Design Bit blog by Anthony Brewitt - a web designer, blog designer, Wordpress designer and marketing philosopher. Designbit showcases Anthony’s talents and shares his web design know-how.

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Your Business Needs a Blog

December 18th, 2006, Category: Wordpress News

In this article I will point out a new way of marketing your business website by using a blog. Why should you care about blogging, that’s just something web designers or egotistical teenagers do to look cool in class. If Microsoft believes that business blogging is important then who are we to ignore it?.

Non Compete culture

Companies worldwide, and from my own personal experience especially in the UK, are very scared of giving away the smallest hint of what they actually do for their clients. Their perspective is often that any information they make available could be valuable to their competitors; they could get an edge over them if they knew their prices.

The Less Customers Know, The More We Can Charge

UK companies have a tendency to hide their prices and instead give an awkward quotation form for their services, even though they may supply competitive prices and a reliable service. If you picked up the phone they can probably give you a quote straight away.

Be Personable

There is an attitude that the less the client knows the more we can charge and to a great extent this is true. But these companies are missing a new wave of marketing, one that is transforming companies images and actually making business approachable and personal, even Microsoft, the brand tarnished with the evil corporation badge for so many years, has seen the error of its ways and is using blogging to become more personable.

Blog Marketing Gains Trust

The blog marketing scheme works by creating something that is mostly lost on online trading; trust. That website could be run by anyone with a few services to throw your way, you cannot actually judge what the company staff are actually like and there’s no way you can truly estimate the level of integrity the company has and how specialized they actually are.

These are all trust issues affecting paying customers choices every time they look at your website.

Be The Expert

The idea behind the blog marketing scheme is to blog well informed posts about your domain that hint at your greatness and experetise in the field, you may even gather a small readership interested in the same subject.

You will attract customers who are just browsing for the best price to service ratio and just happen to have a quick read of your blog. This prospective customer is reading about your expertise in the subject and with every word read is gaining trust in your company.

The customer see’s that there is also a real person behind the corporate identity, and they really know what there talking about. All a sudden the corporate identity of the company is fading and a new friendlier personal relationship is made between a supply and demand relationship.

Even Microsoft Blog

Yep its true, even Microsoft realises the importance of Blog Marketing and allows its employees to blog. The most famous being Microsoft’s all round tech good guy Robert Scoble. He has even blogged about personal tragedy in his life and even his dis-agreements he has on some of Microsofts policies. So if the big corporations are embracing the Blog Marketing scheme, shouldnt you?

Search Engines Love Blogs

Another great reason to blog is the word of mouth theory or more to the point word of Google. The more times your website mentions your keywords the higher ranking you will become for that term and thats how it should be as your website is obviously of high relevance. People may link to a article you have written on your blog giving important recipicoral links to increase your sites visability on the web, all this increases your chance of being on that magical first page of Google for your search terms.

Blog Marketing Conclusion

You may not get a massive readership like the big corporations but you can still earn a dedicated following which will bring extra custom, friendships and business contacts. Blogging gives your company an edge, and the personal touch that I described earlier can really change the feel of a company; from corporate to personal, even human. Thats worth an article a week!

  • http://www.umbrellawebsitedesign.co.uk/ web guru

    i totally agree i just begining to realise the importance of blogging

  • http://www.umbrellawebsitedesign.co.uk/ web guru

    yes i totally agree i have just started my blog called web design is the word

  • http://www.michaelthorn.co.uk Mike

    Peoples realisation that blogs are a good thing for their business is on the up and up; everyone seems to have or is starting a blog these days! Personally i think their best purpose is for generating return visitors… after all the majority of business to client services will only ever get unique visitors with a very rare number of returning readers – a blog provides a reason to return!

  • Ovi Dogar

    Yes I agree, a blog definitely plays an important role for your business because it is a way to present your work and services, and it may be an opportunity to get more and more clients.

    I also have a blog for my own business…

    Ovi Dogar
    AbsoluteCovers

  • http://www.paintworkzstudio.co.uk Paintworkz

    Well an interesting blog. I too believe that a blog is important to bring a close circle of people really watching you. And this makes the best that we can offer.

  • http://www.portfoliodesign.ca Allen

    I think blogs are good, we are at a time in history when things should not be about US and THEM but WE. WE are at a point when, WE should help each other.
    Yes Blogs are good, it shows a little more about how a company thinks.

    Just my 2 cents

    Allen

  • http://www.crearedesign.co.uk Claire

    I think blogging adds personality to your business and as you say trust. Rather than reading a one way page on what the company has to offer, a blog is more interactive because of the comments of others. It is a great way forward, but as you also say, some companies do not like to give away to much!

  • http://www.quape.com web-singapore

    I personally feel blog is important. It shows the friendly side of your business and bridges the gap between your customers.

    nice site you have, I’ve been reading all the popular posts.

  • http://www.jmc-website-design.co.uk/blog Jason

    I agree that blogs are the way forward, but I think some businesses might have a harder time writing interesting content than others. e.g A Healthcare website vs an online business that sells cardboard tubes. How long could the blog last with fresh and interesting content?

  • http://www.ukwebsitedesigncompany.co.uk uk webs

    Business blogging is very important as you will be able to post new information quickly and get it to your customers and clients just as fast. You will also be able to keep everyone informed of new policies, products and other important info without having to send out massive emails or snail mail. You can also drive traffic to your business site from your blog – by having links on your site as well as others.