Bloggy-woggy-doo-dah!
17th March 2009
“You’re writing a what?!”
“Why are you doing that then?!”
Just two of the responses I got from less ‘marketing literate’ business people when I told them I was a blogger!
“Oh, I haven’t got time for all that” was another comment, and “no-one would find my business that interesting” was yet another. These were comments gained from an offline – face to face networking meeting several months ago so maybe they just haven’t caught up with the rest of the business world yet, but if you are serious about increasing your business and continually attracting new streams of customers, then you might want to consider writing a blog.
In case you hadn’t noticed, the business world is changing. It always gradually evolves of course, but the world economy over the last 6 months has forced a dramatic shift in the ways we do business. Organisations that we used to trust – that we grew up with, have collapsed around our ears. Banks have had to be bailed out using public money to allow them to continue trading. There is a general feeling of mistrust of these large ‘faceless’ organisations – and as ‘Joe Public’, we want to know who we’re dealing with.
Companies like Google, Starbucks and Virgin are well known for their open style of communication, and they all have a blog. They are also all on Twitter – participating in micro blogging. Many of the UK’s marketing experts – PR firms and journalists, all have their own blogs. Besides the journalists who make their living from writing and so a platform to showcase their writing style and current affairs knowledge makes absolute sense – there must be a strategy behind the others’ blogs, otherwise why do it? We all have busy lives – who needs an extra job to do if it is pointless?
For me, I first started blogging with tunnel vision if I’m honest. I run a Virtual Assistance business that specialises in offering telephone answering to other small and medium sized businesses. Because of the way the service works, clients can be based anywhere – geography is not a limitation to me serving them so I’ve always had an internet presence and participated in online networking groups to try to raise awareness of my business in parts of the country that I am not able to physically get to!
I knew enough about SEO (search engine optimisation) to know that the more inbound links you have from other websites to yours, the higher your page rankings on Google are, and as a lot of people find me on Google – the higher I am the better! So I started my blog as I figured it would be a way to post my own content and within that, create an inbound link to my website which would all help the SEO.
When I really got into it, I realised that it is a lot more than this, and exactly what a useful tool a blog is, in winning new business. I’ve always been a genuine, honest and reliable sort of person, and my clients who have had experience of me will confirm this. I get a lot of business through recommendation from my existing client group, which goes some way to ‘prove’ that I’m basically a ‘good egg’! I soon came to realise that by posting my thoughts, observations and news from within my industry onto a blog, I could show the world at large that I’m a good egg too – perhaps reach people that I otherwise would never have met or been introduced to, if I had stuck to my previous forms of marketing. For a virtual business, one that can assist clients worldwide but certainly within this country, this is a huge opportunity, and as a small business with no marketing budget, the best thing of all is that it’s free!
Blogging effectively gives me a place to ‘prove’ that I’m real, that I care and I’m up to speed with the rest of the world. As we know, potential clients like proof of a good thing when they are dealing with something or someone new – this is why testimonials pages on websites are so popular as they inspire confidence. However this new way of marketing is free of charge but it does demand some time investment.
In marketing there is a general formula that says that a person has to experience you on average 7 times before they are likely to buy. So if you meet a contact at a monthly networking meeting and if they are in the market for your product or service then they will need to speak to you about 7 times on average, before their mind is made up to buy, or to at least put them in a place where they are willing to consider buying – this could take 7 months! Maybe if you see this person weekly you can shorten the period between the initial introduction and their decision to buy. However if you see them at a networking meeting, then speak to them on the phone, then bump into them at another meeting and tell them about your blog, then they read your blog, enjoy it and read it several more times, you have effectively shortened the process where this person feels they have ‘gotten to know you’ and is willing to move the relationship to the next stage.
If you multiply this process from just one person like in the example above, to dozens and dozens of motivated people who are shopping in your marketplace, you can see the business potential to be gained from an activity that costs you nothing but could reap huge rewards in business growth.
The key is to have a blog that your buyer (or potential buyer) is interested in reading. You do this through providing regular, fresh, informative content. They need a reason to keep coming back and if they are learning something or if you are entertaining or have some great observations, they are more likely to come back to read your blog again. If you post comments and opinion on certain things from within your industry, or free advice on how to do something (in whatever your field is), then your readers are likely to see you as an expert in your field, and most of us like to deal with an industry expert, don’t we?!
The thing to remember is that your blog needs to be interesting – this is probably the hardest thing to get right as a dull blog will just switch the reader off. It doesn’t really matter what you decide to post as long as it’s vaguely related to your industry and is factual and spelled correctly but it can be really difficult to put something down when you are staring at a blank screen so try to keep a file of news stories, anecdotes and articles that you can use as a source of inspiration when you are sitting down to create a post. Blogs are great for interacting with your readers so ask them questions to get some ‘meat’ from them that you can blog about, and stick with it! It takes time to get the blog into a routine but perseverance should keep your business continually in front of your target market so that when they decide to buy, you are the person they choose to buy from!
This article has been written by Guest Blogger Nadine Hill who runs The Dream PA, a boutique Virtual Assistance business, based in Yorkshire, serving the world!
The Dream PA business blog can be found at www.thedreampa.com
Nadine Hill is also a regular Guest Blogger for the Government backed Make Your Mark Campaign www.makeyourmark.org.uk/inspiring_stories/nadine_hill
Connect with Nadine on Twitter at www.twitter.com/businessmum
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Tags: Blogging, Business Networking, Guest Bloggers, Sales and Marketing, SEO, Social Networking
