Onward, Into the Blogosphere
Entrepreneur J.D. Iles wasn’t looking for another daily task when he revamped his company’s Web site a year ago and added a blog. But once Iles started blogging about his company, Lincoln Sign Co. in Lincoln, N.H., he was hooked. Iles figures he spends at least 15 minutes a day, seven days a week, posting pictures and commentary on the blog, www.signsneversleep.com. “I do more than I probably need to, but I enjoy it,” he says. What he enjoys most are the results: about $35,000 in incremental sales, a 10% sales boost.
For a growing number of small businesses, blogs -- also known as Web logs -- are a hot new marketing tool. “Ounce for ounce, blogs are one of the most powerful online marketing tools – at a very low cost,” says Cleveland small business consultant Anita Campbell, who writes the blog, smbtrends.com.
By design, blogs are easier to create and update than Web sites or e-newsletters. Even technological neophytes can post entries in minutes, freshen up their sites and raise their company’s profile for Internet search engines. Blogs can be set up in minutes using services such as Typepad, Blogger, LiveJournal, or AOL Journals, among others. Fees range from about $5 to $15, and some services are free.
Of course, there is no shortage of blogs—an estimated 17.5 million have been launched, with 80,000 to 100,000 new ones added daily, according to Technorati, a San Francisco-based blog search engine.
But the business blogosphere is relatively underdeveloped: Technorati has positively identified about 9,000 bona fide business blogs, but there may be thousands more flying under the radar. Still, the use of blogging as a business marketing tool is relatively new.
Given its low cost, however, the blog is something small business owners should consider. The casual, personal approach makes blogs ideal for building customer relationships. Stonyfield Farm, the Londonderry, N.H.-based yogurt maker, has launched four blogs within the past two years, ranging from Baby Babble, where new parents share experiences, to the Bovine Bugle, written largely by organic dairy farmer Jonathan Gates, who gets paid to chronicle life at Howmars Farm in Franklin, Vt., where his cows produce for Stonyfield.
The Stonyfield blogs get people thinking about the connection between farm and finished product, says Cathleen Toomey, vice president of communications. “It makes you understand our food doesn’t come out of the back of the store. It comes from real people and cows, people with real issues and challenges, like days when it’s 20 below and they have to knock the ice off the door,” she says.
That personal touch also is helping Stone Creek Coffee Roasters in Milwaukee, a nine-store chain that was worried about how its expansion might jeopardize relations with loyal customers. “We were losing the connection between who we are as a company and what people perceived us to be,” says Tom Pionek, marketing and technology director. Since June, the company blog has introduced employees to the public and shown pictures of what goes on at headquarters. The blog, at www.stonecreekcoffee.com, describes the company’s “cupping” selection process and its involvement in the community, too.
“It has lifted our profile,” says Pionek, including improving the company’s visibility on Google. The bottom-line payoff: a slight uptick in online sales, which account for 2 to 3 percent of total revenue, he says.
That helps put blogging in perspective—it’s only one aspect of an overall marketing campaign. Overall, just 5 percent of consumers read blogs, according to a November 2004 Forrester Research report. These consumers tend to be young and male. What’s more, they can be a critical bunch, who aren’t afraid to flame blogs that are clearly promotional promotional. “If you misuse it as a tool, it will backfire,” says Debbie Weil, a corporate blog consultant in Washington, D.C. “Corporate speak doesn’t work.”
Stonyfield Farm is careful not to turn cross the promotional line. “Our customers are smart; they’ll only opt in if it interests them,” Toomey says. “We’re not blogging product or harping on the fact that you should eat more yogurt, or our yogurt. We don’t do that.”
How can you make sure your blog pays? Remember to make it personal—but with enough information to make it worthwhile. “Don’t get so chatty and intimate that you’re talking about stuff that doesn’t need to be talked about in public,” Weil warns.
Managing an effective business blog takes time and commitment. Campbell of smbtrends.com says business owners must be prepared to train employees before letting them loose on the blog, so they don’t offend readers or give away trade secrets. It also takes at least a couple hours a week to update content, which can include photos, audio and video, as well as text. Remember that pictures and audio can be as effective as written entries.
And don’t forget to promote your blog, for example by posting comments on other blogs, Campbell says. Also, make sure you have link to the blog on your home page, and add the blog’s URL to your e-mail signature and business cards, Weil says. Also include your phone number and e-mail address on your blog to make it easy for prospects to contact you, Weil says.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to blog yourself, consider hiring a professional writer, Campbell says. Besides farmer Gates, Stonyfield Farm employs a full-time writer to develop and edit its blogs. In addition, web consultants are cropping up all over; some of whom will handle all aspects of your blog.
Finally, remember that blogs work best when used in conjunction with other forms of marketing, from yellow page listings to advertisements and public relations. “They’re not the be-all, end-all marketing campaign for any business,” sign maker Iles says
