Blog Marketing
Miracles: How To Bring Sales To
Your Business Through A Weblog
Author: Danny Wirken
An increasing number of business entities are actively
using
blogs as part of their marketing strategy. Why? Blogging
is
providing them the ability to connect with their
audience thus
encouraging goodwill which in turn helps bring sales.
Marketing through Blogging
It is nothing you have not heard for quite some time
now.
Blogging has caused quite a stir. It has, in fact,
continued to
proliferate rapidly. In early days, a blog is just a
personal
online diary. It is a place to publish one’s thoughts,
to
collect and share things that one finds interesting. It
is a
venue to express one’s rants, raves and musings. Today,
professional and amateur journalists, political pundits,
business honchos, entertainers, everybody seems to be
blogging.
Blogs are now being used to promote a business, run a
political
campaign, elicit publicity, among others.
A blog or weblog is an online diary of events arranged
in
reverse chronological order. The author of a blog is
known as a
blogger and writing or maintaining a blog is referred to
as
blogging. An individual entry or article is called a
post and
is available in the form of a blog page for the public
to read.
A blog may have a commentary box for readers to leave
comments
or opinions. These comments act as stimulus for further
conversations. A business or corporate blog is simply a
blog
about a specific business. It is an effective medium for
communicating with current and potential customers to
share
knowledge and expertise and foster relationships.
| A company that
employs a well-planned blogging strategy can spur significant market
gains and sales earnings. Marketing is not just promoting a product or
service. More importantly, it is about understanding the needs and wants
of customers and developing products or services that satisfy these
needs and wants effectively. |
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A blog enables a company to reach out to current and
potential
customers, in a more personal way. A blog builds
connection and
links between the company and its key audience which
helps the
company use this network over time to improve overall
business.
A business blog especially if regularly updated can
inform
readers about a company product or service, information,
industry news, tips, tutorials or company developments.
Links
to industry-related stories can also be found in a blog.
The
way the targeted audience responds to these information
or
content is important to any company.
A blog is a good venue for customers to air issues,
concerns
and give comments. Through a blog, customers can give
their own
inputs. A company can hear directly from customers and
understand what they desire to get from a product or
service.
Sometimes, the most well-intentioned product under
perform
because of lack of customer feedback. With blogging, a
company
can ask for feedbacks, albeit not the whole world, but
at least
the blogging community. Once a company has insights into
what a
large community thinks of the product or service, the
company
can then further improve the product or service to meet
customer requirements. After all, customer satisfaction
is of
utmost importance.
| A company who
listens and responds to customer feedbacks conveys the message that
there is somebody who listens behind an otherwise faceless company.
Because a blog is conversational, it gives the company a human voice. |
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This assures customers that there is a “real”
person who will
take care of their needs. Customers will feel an
affinity with
the company. Regular visits brought about by regular
updates
thru fresh blog entries will familiarize the customers
with the
company and make them feel that they personally know the
company. In due time, trust and loyalty is built and
relationships fostered. As we all know people generally
buy
products or avail the services of people they know and
trust.
Rest assure that return visits to the blog, maybe for
more
information will transpire even after a purchase has
been made.
As they say, customer loyalty is the end-all-be-all of
marketing.
A company that utilizes customer ideas, feedbacks, and
opinions
can further satisfy customer needs and wants and thus
facilitates goodwill in the blogging community. It is
standard
practice in blogging to provide a link to a thought
originator
which is important because backlinks are a method for
search
engines to rank a blog. Search engine ranking is very
important. Google and Yahoo are two of the most popular
search
engines.
A blog is typically written daily thus the blog post is
new.
The search engines index the new post more often than
the
regular website. The result is a high rank compared to a
website. If a company has a product to promote and
publishes
blog posts about the product regularly, chances are one
of the
blog posts will be found by readers who may be looking
for
information about the product. Hopefully, after reading
the
blog post, the potential customer will visit the company
website and make a purchase online or buy the product in
a
“brick and mortar” store. Marketers acknowledge that
potential
customers can be customers once they find the
information they
want about a product from the company’s blog.
Another feature of a blog why search engines love it
is a
blog’s high number of incoming links. Bloggers link to
other
blogs, articles and websites. The reading audience is
exposed
to a plethora of information. Bloggers, thus, create and
retain
a loyal following of readers. PageRanks for blogs are
usually
very strong too. As you and I know, high search engine
ranking
translates to high traffic and more sales leads.
Generating Sales from Blogging
The way to get the most from blogging is by building a
strong
brand. A brand is simply value for the customer. It is
good
customer service and products or services that will
satisfy
customer needs and wants. A blog can help a company
demonstrates its expertise in its industry or field.
Blogs do
create buzz about a company’s authority in its niche. A
blog
connects a company to its target audience and peers and
starts
a more dynamic conversation with the marketplace. A blog
helps
to show a company’s value, its online brand on the web.
Once a
company has built a strong brand, sales will just
follow.
Publishing a blog will not automatically generate higher
sales.
However, it is an efficient way to communicate with
customers
and prospects. A blog in itself is an excellent tool to
support
a business, provide value, build relationships and
establish
brand and image. The ultimate purpose of a blog is to
brand, to
communicate and to connect. Increased sales should only
be
viewed as a positive indirect effect of a successful
blog.
About The Author: http://www.theinternetone.net
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