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Eight Ways to Grow your Business with a Blog

By Jed Sundwall, Director of Social Marketing at Captura Group

Despite the staggering number of blogs being written today, few companies have figured out how to use blogs to best serve their goals. Smart companies are using blogs to lead discussions in communities of potential customers, to gather customer ideas for new products, to get feedback on existing products, or to reach out to customers in an effort to personalize their companies.

A blog, a contraction of Weblog, is a website that is regularly updated with new content. Blog entries (also called blog posts) usually contain news, first person commentaries, interviews, and video or audio content. The entries typically link to other articles or material on the Web or to a company Web site. The purpose of a business blog is simple: connect with customers, journalists and stakeholders online to advance your company’s goals.

Customers and potential customers find blogs in a variety of ways. Many times when people are looking for a product, supplier or other information online, search engines will show blog posts in the results they display. Other times people will visit your website or read your newsletter and follow a link to your blog. People often return to blogs they find useful or interesting.

What makes a successful blog?

Potential customers are looking for companies that are actively working to improve their services. They’re looking for companies that talk with their audience, not at them. A blog is an elegant means of reaching people in this way. To make your blog successful follow these basic rules of the game:

• Update the blog frequently: Readers need a reason to come back and visit, and search engines check your blog on a daily basis looking for new content. Also, many potential clients and customers do research online. The more you post useful content the more likely they are to find you. Update your blog at least twice a week.
• Post compelling content: You want your content to elicit or inspire conversation among your readers. This keeps your company on their mind. A recent Forrester study found that most business blogs are "dull, drab, and don't stimulate discussion." The study revealed that 56% of business blogs simply offered regurgitated press releases as content. This sort of content is not compelling to customers and consumers.
• Allow reader comments: Your blog should be a place where readers can comment and give feedback on what the company is doing. Do not fear commenters. Showing the courage to openly accept customer concerns is a major boon to your company’s reputation and creditability. Opening up a dialogue endears readers to your brand, and give you priceless feedback on how to improve your product or services. Just be sure to respond to reader comments.
• Encourage feedback: Encouraging feedback and suggestions from your readers will bring them back to your site, increase your goodwill, and provide you with a free focus group to evaluate your products. Some blogs receive as many as 100 to 200 comments and suggestions per month. Imagine how much you'd have to pay to get that amount of feedback from focus groups.
• Connect at a personal level: A snazzy animated Web page is no longer enough to convince consumers that your company is worth their attention. As consumers become increasingly leery of faceless corporations, they're seeking information about the people behind the scenes, their interests, their concerns, and their motivations. You can reassure such consumers by pulling back the curtain and revealing the individuals that work for your company, complete with personality, through a company blog.

Blogs should never be used to post press releases, marketing copy or brochures. The standard communication that comes out of marketing or communications departments, such as brochure-style language, should never be included in blogs. Additionally, companies should never tout their superiority. The most respected characteristics of a blog are its honesty and candor. Effective business blogs show the human side of a company, the trial and error aspects of business, the thoughts of the line workers and/or the behind the scenes look at the company.

Eight reasons to maintain a company blog

1. Enhance your visibility
Blogs that are updated on a regular basis with specific content relevant to your business receive high rankings in search engine results. As your blog gains more traction, outside websites will begin to link to it. These links increase your rankings giving your blog more traffic and your brand more exposure.

2. Establish your expertise
If your company is doing exciting things and your people are the best in the industry, then let your people write about their expertise. Candid articles and posts from your talented staff make it clear to clients and customers that your people are truly experts. Additionally, a Columbia University survey found that over 50 percent of journalists view blogs regularly when doing research or when looking for specialists. A blog showing your company’s capabilities makes it easier for journalists to find the latest, most accurate information about new products or ventures.

