Blog marketing
Since the early 2000’s when blogs became a mainstream form of communication, companies have been using blog marketing strategies in a number of ways to communicate with their customers and to promote their business online. Although some popular blogs are high-traffic sites that can generate significant revenue, most business blogs need to be used with other objectives in mind.
By their nature, blogs (or ‘weblogs’ as they were originally known) require content and therefore demand a certain amount of time and commitment to develop into useful resources. Any company starting a blog should recognise this requirement and allocate the necessary resources to develop the service, and with a clear strategy and method of measurement to ensure that those resources are used well.
The advantages of blog marketing
Blogs can be used in a number of ways, with content ranging from news stories, comment or opinion on business trends, advice and information about the market the company operates in. Posts should be made at least once or twice a week and should encourage comments and feedback with the blogs readers, to generate a conversation and exchange of ideas.
The benefits of a blog are that they can display an individual’s or company’s expertise in their field, and provide helpful information to the target readers as a service – much like an email newsletter, but on a more regular basis. Blogs can generate loyalty amongst readers and can also be used to develop new content within a website, which can then be used as part of a search engine optimisation strategy.
Getting blog marketing right
If you’re planning on starting a new blog, speak to us first. We can help you choose the right blogging platform (such as WordPress, Blogger or TypePad), and help you to integrate this into your website rather than as a standalone service. We can also help to develop your strategy, by identifying your target audience, determining a content strategy and how this will be implemented.
From the marketing angle, you need to promote the blog, using RSS feeds, links with social media sites, and listings on blog directories and search engines. Getting your blog content found through search engines will also be determined by your keywords that are used in posts and how the blog is optimised overall. Once your blog is up and running, you then need to assess how effective this is becoming and whether it should be used as a revenue stream or for branding purposes.
Like any form of online marketing, using blogs requires some careful planning and an ongoing commitment to make it work effectively. If you’d like to know more about developing and marketing your blog, please contact us now for an initial discussion.