Are you thinking about launching a blog for your business? You are not alone. A recent study by GuideWireGroup has revealed that about 89% of businesses polled use blogs as a way to communicate with their customers. A successful business blog can generate tens of thousands of dollars in revenue each year, with figures for large corporations typically much higher.

Business blogging is becoming a mainstream marketing tool; however, blogging does not always come easily or naturally for many companies. Blogging, like any form of content, is a commitment of time and resources. Not only do you have to know how to write, you will need to maintain your blogs with fresh, original and insightful content on a regular basis.

Planning out your blogging strategy first is a wise move because it gives your blog a greater chance for success. Beth Hrusch, a Senior Editor at Interact Media, offers these additional tips for launching your business blog:

1. Identify Your Readers. Before you start writing anything, make sure you understand who your target market is. This is also known as your “buyer persona”, which marketing guru David Meerman Scott defines as “…a distinct group of potential customers, an archetypal person whom you want your marketing to reach.” You will want to tailor your topics to the groups of people who are most interested in your company. Otherwise, you’re missing the mark and losing out on potential leads and sales.
2. Create Social Media Accounts. If you haven’t already done this, register accounts with Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Start with these and expand later. This is important because you need places to post links to each new blog, so that your groups, fans, and followers can read them.
3. Establish Your Social Media Presence. Lay the groundwork for later blog promotion by establishing relationships with your target markets. One of the best ways to do this is through social media. Now that you have accounts started, you can go in and join forums, listen to conversations and hear what people are saying about your industry. Add thoughtful and insightful comments whenever possible.
4. Determine Where To Place Your Blog. You can either put your blog on a page within your website or give it its own domain. Your choice depends largely on your goals. Do you want the blog to be part of your site, and linked to it directly? Or do you have plans to use your blog for other purposes, such as to earn revenue through ads or creating a secondary business from it?
5. Use The Right Keywords. If you’re placing your business blog on a page within your site, most likely you’ll be using the same keywords for your blog that you are using for your site. If you’ve done good keyword research, then these are the keywords that reflect your business and are the search terms that people are using to find you.
6. Choose A Blogging Platform. WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, but you can also check out Joomla, Blogger, TypePad and others.
7. Plan Your Posts. Think about the direction you want your blog posts to go in. A good way to stay on track is to start with one main topic and draft a few blogs in advance. Post them on a regular schedule and you’ll have a supply of targeted blogs that add fresh content to your site and point back to your company each week.
8. Network With Influencers. Once you’ve got your blog started, it’s a good idea to look around at other bloggers in your industry. See what they’re doing, what they have to say, and leave insightful comments on their blogs. This kind of web networking will help you establish relationships with these people, which in turn will prompt them to help spread the word about your blog and your company.
9. Promote Your Blog. Offering a blog subscription through an RSS feed is an effective way to promote your blog. There are other ways to get the word out, as well. Write an optimized press release, submit articles to directories that link to your blog page, submit your blogs to social bookmarking sites such as StumbleUpon and Digg. Make sure that you link to your blogs in your social media posts.
10. Measure Results. If you’re going to take the time to blog for marketing purposes, you’ll want to know how well you’re doing. Since it relies primarily on the building of human relationships over time, blog ROI can be tricky to measure. But, you do have many tools at your disposal to help you determine how much or how little your blog is contributing to the bottom line.

Launching your business blog is, like any project, all about preparation. If you do your homework and lay a solid foundation, your blog will produce results.