www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3qltEtl7H8

Originally blogs, or web logs, were used by individuals to record their thoughts and opinions and broadcast them to a like-minded online community.  Whilst blogs still play the role of personal diaries to many bloggers, more and more entrepreneurs and corporates are using blogs to unlock a wealth of business promotion, to a targeted audience which has actually chosen to engage in conversation.

The most common objection I receive from my clients when pitching business blogs is that blogs are terribly complicated to use and tedious to keep updated. Absolutely not.  Blogs are extremely easy to use: no technical assistance is necessary, anyone who can use a word processor can use a blog.  A blog takes less than 15 minutes to set-up and usually a post will take no more than 15 minutes to write.  There is no limit to the number of contributors a blog can have, so the onus does not have to fall on one individual to keep the blog up-to-date.

So with all the excuses and objections out the way, lets progress to discuss exactly what a business blog is, why a business would chose to have a blog, what the benefits are of business blogging and how to get started with your very own business blog.

This thing called blog: what is a business blog?

Every business has its niche, its specialty, its thing.  The people in this business usually eat, sleep and breathe this thing they do.  They know every intrinsic detail of their industry.  Now imagine for a second, there is someone out there who wants to know this information, who needs this information, someone with whom you’d benefit from building a relationship.  Lets call this person an audience.  A very targeted audience. He/she is a prospective customer/partner/investor of yours or your competitors.  Now in reality there are at least a couple hundred others just like him/her.  They’re in urgent need of your expert opinion and the likelihood is they’ll turn to Google (or another search engine) to find the information they’re looking for.

A business blog offers a fuss free ‘content management system‘, that will easily integrate with your existing website or work in place of a website.  A business blog should be very targeted in terms of its subject matter and should be set-up with both a business focus and target audience in mind.  This way the audience knows what to expect from the blog, and the business will achieve a loyal readership that will visit again and again.  Linking the subject matter with the business’ niche allows for prospective client recruitment, reader referrals as well as (and very importantly) search engine optimization: as the specific content will be closely monitored by search engine robots (web crawlers), increasing your website ranking for those search topics.  Readership will not be isolated to consumers/clients, but will also incorporate suppliers, partners, employees and any other stakeholders.

Lets use an example. You’re a supplier of quality seeds and plants to the public. I’m the consumer, a recreational, green finger.  Over the spring and summer I’ve created an oasis of colour in my garden.  Winter is nearing and I’m concerned all my hard work is going to end in ruin.  I turn to Google and type in ‘protect plants from winter frost’.  The first few listings belong to a few companies just using the keywords I’ve googled to rank high and advertise their website.  That’s not what I’m looking for.  The fourth listing however, is titled ‘Protect Your Plants From Winter Frost’, a blog post written by one of your employees on your company blog.  I click to see what advice you might be offering.  You’re bang on and provide me with exactly what I’m looking for.  In the sidebar I see related articles with a wealth of information ensuring I’ll come back time and time again.  I bookmark your site and visit regularly.  Often I’ll leave a comment and ask a question which either a member of your team will answer or another reader will leave a comment in response.  I now feel like I’m part of a mutually beneficial community.  As spring approaches I need to order some plants and seeds.  Where do you think I’ll go?

Why choose a business blog?

The key to any successful marketing program is to start a relationship with your potential customer.  Relationship here meaning a mutually beneficial tie between two or more people/associations where the interaction between the parties involved is reciprocal.

A blog makes the building of a such a relationship an easy task and better yet, one that is welcomed by your target market, as you’re not just advertising your products/service to them but effectively giving them something for free.

Aside from the customer focus, a blog has enormous potential to increase traffic to your website or increase promotion of your business, whether you have a website or not.  Simply being associated with a blog that provides relevant and valuable information is good enough, but from the technical side of things where Google and other search engines are involved, blogs really up your online marketing strategies’ game.  Search engine robots love frequently updated content, this encourages them to visit your site more often and rank you highly for your related keywords, increasing your page ranking and first page listing potential.

A really great industry where this is very apparent is the beauty industry.  Most major cosmetic suppliers (and the smaller ones too) have blogs (For example: Benefit Cosmetics and Caribbean Tan).  Why? Because they know that not only do their consumers spend a lot of time researching beauty topics but that the beauty industry is extremely competitive and to have an organically high listing they need to associate there websites with certain keywords and have the search engine robots visit their site regularly.

