Wed 23 Jan 2008
3 Key Blogging Questions: Question 1
Posted by Mark White, Blog Consultant in Corporate Blogging , Setting up a Business Blog , Writing your Business Blog , Small Business Blogging , Starting a Blog
This is part of a 3 part mini-series looking at the planning phase of setting up and starting your business blog.
Each post will focus on one of the 3 key questions that you should have clear answers for as you set up your blog before you start to write it.
Question 1:
What you do want to do with your blog?
This may seem like an obvious question or rather you may think that the answer to it is obvious. Great! If you have a clear idea of what you want to do with your blog and how it will help your business, then write it down and stick it on your computer screen. Keep it in mind as you write your posts, make changes to your blog and work on promoting it because that sort of focus is going to be all important if you want to achieve the best results.
It does seem to be the case, however, that many companies (and this applies equally to multinationals as it does to small businesses) still look at blogging as something which needs to be done to “keep up with the Joneses”. Unfortunately, blogs set up with this in mind often suffer a swift demise since they generally have no real substance, identity or direction.
Blogging will cost you time and therefore money. In my case, if I am writing posts for my blogs, then I cannot be doing paid work on blogs or online marketing campaigns for other companies, engaging in other marketing activities, carrying out my duties with my accountants hat on etc. So plan what you want to do with your blog.
Marketing focused blog as an example
Let’s take the example of a business blog which has a marketing focus, one where you are essentially looking for it to communicate your expertise or the benefits of your services or products, and to start to generate interest and trust in them (and you of course!).
So to get the right balance and focus in the blog, you’ll want to incorporate important influences both from within your company and from the market you work in ie. from customers, partners and competitors etc. You also need to look at how it fits in with your other marketing activities and the general direction of the company. If you can incorporate all of these, you’ll then be developing a marketing tool which will reflect the company’s goals, will work in tandem with everything else you are doing and will allow you to communicate with your target audience in as unfiltered a form as possible.
Other business uses for a blog
Of course, marketing is just one of the many uses you could put your business blog to and as the focus of your blog changes, so of course will the influences which are important to it. If you are looking at an external blog to support your customer service or technical support activities, then the targeting and format of the blog will change to suit that goal. Likewise, an internal blog to help your internal communications or perhaps one dedicated to pre-sales / sales team information sharing will be different again.
Other ideas of possible ways to use a blog as a business tool, both externally and internally, might include:
But at the end of the day, whatever you decide to use your blog for, it needs to reflect the requirements of both the company and your target audience, and add value to both parties. Do that and you are well on the way to creating a business blog which will prove an invaluable asset to you.
January 23rd, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Thanks for the article! My business is teaching people how to trade stocks, but my blog has become sort of “spread out”, in the sense that I’ve started covering more general business and management subjects.
Then, I read blogs such as this one and James Brausch (marketing), who keep their blogs clean, minimal, and on-topic.
I’m not sure if I should try and “steer” my blog differently, or if I should just start over with a new blog.
January 24th, 2008 at 7:45 am
@ Bob - it’s a difficult one and indeed one I’ve struggled with here on BBB. While I started purely with posts that were effectively Blogging Hints, Tips and Ideas, this then developed into other areas on social media, new media marketing etc. which was fine but did not cater for people wanting to find out blogging for teh first time.
My decision was to start a new blog, The Blog Coach, but unfortunately that coincided with a new arrival in the family and I found I couldn’t maintain both with the right quality of content so reverted back to BBB with a mix of content that I hope appeals across the board.
My advice: if you can dedicate the time to a new blog with all that entails to do it properly, then that will probably be the cleanest way. If not, then create a new major category in your current blog, and visibly split in display/format terms the content that you post there as a clear subset of your overall blog. You can set up a specific RSS feed for it even separate styling if you want.
Whichever way you decide, let me know and good luck!
January 24th, 2008 at 9:30 am
Great pointers - very well received. I like the idea of sticking your blog ‘vision’ someplace close to the monitor so it attracts attention every time you put finger to keyboard.
I’d like to see some research to understand whether adding a blog to an e-commerce website actually generates increased loyalty, stickiness - and of course, transactions.
January 24th, 2008 at 10:23 am
@ Dave - Thanks for your comment. Research and figures into blogs with e-commerce sites are a little hard to come by as you might imagine, as a lot of companies either don’t measure closely enough and/or don’t care to release those sorts of figures!
General impressions are that it most certainly does and it’s definitely something that I recommend people consider, not only for larger retail e-commerce sites but also smaller companies where they have a set of product images and short descriptions but nothing that search engines or their potential customers can really get their teeth into.
I’m writing a post at the moment on this very subject which will cover some of the benefits (and pitfalls!). I will see what my research pulls up in terms of specifics annd let you know.
January 24th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
Mark,
You’ve taught me an awful lot, but this post resonates with me! I can very easily (as you know!) go off on a tangent.
Luckily, you’ve givne me the odd dig when needed to get back on topic, and it’s paying off handsomely.
We support a number of small businesses, and so far I’ve not seen any of them use a blog.
While many people are initially attracted because of it’s marketing value, they have so many more applications.
I particularly use them with existing clients to educate and inform. When used in tandem with a short email and link to the article, the readership levels are really good.
As time goes on, this investment is starting to pay off. Rather than have to sell to clients, it kind of changes the emphasis to them buying from you if that makes sense?
As you know, the blog you helped us design is beginning to generate sales from new client too, but I fully expect it will help as a marketing tool to existing clients as time goes on.
Our situation is slightly different from many others. Because we offer small business IT support, we actually need them to buy and invest in some stuff to help them stay secure or minimise down-time.
Unfortunately, there are still a few people out there who think you make money on hardware. You don’t.
But you still need them to buy it.
So our blog is already helping us keep on track by giving us a forum through which we can talk in an informative/educational way explaining the background to a particular product most people need.
And in so doing, it’s helping us get the sales we need for them rather than us. Our goal is to minimise support calls and the blog is beginning now after a few months to deliver that as well as new clients.
January 25th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Mark,
On this topic, I really thought this was a great post:
http://hunternuttall.com/blog/2008/01/consider-having-a-blog-no-matter-who-you-are/
February 23rd, 2008 at 6:03 am
Great tips Mark. I really like the concept of “identity” for the blog. Many companies have an About Us tab and the business blog might easily be a navigation item off this page labeled “what we are doing”. For now I guess most people are more comfortable with a main navigation tab called “News” since the blog might even be their PR channel over a traditional press release.
March 18th, 2008 at 7:27 pm
[…] First up is ‘What you do want to do with your blog?‘ - a great primer before diving in and creating a blog because you feel you have to. Along with the more marketing focused efforts where businesses push their services and products Mark includes the following handy little diagram to suggest a range of other blogging uses. […]
March 30th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
I kept a business blog talking of all things relating to marketing, advertising and entrepreneurship. When I first started the blog a year ago, my objective is to raise awareness. Recently, I reviewed my blog’s stats and decided that it’s time to generate business through my blog.
Mark, any advice on how to generate business via blog? Is there anything I should pay special attention to? Many thanks in advance.