Business Blogs

Do you want to gain visibility for your business? Do you want to be found on the internet when people search for the product or service you offer?
If the answer is no – then I realise you are shutting up shop and going off to sail round the world…
If the answer is yes, then of course you understand that if your business is not coming up high in online search results in Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other search engines, then you need to do something to make that happen! Business blogs could help you, so how do you create the business blog ideas that will enhance your digital marketing strategy?

Writing a business blog

Writing and maintaining a business blog is the easiest, most organic way to keep your business in front of your potential customers. By updating your blog (and therefore your website) with new and fresh content, the search engines will be very pleased with you. Why? Because you are improving their customers’ user experience) – so you get the brownie points and and they will reward your business with more visibility and higher rankings in their search results.
Interestingly, the best way at the moment to get your business up in the rankings is to pursue an active social media communication and customer relationship policy. Every day now, results show that the search engines consider the Social Media Platforms and regularly updated blogs to be the best place to get fresh and up-to-date information on whatever it is your are looking for and that’s why they return real-time results from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube for instance, over and above a static website.
Like Brian Halligan, whose article I summarise below, I constantly encounter what he calls the “blog-reluctance” of many small & medium sized businesses. I hear things like “I don’t have time to blog”, “blogging doesn’t make sense in my industry”, “We don’t have enough business blog ideas” and sometimes (even now!) “what the heck is a blog?”
Well, the good news is that here at Saucy Horse we LOVE blogs, and not only do we love writing our own, we love helping our clients write theirs & then get them out there to their audiences too.
The reality is if your company provides products or services in any sector, you should be blogging.
Of course, the overall return on investment on a blog will vary from business to business. But there are 6 fundamental benefits to corporate & business blogging that Brian mentions:
1) Gain Visibility as a Thought Leader
Every post on your blog is a public demonstration of your thought leadership, personality, integrity, humour (perhaps – and only if you’re comfortable with that), and professional insights. You don’t have to refute one of Einstein’s theories to get respect. For example, a summary of recent trends in your industry, or a reaction to a recent news article can be extremely effective blog posts. At Saucy Horse, our mission is to position you as an expert in your field. Blogs, video and creative social media strategies are how we do that.
2) Engage Customers in a Dialogue
Your blog must give your readers the option to comment on each article. The readers who comment on your blog may be sales leads, or they may just challenge or support your views. Either way, comments beget comments, and you will soon be at the center of an industry-relevant dialogue with customers and partners.
3) Every Blog Article is an SEOOpportunity
The much-discussed “long tail” of search refers to highly specialized, low-traffic search terms that represent a significant amount of total searches. Translation: lots and lots of people are searching online for lots and lots of random things. You can’t realistically optimize your site for every long tail search term, but you can certainly write blog posts targeting niche keyword phrases that are likely to draw highly qualified prospects. If that all sounds like jargon – it breaks down further as blogs are a brilliant way to do some really great SEO stuff that will really help your website.
4) Blogs Are Link Bait
Very few websites or bloggers will link to the “products and services” page on a corporate website. People don’t link to corporate advertisements. On the other hand, a good blog article – perhaps an industry-specific insight or a thoughtful critique – will be attractive content for others to link to and send traffic your way. Blog articles garner links because they are interesting, informative, and not overly corporate or sales-focused. The benefit to you is that more links means better search engine rankings and more site traffic, which translates into more sales leads. See? Easy!
5) Humanize Your Brand
Blogs offer an opportunity for a company to present its insightful, helpful, thoughtful side. Through a blog, prospects will get a sense of your company’s people, culture, and vision. Blogs are an opportunity to provide a less antiseptic view of your company that is more personal and less “corporate”. Blogs can humanize your brand.
6) In Google, Fresher Content = Better Website
Google will periodically crawl websites looking for new and updated content. Blogs are exactly that (as long as you are keeping them updated!)
You can read the full article here
For me, in the social media maelstrom that we find ourselves in, the blog is where it starts – from here you can start to do some wonderful things for your business, for, as we know, content is king! My advice to those of you who feel a little overwhelmed about where you should go with your social media strategy is to start with the business blog. If you need any help or advice please just come and ask.

• Are you blogging yet? What tips do you have for business blogging? Share one with us below & fill in the comments box 🙂