blog design and maintenance

A blog is your ally

The idea of a blog may sound like some newfangled crazy technology if you're not familiar with it. Even if you are familiar with it, you may wonder why an "online journal" is relevant to your business. More than being a place for you to vent your frustration with your spouse, politics or the price of gas, a blog can offer a number of opportunities to help your business shine.

You've probably heard the buzz. blogs are everywhere. Contact us to find out how we can make a blog work for your business.

We can set up your blog, design it to complement your web site, and even save you time by writing articles and maintaining it on a regular basis. The nice thing about a blog, though, is how easy it is to use, which gives you a chance to save money by writing and maintaining it yourself. Whatever your needs, we can:

• Recommend blog technology
• Strategize ideas for content, set a tone or help determine the purpose and direction of your blog
• Plan for and design your blog, including sidebars, links, color schemes and headers
• Integrate a blog with your web site
• Write and develop content, or research available content for you to link to
• Teach you to post to a blog yourself

From buzzword to practical application

Ok, it's an online journal, but how does that help you? Whether you're a small service business with a couple of web pages or a national eCommerce retailer, a blog can provide an opportunity to:

• Share industry insights with your customers. You'd like to have a "news" section on your web site, but it's hard to come up with 500 words at a time. And it can be costly to hire a full time copywriter. Enter the blog, where entries don't need to be more than a couple of sentences or a link to another relevant source of information. Has a press release been posted about your organization on another web site? Link to it! Does another site have something relevant to say? Again, post a link! You don't have to struggle with a thesaurus and a blank document when there is a rich source of content out there on the web just begging you to link to it. Whether you write the content yourself or link to relevant news, your customers will see your site as a valuable source of information.
• Increase your organization's credibility. A blog provides you with a unique opportunity to connect with your customers on a meaningful level. The informal nature of a blog allows you to write in natural, conversational language and talk directly to your customers without the marketing hype or the pressure of following publishing requirements. Put a "real face" on your business, one that your customers can personally identify with. Market research shows that people often make buying decisions based on emotion. Give your visitors a positive emotional experience and your sales might just take a jump. Plus, quality content has a way of circulating the web. Keep your blog current and relevant and other blogs may even link to you. Imagine the potential for free advertising!
• Collect marketing information. A blog can be a valuable source of information if visitors send you comments or e-mails. Positive or negative, you're getting real customer feedback and insights. Use this information to tailor your products, improve your services or understand a market niche. Double up on your blog's effectiveness and credibility by posting customer feedback - yes, positive and negative - with a follow-up comment from you. Just think of the major online powerhouses and how much information they offer, including peer reviews, customer comments and product evaluations.
• Make the search engines happy. There's little that a search engine loves more than fresh content. Updating you site's content on a regular basis with relevant, quality information can boost your site's ranking in search results. A blog makes it easy to keep your site fresh.

The bottom line: it sounds easy, so what's the bad news?

There is no bad news - setting up a blog is fairly uncomplicated and straightforward. In a couple of days you can join the myriad bloggers who "talk" about everything from Great Aunt Millie's big toe to the best way to design your living room around the principles of Feng Shui. The toughest part of blogging is making up your mind to do it, and pre-planning for an effective launch.

If blogging sounds like something you'd like to learn more about, contact us to learn more about setting up and implementing a blog on your web site.

For new customers or existing customers with a new project, take advantage of a free initial consultation and no-obligation project planning for blog design, setup and implementation!