Over the last few years the level of competition has increased quite significantly in regards to bad economic conditions. The increase in competition is also making it more difficult and expensive. Many are struggling just to keep their business afloat and money cannot be wasted on any marketing campaigns that won’t show a positive ROI. What can you do if you are a small business and need to spend your marketing budget wisely so that can get a return on your marketing investment? With a social media and blog marketing strategy it can be done!

One of the best and most cost effective ways to increase your brand awareness online is by using many of the social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and YouTube to get your message across to your target audience. If you are interested in generating sales and engagement with your target audience online, nothing can do this better than having your own business blog to do this.

Blogging will not only help you engage with your audience directly, it can also help increase your digital footprint online. Just take note that a social media and blogging campaign will only be effective if it’s tied to your business objectives and a campaign to reach your goals.

Free blogging platforms

There are many free open source blogging platforms available that you can use to create a blog. Some of the best ones that I recommend to my customers are WordPress, and Blogger. These platforms are easy to use to get started with your blogging campaign. If you are going to use your blog for your marketing strategy, it’s important that you blog on a regular basis as Google and your audience expects relevant and unique content. The content that you publish on your blog should be informative, unique, and offer your readers value so that they can relate to it.

If you are strapped on time, give it some thought on hiring a professional marketing consultant that can help you with the setup of your blog and guide you on how to use it together with social media. Blog marketing can help your business increase your digital footprint that will ensure you get brand awareness and attract the audience you would like to reach.