Building a relationship with your customers is often now the focus of Internet marketing.  Newer platforms like Facebook and YouTube have businesses flocking to them to build a more social connection with their customers.  But blogging is still one of the best ways to make this connection.  At Azzurro Blu we blog about a wide range of things that are important for our business. We cover topics such as web design, SEO and marketing as well as local and industry news. Read the tips here for ways to use blogging to help your business.

Of course you need to keep SEO in mind in setting up your blog. Use a keyword in your blog's title, and sprinkle keywords occasionally in your text, as long as these fit smoothly into what your are saying. Also, the unique or specialized information in your blog will draw search engines.  By blogging on a variety of subjects related to your business, you will cast a wider net to draw in people who have a general interest in your field, but do not yet know your products.

Readers do not want a strictly commercial blog.  They want new, interesting information they can use.  They want a thoughtful look at this line of business.  They want critiques as well as plaudits.  They want–if not gossip–interesting tidbits of news.  You need to keep up with all that is going on in your area of business in order to write a good blog.  You need to be ahead of your readers.

Challenge your readers with new ideas, and ask for comments.  

A blog is a good means of creating backlinks.  It is part of a larger conversation, and can be linked to other business sites and to professional association sites.  Add variety by having an outside expert contribute a posting to your blog, and return the favor by writing a guest blog on their site.  Blogging is about sharing information, and can be a place where you cooperate with competing businesses.  You both have a stake in the professional standards of your type of business, and enhancing its reputation.

Your blog needs to transcend a simple sales pitch.  At the same time, it is part of your marketing campaign.  But give background information about how your products were developed, innovative ways to use them, and new products you are bringing out.  Link your blog to YouTube videos showing how to use your products.  Give your readers valuable information that will help them in their own business. 

Give both sides to hot topics in your line of business.  Publish interesting comments from readers.  A lively conversation will increase readership.  Link your blog to your social media pages, and continue the conversation there, possibly in a more personal tone.

A few images that illustrate your points will add zest to your blog.  Whether it is a cartoon or photo, an image is, as they say, "worth a thousand words."

Don't write as if your were some distant, all-knowing authority.  Speak with personal conviction, and include your own experiences when illustrating a point.

This article has shown the way toward using a blog as part of your Internet marketing.  Put the ideas here to use.  Start a blog on your website and see search engines and customers increase their visits to your site.