Business blog marketing and eCommerce stores are a natural combination. Most eCommerce stores are advertising with a pay-per-click campaign. Most stores lack enough content to satisfy the search engines. On-site blogs are a natural solution in that they supply tons of fresh content.

You need your website as your sales tool, but use a blog to drive traffic to your store.

How does a blog help your store?

1. Keywords: Blogs give keyword targeted content and the chance to add in popular keywords related to products and services
2. Content: Focus on content that is interesting to your targeted customer without being promotional. People come to a blog to read interesting stuff. Good ideas for content would be tutorials, tips and project ideas.
3. Linking: Using your keywords in the link text and then deep link within your website. Blogs help businesses establish more links to their websites
4. Expert Status: Writing and posting regularly brand your company as the expert or thought leader in the field. People prefer to buy from the experts in a particular market.

Usually blog posts will be listed in the blog search engines in under an hour. Search engines will start displaying them in 1-2 days. Google seems to pick up blog postings the quickest, but you will see rankings improve across all search engines.

Blogging can reduce or eliminate your PPC costs by increasing your rankings in the organic search results. Buyers tend to trust the natural or organic rankings more, you will build a readership and these people will buy from you.

Marketing is targeted at changing the way people act and think. Blog marketing is a powerful new medium. With this power comes an ethical responsibility. Developing an ethics statement for a business blog marketing program is especially important when several people are involved.

This helps avoid ethical misconduct which could damage both image and reputation. It acts a training tool for internal staff. It promotes open and honest communication and builds up a positive business reputation

Looking for ideas on what to include? WOMMA, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, has published a list of ethical guidelines that they encourage businesses to adopt.

What are considered unethical blogging practices?

1. Stealth campaigns: Paid employees or contractors will promote products without disclosing their relationship to the company. The idea is to create an artificial grass roots campaign (Astroturfing). The US Federal Trade Commission has issued an opinion against this practice.
2. Shilling: Paying bloggers to post positive comments and recommendations about a product or service. Here bloggers are not free to form their own opinions. This is like hiring actors to rave about a product without disclosing that they are being paid.
3. Infiltration: This involves participating in forums or blogs using a fake identity. Then attempt to influence or sway opinions on products and brands. The goal is to confuse or mislead consumers as to identity.
4. Comment Spam: Submitting linked blog comments with the intent to try and raise their own websites’ search engine rankings. This is usually done with automatic software that posts random comments that promote commercial services.

Businesses involved in blog marketing need to consider the ethics in their own marketing campaign and how this relates to the company’s core values.

Business blogging has become a merger between social media and marketing. Blogging gets results and gets results faster that traditional Internet marketing. Businesses are quickly taking on Blog marketing as a mainstream Internet marketing strategy.

Blog marketing uses blogs to publicize or advertise a website or business. Business blog marketing is simply marketing your business using a blog. About 70% of all businesses have a website of some sort today: this is website marketing. Less than 10% of businesses today are using blogs to promote their business.

Business blogging establishes that business as an authority and is a strong branding tool. Blogging is an interactive medium that allows a business to reach out to new customers. This can include building up your company brand, building up traffic, reaching new potential clients, open communication with current customers, etc.

Blogs seem to be the magazine of the future and have become a leading presence on the Internet. Blog marketing has also become one of the best ways to learn and transmit industry news. It is estimated that in the US 27% of the people read blogs on a regular basis and this number is growing.

Blog readers tend to be early adopters and influencers. Blog readers are more likely to take an action such as calling, speaking to or emailing as a result of what they have read in a blog posting.

The marketing strategy of a business blog is similar to that of an eNewsletter. They both build credibility and an ongoing relationship with your customers and prospects. They keep your product or service first in their mind when they’re ready to buy.

Have you considered the importance of color in branding? There is a powerful emotional effect caused by color. The dominant color you select for your logo, website or business blog sends a message. Choosing colors is a fundamental part of creating any design project.

