1. Manage and promote your business cheaply
With a blog, you can manage and promote your business for as little as the cost of one weekday lunch. There is no need for technical teams, marketing teams and ad costs, making the blog the most cost-efficient way to build an online presence for your business. In fact, independent research says that blogs can let you reduce th ecosts of web publishing by 90% (source: SKK).
2. Increase your reach
Because they are frequently updated, blogs rise fast to the top of search engine rankings and drive more traffic to your website. Your current audience can get updates more easily and the people who haven't found your site yet can discover your blog with the standard search engines they are already using. According to the Backbone Media Business Blogging Survey, 83% of business bloggers saw a traffic increase to their sites; 88% saw a boost in search engine rankings within 3 months of launch; and 62% saw an increase in sales within 3 months of launch. Think of how often you find a useful product or service by typing a few words into Google or some other search engine. With a blog, your company can show up in those results, too.
3. Time is money
Publishing to a blog is fast and the results are immediate. A lot of times, it is important to get information online as quickly as possible -- whether it be a news article, crisis management or an internal communication. As an added bonus, there is no need to choose between posting to a blog or uploading information to a content management system: blogs can integrate with existing systems and complement the processes already in place.
4. Your office, everywhere
Provided you have access to a standard web browser, you can blog from virtually anywhere: via laptop, desktop, mobile or Internet café. Even without access to a web browser, it is possible to e-mail content directly to your blog. Just imagine -- you could be communicating with customers, managing projects and increasing business volume on the train, in the lobby, or better yet, from a beautiful white-sand beach (equipped with wi-fi, of course).
5. Cut the effort out of marketing effort
XML feeds, also known as RSS, help distribute content to readers by sharing blog posts in various formats. Subscribers can receive the news via e-mail, on their homepage, directly in their web browser or through feed readers. Put simply, feeds deliever all the advantages of a newsletter without having to manage a subscriber list, deal with spam filters, or configure a cancellation system. You can even measure reader response by using services that will track readership and therefore, the impact of your marketing campaign.
6. It's all about image
Businesses talk a lot about the value of having a real relationship with customers and blogs let you deliver on that promise efficiently. Blogs allow you to communicate in a personal, open voice, making customers feel included in your decisions and prone to be more loyal to your business. Customers will be more forgiving of mistakes or glitches, because it's easier to see that real people make mistakes, whereas we expect corporations to be perfect. On the flip side, if you are a small company that wants to seem bigger than you are, the professional design and cutting-edge features like XML feeds that come automatically with your blog can make you look bigger than you are.
7. Everybody likes a listener
Blogs can collect valuable and immediate feedback from customers. Without the budget for a formal research and development team, this can be a challenge. Luckily, customers use your products or services more than you do, and consequently have some very good suggestions for improving your offerings. Until now, there hasn't been an easy way to collect feedback and make use of it. Don't take all the responsibility; let your customers do some of the work!
8. As easy as writing an e-mail
If you can write an e-mail, you already know how to blog. Updating business websites can be a slow and technical affair, requiring an IT department. Publishing to a blog, on the other hand, is fast, the results are immediate and no IT resources are required. According to the Backbone Media Business Blogging Survey, 51% of business bloggers took less than 1-2 months to go from the initial conception of a blog until the actual launch. In short, it lets you maintain a relationship with your audience on the web without requiring geek expertise nor an ongoing investment in technology management.
9. Get famous
A lot of times, journalists or even other bloggers are looking for an expert to talk to about a certain subject. While a global corporation might be busy having their PR team negotiate with their lawyers about what exactly they can say to the press, you can be readily available for contact through your blog. In fact, a Backbone Media survey of hundreds of business bloggers showed that 35% of companies with blogs got an interview request from a journalist within the first 3 months of blogging. By writing regularly about your field of expertise, you present yourself as a thought leader before the entire Internet.
10. Talk amongst yourselves
Many companies create private blogs for use within an organization, to simplify tasks like project tracking, workgroup collaboration or process management. Why not use e-mail, you may ask. Consider this scenario: the e-mail gets lost in the barrage of other daily e-mails. A few people who should have been included in the e-mail weren't. The discussion continues in a "Reply To All" conversation, making the situation even worse. Now consider the other version of the same story: the project manager creates a blog as easily as an e-mail; relevant parties can access it wherever they are, whenever they please; everyone can leave feedback; and if someone new joins the project, all the necessary information is right there at their fingertips.