Need a company blog developed for your small business as part of a digital strategy? Starting a blog is a great strategy to attract and build a base of engaged customers and users of your products and services! But it takes 6 months to bring it to a point where it pays off, and you’ll need advice and coaching on this and many other strategies for building low cost but effective marketing that opens new digital doors. You can hire me as your small business marketing consultant for $1800 over 6 months and I guarantee ROI. Email me, Matt - kurbpromo@gmail.com to talk about the online marketing needs of your business or web enterprise.

THE WHY AND HOW OF SMALL BUSINESSES AND BLOGS

If you run a smal company, you might already have started a weblog or considered it. Businesses of every size are using blogs to become more authoritative, increase internet exposure to their targeted niches, network to make valuable connections, and grow their revenue out of relationships with readers. Unfortunately, many companies blogs fall short.

Here I’ve come up with a list of 8 tips for better and more effective was to use business blogging. These tips will allow you get more out of your company blog.

1. A Blog is Professional and Personal- Since this is a business blog, you want to make sure your posts stay relevant and professional. Do you really want to mention private personal details or is that to much information for your clients? It could be fun to mention how drunk you got at the company party last night but is that the image you want to project? However, you also dont want to be stuffy so make sure you show some personality in your posts. Find the right balance of professionalism and character and remember, blogging is a social activity. Readers tend to follow those who stand out, or have something special, a special angle or niche appeal to a target demographic of users going on. How do you do this? By projecting a unique personality brand.

2. Optimize Your Blog Posts- SEO optimization is essntial for any site or blog and a big part of Kurb Promotions work marketing small businesses in Auckland, New Zealand and around the world. You know of the importance of optimizing your website for Google, but you should be optimizing your blog posts as well? Google loves blogs because new posts feed the engine with new content. Since the search engine like displaying new content that is regarded as fresh and suggests your site is more up to date and relevant, it only makes sense to optimize your blog title and body for keywords. This will get better rankings and increase your traffic.

3. Maintain Your Blog’s Relevancy- One key to running a successful businesses blogsite is staying on topic and relevant to your readers needs. These people are turning to your blog  and your business as an authority in your niche and providing this value helps furnish a future client relationship. You need to talk about the important news in your industry. Don’t rehash broad topics from years ago or go to far off topi without bringing it back in some relevant way to your niche. Instead, be on the cutting edge of your industry so that readers will see you as a trusted resource for all their associated needs.

4. Link to Other Blogs - Linking to other blogs in your posts is beneficial - first, it provides your readers with additional opinions on important issues. Again, this establishes you as someone who is providing for readers in your industry. Readers will get comfortable following you knowing you provide access to a wide range of info and related tips and advice. The other benefit of linking out is it catches the attention of the blogger you link to. When they see you’re linking to them, they’ll be interested in learning more about you. This can create some valuable connections for your business.

5. Respond to Blog Comments- One of the most simple mistakes I see on business blogs is ignored comments. Or, the author responds to comments with a simple “Thanks for the comment.” Neither of these is acceptable. You should always respond thoughtfully to comments on your blog. Why? Because you build relationships with your readers. As a reader, wouldn’t you be more likely to keep coming back to a blog if the author engages in interesting conversations with you?

6. Post Blog Entries Regularly- While it’s best to follow a posting schedule, you don’t always have time and hat’s completely understandable - but you need to make sure you at least create new posts regularly. Successful business blogs are built on a strong base of followers and content - over time through commitment. If you only post once a month, you’ll never build a readership. Posting regularly will increase reader retention as well as attract new readers.

7. Give Your Opinion - Make Your Blog A Platform - This just might be the most important tip. Remember, there are millions of blogs crowding the internet. How do you separate yourself from the others? By giving your unique insight on a subject. Don’t just repeat what everyone else is saying. Give your own opinion, and people will respect you as a blogger. Sometimes, that opinion might fall in line with what the other bloggers are saying, but other times you’ll disagree with the general consensus. Be professional, but speak your mind.

8. Develop Ideas and Seek Feedback -

This is still the biggest reason why personally, I Blog. It’s about getting ideas out of my head and in front of me, I’m just still really excited by the way that when I blog reflecting or analysing a point I’ve picked up on, often I’ll quickly start getting immersed in ideas around the issue, and putting my intial thoughts or reflections into a blog post often lead to innovative concepts, opportunities or pathways to new projects. The beautiful thing about a blog is you can develop ideas by getting feedback from your audience to pick up not just through comments, but through analysing your stats, what is picking up traction amongst visitors.

Do you have a business blog? What tips would you suggest for new bloggers to separate yourself from the competition?

Need a blog? Starting a blog is a great strategy to bring in and build a base of engaged users of your products and services! BYou can hire me as your small business marketing consultant! Email me, Matt - kurbpromo@gmail.com to talk about the online marketing needs of your business or web enterprise.