9xb - Creating Online Success

BUSINESS BLOGGING - CAN IT WORK FOR YOU?

Hello and welcome to 9xb’s Think Tank – our blog. It’s been going for over 2 years now so we’ve got quite a big archive of posts. Some of them are useful, some of them are informative and some of them might even make you laugh. The Think Tank brings in quite a lot of long-tail traffic, increasing company exposure and hopefully helping a few people along the way. But we’re a web company – blogging is part of our job description! Can a blog really benefit your business and if so, where do you start?

Make It Interesting

To be honest, it doesn’t really matter what you talk about as long as you make it interesting. It can be related to your company like your news or your product updates – (a great example here) – or legislation surrounding your services. Even if your industry news is incredibly dull (complex EU regulations for example) someone will find it useful and if you can add a little humour and personality a loyal readership will follow.

One of the best examples of an industry blog can be seen over at Event Supplies, retailer of paper cups, plastic glasses and other catering things. Each post is on topic, for example about the manufacture of their products or laws surrounding recycling. It would be easy to write something dull and bland, but the blog is honest and witty – it made me laugh out loud.

Update It Frequently

The biggest pitfall of any company blog is forgetting to update it or simply not having the time. Even we’ve gone a few weeks without updates in particularly hectic moments! The trick is to make time – set aside half an hour every Friday afternoon or one lunchtime a week and make that ‘blogging day’. Write down the ideas you have in the meantime and bookmark good news stories to reference – that way you’re never short of something to talk about.

If you can’t do it yourself, delegate someone each week to come up with a post. We have two main bloggers here (one of them me!) but our designers and developers also contribute when they have something they want to share.

Benefits To You

So apart from providing a bit of a diversion, how can a blog benefit your business? Let’s take a look at this handy bullet-point list:

• Repeat customers can see your shiny new products just like in the example linked to above. They already love your brand so offer them something new and you create even more sales.
• Search engines see your site is updated frequently, which is why a blog is particularly useful for static brochure sites. An updated website is a good website in Google’s eyes and if you update often you help your own rankings.
• A blog lets you write about anything you like, so there are even more search engine benefits. Want to rank for ‘pink cat socks’? Write a blog post about it and you might!
• Reach potential customers you never knew existed with long tail traffic. Your blog will act as a knowledge base and get found for months (if not years) to come.
• Direct blog readers to your product and enquiry pages with links in the body of your blog posts – let your blog help you convert traffic.

Today’s Moral

Done well a company blog can make your site into an industry hub. Done badly and you may as well not bother! If you're going to start a bit of corporate blogging keep it frequent, fresh and above all, fun!

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