A blog can help your business:

• Attract an interested, consenting audience
• Attract and develop business opportunities and relationships
• Promote your business online through media and PR
• Increase page ranking and search engine listing through Search Engine Optimisation
• Create market research campaigns, with instant feedback
• Create open communication channels with your customers, suppliers, employees and other stakeholders
• Increase and build your brand online
• Position your business as an industry expert

The Benefits of having a Business blog:

Already we’ve mentioned a great number of reasons why a company would choose to have a business blog.  There are countless benefits, but to summarise I’ll elaborate on but a few of the benefits I believe are the most pertinent.

• Building relationships with those that matter – a blog helps you captivate a targeted audience.  Only those who are interested in and in need of information on your subject matter are going to spend time reading through and searching for your blog.  Unlike advertising which is at the wider end of the funnel, blogging is a unique marketing tool in that it gives you a personal, almost one-to-one relationship with your audience at the same time as speaking to a larger audience and gaining mass exposure albeit targeted.
• You become known as an expert in your field– blogs give bloggers a platform to demonstrate their expertise on the subject of their choice.  As in my green finger example, the blogger/s became my source of gardening hints, tips and advice. I went back time and time again for new information.  I became a loyal customer, a trusting customer and no doubt a customer who was happy to refer business to the company.
• Standing out from the crowd – free information is a gift to your audience and building relationships with your stakeholders is priceless.  A well developed blog, with useful information will set your business apart from other businesses (competitors) in your industry.
• Search Engine Optimisation and Online Marketing search engines’ crawlers, spiders and robots absolutely love websites that regularly update their content.  What easier way is there to encourage robot visits then to use a blog?  Links in content, user comments and permalinks will also assist in your efforts to increase your search engine indexing and page ranks.
• Promotion, sales and marketing of your brand – Blogging is absolutely free. The more you blog, the more visitors you’ll attract, the richer your content the more repeat traffic you’ll bring to your site. Lead generation, referral business and business development opportunities are endless if you manage to create the right environment with a clear business focus and a predetermined target audience.

If you think a blog could add to your business’ online marketing campaign then it’s time to think about how you’re going to go about starting your business blog.  The next chapter in the blog category is dedicated to starting your own business blog.

We recommend creating a letterhead that is asthetically different from the body of your content; use a different type font, size and colour.  Include a logo where possible.

Vanilla Designs Letterhead

The below guide is based on the instructions found on Microsoft Office Online site

Inserting the Header and Footer and formatting their content

1. On the View menu, click Print Layout.
2. On the View menu, click Header and Footer.
3. On the Format menu, click Tabs, click Clear All, and then click OK.Clearing the default tabs set for the header and footer allows you to insert your letterhead information at any .5″ interval.
4. On the Formatting toolbar, choose the font type, font size, and font color you want.
5. Press the TAB key twice, type the company name, press TAB again, and then type the company telephone number.
6. Press the ENTER key to go to the next line, press TAB twice, and then type the company street number and name. Note If you have a long street address, you may need to press TAB twice rather than once between each block of information in your header.
7. Press TAB until your insertion point is aligned with the telephone number above, and then type the company fax number.
8. Press ENTER, press TAB twice, and then type the company city, state, and ZIP code.
9. Press TAB until your insertion point is aligned with the fax number above, and then type the company e-mail address.
10. On the Header and Footer toolbar, click Close.

Please note, fields specified above can be replaced with any field of your choosing, (E.g. Company name, telephone number)

Insert company letterhead on page one only (recommended)

If you have a letter that is longer than one page and you do not want company letterhead to appear on each page, complete the following steps before you move on to the next procedure.

1. On the File menu, click Page Setup.
2. On the Layout tab, under Headers and footers, select the Different first page check box.

Formatting the footer and its content

1. In print layout view, on the View menu, click Header and Footer.
2. On the Header and Footer toolbar, click the Switch Between Header and Footer button.
3. On the Formatting toolbar, choose the font type, font size, font color, and alignment option you want.
4. Enter the company message, mission statement, or logo.
5. To insert a logo; click on the Insert toolbar, select Picture, then from file and browse your computer for the logo.  Double click the file name.
6. If your letter is longer than one page and you want the footer information to appear on each page, on the Header and Footer toolbar, click the Show Next button, and then enter the company message, mission statement, or logo.
7. On the Header and Footer toolbar, click Close.

Please note: the same method of inserting logo as mentioned above can be used to insert the logo to the header.

Tip You can save your new letterhead as a document template file (*.dot) that you can reuse later.

Microsoft offers a wealth of information on Office products, visit Microsoft Office Online Help and How To for more solutions to your office hick-ups.