5 Reasons Every Small Business Needs a Blog– Part II
January 13, 2010
Here are the other two reasons small businesses need to blog. (Continued from Part 1 on January 10, 2010. You can view Part I below) and a few myths, debunked.
4. It opens a dialogue/engages with your target market- What a better way to get your audience / target market engaged than by writing provocative and thoughtful blogs? You can use your blog to do research even. Ask a question and invite people to comment. Learn about what is missing in your industry or what your readers would like to learn about – and respond to those comments. Voila – you are engaging your audience – you are getting them interested in your subject matter. Even if they don’t post comments, they have clicked on some link somewhere to come to your blog, so you have already engaged them. With an RSS feed on your blog, readers can subscribe, so every time you post something new they automatically get it. This is how you build a following.
5. It broadens your audience. How many new prospects do you talk to on a daily basis? Really? Yes, you may belong to some networking groups; you may even do some cold calling. But what if you could get people to want to come to you? That is what blogging does. Again, writing relevant and helpful content will draw people that you would never be able to reach with your usual sales tactics. The great thing about social media and blogs is that people share them! Yes – if they read something they like, they’ll post it to twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn – or in some cases all three. Think about how that expands your reach and broadens your audience. And the best part – it’s free!!! Yes, you may need to spend an hour or so writing something a couple of times a week – but how many cold calls would you have to make to reach the same number of people you an reach online with great content (potentially thousands in seconds!)
Blogging Myths:
Blogs are for teeny-boppers and diarists: Sure, that may be how they started, but every great idea the concept has expanded and been improved upon. Almost all major companies are writing blogs and using them as a way to reach out to their customers and potential customers in a more casual, fun and educational way than they’ve done with traditional advertising. Because blogs have roots in the teeny-bopper diarist world they allow us to be a little more casual; allowing us to use our own voice. So have fun with it! Find the inner writer in you.
Blogs are just advertisements: Some people thing blogs are all about selling their product or service. And while that may be the ultimate goal, blogs are really about bringing people to you based on content they want to read. No one is going to visit your blog to be sold. But they will come to learn something new or to be reminded of something with a fun and engaging story.
I have a website, a blog is redundant: Absolutely WRONG for all the reasons I gave above. Blogs also allow you to expand on your traditional marketing messaging in your blog, explain things a little more, and tell stories, share experience and expertise. They also allow you to archive and organized content, so content will always be there for your website visitors to access.
5 Reasons Why Every Small Business Needs a Blog – Part I
January 10, 2010
I preach to small businesses every day about the necessity of having a blog. For me it’s a no-brainer: but then I’m a daily drinker of the marketing/social media/blogging Kool-Aid Cocktail. So I wanted to write this blog to explain to those who don’t eat, breathe, sleep and dream marketing and social media how a blog can help your small business.
So really why does a small business, say the quaint gift shop in Downtown Fairfield, CA or the fence builder in Anytown USA really need a blog? Does it really make sense? Well, I’m going to give you 5 good reasons why I think every small business needs a blog.
1. Blogging helps you get found. The fact is, blogging helps with SEO – that big scary acronym we in marketing and social media like to throw around is simply “Search Engine Optimization”. What does it mean in the real world? It simply means that every time you post fresh content to your website or blog, Google’s site-crawling robots jump up and down like high school cheerleaders hyped up on Red Bull cheering, “New content, New content, Rah Rah Rah.. Let’s Go!”
Search Engines love new stuff and their “spiders” will crawl sites with new, quality content more frequently. So the more you post, the more authoritative your site becomes. In the search engine world that means your chances of getting found when people start Googling “unique gifts in Fairfield, CA” or “fence repair in Anytown USA” will be greater.
2. Blogging builds trust. What is marketing? Marketing is getting people who have a need to know like, trust, and want to buy from you. How are people going to get to know like and trust you if you hang out in your store or office all day and they never get to hear all of your wonderful and creative ideas, experience and expertise?
