What are the elements of a successful business blog? Well, this largely comes down to what you're actually trying to do with your business blog in the first place.
In this article we're going to have a look at the types of business blogs out there, next we'll look at what's going to be the best one to choose for you and your business, finally we'll look at whether you should be choosing style, or substance for your blog.
What are the two main blog models for companies starting a business blog? Some companies that start a blog are doing it so that they can promote 'brand awareness'.
They will create a blog that's sole focus is the company, and staff, and telling members of the public about the products, or services, that their company is involved in.
For them, getting their name in the public consciousness is the most important part of their company blog.
The other type of business blog is the blog that is more product/service orientated.
What's more important to the companies using this business blog model is not getting themselves known, but to get their product/service to be the key thing that people take away with them when they've visited the blog.
Which model should you choose? The answer to this is largely down to the size of the company that you have.
If you are one of the world's largest drinks companies, car companies, software companies, or almost any other niche you may care to mention, then getting your name known is probably going to be more important to you.
Branding is far more important to companies that are mixing it with other big players and are going to get sales no matter what they put out into the market.
Small companies, where selling a product is far more important than being a brand, are going to focus their blogs on their products or services.
This makes far more sense to them.
As a small business you aren't going to have the sort of money that the big boy's can splash about on general advertising, your blog is probably your main bit of online advertising, so it makes far more sense to have the product or service as the 'star' of the blog.
Do you want a business blog with style - or substance? If you're a car manufacturer it probably makes sense to have a blog that has plenty of embedded videos of cars skidding to a halt in front of burning buildings - if you're a plumber, it makes a little less sense.
Blogs that are involved in the selling or promoting of luxury items will be expected to have blogs that give the visitors a sense of luxury, but, for the general small business blogger, it's more about getting over information about your product than showing how skilled your local programmer is.
Tell the people what they need to know about your product, show some images or videos of it if they are going to help sell it, otherwise save yourself money on the blog development.
The key things that any business blog should have are a privacy policy if you're collecting people's details, terms and conditions for your product or service, and, most importantly of all, your contact details and business hours.
So there we have it, business blogging 101.
If you're a small business, and don't have a huge amount of money to promote yourself over your business - promote the product instead.
If people aren't expecting to see flashy videos and graphics because of the nature of your business, then don't waste time and money on adding them.
Most of all make sure you have the details that will help people to get in contact with you, and that give them the confidence to buy from you.
Now it's time to get back on track with the right business blog for you.