The Small Business Blog as an Internet Marketing Strategy
A small business blog is one advertising tool that should form part of your Internet marketing strategy. Here’s why –
- If you advertise regularly in a newspaper or on radio or television, you pay and you keep paying. If you print and deliver leaflets, you pay each time you do it. If you lease a big city billboard you pay monthly rental over and over again. If you use pay per click for online advertising, you pay every single time someone clicks to visit your website, even if they click straight off again. However, once your small business blog is set up, it’s like having a permanent billboard on the Internet – for FREE.
- A small business blog grows every time you add a post to it. If you think of your blog as an Internet billboard you are in effect, making it bigger and more visible, every time you add a post – for FREE.
- You can change the product or service you are focussing on with each post – and it will cost you nothing. You are in complete control.
- By choosing “keywords” to include in your postings, you can attract relevant visitors to your website – even visitors who are looking for one of your competitors products.
- Did I mention it was FREE?
My first blog was a small business blog, set up for a traditional business with a simple website. The business concerned was not Internet related. I procrastinated for six months before adding the blog to the website. The industry concerned was not known for blogging. I knew many of my competitors would consider blogging as a bit undignified – but my personal research suggested that it would bring many more potential clients to our front door – and as a small business owner I couldn’t overlook the fact that is was FREE.
The blog was added and I began posting. Within a few weeks our website traffic had increased by 30%. Now the blog was not advertising particular products because the business supplied a service. Instead, articles on the blog provided visitors with information about our services, and topics relevant to our targeted clients. When people making phone enquiries began to thank me for information I’d posted on the blog, I knew I’d hit pure gold. In the current financial climate, most small businesses could use a little of that gold.
If you thought blogging was a teenage pastime, it’s time for a re-think! Blogging as an Internet marketing strategy is a winner – don’t be shy, get your small business blog up and running!
