Tweak Your Biz » Marketing » Why Blogging Is Essential For SMEs

Why Blogging Is Essential For SMEs

by lornasixsmith on July 28th, 2011
30 Comments



When I started my interior design consultancy business three years ago I started blogging immediately.  Why? Because I heard it was ‘good for getting traffic to your website’.  When I reflected on my first year of business  by analysing google analytics and what I had asked customers about where they had heard about me, I realised that at least 40% of my revenue had come from the blog – not bad for an offline business.

Now that I have an online gift and accessories store, blogging is an even more important means of improving the SEO (search engine optimisation) for my website as well as providing other advantages which I will outline below.

As outlined by Anne Perez recently, more and more businesses are using a company blog to promote their business.  Up to 65% of all businesses in 2011 are using a company blog with 57% claiming that their blog had generated leads and acquired customers for the company and that blogging is proving to be a more cost effective means of generating new business.

Advantages of Business  Blogging

  • Your blog offers scope for using highly searched keywords that can be quite expensive to use in google adwords. They will still be picked up by the search engines and deliver traffic to your blog and hence your website.
  • By using the Keyword Analysis tool, you can check to see how many people would be searching for a product or service like yours. You might find that there is a keyword pertaining to your topic that you never thought of, particularly if you are targetting another country. For example, when I was describing new chopping boards, I discovered that they are also described as cutting boards in some countries that I wanted to target so I included that as a keyword too.
  • Your blog will provide your website with regularly updated content, hence it is more likely to rank well in the search engines.
  • You have the opportunity to show your expertise within your blog, hence your brand will become much more well known than competitors as well as by customers and journalists.  I also found that many journalists contacted me for information and product pictures because of my blog which resulted in free publicity in many Interiors magazines and other publications. This, of course, means many more people are aware of the brand.  And if others are saying good things about you, this news can spread both online and offline.
  • By allowing comments on your blog and by responding to them in a timely and friendly manner, this will emphasise the friendly and approachable nature of your company.
  • The blog will also demonstrate the personality of your company as well as the staff within it.  Customers are much more likely to purchase when they feel they ‘know’ the company well.

My question is – with the emphasis on cost cutting in most businesses, why are so many companies not utilising this cost effective and proven means of acquiring new customers? Is it not as easy as it looks? My next post will provide tips on writing a successful blog for your business.



Category: Blogging, Blogs

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Author:

Lorna co-owns Write on Track, offering social media consultancy and ghost blogging services. She is also a co-organiser of the Blog Awards Ireland and KLCK Bloggers Network. Her knowledge of online retail is also extensive from owning a home accessories online store for 5 years. http://www.writeontrack.ie

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  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

    Hi Lorna, great post and great question! It’s clear from reading your blog and looking at the results you’ve achieved that you have really worked hard to make market yourself and your business online. You started with the right attitude and realised that you needed to be consistent over a period of time before you would begin to see results. I think many people don’t or aren’t prepared to have a realistic expectation and that’s why many fail or don’t even start in the first place.

  • http://www.tweakyourbiz.com Niall Devitt

    Hi Lorna, great post and great question! It’s clear from reading your blog and looking at the results you’ve achieved that you have really worked hard to make market yourself and your business online. You started with the right attitude and realised that you needed to be consistent over a period of time before you would begin to see results. I think many people don’t or aren’t prepared to have a realistic expectation and that’s why many fail or don’t even start in the first place.

  • http://beyondbreastcancer.wordpress.com/ Marie

    I believe a blog is an essential component of an SME’s business strategy for all the reasons you point out in your excellent article Lorna. A blogu00a0is an excellent vehicle tou00a0humanize your business, improve your customer service, drive sales to your online retail site andu00a0promote your products and services. Of course just because it is relatively simple and cheap to set up a blog doesn’t mean that everyone does it well – but that’s a post for another day…

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    Great post Lorna.u00a0 There really isn’t any reason why businesses haven’t got a blog other than lack of knowledge of the benefits of one.u00a0 Like a lot of things to do with social media, many businesses want a definite return on investment. You being able to show in definite terms how it has positively impacted on your sales make it more compelling to have one, even to justify outsourcing a ghost writer for it.

  • Anonymous

    From my experience there are a few reasons that businesses don’t get blogging:nn1. – Theyu00a0perceiveu00a0it to be time consuming. u00a0We all know our first blog post took ages but it gets quicker and easier with time.2. They are scared they won’t keep it up. u00a0I always suggest that people have a blogging schedule they can realistically achieve. u00a0If once a week is too much what about once a month.n3. They don’t feel like they have anything to say – I’m sure your next post will help with thatn4. They don’t understand blogging – many people just think of it as an online diary. I’ve heard ‘it’s just people banging on about themselves too many times’ u00a0Often taking the word Blog out of the equation and calling it news updates can help people get over this.n5. They feel that they can’t write well – It’s relatively inexpensive to hire a copywriter. u00a0Also a blog doesn’t have to be all words, if you can’t write what about a photographic or video blog.nWell this comment is almost becoming a blog post in itself! u00a0Great article Lorna and I hope it inspires people to get started.

