Small businesses can benefit from blogging in more subtle ways than large businesses. As Harold Jarche points out, blogging is a low cost high-yield tools that small businesses can use to communicate with their customers - especially when its apparent that millions of dollars are not in the bank for traditional marketing campaigns.

A study by HP shows that 10% of small businesses are using blogs as a part of their marketing strategy. You may think this is a small number, but I’d be surprised to find it anywhere near as high for larger businesses. The study found that customer acquisition and retention were large concerns for nearly half of the respondents; this could be a key area where blogs can play a strong role.

When you look into the data more, you find that only about half of respondents have websites, the blogging figure looks pretty strong. There is indication, as well, that blogging in small businesses is not male-dominated, as it has anecdotally been remarked elsewhere. More women small business owners are blogging. And I’m one of them.

Small businesses will benefit quite a lot from SEO strategies and blog design, and that’s where people like me come in as consultants. It is an affordable and large impact solution to making that connection with customers.

No only do we see results in blogging for small business owners in the area of customer acquisition. You have the opportunity to refine and share your ideas about your industry, to get feedback, to archive your ideas in an easy way, to share your ideas with likeminded people, to raise your profile in the industry, to get news faster than the paper (I always find it crazy how true this is), and so much more. There is a lot of power to a blog.

Minimal set up, some configuration and optimization, low maintenance cost, and only your time. But you will find the tool a most powerful one, and one you’ll wonder why you didn’t start earlier.