Are you still on the fence about a blog? Maybe you haven’t made up your mind if a blog will be useful to you. Or, maybe you have a blog but it doesn’t seem to be working the way you thought it would. Sometimes, getting back to basics can help.

Blogs can provide greater visibility within your industry, help position you, your company or organization as a thought leader in your field, and generate speaking opportunities.

But, like anything else in the digital marketing arena, blogs have their downsides too.

Here’s a look at the basics of blogs and blogging, why they work and what you’ll want to watch out for if you have a blog or are planning to use one for marketing purposes.

Blogs and Blog Marketing

It doesn’t matter if your blog post or newsletter is literary gold. With a crummy subject line, people won’t read the message you’ve painstakingly crafted.

In today’s environment of digital mania, less patience and  overstretched schedules, you need to show your reader that clicking and reading is worth her time. Conveying that value in a handful of words takes thought, time and practice.

Write better subject lines with these tips:

1. Keep it short and sweet: 35 characters or less.
2. Promise some kind of benefit.
3. Be fun, quirky or intriguing.
4. When in doubt, ask a question.

Brainstorm a few ideas. Before you click “send,” try the subject lines on for size. Here’s how:

1. Would you click? Look at each line alone and see if it’s something that would intrigue you to click. If the words are even remotely boring or generic, go back to the drawing board.
2. Would they click? Think about which subject lines your audience would open. What are their needs? What information do they want? Your opinion matters, but theirs matters more.
3. Visualize it. Send the subject lines to yourself so you can see them in your inbox. You’ll know right away which one stands out.
4. Get a second, third, and fourth opinion. As individuals, we can be biased, especially towards our own creations. Ask a few colleagues what would compel them most. The most votes wins.
5. Learn from your stats. Check your email newsletter and blog open rates! You will gain insight into what makes your audience click.
6. Ask for help. If you know you’ve written something powerful, and don’t want it to be rendered invisible by a bad subject line, get some help. (We’re here, and we think fast.)

As I said in an earlier post, Is Less Copy a Good Idea?, in writing, shorter is harder. With only 35 characters to attract the attention of an overstimulated audience, boring just won’t cut it. Make a good first impression and take extra care to pack your subject lines with attention-getting value.

What’s the single-best subject line you received this week? Please share below. (If your own email marketing needs a boost, call us to schedule a free 30-minute assessment. No strings attached.)

Yes, content is king. But creating content for content’s sake doesn’t serve your business. So if you’ve got a security company, but you’re blogging tips on beating the recession, where’s the connection? Unless the blog supports your business, it’s wasted effort. My suggestion: revamp or recoil.

Writing to meet a content quota isn’t the point. The information needs to be relevant, engaging, and serve a purpose. Today, let’s look at ways to ensure your blog supports your business. An effective blog should:

• Share useful information with your audience
• Show your expertise and create trust
• Help keep your business in prospects’ minds
• Support your SEO efforts
• Attract new prospects

Promote your company in an interesting way

What does your target audience want to know? In the B2B world, they care about how your offerings can make their business stronger, more profitable, safer or healthier. What can you share that will make their day-to-day efforts hassle-free, or make their employees happier? Spare them the boring details! Share relevant, useful and valuable tips. (This will create trust in your business!) Most importantly, your blog posts should always relate back to the quality and capability of your products or services.

How can you relate this concept to your company blog? Consider the following guidelines:

1. Fill a need. What need does your blog fill? If people don’t need or want the information you’re providing, they won’t read it. Your blog needs to enhance readers’ lives in a tangible way.
2. Be your audience. Who is your audience? What do they want to read about in relation to your business? Meet your readers’ needs—or alienate your audience.
3. Determine a plan. What topics will your blog cover? What are your goals? How often will you post? Don’t start a blog without thinking long and hard about what, exactly, you want to accomplish.
4. Be aware. Before you embark on a blog, recognize the time commitment; they’re always hungry for relevant, useful content. Do you have an editorial strategy? Do you have time? If you’re not sure you have what it takes, blog for a month before going live.
5. Do it well, or not at all. Like most marketing tools, blogs require planning and thoughtful execution. If you can’t produce quality, your efforts are likely better spent elsewhere. A subpar blog won’t represent your business well.

Blogs can be an incredible marketing tool. By writing for your audience in a way that supports your business, your blog can increase engagement, interest and loyalty. But when done incorrectly, a blog simply wastes time: both yours and your readers’. Don’t spend hours on a tool that doesn’t work for you. At the same time, don’t miss the opportunity to engage your audience and give them what they need. (Of course, we can help, from strategy development and editorial planning to implementation and management.)

What are some of your favorite business blogs and why? We share a few of our favorites on our blogroll, to the left.

Social Media Success Summit 2010 came to a close yesterday, May 25, 2010.

The final day pulled plenty of information from previous sessions into a capstone of sorts. While only the last session was intended to do that, the first session of the day on blogging also included a number of tie-ins to demonstrate how different aspects of social media can work together with a blog to create a powerful social media presence.

The two sessions featured on Day 7 of the Summit were:

1. Making Your Blog a Social Media Destination
2. Easily Integrating Social Media Into Your Marketing Mix

Watch for my entire Summit wrap-up post here on Friday. For now, here are my takeaways from Day 7.

Session 1: Making Your Blog a Social Media Destination

Presenter: Denise Wakeman

A quick overview of the power of blogs began the discussion.

The theme of the discussion was integrating your social media efforts by using a blog as your “home base” to serve your audience, and other social media outlets like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube as “outposts” or “embassies” to bring the audience to you blog.

Interesting Stats

eMarketer.com estimates that 31 million people worldwide now write on blogs and 104 million are reading blogs.

When asked what benefits they receive from their blogs, bloggers surveyed in Technorati’s 2009 State of the Blogosphere (discussed insocial media into your marketing mix?

The ultimate goal for nearly anyone with a website is to attract more visitors. Because search engines can account for as many as 80% of those visiting a website (and sometimes even more), taking proactive steps to get your website found in the search engines is a no-brainer if you want more traffic.

Some Quick Search Statistics

• The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) estimates that 14 billion searches are conducted around the world during the average day.
• As the chart shows, Hitwise estimates that for the four-week period ending December 4, 2009, Google handled 72% of all U.S. search volume. Just three search engines – Google, Yahoo! and Bing – accounted for 96% of all U.S. search activity.

Position Matters

It stands to reason, and studies have confirmed:

The higher a website ranks within the search results, the more likely it is to draw traffic from searchers.

Again, a no-brainer.

The default setting for Google, Yahoo! and Bing is to return just 10 results per page. However, most searchers don’t realize they can set their preferences to return as many as 100 results per page (50 in Bing), and some of those who do know figure that returning more results will just take more time. And who has the time?

Like any average consumer in today’s high-tech society, attention spans and patience levels are at a minimum with those who use search. They really don’t want to leaf through 60 or 70 pages of search results to find what they want.

• If searchers find what they’re looking for on the first page – great!
• If searchers find a result that looks like what they want without even having to scroll down the page – awesome!

So what does that suggest?

To get the most traffic from search engines, pages from your site need to rank as high on the page as possible. Ideally on the first page, but at least within the first three.

But how do you do that? Two words: search marketing.

Next up: Part Two – Website Traffic and Search Engine Marketing
Part Three – Website Traffic and SEO

Have you taken steps with the search engines to get your website or blog found? What were the results?