Blogging for Business?

SUMMARY: Old School Offline Businesses can successfully use the blogging structure to gain new clients and maximize value for existing clients with a very modest amount of effort.

While chatting with the SEO hacks the topic of blogging for business came up . . . does it make sense for a B2B business to blog? If so, how often? What is the payback? How can we advocate a nebulous ROI?

The most vigorous supporters of blogging pushed for 4-5 posts per day - none of whom have ever actually run an "old school business." An Old School Business (OSB) is a business that lives on even when the powergrid fails (not optimally, but…). OSBs represent businesses like Lumber Yards, Architectural Firms and Widget Makers. Sure there are ways to utilize the Internet in an OSB, but an OSB is not dependent on the Internet which means an OSB's clients are accustomed to interaction offline.

Does it even make sense to blog multiple times a day? Is the blog a vehicle for a steady stream of product information or is it a place for interested customers and vendors to mingle? What is the return on your blogging investment?

Frequency and ROI:
Well, with one simple weekly post on a very relevant industry topic and perhaps a very relevant monthly video upload, most B2B firms under $100M will strike a good resource balance. But if you want to rev-up sales,  and or generate a massive quantity of new leads, or you are just getting started, then more frequent blogging and hiring a dedicated blogger may be your best solution because of the mutltiplicative effects of good blogging: frequent interaction with your customers ("touches"), establishing yourself as an industry expert and generating new traffic sources - the positive effects of blogging.

Remember, your clients will reward your quality over quantity and the Search Engines attempt to do the same. Keep your eye on your business. Don't let the hoopla around blogging push you to create a monster. Yes, you probably need more traffic at your site, but NO, you don't want just any traffic. If you sell Commercial Architectural Services getting an extra 1000 visits daily from teenage boys does you no good.