Promote a Business Blog

5 Sure Fire Tactics to Promote a Business Blog

1. Involve influential industry bloggers.

By linking to popular blogs, you can gain the attention of both

the influential blogger and his or her readers.

But your blog won’t be the only one to benefit. You’ll be giving

the other blog a little link juice – and be paying them

a compliment at the same time.

Try out a few of these ideas for leveraging other blogs:

• Create a post around an interesting concept published by an influential blogger:Be sure to attribute the information to the blogger and link to his or her post. And don’t forget to offer additional unique insight to make the post your own.
• Interview an influential blogger and turn it into a Q&A post: That blogger is sure to link to your post, and his or her readers are likely to visit your blog as a result. Side benefit: Including the insight of a thought leader will help position you as a thought leader as well.
• Create a list of influential blogs: Include popular blogs from your industry, and include a link, short description and even a screenshot. Online Marketing Blog has successfully done this with its BIGLIST of online marketing blogs. Publish a blog post each week highlighting one or two new blogs to promote the list and acquire another link to the list.

2. Promote your blog via social media.

If your organization already has a solid presence on Twitter, Facebook or other social media channel, leverage your followers or fans to promote your new blog.

For example, when a new post goes live, create a short tweet with a link back to the post – and provide the link on your Facebook fan page.

A few tips to keep in mind:

• Whenever possible (we know how quickly 140 characters can be used up!), include the blog name in tweets and other social media messages.
• Auto-feed new posts to your social media accounts with tools like FeedBurner. But if you choose this option, make sure your headlines are as compelling as possible for social media.
• Maximize promotional efforts by asking employees to add the blog URL to their signatures and personal social media accounts. Employees can also re-tweet posts that they find interesting.

3. Create “link-bait” posts and

“sticky” headlines.

Creating compelling headlines or posts that resonate with social web users is another way to garner attention for your new blog.

Try some of these ideas:

• Write counter-intuitive posts – i.e, “The 10 Worst Online Marketing Ideas” or “The 5 Quickest Ways to Get Caught in the Spam Filter.”
• Incorporate celebrities into posts (if appropriate for your industry) – i.e., “Top 10 Celebrity Tweets of the Week”
• Leverage the sticky headline formula, “number + adjective + sticky message” – i.e., Lee’s recent post, “ 10 Must Read Tips to Start a Small Business Blog” (see image below)

4. Promote the blog on your

corporate website.

It’s important to gain some valuable real estate on the

homepage of your corporate site – particularly in the early

stages of getting a new blog up and running. Create a button

with a link to the blog to appear on the homepage, or at the

least provide a link to the blog in the nav. The Otter Group

does a good job of promoting its blog on the homepage of its

corporate website (see image below).

In addition to the homepage, ensure the blog is included in

the upper and right-hand nav on all website pages.

The goal is to make it as easy as possible for visitors

to find your blog.

5. Promote the blog offline.

For all of the online channels available to promote your blog,

there are just as many offline channels to leverage.

Don’t limit yourself to the online world. Instead:

• Add your blog URL to business cards.
• Promote your blog at industry events.
• Get print publications to pick up blog posts.
• Use word of mouth to let customers and business partners know of the new blog.
• Include the blog URL in the boilerplate of press releases (and in online releases, too).

Of course, these five tips are just a few of many ways to promote

and market business blogs. Whatever promotional efforts you

choose, look for tactics that will help you reach business goals

whether they are increasing awareness, garnering buzz in

the media or driving additional website traffic.

What tactics have you used to promote your blog?

Online Business Plan

A Standard Business Plan Outline

What information needs to be in your business plan?

What is the order of information that will make the most sense to lenders and investors? You can answer these questions with the business plan outlines provided below.

What are the standard elements of a business plan?

If you do need a standard business plan to seek funding — as opposed to a plan-as-you-go approach for running your business, which I describe below — there are predictable contents of a standard business plan outline.

For example, a business plan normally starts with an Executive Summary, which should be concise and interesting. People almost always expect to see sections covering the Company, the Market, the Product, the Management Team, Strategy, Implementation, and Financial Analysis. The precise business plan format can vary.

