of any size.

Main benefits of a company blog

1) The most obvious reason businesses blog is to drive more online traffic to their website through search engine optimization,(every blog post is another indexable page) but there are numerous other positive effects of blogging.

2) Blogging automatically helps make the blogger more expert in his/her field. To write a blog and keep it fresh requires the blogger to know what they are talking about and keep up to date with what is going on in their field, forcing the writer to look hard at and beyond their normal day to day activities, and see how their operations can be improved.

3) Writing a blog makes sales easier. If a salesperson has written a post about a certain subject they will be much more efficient and fluent in talking about that subject to a client.

4) Especially in a small business a blog increases focus and makes the owner take a good look at the business, where it’s going and who the target market is. This can help develop strategy and goals by helping the owner realise what works and what is not working.

5) A blog builds trust for the individual/company. In time they come to be seen as experts in their field and trusted to give good information and therefore the person/place to do business with. A blog post is an opportunity to describe products and how to use them in everyday language and making potential customers feel more at home with you and your products.

A blog humanises a business and makes it easier for potential customers to engage with. When potential customers see that their questions and needs are met they are more likely to become actual customers. Establishing a blog shows customers that you care about them and are prepared to spend time interacting with them and brings business down to a personal level enabling lasting trusting relationships to be formed.

6) Blogging can even out the playing field between big and small companies. A smaller company can take on the big guys by using a blog to be helpful and informative and become the ‘go-to’ people in their particular area.

7) Blogging can build a team feel in a business where everybody can be involved in contributing to the content of the blog. This has to be done in a positive way of course. Rather than be presented as a chore to be passed around it has to become part of the culture of the workplace where everyone’s input is valued.

8) Becoming a recognised blogger and expert in your field could open the door to guest blogging appearances which will expand your network even further. And you can invite interesting guests to appear on your blog making it even more appealing.

Getting the most from a company blog

Setting up a blog and uploading a few rambling random articles is not enough to take advantage of the possible benefits of blogging.

• Stick to what you’re good at and what you want your business to be known for and have a core concept directed at your target market. Don’t try to be all things to all men. Link the content back to your website.
• Use your blog content to let people know what you are doing and inform them of promotions etc in an interesting and conversational way. Also ensure that the sales people in the company refer to the blog and use it in their sales pitches.
• Blog content can be used to link and develop your presence across all social media. Content created for the blog can be fed for instance to facebook and twitter keeping your profile even more out there and drawing people back to the blog and your website. Frequent postings on all social media platforms ensure that a company is to the foremost of peoples’ minds if they are ever in need of its products or services in the future.
• Creating content that answers customers’ questions makes the company more customer friendly and reassures potential customers that there is further support there. Answering customers’ queries and comments also helps the blogger figure out what the customer wants and needs from their products.
• Offering a free download that could be relevant to the content or inviting people to sign up for a newsletter is a good way of getting their email address for future use.
• Make sure the blog posts are frequent and interesting to read rather than a hard sell. The longer people spend reading your posts the more likely they are to do business with you.
• Use tracking software to know what customers and also competitors are looking at on your site.