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How To Use Blogs As Marketing Tools

Author: Alyice Edrich

Tight on advertising dollars but want the public to know your company exists? Have a great advertising and marketing campaign in place but want to take advantage of the networking ties and search engine benefits of blogs?

What once started out as a way to share one’s personal thoughts with the world has now become a great public relations and marketing tool. And with the help of free software, called Word Press, businesses can set up low-cost blogs in a matter of days.

So what makes a great marketing blog?

  1. The corporate lingo and legalese is left at the office

    Blogging in a conversational style draws readers in and makes them feel like your company really cares about them and their needs, not just your bottom dollar. And if you do a good job, the blogging community will give you free publicity by talking about your posts, linking to your blog, and sharing your words of wisdom with their readers—free of charge!

  2. The design is simple and uncluttered

    The design resembles the company’s logo and color-scheme, but looks like other blogs; not like a traditional website or corporate ad campaign.

  3. Photos are included with every post

    Photos (graphics or images) bring the point home and make the blog feel more personable.

  4. Advertising is minimal and non-intrusive

    While a company’s bottom line is to earn another buck, bloggers frown on blogs that read like commercials. The goal of your blog should be to make friends. Remember, people like to buy from companies they feel they know!

  5. Links are relevant and shared without apprehension

    Links to other bloggers, websites, and resources are used to enhance the visitor’s experience. This lets your readers know that you’re not afraid of the competition, that you’ll do whatever it takes to make them happy and well-informed.

  6. Contact information is not hidden

    Hiding your contact information makes your company appear dishonest and untrustworthy.

  7. The comments feature is on

    One of the fascinations with blogs is the ability to offer feedback and communicate with the blogger. This is also a great tool for learning more about the needs, likes, and dislikes of your customers. You can’t buy feedback like this!

  8. Posts are regular and consistent

    There’s nothing worse then building great traffic only to lose it because the last post was made weeks, if not months ago. While experts disagree as to how many posts are best, they tend to agree that blogs benefit the most when they post no less than three times a week or and mo more than once per day.

  9. Posts are focused

    It’s important to be consistent with your blog. Find your voice and stick with it. Find your theme or topic and stay with it. Discover your audience and don’t fluctuate. Remember, you can’t be everything to everyone, but you can be someone to a few and those few can make or break the bank!

Just think of the possibilities:

In the end, your business blog is only as good as the word-of-mouth it receives. So make sure you attract the right prospects by targeting the right audience.



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