Blogging is a great way to create buzz about any topic. From hyping the latest fashion trends and electronic gadgets to funny videos on the web, there are blogs for any interest imaginable. What many businesses are starting to realize is that blogging can be a powerful way to drive their businesses. From major marketers like Nike and Dell to tech startups like Woot.com, companies are finding new customers, strengthening relationships with existing ones, and building better brands through blogs. Businessweek has an excellent article on how blogs will change your business. Here are just a few examples of how you could use a blog to drive your business.
Use blogs to market your company’s mission and the value you provide to customers
Run a coffee shop? Write an article about why the coffee beans you use from Ethiopia have a more complex flavor and aroma, and are harvested using fair trade techniques. Or why the digital printing technology your print shop uses produces the best color prints for brochures. Your business is different and unique for a reason - let the world see that value by blogging about it.
Use blogs to promote new products
Are you launching a new product or service? Surely you’ll be promoting that new product locally in your store and through traditional channels like mail. Posting blog posts about your new service is a powerful (and very low cost) way of getting the word out. People search for topics relating to your business everyday - make your new product a part of their search experience.
Use blogs to promote your expertise and knowledge
If you’re in a knowledge service line of business, you can reach thousands of new potential clients by blogging about topics relating to your expertise. Do you provide tax law advice? Write blog posts about hot topics that clients are asking about - there will be many people searching for answers to those topics online and no doubt many of them will come across your posts and want to follow up with you for further advice. Lead generation through search is a multi-billion-dollar business - what many people don’t know is that you can tap into it at zero or low cost by writing high quality content.
Use blogs to provide better customer service
Put out a blog post asking for your customer’s feedback. Blogs are great two-way communication channels since your customers can respond to you via comments and email. Solicit feedback and keep a conversation going with your customers - it is an excellent way to increase customer satisfaction and retain customers.
Control your branding and message on local search sites
As usage of physical yellow pages declines, usage of local search services like Google Local and Yelp are on the rise. Don’t rely completely on the listings provided on these services - utilize a blog to control your message, and link to your blog from the local search services.
Your blogging options
There are a range of choices when it comes to starting a business blog. You can go with one of the free consumer blogging tools such as Blogger or Wordpress (Typepad is also popular, but is a paid service). These services are easy to setup and are free and are a great way to get started quickly. You’ll find, however, that additional setup and use of other third-party services will be needed if you want things like:
- Statistics tracking
- Advertising revenues
- Promotion of your blog
- Building a contact / email list
Another choice to consider is the site which hosts the blog post you’re viewing now - Factoidz. Factoidz is a simple, all-in-one tool designed for small businesses. On Factoidz you create a business profile page which displays your key business information, a map of your location, the services you provide, and easy ways to contact you or subscribe to your blog posts via email. From there you can create “Factoids” (blog posts) which are reviewed by our editors for content quality and then published to your profile, to search engines, and to the Factoidz website. Factoidz automatically places targeted ads on your pages and optimizes them to achieve the best ad rates, and then pays you a share of the advertising revenues generated. You can even earn 100% of the ad revenues if you publish regularly.
Some of the benefits of using Factoidz vs. free blogging tools include:
- More traffic: Your blog and posts receive promotion across the Factoidz website and more traffic from search engines via our search-optimized platform
- Free business listing with direct-to-email contact capabilities
- Free email loyalty list through our Follow feature
- Statistics: free real-time stats on how your blog and articles are performing
- Instant ad revenues: We serve and optimize your ads and you earn money for all your posts
Some businesses are already using Factoidz as a way to drive their businesses - check out Don Phelan, a Real Estate Broker in Michigan - or Molly Buckle, a Jewelry designer in Ontario, CA - or Benjamin Miller, a Financial Advisor in New York - or Michael Lucas, a PGA Golf Instructor in South Carolina - or Christine KIm, a Real Estate Broker in the Bay Area.
Think of Factoidz as an all-in-one package for your business blogging needs that will drive more promotion, build your brand awareness, increase customer loyalty, and provide you with more intelligence about your business. Read more about how Factoidz works, or start now and create you business profile.
