I was wondering to myself the other day ‘why is it that so many business websites still don’t have active blogs when it’s such a fantastic marketing resource and so well tuned to SEO?”. After talking to a couple of business owners and marketing managers and digging into why they didn’t consider a blog, one possible reason which surfaced is the restricted view a business blog is often looked at. When you mention blog the wider general understanding is:

The blog is a diary-like online platform to post a personal opinion or account of daily events so that others can read right?

…..Wrong! And this is what turns off many who think to themselves “What am going to post everyday and how will that help bring customers?” A blog is a highly versatile publishing platform. It can be what you want it to be and is only limited by one’s creativity. While some use it effectively to publish a daily account of events, others use it just as well to turn it into a learning resource with informative articles and some can adapt it to publish an online magazine with content that’s of interest to it’s readers. What you choose to publish depends largely on one’s business and more importantly their customers.

A very niche high tech company which needs to attract a very no-nonsense technical audience may need to publish more along the lines of technology publications maintaining a more serious tone and ensuring it’s valuable to the readers. A business targeted towards a younger audience may choose to publish a more rich media based one with a lighter first person tone to strike a chord with their readers. Finally the objective is to create a real social connection through the blog and develop a valuable online resource for your target audience.  That’s how your customers will discover you. How do you decide what kind of publication your business could use and how to leverage a blog? Simple….

• Define your target audience and customers (what kind of audience would you like your publication to draw?)

• Now put yourself in their shoes for a while and think about what kind of an online publication would attract your attention and have you go back for more on a regular basis? (What kind of content? What kind of tone? What are their current favorites? What can you learn from them? How could you make your publication even better?)

• Execute! Start working towards building that dream online publication  and spend some time every day thinking “how can I make it even better?” , “what would a reader like to see here?”… and make your publication the best there is.

Virtually every industry, business vertical or interest area including the niche one’s have successful online publications in the form of blogs, journals, portals, news sites and magazines. The blog as a platform is perhaps the most versatile marketing tool we’ve seen in a while. Use it well, and with a little effort you can also have one of those publications your customers value so much.