Blog Blog Blog is it Blah Blah Blah? Do you really need to blog? If your company  does, are you blogging consistently or do you find yourself with limited time and no staff to help you market your business with blogging?  And, if you do blog consistently is your target market finding your blog? With businesses scrambling to end 2010 with as many sales as possible and looking ahead to 2011 to see what marketing efforts worked and what needs to be added for the New Year, I look at the Purple Diamond Marketing Blog to see if this was a productive use of my time.

My objective when starting my Purple Diamond Marketing Blog was to learn more about the process of blogging and see where it would benefit my clients.  This objective was successful in that I not only learned how to set-up a blog, maintain and improve my site, collect data and analyze  stats to determine the best times of day to post blogs,  but it also gave me insights to the number of hours necessary to produce and promote a blog.  All of this information I was able to pass on to my clients, use it to assist them with their own blogging, and also use as a revenue source with speaking engagements for Purple Diamond.

This is all great for my company, but can YOUR business benefit with blogging consistently? I answer this question with a question……do you have something of value to offer a targeted audience?  If you say no and do not believe you have a message to share about your business or product, then the New Year might be the year to contact a professional to help you determine if your business is viable in today’s market.  Beyond the obvious mechanical plus to blogging that you will be noticed more by search engines with a site that is constantly updating and adding new content,  blogging is a powerful way to reach your potential targeted market with a message they are choosing to hear over being bombarded with cold calls, email blasts, advertisements and other attempts to get them to notice your company or product.  If you consistently write and promote your blog to your targeted audience, the process of selling prospects your services or products gets easier.  Even if you call on a potential prospect that has never followed your blog, referring them to the blog and having them see a site that has numerous articles and positive comments about the content will increase your chances of landing the account.  You are able to offer detailed information as to why your product or service is the best choice.

New technology offers new ways to market your business.  As you plan the New Year and your marketing strategy for 2011 and beyond, it is really important that your business considers the new ways to market your message using this technology and what may have worked in the past.  So, my New Year’s advice to businesses that are not having the sales they wished they had, look closely at what is working and what you still need to add to your marketing mix!