3. Create brand loyalty
Engaging blog posts get people talking about your product or services, and it also attracts attention from the media. Blogs that offer customers and potential customers a channel of contact to your firm, such as a “comments” or “suggestions” feature contribute tremendously to the strength of your brand. Recently Starbucks launched the blog site mystarbucksidea.com where customers can make suggestions for new products (such as ice cubes made of coffee, so iced drinks don’t get diluted). Other customers can then vote on or discuss the ideas. General Motors also gets enormous amounts of feed back on its products from their blog site: http://fastlane.gmblogs.com . Customers who feel engaged and acknowledged become loyal customers.

4. Increase top-of-mind awareness
Frequently updated blogs keep your brand in the mind of customers and future customers. For example, a small marketing and design studio in Seattle called MercuryCloud uses their blog http://blog.mercurycloud.com to post stories, images and videos about all the projects they are currently working on. Former clients, other ad agencies, and future clients often view their blog to see what the company has been doing and to get new ideas for marketing projects. This use of blogging both shows off your work and keeps your company on peoples mind.

5. Reduce your travel budget
Meeting distant clients and customers face-to-face has become expensive. A well-written blog post can sometimes have just as much impact and reach as a keynote presentation at a conference or a personal meeting, and it can show up in search engine results for years to come. Supplement or replace the voice you project at conferences and seminars by having your team talk online and save money on airfare, conference attendances, hotels, and even dinners.

6. Influence the public conversation about your company:
A blog lets you proactively lead the conversation in your industry and about your company. It also lets you respond to crises and controversies to better clarify your company’s position in certain conversations that you may or may not have started.

7. Offer a better product
Chicago software company 37 Signals uses its product blog http://productblog.37signals.com/ to enhance its software offerings by posting tips, enhancements, and features. Any big ticket product can become more valuable by having a steady stream of information from the people who make it. Knowing of a reliable source of consistent information about a new boat, expensive software product, or a piece of machinery provides priceless peace of mind to consumers.

8. Boost creditability
A blog, above all, demonstrates confidence. A company that is willing to let its employees talk candidly about their work and their passions is more likely to earn the trust of consumers. Also, if you are in a small industry, there is a good chance that you can be a pioneer and become the loudest and clearest voice among a small audience. If you have friendly employees who enjoy talking about their good work, let them do it!

Who should write the blog?

Blogs should be written by the people on the ground--the line workers, programmers, designers, help desk staff, and the people who interact with customers and clients. Executives should chime in now and then, but they should not be the majority voice in the blog. Your workers and customers (through a comments feature) should have the main voice.

Find a few gregarious workers who love their work and love to share what they’re doing. Let them write. While correct spelling and proper grammar are essential, a blog author does not need to be a master wordsmith. The most important things that the blog should communicate are expertise, passion, and candor. Trust your employees when it comes to writing content for your site. As Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer simply put it, “We trust our people to represent our company. That’s what they’re paid to do! If they don’t want to be here, they wouldn’t be here. In a sense, you don’t run any more risk letting somebody express them-self in a blog than you do letting them go out and see a customer on their own anyway. It just touches more people. Hey, if people need to be trained or understand better, we can always do that. But I find it’s a great way to have customer communication.” (video )

Getting Started

Starting a blog can be as simple as creating an account at Blogspot.com or using WordPress.org to attach a blog to your existing site. More robust and complex blog software also can be found. Ask your IT team for recommendations.

WordPress is a free, open source blogging platform that almost seamlessly integrates with your website. Once it’s up those who want to contribute to the blog do not need to know anything about programming or HTML to create posts.

While picking the technology is often the easy part of getting started, opening your business to public conversations with customers and clients takes some courage. Smart companies have taken the plunge already and it won’t be long before most companies will be expected to feature the voices of its people online. You can play catch up later or start getting used to blogging now.

For in depth information on the pros, cons, and ROI of blogging, look into the research being done by Forrester. You can read a summary of their report, The ROI of Blogging, or keep up with their work at the Groundswell blog http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/.

Jed Sundwall is a social media expert who specializes in blogs, social networks, and generating sales through emails. He lives in San Diego and spends his spare time screen printing, surfing, and gardening with his wife. He can be contacted at jed@capturagroup.com.