Category Archives: Marketing Principles
Be Social: Four Insider Facts for Promoting Your Business Blog
Being Social
Do you see yourself as Mr. or Ms. Business Blogger, along the same lines as the “Cherry Ames, Companion Nurse” stories by Helen Wells? Writing a business blog is a good step in the right direction, but if no one reads your blog, you have just wasted a lot of time.
How do you get that great article you wrote out there? Blogging and social networking are both parts of the same strategy. You have to go out and promote your blog by being social. There are many different ways you can use to get your word out. We are just going to look at four.
- Twitter is a quick way to let people know that you are in business and that you have a live website, as opposed to one that is static where nothing new is ever going on. You can tweet about your new post in such a way that people will be interested in reading about it. Remember that no one wants to be sold on social network. They do want to learn things and be entertained. If you are offering information, make that obvious in your tweet. Oh yes, it’s a good idea to put out around 10 tweets on various subjects a day and then spend some time actually on Twitter to show that you are a real person.
Focusing on Who: Three Target Audiences for Your Business Blog
When you write a business blog post, you need to think about who you want to direct the post to, and then you want to call them to action.
You have one important question to ask yourself before you begin to write: Who is your audience? There are at least three different audiences you could target in your post.
Four points concerning multimedia for business bloggers
One of the greatest things since sliced bread in the business blogging world is using multimedia. This week you have seen me use some of the ideas that I have written about. Today I have a video for you because words sell and video helps.
- Adding video and photos to your website and blogs can have a major impact on your sales.
- Unless you are aiming for an amateur look, create videos that look professional or you can find something like the one I found on YouTube. These will enhance your image.
- Remember that photos are not free. When you search using Google and select images, go to the funny gear looking thing on the upper right. Click on that and go to advanced settings. You will go to a page that at the bottom has a place where you check mark that you want images that are free. Click search and see what is left. Not satisfied? Try Flicker: http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/ using the attribution license and be sure to attribute. Try PublicDomainPictures.net: http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/; or Dreamstime: http://www.dreamstime.com/free-results.php?searchby=sandwich+generation&searchtype=free.
- You can also purchase photos and graphics, often for reasonable rates.
What sort of multimedia are you using? How has it worked for you? What would you like to know more about?
Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.
Related articles
- WordPress’ new version 3.3 gives multimedia and mobile some love (venturebeat.com)
- My Mini-Gallery At Dreamstime (richbystockphoto.wordpress.com)
Four points for business blogging along consistently
Blogging is an act that is best repeated often. Regular blogging is what gets you views, followers, comments and ultimately customers. Do you wonder why your favorite television shows come on weekly instead of monthly? How likely are you to remember that you even like a show you only see once a month? Likewise blogging should be done at a minimum of once a week. More is better. I blog on this site three times a week.
Four points for filling your business blog with great content
What's this? See the fourth bullet point.
When it comes to business blogging (or any blogging for that matter), content is king of social media. You can save money by writing from your own experience and you can build your business at the same time.
You want to create original content full of your sage advice. You also need to keep your blog fresh with more and more of this original content. Of course, it is always great to have a guest blogger who has a different approach to add to the originality of your site. All these are clues in how to reach your audience.
Business Blogging Beginnings
One of the main columns upon which social media for business sits is blogging. It may take time or some money, but there is a lot of value you add to the process since you write about you know. Unless you have to pay to have someone blog for you, you can probably spend less than $100 a year on blogging.
Don’t let the low cost fool you. Stop thinking you don’t need to make much of an investment in learning how to blog well. Since blogging is such a powerful sales tool, you want to learn to use it properly or it can work against you.
Since blogging can enhance or detract from your brand you need to learn some skills. You can stop worrying about keeping your blog as formal as the rest of your website, but you do want it to integrate well with the site. Here are some ways you can use your blog to strengthen your brand:
- Your blog should be connected to your website. It is not a good idea to have it on a different site. That way people can stay on your site, read your blog and look at your products or services without having to search the internet for one or the other.
- The most commonly used platform is WordPress, but it is not a good idea to use the WordPress free service. It’s also not good to use Blogger, Tumblr or TypePad either because these all appear with the name of the platform in your URL. This is not only look unprofessional, but it damages search engine optimization. You are in business so you don’t want to cheapen your look just to save the money on hosting.
- If you use an already created template from a platform like WordPress, make you to have it customized by a competent web designer so that it matches your website, maintaining brand consistency.
As you begin blogging, don’t expect to become number one on the Google Search charts right off the bat. Getting established takes time. One way to get people reading and commenting on what you write is to read and comment on what other people write. Find some bloggers who are selling your product or service and read what they have to say. Make appropriate comments so that they see that you are not spamming them and they just might return the favor. In the process you will learn more about successful blogging, learn what your competition is doing and maybe make some helpful friends.
Jaco Grobbelaar, owner of BroadVision Marketing, helps business owners and business professionals put marketing strategies in place that consistently secure new clients. He can be reached at jaco@broadvisionmarketing.com or 707.799.1238. You can “Like” him at www.facebook.com/broadvisionmarketing or connect with him on www.linkedin.com/in/JacoGrobbelaar.
Related articles
- A Kick in the Pants for New Bloggers (suzemuse.com)
- WordPress it – com or org? (quickgamer88.com)
Incoming Lead Processing Campaigns—Starting a Relationship
Lead nurturing is no different from building any long–term relationship. You need to foster respect and trust, be a good listener and keep things interesting.
Nurturing your leads will increase your sales. How is that done effectively?
How does Social Media Help Generate Leads?
Image via CrunchBase
What is the ultimate purpose of social media? You want to use it to get good solid leads that will convert into customers. Basically, social media tells you your leads are getting interested in you and your company.
You use social media as a business process, which means that you develop a process in writing that you follow and test regularly to hone it. The sales department and the marketing department, as two very different entities, need to sit down together and discuss what criteria a lead must meet before being passed from marketing to sales. Furthermore, marketing needs to follow-up after the lead is passed on in order to find out if the sale occurred. Also in order to keep the customer for life, the marketing department needs to stay in touch with the client for future sales.
What IS NOT and What IS Lead Nurturing
You don’t want confuse lead nurturing with sending out brochures or marketing copy focused on your product information or your company announcements. This is not the same thing as nurturing a lead.
To nurture means: foster, help develop or help grow; the act of nourishing or nursing; tender care; education; training; that which nourishes; food; diet; sustenance; the environmental influences the contribute to the development of an individual.
Sending out information about you or your company is not the same thing as “feeding” your leads. When you talk about yourself, you are not focused on what the leads need or your relationship with them.
Developing a Strong, Attention Grabbing Marketing Message
Do you have a marketing message that grabs your prospects attention?
As business owners we all need a strong marketing message that grabs the attention of a prospect. Without a marketing message that grabs a prospect’s attention it is almost impossible to build a relationship that could lead them to using our services or products.
This begs the question, what does a strong, attention grabbing marketing message looks like? There are four questions/criteria to consider when developing your marketing message:
