Blogs are the future. Now, if your idea of blogs is someone's journal about what they ate that day, that may have been true in 2000, but it's not true now. But you know that because you're reading this. Blogs are meant to inform. Rather than buy a set of encyclopedias from a door-to-door salesman, you can have any type of information you seek with a few clicks of a button, and much of it is on blogs. Consumers like free information. Provide that to them, and their sales will follow.
Think about the places you get free information. A newsletter, direct mail, television - whatever the source, chances are there is a company who sells things behind it. And if you know this, and appreciate the information you are given, you are more likely to buy from that company than its competitor. Blogs are no different.
Consumers are in a hurry. Blogs provide easy access to information that people can quickly digest. People don't even sit down to read the newspaper any more, so it's important to get readers' attention quickly, offer what they're looking for, and let them go on with their lives. But be assured that somewhere in the back of their minds, they know where that information came from. If you provide an RSS, it's even more convenient for them, since they have to do virtually nothing to get your updates.
If you have frequent news about your business, where better to let consumers know than on a blog? While it's hard to track readers from sending out a press release, your results are measurable with a blog. You can track how many visitors are on your site, and even how many people read a particular post. You know how many people you're reaching at any given time.
With all that being said, please understand that a blog isn't going to generate sales overnight. A blog takes months to get up and running (and to grow your readership), so consider it always a work in progress. The more frequently you post (2-4 posts a week) the faster it will grow and help your bottom line.
So let's review your reasons for starting a blog:
1. You have to roll with the punches. Marketing is constantly changing, and so must your technique.
2. Blogs are growing in popularity and are accepted as common marketing tools.
3. Giving consumers free information will increase your brand recognition and sales.
4. Making it easy for consumers to find information makes them appreciative, and they will reciprocate in purchases.
5. You can measure your results.
6. It's pretty affordable to have a blog. You can DIY or pay a writer/blogger to post. Beats the cost of a billboard!
General Blog and Feed Optimization Tips:
1. Providing full text feeds was noted regularly throughout the presentation as a far superior method for creating backlinks and getting found online.
2. Your blog feed should have 20 or more items never the minimum 10.
3. Provide a feed for every category your site/blog offers.
4. Ensure that you create keyword rich blog posts and ensure that your brand is well represented within the text.
5. Ensure the most important keyword/phrase is listed in the blog title.
Optimize Your Blog's Linking Structure For Best Results
1. Provide a listing of the top 10 posts within your site so the stories do not get buried in archives or category pages. If the articles are performing well it is just logical to keep them in plain view to get more mileage from them.
2. Use Tag Clouds and Tag Pages to increase the possible routes to your valuable past content.
3. If you are using WordPress as your blogging tool it is a great idea to install the "Sticky Posts" plugin which allows you to 'stick' an introduction or key post at the top of each category page.