Fresh content is the new king: leverage your blog to attract new prospects and grow your business.

• Author: Saeks, Ford

Concerning Web logs and Web sites, you might have heard the saying "content is king." With the advent of blogs, this idea has been updated to "fresh content is king." According to Technorati, an Internet search engine of blogs, more than 900,000 blog posts are posted every 24 hours. By posting this fresh content, bloggers can provide timely and valuable content for their readers. while at the same time increasing traffic to their site, building relationships, and establishing themselves as experts in their fields.

More than 200 million active blogs are out there, and three-fourths of Internet users read these blogs. So, what is all of the hype about blogs and why should we care? By creating and effectively leveraging a blog for its business, a company will rank higher in search engines, attract more targeted traffic to its site, create and establish repeat traffic, and get more sales of products and services. And that's just scratching the surface of the benefits that blogs offer. A business marketer's purpose is to communicate the value of the business's products and services. Blogs help to do that in a much more personal and interactive way.

Rationales for Business Blogging

Businesses build their blogs for many reasons. Perhaps a blog provides a place to highlight product reviews in a more personal way or write posts that link to the products or services pages of your Web site, providing more details. You can write case studies about how people use your products or services and about news and upcoming events for use internally or externally. Remember that personal recommendations are key factors in buying decisions, so let your blog help facilitate this and in the process give potential customers current helpful information to encourage sales.

When planning a blog, start by focusing on possible benefits to site visitors. What do you think they would want to know more about? Ask your customer service staff, sales people, and receptionists to list the most frequently asked questions and most often raised concerns related to the business. Spend time researching and reviewing other blogs in your industry or relevant subject or topic areas. You'll quickly find many reasons why adding a blog to your marketing strategies makes good business sense. As a marketing tool, a blog helps to create much more personal relationships with viewers--current and prospective clients--than does regular Web content. By establishing personal relationships with...