Posted by I have a firmly held belief that every business needs a blog. Big or small, one man band to multi-national corporation, get a website and get a blog. There are just so many benefits to blogs! I was even reading this morning about a business where the blogs ran into the teens. One each for the main directors of the board, advertising team blog, offers and news blog and so on. OK, maybe this was a little more than I meant, but I would rather see this than no blog at all!
A blog is the way that you communicate to your customers, suppliers, contacts etc on a regular basis. People who maybe only buy occasionally or use your services black cube once in a blue moon you may pop along to the blog to see what is going on in between purchases.
You can use this as an incentive to make purchases between their main buys. Display regular offers so that they have a reason to keep coming back and once in a while those offers are going to appeal and they will make an impulse purchase from you, just because they are reading your blog and you have mentioned a special offer that they cannot resist.
And a blog does not just help with customer retention, none customers can be directed to your blog from other sources who are themselves maybe mentioning your special offers in their blogs, tweets and other media. If you can get your customers talking about you through your blog there is no way of telling how far the word can spread.
A blog is also a useful resource for the search engines. Even the smallest of websites can quickly grow into a large website with the benefit of a blog. Just odd posts each week and a year later you will have a blog containing hundreds of pages. Not only is this seen by the search engines as evidence that your website is constantly being updated, with content that also lasts (another favourable point), but this new and increasing amount of content can then be cached by the search engines and may then start to send you new readers as their search terms crop up in your blog.
True, not all of these people that find your blog through the search engines will turn into paying customers, but if some do and others then spread the message of your business, then it is working as a marketing front for your business. For the investment of just a small amount of time each week typing up what is going on and what has been happening, you could be creating a new source of marketing.
Lastly, if your business is promoting its website through article writing, then it is well worth using your blog as a library for all of the completed articles. It provides a wealth of information that the search engines will love, whilst providing a resource of information that your customers could benefit from.