Should Your Business Have a Blog?

You might think that a blog is not right for your company, that it’s a type of communication that is too personal or informal. But a “diary” is only one type of blogging format. Businesses these days are getting a lot of mileage out of informational blogs that expand on the services they offer their customers. This type of blog can add a new dimension to your web site and also be a powerful tool for marketing and promotion.

An informational blog can be used to:

Share knowledge or expertise

Write blog posts that educate your readers about important topics in your field. This is helpful to your clients and it can attract potential new clients who are searching for the type of information you are writing about.

Predict or critique trends

Do you have opinions about where your industry is headed? Share these opinions with your readers and also welcome their comments. You can get a very lively discussion going this way.

Provide tutorials or product demonstrations

If you sell a product, you can create screenshot tutorials or videos that demonstrate your product’s features and how to get the most out of the purchase.

Answer questions

If clients ask you certain questions regularly, then answers to these questions can become a very informative series of blog posts.

Ask questions

Pose a question on your blog and invite readers to answer it by leaving their comments. You can write a follow up post that summarizes the responses. You can also use this type of post to ask your readers what they’d like to see featured on your blog.

Spotlight your clients

Ask some of your best clients if they would be interested in answering questions about the work you’re doing for them. This is a great way to illustrate the type of work you do and is an interesting variation on the traditional “Case Study.”

Invite others to blog

Your blog will gain interest from having other voices besides yours. Ask your employees to participate by writing about their areas of expertise. From time to time, invite an industry expert from outside your company to write a guest post.

Offer reviews

As an expert in your field, you have the knowledge to evaluate products and services that are related to this field. This is a very helpful service that your readers will appreciate.

Announce what’s coming

You can use your blog to generate interest before the fact in any new products or services your company is planning to introduce.

Because business blogs typically contain so many keywords that are relevant to your industry, they can be a major source of new traffic from search engines and social media. Your blog posts will often be the first thing a potential customer sees about your company. For this reason, it is important to be sure your blog is closely connected to your company web site. Having the blog as an actual part of your web site is ideal.

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