Blogopoly

I have mentioned previously that blogs can benefit a business greatly when the blog is considered to be a rich source of knowledge for the field that the business occupies. There are of course business that already offer expert services: consultancies and marketing agencies. Many consultancies and agencies will only become successful once prospects realize they are knowledgeable. Take a look at many websites for agencies and consultants and you won't get much that actually proves they have this knowledge. Adding a blog to such websites enables the "experts in their field" to give small tastes of what they consult on. Jupiter Research is a good example. The company supplies marketing research, and some of their analysts have their own weblogs which contain commentaries on the areas they work on. As an internet marketing professional myself, I am very interested in what they have to say about internet advertising, and the weblog for Gary Stein is a regular read for me, as well as being a great example of good use of a blog by a consultancy. He never gives too much away, otherwise one wouldn't need to buy one of his reports, instead giving the reader a view to how he thinks and to demonstrate that he really does have his finger on the pulse.

Another good example I came across recently was the blog werbeblogger, which is a German blog about the Internet advertising industry. In fact the blog is written by German advertising agency Breitenbach and Partners and demonstrates that they are experts in that field. Agencies can also demonstrate the success of their services by creating good case studies, or by customer referrals, but this takes time. Creating a blog which demonstrates your agencies knowledge of the field can help get a foot in the door of potential clients. Add to that the fact that a blog is likely to help improve your business' visibility in search engines and blogs can provide enormous upside to your business. For a lot of agencies and consultancies this does not require too much extra effort, as these companies are often providing guest articles for trade press or conferences.