When most people think of blogging, they think of rampant personal opinions posted for public consumption – often in the heat of an emotional or political drama.  But the same technology that allows us to instantly read about other people’s reactions to events can also be used as an effective marketing tool.  And even better – the blog technology is often available for little or no cost.

From a marketing perspective, blogging amounts to posting regular articles on topics of interest for your customers and visitors.  By using the key words, phrases, and jargon that are unique to your industry, you can ensure that your articles are found by search engines and by your target audience.

One of the key differences between traditional blog entries and posting marketing articles is that – almost always – it is best to keep your personal opinions out of the marketing post.  The best practice is to look and behave as professionally as possible, which leaves little room for emotion.  Keep the articles factual and focused on one topic per post.  If the topic is lengthy, break it apart into several articles that are added over your regular posting schedule – titled as “TOPIC Part One,” “TOPIC Part Two,” and so on.

The biggest no-no for posting marketing articles is a bait and switch:  presenting your articles as helpful information, but actually filling them with personal opinions.  Or, rather than helpful information, the articles are nothing more than sales pitches for your product.  Your readers will quickly learn not to take your titles at face value and your professional credibility might suffer.  If you are not confident in your own abilities to be emotion-free, you can always contract an impartial blog writer to help.

Efficient and low cost, marketing through blog articles is an effective way to entice readers to explore the rest of your website.

Tags: Blog Entries, blog writer