Blogs are the perfect tool for a smaller business - they're easy to set up so you don't have to have an army of technical experts on staff, and they let you show off the personal touch that distinguishes your small business from a faceless giant corporation. And blogs can open up new channels to talk to your customers while improving the performance of your current communication tools. Here how:

Fast and inexpensive publishing

Blogs let you have a truly dynamic website that encourages people to visit and gives them incentive to return in the future. Updating business websites can be a slow process, requiring the involvement of your IT department. Publishing to a blog, on the other hand, is fast, the results are immediate and no IT resources are required. In short, it lets you maintain a relationship with your audience on the web, without requiring an ongoing investment in technology management.

Boost search engine rankings

Because blogs are updated frequently, blogs are favored in search engine listings. 83% of companies that have launched blogs saw both a traffic increase to their website and received more qualified traffic from their blogs. This is one of the few areas where a small company's marketing efforts are often on a level playing field with the biggest companies in the world. No matter how much money a global corporation has to spend, the content that's most interesting and relevant is going to be favored by search engines. That means you can outmaneuver them on that first page of Google results for your product or service, just by blogging about topics that people want to link to.

Increase your reach

Information published with a blog can find your audience wherever they are. Because blogs are distributed through XML feeds, readers can find your information in the places they're already looking, such as their web browser's start page, or on their mobile devices and iPods. And most importantly, you don't have to rely on customers taking the initiative to come to your website to be notified of changes - your ideas can come to them automatically. That means you can reach an audience anywhere in the world, while still keeping your human touch.

Humanize your corporation

One of the key advantages you have in competing with larger companies as a small or medium business is that you can offer the perspective of real people who know and care about your customers. Blogs let you communicate in a personal, open voice. Businesses talk a lot about the value of having a real relationship with customers, and blogs let you deliver on that promise efficiently. And if you're a small company that wants to seem a little bigger than you are, the professional design and cutting-edge features like XML feeds that come automatically with your blog can make you look bigger than you are.

Customer research and insight

Blogs can collect valuable and immediate feedback from customers. Without the budget for a formal research and development or market research team, you have to improvise. But the good news is, customers use your products or services more often than your employees do, and that means they can come up with new ideas or improvements to suggest. But until now, there hasn't been an easy way to collect that feedback and make use of it. Your most engaged and active customers are hungry to give you their advice, and on a blog it's as simple as leaving a comment for you to collect and share throughout your company.

Create loyal customers and get good PR

Blogs allow you to engage with customers in an informal conversation. By establishing an open dialogue, customers feel included in your decision making process and as a result, will be more loyal and likely to promote your products on their own.

Just think - the first time one of your customers says, "I suggested something to this company, and they actually listened!" you'll have made a customer for life. Especially if they compare it to waiting on hold forever just to try to reach a big company by phone.

There's a huge PR value, too. A lot of times, journalists or even other bloggers are looking for an expert to talk about the industry that you do business in. While a global corporation might be busy having their PR team negotiate with their lawyers about what exactly they can say to the press, you can simply be available for contact through your blog and be ready to respond to the press when they are working on a story.

In fact, a Backbone Media survey of hundreds of business bloggers from late 2005 showed that 35% of companies that were blogging got an interview request a journalist within the first 3 months that their blog was running.

Thought leadership

Blogs can position your company as a thought leader. If you're an expert in your field, the best way to have customers find out about it is to follow the old adage: "Show, don't tell." A blog lets you demonstrate your mastery in an area by example, making your unique qualifications obvious and reducing the need for the "hard sell" when persuading new customers.

The truth of the matter is, customers like small or medium companies it's easier to trust a company that hasn't grown to an inhuman scale. But the scariest thing about doing business with a small company is worrying about their stability and reliability, whether you'll have the resources to really get the job done right. If you want to reassure a potential client or an existing customer about those worries while telling the story about your successes and showing off testimonials from your current customers, a blog is simply the best way to do it.

Next: Benefits of Blogging for Marketers