This is a Guest Post By Andrew Rondeau. Andrew is a blogging enthusiast and helps small business owners get the most from their blogging efforts. You can get his free blogging guide from his site, We Build Your Blog.
Small business owners should blog...don't you think? Do you own a blog?
And if you do, why do you update it?
And if you do, why do you update it?
Is it out of a sense of responsibility, in the same way as you brush your teeth religiously every day, or do the ironing?
Or do you do it reluctantly, knowing that it helps to bring customers to your site?
Whatever your reason, whether it’s for a genuine passion or simply a sense of obligation, most small business owners blog every week without fail in an effort to keep our sites current and our copy fresh.
Some people take to blogging as if it’s second nature, and thoroughly enjoy the routine of coming up with new ideas for articles and posting them up.
This enthusiasm comes across in each post, as the writer lovingly crafts humorous, informative and generally passionate articles that draw us in and make us want to revisit the site again and again to catch up with the latest posts.
Other people however view blogging more as a form of torture designed to cripple small business owners with a sense of obligation and responsibility. The blog sits in the background of their marketing strategy, clamoring for attention and demanding to be updated like a hungry dog waiting for its daily walk.
Whichever way you view your blog, sometimes it can be important to think back on why you are actually blogging and keeping it up-to-date.
The good news is, blogging is rarely fruitless, so each post you publish brings you closer to your customers and makes your business more viable from a marketing perspective.
If your enthusiasm is flagging right now for your attention-hungry blog, check out the reasons why it’s worth keeping it updated…
Blogging alleviates the isolation of being a home worker
If you’ve gone from working in a busy office to working from home as the owner of your own company, one of the main issues you may encounter is a sense of isolation.
It’s a huge difference to step across to the office from the bedroom each morning, instead of joining a busy and vibrant office environment.
Blogging acts as a kind of virtual meeting room, inviting comments and allowing you a great platform for expressing yourself. It opens up new relationship possibilities, and enables you to forge industry relationships which let you Skype, e-mail and instant message your way through the working day.
Running a blog lets you stay at the forefront of your industry
Few marketing platforms enable you to stay in touch with your industry as well as the humble blog. By writing about your niche market, you will open up communication channels to other experts in the field, allowing you to engage in healthy knowledge sharing, ideas for product development and the latest news about your particular products and services.
Pinging ideas off other people helps you to develop your own thinking, through the constructive input of those who share your enthusiasm for your field of interest.
It’s a great way of promoting your products and services
When you blog about your industry, you automatically make reference to your own work, and the products which you provide to your customers.
This is a natural way of showcasing your services to people, without the hard sell associated with other traditional marketing methods.
The person who writes with natural passion about the industry which they are thriving in can write with an honesty, integrity and true enthusiasm which engages customers almost without realising, persuading them to share your passion.
Enthusiastic business owners can spark interest among their customers by their very enthusiasm, enabling them to sell with integrity.
It helps you to cement your brand online
Having a strong online presence supports small business owners in getting their business ‘voice’ out there to their customers. It provides a supportive and public environment where customers can get a feel for the brand values, ethos and method of operating of the person they will be buying from.
A blog enables your readers to get to know your personal voice, or the voice you choose to represent your business, in the same way as old-fashioned shopkeepers used to get to know their customers through daily visits and conversation.
Once you build up a strong rapport with your readers, it will cultivate trust and mutual understanding, making you their first port of call when they are looking for products online.
Blogging makes you confident as a business communicator
Do you remember the first time you drafted a blog article and hit the ‘publish’ button?
You were probably worried, full of self-doubt and wondering how you would ever find the confidence to be an authoritative blogger.
Over time, however, you tend to find your own unique voice and way of expressing things, and writing blog articles becomes second nature. This regular activity helps you to form a strong business and identity and sense of who you are, and writing about your chosen niche will instill you with a sense of confidence as you publish your posts.
Getting positive feedback, seeing the results of your work being appreciated, and building up a great readership will all work together to make you feel confident in what you are doing.
Bench-marking is suddenly easier than it has ever been before
In the days before blogging, we had few ways of really measuring our marketing prowess and effectiveness, other than through the generation of profit.
With a blog, suddenly everything you need to know about your potential customer base is documented, tracked and presented in easy-to-understand ways.
You know how many visitors you have, you can collate lists of addresses for further marketing, and you have a visible and tangible demonstration of what people are looking for, and whether your site is providing it for them.
Through analysis of your statistics and metrics, you can go on to plan further marketing tactics, knowing what works and what doesn't.
You can pre-empt your customers’ needs
Blogging gets you in front of your customers, but it also gets them in front of you.
A two-way dialogue with the people who will be buying from you will help you to understand what your customers are looking for, enabling you to solicit feedback through polls and comments.
In this way, your blog will help you by acting as a sounding board for new ideas, and help you stay ahead of your competitors.
So what’s your view?
Small business owners - should they blog?
Why do you blog?
Or…even more importantly…why DON’T you blog?
For more eye-opening guest posts from experts like Andrew, you can subscribe to our RSS feed, you can also choose to receive updates directly in your inbox.
Do join us on Facebook:
For more eye-opening guest posts from experts like Andrew, you can subscribe to our RSS feed, you can also choose to receive updates directly in your inbox.
Do join us on Facebook:
Why should small business owners blog? For so many reasons e.g networking with like minded business owners, to promote their businesses, to gain personal exposure to their niche. Like you stated as well to eliminate isolation for home workers.
In this day and age, being absent on the blogosphere isn't good for any serious minded business owner, so let's blog our way to success. Cheers!
Cheers to that! :)
Totally agree. All small businesses need to have a blog.
Anrew
Small business owners should blog to have a "space" on the web for the world to see. Small business owners should update and post articles on their blogs to keep those people coming back, so they won't forget about you. It also shows to business owner's personality and makes them appear to be "down to earth" and maybe more friendly to deal with than that Walmart sales person sitting in electronics all day staring at their watch.
http://1000-ways-to-make-money.blogspot.com/