If an email list is the heart of an Internet marketing campaign, then an active blog is its soul. A blog communicates your company's mission, promotes your products and services, and gives your website visibility in the search engines.

Getting your web pages to the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) can lead to years of free site traffic. Your blog contributes to search engine optimization (SEO) in the following ways:

• Each blog post is fresh content inviting web bots to crawl your site.
• Posts about your business and products naturally contain target keywords.
• The more content you have, the more opportunities to rank high in the SERPs.
• Active readers and promoters provide social proof that your site has value.

Blogging for Customer Research

In the past, companies spent a small fortune on market research and panels in an attempt to understand customer needs and desires. Not only did these tactics often fail to correctly gauge the public response (remember New Coke?), they were also very expensive.

Blogs take corporate research to the streets by connecting directly with customers. A business can involve blog readers in the process of designing new products and services to ensure the final product meets with customer approval. Even better, many of those readers involved in the creative process will become promoters of the new products or services.

Blogging to Build Relationships

Blogs differ from traditional marketing communication pieces because they strive to achieve a more informal feel. Using colloquial speech patterns, a blog strives to give a human face to an otherwise inanimate corporate image.

Your business blog also gives you a forum to respond to customer complaints. By demonstrating your concern and commitment to improvement, your blog can turn negative feedback into a positive promotional message.

Complete the form on the right or click here to Request a FREE Website Marketing Assessment. We can show you how to use your blog to improve your website's SEO while connecting with customers and brand advocates.

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