Monday 11 May 2009

Cheap Business Marketing: Blogging

Does your business marketing plan include blogging as part of your initiatives? If it does not, then you may be missing out on one of the easiest, cheapest ways of marketing your products or services.
Blogging (derived from the words “web log”) is quickly becoming the most preferred form of marketing for any variety of businesses.
Why Blogging Works
You might wonder why or how it can be so successful yet cost so little as far as time and money.
The answer is that blogging provides a means of social interaction with a customer you will never see face to face – the online shopper. These days, more and more consumers buy their products, and even services, from the internet. They are savvy computer users and know how to find what they want or need on the World Wide Web.
The only way a business can effectively reach them is to provide content on the internet that consumers will want to read. This is a very basic, simple concept. And it works.
What to Post
Your blog is like a sales brochure. But beware writing content that appears like a blatant sales pitch. Most people will shy away from anything overtly pushy.
In that same regard, ensure that your blogging site is professional. Do not use flashing stars or other over-the-top flash animation graphics. Your blog should reflect your brand, as outlined in your business marketing plan.
Decide where you will post your content. You have a couple options. You can create your own blog as a page on your website, or you can join a social networking site and update blog posts there. The best business marketing approach combines these two options and ensures you will reach the maximum number of possible customers. There will certainly be at least one social networking site that attracts your target market.
Give consumers information they want, or need. For instance, if your company sells lawn care products, then perhaps your blog posts could revolve around topics like when to plant grass and how to easily maintain it. In this way, you are giving out free advice, but also promoting your products in a subtle manner.
This is also a key component in ensuring that visitors come back time and again. You must post content regularly so that consumers can expect to find new and useful information often.
Blogging is a great business marketing tool. It costs only the initial annual fee to purchase the URL (do not utilise a free blogging account), and then time to create and post the content. What you receive in return will be increased interest, qualified sales leads, and hopefully, an increase in sales.