Is the order important?

If you have the main components, the order doesn’t matter that much, but here’s the sequence I suggest for a business plan. I have provided two outlines, one simple and the other more detailed.

Read more: http://articles.bplans.com/writing-a-business-plan/A-Standard-Business-Plan-Outline#ixzz3Hl25w4RW

Simple business plan outline

1. Executive Summary: Write this last. It’s just a page or two of highlights.
2. Company Description: Legal establishment, history, start-up plans, etc.
3. Product or Service: Describe what you’re selling. Focus on
4. customer benefits.
5. Market Analysis: You need to know your market, customer needs,
6. where they are, how to reach them, etc.
7. Strategy and Implementation: Be specific. Include management
8. responsibilities with dates and budgets. Make sure you can
9. track results.
10. Web Plan Summary: For e-commerce, include discussion of
11. website, development costs, operations, sales and marketing
12. strategies.
13. Management Team: Describe the organization and the key
14. management team members.
15. 
16. Financial Analysis: Make sure to include at the very least
17. your projected Profit and Loss and Cash Flow tables.

Build your plan, then organize it. I don’t recommend developing

the plan in the same order you present it as a finished document.

For example, although the Executive Summary obviously comes

as the first section of a business plan, I recommend writing it after

everything else is done. It will appear first, but you write it last.

Standard tables and charts

There are also some business tables and charts that are

normally expected in a standard business plan.

Cash flow is the single most important numerical analysis

in a plan, and should never be missing. Most plans will also

have Sales Forecast and Profit and Loss statements.

I believe they should also have separate Personnel listings,

projected Balance Sheet, projected Business Ratios,

and Market Analysis tables.

I also believe that every plan should include bar charts and pie

charts to illustrate the numbers.

Expanded business plan outline

Here’s an expanded full business plan outline, with details

you might want to include in your own business plan.

1.0 Executive Summary
1.1 Objectives
1.2 Mission
1.3 Keys to Success

2.0 Company Summary
2.1 Company Ownership
2.2 Company History (for ongoing companies) or Start-up

Plan (for new companies)
2.3 Company Locations and Facilities

3.0 Products and Services
3.1 Product and Service Description
3.2 Competitive Comparison
3.3 Sales Literature
3.4 Sourcing and Fulfillment
3.5 Technology
3.6 Future Products and Services

4.0 Market Analysis Summary
4.1 Market Segmentation
4.2 Target Market Segment Strategy
4.2.1 Market Needs
4.2.2 Market Trends
4.2.3 Market Growth
4.3 Industry Analysis
4.3.1 Industry Participants
4.3.2 Distribution Patterns
4.3.3 Competition and Buying Patterns
4.3.4 Main Competitors

5.0 Strategy and Implementation Summary
5.1 Strategy Pyramids
5.2 Value Proposition
5.3 Competitive Edge
5.4 Marketing Strategy
5.4.1 Positioning Statements
5.4.2 Pricing Strategy
5.4.3 Promotion Strategy
5.4.4 Distribution Patterns
5.4.5 Marketing Programs
5.5 Sales Strategy
5.5.1 Sales Forecast
5.5.2 Sales Programs
5.6 Strategic Alliances
5.7 Milestones

6.0 Web Plan Summary
6.1 Website Marketing Strategy
6.2 Development Requirements

7.0 Management Summary
7.1 Organizational Structure
7.2 Management Team
7.3 Management Team Gaps
7.4 Personnel Plan

8.0 Financial Plan
8.1 Important Assumptions
8.2 Key Financial Indicators
8.3 Break-even Analysis
8.4 Projected Profit and Loss
8.5 Projected Cash Flow
8.6 Projected Balance Sheet
8.7 Business Ratios
8.8 Long-term Plan

Solar Bra

It is hard to say whether the solar bra concept is more geared toward a male of a female audience. The stomach solar panel is perhaps a little less than sexy but supposedly generates enough energy to power a small mobile device such as an MP3 player or a cellular phone. The idea is interesting but the implementation is dubious. After all, who goes outside in only a bra? And what about the unwashability of such a clothing item?