HP Survey: 10% of Small Business Marketing Plans Include Blogs

Ten percent of small business owners in a recent study reported that they have included blogs in their marketing plans. And 16% plan to invest in blogs over the next 2 to 3 years.

This is from a study of small business owners that HP announced last week. The study was conducted by Harris Interactive in March of 2005, and was part of HP's activities during national Small Business Week.

For businesses providing blogging software and blog-related services, targeting business bloggers could be an excellent niche. Today's offerings are poorly suited for business blogs. Key features to include in future offerings are:
*ability to set up categories and excellent built-in search functions, so that business information can be found more easily -- chronological archiving is better for personal diaries and not very useful for business blogs
*features that are more like commercial websites, including "About Us" sections, press room pages, and better navigation functionality
*easy ability to build customized RSS feeds for individual pages such as press rooms
*search engines that target business blogs specifically
*plug and play integration of eCommerce features such as product catalogs and shopping carts on sidebars

Full report here.

Via Small Business Trends.