Small Business Marketing with Blogs

I am amazed at the number of business owners think there’s some kind of “magic” at work when it comes to marketing your small business with a blog.It’s true, small business marketing is a lot EASIER when you have a self hosted blog as the foundation for your website – but when it comes to creating small business marketing magic – well, you’re going to be the one responsible for providing “magic” through your blog’s content.

Launching a self hosted blog is like creating a hot air balloon. The blog can act as the fabric, but you’ll have to provide the “hot air” to get your blog to play a part in your small business marketing and lift your business off the ground.

I had one very bright business woman who obviously had “bought into” the whole “blogs are marketing magic” line. She launched her blog and then wrote to me three months later asking why her blog wasn’t being returned on her desired keyword terms – that’s not the terminology she used by the way. She asked, “Why doesn’t my blog come up when I type in what my business does?”

When I visited her blog, the one and only post was the default “welcome to WordPress – delete or edit this post to get started.” It turns out she didn’t understand that she needed to provide the “small business marketing magic” through her content.

I’m truly passionate about blogging – because the web is all about communication – and content is the way you communicate. When it’s easy to add content to your blog that means it’s easier to use your blog communicate your marketing message with prospective customers.

It’s essential to keep in mind the following:

The act of marketing your small business is merely communicating what it is you do with prospective customers.

Advertising is truly what you do when you can’t go out and meet each prospective customer face to face and tell them in person what you do.

Marketing is literally defined as “all the activities involved in getting product and services to your customers”.  That means an essential PART of marketing your small business  is communication.  Small business marketing is merely letting people know that you have a way to solve their problems.

If you’re a CPA – then your marketing’s job is to let people in your community know that if they need an expert in taxes and finance – you’re available. If you’re a chiropractor then your marketing’s job is to let people in the community know if they’re having back pain – you’re there to help.

People have problems – you offer solutions.  Marketing is quite simply the communication of the solutions you offer!

Your marketing’s job is to communicate those solutions with your prospective customers. Because you’re not the only [fill in the blank] in town or in the world, you need to let prospective clients, customers or patients know why they should choose YOU.

When you “frame” the whole “marketing” concept within that context – it makes it easy to see why having a website where you can easily add and update content would be critical. Since an important part of your marketing is communicating with your prospective customers WHY they should choose to do business with you, sharing that message on your website is critical to marketing success.

The content you feature on your blog is essential to creating a blog that acts like a powerful marketing tool which can work as hard as you do creating more business for your business.  If you’re having trouble coming up with content for your small business blog, pick up a copy of Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results