If you are a business owner who is looking for a creative way to save money on marketing expenses, think about going the digital route and market your business with a blog. Blogging is an inexpensive way to relate information about your business and industry to people who might become potential customers.
While most businesses have a website to provide customers with information about their products and services, it is important to use other digital resources to drive traffic to your business website. In addition to saving money on paper-based marketing costs, some business owners can actually develop revenue with their blogs if they choose to sell advertising space to non-competing companies within their industry.
Getting Started With Your Blog
If you are interested in publishing a blog, there are a number of free blogging services to help you get started. While you can certainly try out some of the most popular blogging platforms such as WordPress, Blogger, TypePad and OnlineJournal, you may also want to consider hosting your own blog on a private server. There are many advantages and disadvantages to hosting a blog on free blogging websites. If you aren’t the most computer-savvy individual, a free blogging site might be the best option for your business because they are designed to be easy-to-use. Individuals who do not have experience can use these types of sites to create their own blog, complete with a semi-customized design. However, if revenue is your ultimate goal, don’t use a free blog platform then switch later; start with the purchased domain and your independent blog immediately.
However, if you want to start a blog and want complete control over the look and feel of the design, you might want to host your own blog on a private server. If you’d like to open up advertising to different companies in your particular industry, you may also want to host your own blog. Your domain name is another thing to consider when deciding to host your own blog. Over time, people will begin to identify your blog name with the free blogging service. You will want to think about how this association may affect your business image over time.
Learn SEO
If you choose to start your own blog, one of the most important things you will need to do is make sure your blog is SEO-friendly. What is SEO, you ask? SEO is shorthand for search engine optimization or the process of using specific keywords and strategies to make your blog more visible to search engines. SEO will help drive traffic to your blog and will also increase its chances of appearing on Google and other search engines. As you improve your blog’s SEO capabilities, you will see that your blog is ranked higher on the search engine result pages.
Successful Blogging Strategies
While starting a blog is easy, maintaining a successful blog is a little more difficult. In order to ensure your business blog is successful, you will need to make sure to do a few things. Besides optimizing your blog for search engines, you will also need to make sure you are posting insightful content. Always provide content that is relevant to your readers. Ideally, the content should be about your business or industry or discuss current events that relate to your field. Also, be sure to post content regularly, otherwise readers won’t return for a repeat visit.
About the Author: Author of this post is Sara Woods from carinsurance.org.uk, where businesses can find discounts on insurance policies for company cars.