Blogging is such a great way to reach large numbers of people (yes even local people) that you would never be able to reach offline. By writing quality blogs about your industry, your customers, and your business – making it fun and informative (and without selling) your target market is going to start realizing that you know your stuff. They are going to start turning to you as a trusted source and an educator. People like to buy from competent businesses. We as consumers want to trust our fence builder, chiropractor, or marketing coach before we even work with them. How can we do that if we don’t know them? Blogging gives us, as small businesses the perfect avenue for showing people that we know our stuff; we are knowledgeable, friendly, consistent, and maybe even kinda fun!
3. Blogging positions you as an expert. In addition to building trust blogging allows you to show the world how much you know about your business and industry. Blogging is a way to tell masses of people all at once that you understand them; you know how to solve their problem or fulfill their need. By telling stories and sharing facts and tips and advice you are not only telling, but demonstrating that you are an authority in your field.
By writing helpful and thoughtful content, you are building trust and qualifying yourself as a go-to resource for information; creating that great top-of-mind awareness we all want when our prospects make the move to buy!
OK- I’m going to stop here for today or this post will be too long and I’ll lose you!
Check back on Wednesday for 2 more reasons why every small business needs a blog, plus I’ll address some common myths about blogs. If you’re worried you’ll forget to check back, subscribe to my blog by clicking on the Subscribe button on the top right and side of the page above the Facebook box.
What Do You Really Sell? The Starbucks vs. Peets Story
January 3, 2010
I was out and about in my hometown of Fairfield, CA recently and had a few minutes to kill before meetings so thought I’d park myself in a café and get some work done. “I’ll go to Starbucks”, I thought. “Well, on second thought, Peet’s is on the way too, I’ll go to Peets. I like Peets’ coffee better anyway… “. Then I remembered, “Oh wait, but last time I had trouble logging on to the internet and had to go back up to the register to get a code to log in … oh yeah, what a pain. I’ll just go to Starbucks where I can log on instantly.”
Wow – it hit me like a ton of bricks. Admittedly, I like Peets better and always have. (I’ve been Peets fan since Starbucks was just a twinkle in the eye of the Seattle grunge crowd) And still I chose Starbucks because of a seemingly miniscule –and almost stupid – little “extra”. How hard would it have been for me to be proactive and ask for the code when I ordered my coffee? Not hard at all. But what if I forgot? Then I’d have to leave my laptop, coffee, and handbag at the table and hope it would be ok or pack it all up and schlep back to the register to get the code. So, I picked the easier and more convenient option- even if it wasn’t my first choice for actual coffee.
So, what’s going on here then? Are Starbucks and Peets in the coffee business or the internet service provider business? Well, clearly, if it was all about the coffee, I’d have chosen Peets.
What struck me is the realization of how much peripheral services and add-ons have made products and services about much more than the products and services themselves; Starbucks and Peets don’t sell coffee. They sell an experience. And so do you.
We small business owners need to examine the entire experience we deliver; not just the product or service offering. What do we do every single day to make it not only easy, but absolutely and completely 100% convenient, pleasant and fun to do business with us? The internet code in the coffee shop seems like such a stupid – almost insignificant - little thing and yet because of it, I chose Starbucks over Peets even though I prefer Peets coffee. Seems crazy, doesn’t it? Not really when you realize they are not merely selling a $4 cup of coffee - but a whole experience that happens to revolve around that $4 cup of coffee.
You may very well have the best product or service in town but what is the one seemingly insignificant thing that could cause your customers to turn to a competitor instead? It may be something you never even thought of. Something you don’t consider an obstacle. How easy is it for customers to find you, to reach you, to pay you? How do they feel when they walk into your office or store or call you? Is your space clean and inviting, does it smell good? (Oh, that’s another story – there is a Raley’s in town that I will avoid at all costs because it smells like a mixture of pine sol and old fish). Do they get a warm welcoming feeling? Are your restrooms clean? Do your employees smile or are they grumpy? Do you easily provide all the little “extras” that are now standard in your industry? Do you go above and beyond expectations? Do you make it absolutely seamless and fun to do business with you? Do you deliver an entire experience or do you simply sell a product or service? It’s worth thinking about and taking a long hard look at, I know I am….
Please click here to leave your comments.
-
Let's Get Social!
