This post was written by Aditya Mahesh of BlogOnExpo, a free digital conference for bloggers that will feature sessions about blogging and interviews with professional bloggers. The conference kicks off on December 1st, 2007.
Blogs are one of the most effective and cost efficient marketing tools that any business, online or offline, can use. Blogs allow you to interact directly with your potential customers and give a more personal face to your company. The greatest example of this would be Robert Scoble, the blogger who gave a personal face to the giant corporation that is Microsoft. But you don’t have to be Microsoft to use a blog as a marketing tool.
Blogs are very inexpensive to set-up and run, especially if you use the free WordPress platform and one of the thousands of quality free themes that are available. Once you have a blog set-up all you need to do is post.
Post about your company (news, projects you are working on, issues that may arise, etc.), but don’t just post company news. If you do your blog won’t have a very large readership. Instead blog about the current state/direction of the industry you are in. This way, your blog can become an authority source in the niche and drive a great amount of targeted traffic to your company website.
If you offer a consulting service, offer a few free tips in blog posts. A perfect example of this is SEOmoz.org. In my talks with CEO Rand Fishkin, he has told me that the blog has become one of the most valuable assets of the company as it has drawn millions of visitors to the company’s website and made SEOmoz one of the authority figures in the SEO Industry.
Here are a few more reasons why blogging is a great idea for any company:
- It acts as a platform of direct communication between you and your customers.
- Search engines love a website with fresh content added frequently, so blogs are great for SEO.
- Blogs with quality content can attract thousands of visitors to your website and those visitors who can’t afford your services can be monetized through the sale of premium or content or even ads.
- Comments allow you to get direct feedback from potential customers, making it a very cost effective form of targeted market research.
Finally, just as a tip, make sure to host your blog on you company’s domain name such as blog.companyname.com or companyname.com/blog as this insures that the blog will have SEO benefits for your company’s main website.
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I agree every company needs a blog, at least the ones that have websites obviously.
Well they have to have a blog with they want to interact with their customers and with the potential customers. A blog in some cases can become a really powerful pre-sales tool (i think there is a post here on JohnChow.com about blog as pre-sale tool)
How many companies need blogs as pre-sales tools?
I don’t see the logic of this comment.
Internet companies maybe, but I know I have seen so many absolute junk blogs just by companies wanting to sell a product.
Tech companies – especially ones that can make changes to their systems on a daily basis, such as Google, PayPerPost or Widgetbucks – have a much better case for blogging as their user group NEEDS to stay in touch with the latest information.
For most companies it just strikes me as a waste of time.
That same logic that you don’t see you wrote on your comment. Coincidence ?
We are on internet, and usually when we speak about companies on internet I intend internet companies.
Pre sales tool, you think that building trust and relationship with your current and potential customers is not a pre sale? Apparently you have seen blogs that were not doing their job the way they should.
A blog is not only a pre-sale tool but it really can get a business up and put their customers to feel that they really care about them.
SEO optimisation; I guess we agree but mean different things when we talk about the word company.
Good post
. A blog is a great way to catapult any company to more success.
depends on how its managed.
Just a small correction. Through a blog you reach the people who read blogs and visit the Internet. They are your only captive audience. The vast majority of potential customers do not necessarily have to be blog readers or Internet visitors.
The suggestions given here are valid only for addressing people who fall under these categories.
I’d like to see more companies with a blog… unfortunately there are many who just don’t consider blogging a worthwhile use of their time, both in terms of a company blog and any employees who may have a blog (even for personal reasons).
Stupid question but how can an offline company (i.e. one with no web pressence) operate a blog? The moment you start a blog you’re operating online?
In that case… you need to read another post “Have a Company? Then You Need a Web Presence” (it must be somewhere on net)..
Offline companies don’t need to operate online… but online presence can be presence can be at least in form of a site where customers can find inportant informations and contact you (the web of 90′s)…
In which case it is part of an online marketing capaign, whether you mean it or not your business is then online. Lots of businesses are online but do not operate i.e. sell online.
Sounds like our company’s blog… we were nobody online, untill now.
who are you?
But don’t you think a professional website would be better? Blogs don’t give customers a very pro feel.
I agree. But I don’t think john meant wordpress when he said blog
. He meant a custom made, unique application
John didn’t write this?
Of course he didn’t! he started with
“This post was written by Aditya Mahesh of BlogOnExpo, ….”