According to the Institute for Color Research, people quickly make a subconscious judgment about an item and 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone. Judgments are based on human instincts and cultural influences and powerfully communicate.
What each color communicates

Black: Elegance, formality, mystery, death and style.
Blue: Stability, professionalism, trust, peace and coolness.
Brown: Endurance, casual, earthy, poverty and tradition.
Gray: Conservatism, seriousness and enhances messages of other colors.
Green: Safety, harmony, freshness, nature and wealth.
Orange: Enthusiasm, cheerfulness, creativity, playfulness and heat.
Pink: Hot pink: energy, youthfulness, fun and excitement… lighter pinks: sentimental, romantic.
Purple: Power, nobility, magic, sensuality and spirituality.
Red: Boldness, excitement, desire, intensity, and love.
Silver: Prestige, cold, scientific.
White: Cleanliness, purity, simplicity, peace and innocence.
Yellow: Attention-grabbing, happiness, energy, joy and optimism.

In general, red, orange, and yellow are exciting colors while purple, blue and green are calming ones. Yellow is the most visible color. Black on yellow or green on white are the most legible combination.

Many fast food restaurants are decorated with vivid reds and oranges. Studies show that these colors encourage diners to eat quickly and leave.

Combining colors in various combinations creates even different psychological effect. Now color is not the only design element to communicate with, but it is a powerful one.

New sales leads are the lifeblood of any business. To grow your business and keep it healthy, you need a steady flow of new customers. Where will they come from? Here are 30 ways to generate new sales leads. Choose the ones that best fit your business.

1. Write a blog (business blog marketing).
2. Add a clear call to action on your website such as “Request a Quote”
3. Optimize your website for search traffic.
4. Advertise on the search engines (PPC advertising)
5. Advertise on other websites using affiliate marketing.
6. Become known as an expert in your market (build trust).
7. Cold calling
8. Telemarketing
9. Direct mail or sales letters
10. Use a follow-up tool such as a post card or note card
11. Email marketing
12. Communicate using email or printed newsletters
13. Trade shows
14. Speak regularly at business or trade events.
15. Be a guest speaker on a local radio or TV show.
16. Put on a seminar or workshop
17. Educational events through the telephone (teleseminars) or via the Web (webinars)
18. Write a whitepaper
19. Publish a book.
20. Print advertising (newspaper, magazines, trade journals)
21. Hand out business cards at every opportunity.
22. Purchase leads
23. Join a lead referral group
24. Be active in your local chamber of commerce.
25. Encourage referrals from current customers.
26. Encourage current customers to email questions, these are sales opportunities.
27. Have good business signs to bring in drive by traffic.
28. Customer complaints can, and should be treated as opportunities.
29. Hire independent sales rep firm.
30. Publish regular press releases

What are some good ways to generate leads? You can become an expert in your industry. You can reach out and communicate regularly with prospects to build a relationship. That is what business blog marketing does. Add a good call to action and you have an effective lead generating tool.

Expert reputation: How can you communicate to the world that you that you are an expert?

1. Take up public speaking.
2. Become active in a trade or technical association.
3. Write white papers or books.
4. Write your own blog.

By blogging regularly, being specific, credible and knowledgeable, you build an expert reputation. You build a positive image that will encourage prospects to gravitate toward you.

Communicate regularly: By blogging a brief, concise message that communicates well, you build up a readership that comes back over and over. Blogging allows you to regularly converse with people interested in what you have to say.

Build a relationship: Your blog becomes the virtual face for your business. Writing compelling posts draws your readers to you. The best way to convert a visitor into a loyal reader is to have the answers that they are seeking.

Call to action: Blogging is not about selling, it is about presenting interesting and engaging material. Having a clear link to a quote request form or other call to action can turn an interested reader into an interested prospect.

The ultimate purpose of a blog is to brand, to communicate and to build relationships. This is exactly what you need for lead generation.

Miniature dollhouse furniture company Zoolabees.com has launched their new eCommerce website this past week. Zoolabees is a one year old company that specializes in 1:12 scale dollhouse furniture. For the past year Zoolabees has operated exclusively as an E-bay store and has enjoyed strong growth in every month since they opened. Now they will be marketing thru their own website.

Selling such brands as Hansson dollhouse furniture, Zoolabees plans on stocking thousands of dollhouse miniatures by year end.

