Almost every home-businessperson has looked longingly at that giant billboard or flashy TV advertisement, wishing for similar levels of exposure. Many have wondering if their small home-based office would be bustling with more sales if only a bigger marketing budget were possible. The good news is that keeping up with the big-name businesses is no longer a pipe dream; blogging has allowed small business owners to utilize many of the same marketing techniques as the giant companies out there.
While a billboard may not be financially feasible, well-designed social networking postings get your name out there for millions of people to see. Still want that TV ad? Try YouTube or a media blog. Such free marketing is much more effective than many small business owners realize; along with traditional media, large corporations like Microsoft are blogging for their businesses because it works as part of a marketing campaign. And this trend is not exclusively reserved for tech giants like Microsoft; a 2009 MSNBC New article explains that many airports are cashing in on blogging and social networking for exposure, advertisement, and customer service.
Blogging for your home business can dramatically increase sales and exposure, if you go about it the right way, giving the bigger firms a run for their money. First things first, you’ll need a free blog from Wordpress.com or Blogspot.com. Both of these sites have excellent, user-friendly tools for easy blog creation and updating.
Once you’ve got a blog established, you need to make the site enticing from more than just a business standpoint. You want readers to follow your blog regularly, and this won’t happen you only talk about products on your blog. Shameless self-promotion is okay if you combine that business chatter with some social chatter. Customers should see your blog as a means of getting to know you and your home business, not just a place for product listing. Blog about “fun” topics whenever possible.
Tracking industry news is another good blogging practice to dampen the self-promotion side of things. This will establish you and your at-home company as an expert in the field. Scour the Internet for new topics in your field and comment on recent news articles in your blog. This way, your readers can stay informed about the entire industry without having to leave your blog—your blog will become a one-stop-spot for information and products.
You’ll want to make the blog visually appealing, with professional-looking pictures of your products, a nice profile picture of yourself or other home-based employees, and some related stock images from sxc.hu or istockphoto.com to add visual interest to your postings.
Also, remember that the most important thing, even more so than images, is the text itself. There is a science behind good blog posting; you want new readers to stumble onto your blog from Google and other search engine. To get a lot of search engine hits, you need to keep Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in mind, making sure that your posts are well saturated with search engine keywords. See Stephanie Mojica’s Bright Hub article on SEO for more details on identifying keywords and making the most of them.
Lastly, don’t limit yourself to posting only on your blog. Read other industry blogs and comment whenever possible, providing a link back to your blog whenever pertinent. Additionally, make use of Yahoo Answers or Wiki Answers as a way to promote yourself. Answer questions related to your industry, establishing a web presence as a knowledgeable, “plugged-in” entrepreneur who is active in web communities. This will dramatically increase your page-views and potential sales.
If you take the right steps toward purposeful blogging, your business can flourish from this new breed of intense, low-cost marketing. Just make sure you take the blog seriously, providing regular updates and active web presence; if you slack off for even a few weeks you will lose blog readers and potential clients, but if you stick with it you’ll see your home business grow.