Wordpress can be customized to design it in such a way that none other than you would ever know (by casual surfing) that you are using wordpress…
Most non web based companies do. The problem I think is that the enthusiasm of their webmasters is not as high as a blogger’s is. Key words, links etc will have to be constantly monitored and this is not done due to the webmaster’s preoccupation with other IT problems which also he or she normally handles. If it is outsourced, the same lack of commitment is felt. Some companies now look for committed webmasters to concentrate exclusively on their websites and that should increase their effectiveness.
I agree, if you are in business and have a website you need a blog. I train networkers and when I bring blogging into the training it is funny how many people frown upon blogging. Mind you not one ever tried it. The misconception is a blog is used solely as a journal for personal use. I have had to turn some around and now they are blogging kings or queens where others are to lazy, or mistake this as unimportant. My opinion I will deny it if said…lazy
But great article and thanks for posting !
MEGAN VAILLANCOURT
I agree, If the company wants to grow, get more orders, be more successful, they definitely should start a blog!
Great post. I realised the importance of this a few months back. After a recent seminar at my local Chamber Of commerce I managed to secure 7 lucrative contracts with local companies and now manage and publish their company blogs for them. I have a very profitable add-on service which does as Aditya suggests and research trends relating to their business and industry. Get in early and this is a great money spinner.
Hey, my name is Aditya Mahesh, the author of this article, I don’t think a blog is seen as unprofessional for a business. Of course the business should have an official website, but a blog is a great addition to the company’s website and operations.
A proper website with the help of a blog. Thats the way to…I agree
Depends on the company
A good follow up post would be the downsides of a Company blog.
eg:
Blog updaters releasing sensitive information.
Being too casual and turning off big clients.
Being to official and turning off smaller clients.
Danger of not updating and appearing distant.
Getting the CEO tied down long enough for them to write a blog post.
Managing comments, negative and positive
General time and effort involved
A ‘news’ section on a website is quite often sufficent for a lot of companies i’d have thought.
I personally find that when a company launches a blog they lose their professionalism, but that’s just me.
I’m certainly in agreement here. The only thing they shouldn’t do though, is allow comments. For some reason it comes off really cheesy.
I agree….but only if you have a capable writer or staff of writers. Otherwise you’ll just make a fool of yourself.
Yeah, good point. The blog needs to have someone appointed to keep it updated. No one likes a stale blog. It can project a worse image and you would be better of not having one.
Something weird is happening to your blog rss — it is somehow not updating in newsgator. it hasn’t in 2 days and i thought you just haven’t posted anything.
Also, not sure why i am starting to get comments from post i didn’t even subscribe too i.e. i didn’t click on the “Notify me of followup comments vis e-mail”. The worse part of it is I can’t unsubscribe it because my email is not listed as a subscriber for that particular email!
I dont know, I heard rumors that shoemoney has a surprise $10,000 grand prize, I think with the odds of like 1:300 for that prize, a lot of people would sign up for shoemoney.
Hey John hows it going?
but it just looks PLR-ish, or maybe its just me.
Are you doing a PLR experiment or something evil again. ’cause this post just has the look and feel of PLR, not that I use it or anything
Have a great weekend I’m off to see David Usher in concert in a few hours gotta go make myself smell nice now.
Cheers and Beers
from Canada
Shane
This post is so basic and general I’m not sure how much value anyone would really get from it. I know that must make me seem like a jerk but I’m serious and not trying to be mean.
Please do not make the mistake of thinking that because you know something about blogging in general that you know about business blogging and its unique issues.
Business owners have questions like when does commenting turn into customer service when I already have a customer service department? Or, what is a business held liable for when they write on their blog or when they comment?
If you want to see a good, solid example of how business blog content differs, see my post on the 10 types of business blog posts.
Company blogs are indeed great. Another great example is dreamhost who started their own blogs as well. Lots of companies manage stuff like that. Its become all too obvious nowadays. People already manage that a lot.
Hi John Chow,
I totally agree with you.
I blog everyday and now I can get into the first page (SERP) for certain competitive keywords easily.
Google really love fresh solid content.
That’s a great idea of creating a company blog.
I have thought of that but do not know what to blog about until I read this post.
I agree with that. A blog is an another tool to communicate with customers. Blog acts as a symbol too and let customers know more about the company.