They are using business blog marketing to educate and reach prospective customers. Their eCommerce store is designed in bright, cheerful colors and sporting a new logo designed by Doug Williams and Associates. Their store accepts credit card through a payment gateway as well as payments thru Paypal.

For those hobbyists out there, Zoolabees is the website to watch.

How you develop and implement your marketing is fundamentally different for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) customers. They are fundamentally different in how they reach their buying decision. This affects Internet marketing and business blog marketing strategies.

A B2C customer looks at a product and thinks: Do I want this? The B2B customer looks at something and thinks: How does this make sense for the business?

B2C: marketing

1. Driven by fashion and trends
2. Personal and impulsive buying
3. Single step buying process
4. Shorter sales cycle
5. Emotional buying decision based on status, desire, or price

The B2C buyer makes a more impulsive decision based on their current need. This includes product, value, cost, and status. Buying is based on a want with a very short decision making time. Most consumers will buy regularly from stores and locations that they like. In that respect, B2C marketing needs to build trust and loyalty with their customers.

B2B marketing

1. Driven by technological progress
2. Group decision making.
3. Multi-step buying process
4. Longer sales cycle
5. Rational buying decision based on business value

Perhaps the biggest difference with the B2B buyer is the sales cycle. Usually many people are involved with the decision to purchase something. The business buyer is typically much more knowledgeable about the product than a consumer. Business buyers will often spend much time doing analysis before making a decision.

A company marketing to businesses needs to focus on relationship building and communication using marketing activities that generate leads that can be nurtured during the sales cycle.

Internet marketing is the use of the Internet to promote, advertise and sell products and services. Blog marketing is a part of Internet marketing just as Internet marketing is part of the overall marketing plan. A strategic Internet marketing plan is similar to a strategic business marketing plan, just with a narrower focus

In building your blog marketing plan, you need to think about how this fits into your business objectives and other marketing strategies. They should all interrelate and work together for the best results.

We do this planning with our clients in a drill down approach. Even if no formal plans exist, we will talk thru the key elements in a short time… usually in under an hour.

1. Business Plan
2. Marketing Plan
3. Internet Marketing Plan
4. Blog Marketing Plan

Business Plan: Describe your company and its history. What are your short and long-term business objectives? What services or products do you sell?

Marketing Plan: What market do you compete in? Describe your primary competitors along with their strengths and weaknesses. Who are your customers and on what basis do they make their buying decision? What are your branding, positioning and pricing strategies?

Internet Marketing: Based on your marketing plan, what are your online objectives in terms of targeted traffic, selling, lead generation, customer service or warranty service? Develop strategies around website marketing, search engine marketing, blog marketing, email marketing, affiliate marketing and podcast marketing.

Blog Marketing: Based on your targeted customer, what interesting content can you present to develop readership. Use your blog to support your other Internet strategies and marketing plans.

Over the next few weeks, we will be discussing this process and end with the blogging plan.

The practice of “Astroturfing” or producing a fake grassroots campaign is coming under scrutiny. This applies to fake blogs or fake product reviews in an effort to sway public and consumer opinion. In business blog marketing we need to be aware of the legal landscape.

Paid posts for writing product reviews have become common in the blogging community. Companies hire people to either write blog reviews that are favorable or to place favorable comments on other blogs.

Most companies take an ethical approach and compensate bloggers for both good and bad reviews.

Jeremy Toeman states “As an example, at Sling Media I implemented a strict policy that no employee was to add comments about the Slingbox on any blog or review site (such as CNET or Amazon) without disclosing their employment status.”

We are now seeing laws and regulations being created and enforced to protect consumers.

The Times of London has reported that the European Union is expected to overhaul its consumer laws by early 2008. They will make it “a crime to falsely represent oneself as a consumer on blogs or other online forums.”

The US Federal Trade Commission (section 5 of the FTC act) deals with failure to disclose that a marketer is paying a sponsored consumer to make claims to other consumers about the marketer’s product.

What is important is that when a connection exists between the endorser and the seller of a product that significantly affects the endorsement, such connection must be fully disclosed.

What does this mean?

1. Bloggers should never claim to be an objective and unbiased source if they are not.
2. Bloggers should disclose posts that are paid reviews.

This article was not written by a lawyer and it does not intend to constitute legal advice.