  • Beatrice Whelan

    Great post Lorna. I believe that many business people need a complete change of mindset when it comes to their website. Many think of a website in similar terms to a radio or newpaper ad, they just put it there and sit back and wait for the business to come in, whereas in fact a website should be treated like a living breathing entity that needs regular attention and feeding! Having a blog on a business website allows yo to give it that attention. You have shown what it is possible to achieve with a business blog and it is great to have examples like yours to show businesses what can be achieved with some work and effort.

  • http://www.garrendennylane.ie/blog Lorna

    Thanks Amanda,u00a0nYou’re dead right with all your points and what people think re blogging and yes, I’ll be coming up with lots of tips to deal with schedules, writers block u00a0etc

  • http://twitter.com/denisefay Denise Fay

    Hey Lorna, great post. What I like most about it is that not only does nit give great information, but your personality shines through. So I nguess that is two things! nnThanks for the key information – it’s always good to encourage other bloggers to jump onboard the blogging ship. nnIt is a great example of the synergy of the medium and your personality.u00a0 nDenise

  • http://www.garrendennylane.ie/blog Lorna

    Thanks a million for your lovely comment, Denise, really appreciate it :)

  • http://www.smartsolutions.ie/blog/ Elaine Rogers

    Hi Lorna,nWhat a great post – well done! Some great tips there and you have really demonstrated so well, how the ROI is measurable in your business case.nnThe very very first step, like in anything in life or business, is to simply decide to do it. We focus so much as humans on reasons why we should not begin (for all the reasons mentioned in the comment threads), that we end up with little or no argument as to why we should. This is one of the issues I think I will address at the next KLCK meeting.nnAlso, there is the whole issue of “tech-phobia” and it’s simply easier to ignore it than deal with, but of course there is a great way around this that I will share also.nnThanks :)

  • http://www.encouragingexcellence.ie/ Mairu00e9ad Kelly

    You’ve just made the next KLCK very, very compelling Elaine, looking forward to hearing what you have to say at it now :)

  • http://www.garrendennylane.ie/blog Lorna

    If you could get me to get around accounts-phobia too, that would be great :)

  • J Michael

    I agree that blog is a useful marketing lever. But my finding is that Google Analytics overstate the traffic from blog. The reason is that you are both in blog and your own web site, each time you visit your web page, it is credited as a lead from the blog. So I am bit skeptical on the traffic estimates..n- J Michael, ParetoCentral – Crowdsourced Confidential Consultingn

  • http://twitter.com/xcelbusiness Helen Cousins

    Hi Lorna, great post, a real life illustration on the benefits of blogging! I find accounts-phobia is pretty common, so I will address that in my next two blog posts here.Thanks for sharing the blogging info and also for providing me with inspiration :)

  • Anne

    hi LornannGreat example of how blogging works for offline business. Its important to track the effects of blogging too as you have done ” I realised that at least 40% of my revenue had come from the blog” Great ROI for your business. Thanks for sharing

  • http://www.cgonlinemarketing.com/ Christina Giliberti

    If this doesn’t get people blogging, then nothing will! I always feel that businesses can be stuck in their ways and a bit scared of change. Change requires new skills, new ideas and new avenues. I’ve worked with clients who were fearful of blogging, and you know what? It didn’t take them long to join in the excitment and ‘climatise’ to the world of blogging and social media. It is easier than you think and highly rewarding in so many ways.

  • http://www.smartsolutions.ie/blog/ Elaine Rogers

    Wow – great tips Dave, lots of them a website owner can do themselves, rather than having to confer with the developer constantly.
    Thanks for sharing

  • http://tweakyourbiz.com/ Niall Devitt

    Hi Marciel & thanks for this. You’ve highlighted lots of new productivity apps I need to go check out.

  • Maricel Rivera

    Glad to help, Niall.

  • Maricel Rivera

    Thank you, Aqib, and you’re welcome.

  • http://about.me/Lindeskog lyceum1776

    Maricel Rivera: Have you tested Workflowy or Trello? With these tools you could get an overview of all your projects and workflow.

  • Maricel Rivera

    Hey, Martin, thanks for letting me know about these two apps. I haven’t tested either of them. I’ll go check them out, too.

  • http://about.me/Lindeskog lyceum1776

    Maricel: You are welcome! :) I look forward to hear that you think about these tools.

  • http://about.me/Lindeskog lyceum1776

    Does Outlook have the social element of a CRM version 2.0?

  • http://www.webnethosting.net/ Bon

    It works well with Apple OS too

  • http://www.webnethosting.net/ Bon

    It work well with Apple OS too!

  • D.Hobor

    @lyceum1776:disqus You have made a very good observation. No, Outlook doesn’t offer social media integration like CRM. Outlook in reality is a simple email management platform, with few features of contact management. It was never developed to replace CRM. It is only some enthusiastic users who used it for extensive business communication purposes.

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  • Maricel Rivera

    You’re welcome, Herby. I’m glad you liked it.

  • Abbas Javed

    Nice Post Rivera! I liked web conferencing part the most. But there is another leading web conferencing app named Banckle Meeting which competes all the above you mentioned in various sections. The facts you described spending time, energy, money on long travel is true and online meeting app is quite a solution. I will request you to check out the banckle meeting as well. Thanks! http://banckle.com/apps/meeting/overview.html

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