What would be the purpose of adding a blog to your business website?  The simple answer is so that you can attract readers in growing numbers, keep them engaged and convert them in to sales. You can call it a “newsletter” or just “My Blog.” But whatever you call it, it is an increasingly popular way for businesses to reach out to their markets.

Best of all it doesn’t cost you anything but a little time and creativity. If you have a website then you are likely to have paid for everything you need already.

Let’s look at why a blog can be very effective.

In today’s busy world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to create a “wow” factor for your products and services.  Every marketplace, industry and service is filled with endless advertising, promotions, offers or competitors wanting to make a pitch.

There are so many sales messages and so many interruptions to our working lives that we are filtering, ignoring and blanking out more and more information just so that we can get through our working day in one piece.

All of this mental clutter or noise is making it increasingly difficult to find receptive listeners. Buyers find themselves needing more time to develop trust and sellers are finding it difficult to make an impact on buyers who are increasingly overwhelmed with information. Information overload has become the norm.  We have reached saturation point.  As a result, sellers are becoming more desperate; looking for an increasingly elusive “wow” factor to make a sale.

The solution is to change your approach from shouting to attracting business. And that’s where a blog comes in.

Instead of louder and more obnoxious methods of getting in your prospects' faces, a blog is a way to have potential buyers come to you as receptive and qualified leads. Consider how people find products and services online. They turn to a search engine like Google and search for what they want; they do their research; make a decision and then make a call.
Create content that answers your prospects' questions, challenges, wants and needs using the words and language of your customers and you are well placed to attract people looking for exactly what you have to offer. Blogs are famously effective in producing excellent search engine rankings if you know how to strategically incorporate the keywords and keyword phrases that your customers are likely to use in their searches.

The effectiveness of blogging increases over time. Rather than plugging away at your prospects with sales pitches; offer them valuable tips, news, and information. What you’ll soon find is that instead of prospects hitting delete or hanging up the phone, you will be fostering relationships with people who actually look forward to hearing from you. Your relationship with your readers changes as you demonstrate expertise and foster trust through regular, relevant communication. Get it right and not only do you convert more of your visitors into sales, but you sell more to your existing customers and keep them loyal for longer.

People forget that it takes consistent effort and sustained creativity to keep a blog going. The web is littered with blogs that were started in a rush of enthusiasm and then abandoned. This is why businesses have begun to hire freelance bloggers to keep the momentum going and share some of the load. A successful blog doesn’t happen overnight, but then neither does a successful business.

Here are some tips for establishing a better business blog:

• When you hear or read something important about your area of business, take notes. Jot down ideas. It will make it easier to publish your blog on a regular basis.
• Put the audience first. Rather than focus on what you want and need. Ask yourself what your audience wants and needs.
• It doesn’t matter if you’re not a brilliant writer. What counts is offering useful information. People will forgive poor writing (to some extent) if you get your message across clearly.  Plus, writing gets better with practice anyway.
• Once you’ve drafted an idea, re-write it and re-write it again.  Your aim is to get the information across as clearly, concisely and in as few words as you can.
• Write compelling stories. Engage your readers with attractive headlines, draw them further in with introductions, entertain with anecdotes and leave them with inspiration, new knowledge or fresh motivation.
• Send as many people as you can to your website and tell them to subscribe to your newsletter.  Give them good reasons why they should - perhaps with a free gift like a Special Report, White Paper or other give away.

Copywriting has been called "salesmanship in print". A good business blog is like a great salesperson; someone who waits to be approached, listens and then offers sound advice and solutions.  It is someone you would return to see again and again. And it is someone you would want to tell all your friends about. Wouldn’t you want some of that in your business?