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.
5 Easy Ways to Build Your Small Business Email List
December 27, 2009
Congratulations! Your New Year’s resolution is to get serious about marketing your small business. 
And you’ve been reading my blogs, so you know that email marketing is a fun, effective and inexpensive way to do it. So now you’re tasked with building your email list. Where do you start? Here are 5 tips to get you started.
1. Put a Guest Book in your store, office and/or on your website and ask people to sign it. Put a space for their email address with the message, “Would you like to receive offers and special members-only discounts from us? Join our mailing list!”
2. When you are networking and people hand you their business card ASK if they want to be included in your newsletter and/or special offers email list. Don’t put everyone who hands you a business card on your email list – believe it or not, that’s illegal.
3. Give something away for free. Either in your store, office or on your site; offer a free report, a free gift, a free session, for example. It can be a raffle or something you give to everyone who signs up (if you do this, make it easy and inexpensive, a white paper is perfect). It doesn’t have to be much, something educational, like a report or a free consultation – or anything a client or potential client will consider valuable and useful. Make it clear that when they agree to enter the drawing they will also be agreeing to receive emails from you.
4. Put an opt in form on your website and Facebook page to sign up for a newsletter or special “members only” events and offers and drive traffic to it in your email signature, business card, signs in your office or store and in your social media accounts like Twitter.
5. Go through your outlook list or rolodex and contact each person one by one, asking for permission stay in touch via email more often. You can let them know that you publish a newsletter or send out special members only deals and you would hate for them to miss out.
Remember – as a small business, there are laws governing email. No matter how tempting it may be, never add people to your list who did not give you permission. Not only is it unprofessional and impolite it’s illegal.
If you have any questions about email marketing, list building or marketing in general, we’re here to help. Don’t hesitate to contact us at info@FortuneMarketingCompany.com
Please click here to leave your comments.
Happy New Year!
How to Use a Blog as a Small Business Marketing Tool
November 29, 2009
I tell small business owners all the time, “You need to blog”. And I often get, “what’s a blog exactly?” Even if the small business owner knows what a blog is, they often have a hard time figuring out how it will help them make more money. So here are a few basics of blogging for business that can be used as part of an overall marketing strategy to get more leads and grow your small business.
What is a Blog?
I found this definition on www.blogger.com and I think it answers this question perfectly:
“A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world. Your blog is whatever you want it to be. There are millions of them, in all shapes and sizes, and there are no real rules.
In simple terms, a blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis. New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what’s new. Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.
Since Blogger was launched in 1999, blogs have reshaped the web, impacted politics, shaken up journalism, and enabled millions of people to have a voice and connect with others”.
The only thing I would change is that the blog has become much more than a personal diary and has evolved into a platform for professional and business expression and education as well.
Why Do I Need a Blog? (Most of the content in this section is taken from John Jantsch, “Blogging for Business” from the Duct Tape Marketing System)
A Search Engine Traffic Bonanza
The main reason for a business to write a blog is to increase search engine traffic to your site. Search engines love real blogs. By real blogs, I mean blogs that are set up and run by businesses that offer useful content. As with every successful marketing method, there are people out there setting up fake blogs and dumping keyword-rich garbage into them in order to trick the search engines into ranking the content highly. (Please resist the urge to add this form of search engine spam as it may actually get you banned by a search engine.). So by setting up and regularly posting a real blog, rich with key words, you will improve your ranking and push out the fake ones in your industry.
For more reading about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Blogging check out: http://websearch.about.com/od/keywordsandphrases/a/blogseo.htm
http://sbinformation.about.com/cs/ecommerce/a/bblogs.htm
Lots of Pages
Each blog entry is its own web page, with its own unique URL and title. What does that mean? It means that an active blogger can create hundreds of keyword-rich web pages in a matter of months- which helps your ranking and helps you get found on the web!
Change is Good
In order to claim your place at the blogging table, you have to commit to making posts often – some people even recommend four or five times a week – however if you’re a beginner (like me!), once a week will do just fine. This commitment means you are making changes to your website at least once per week. The typical small business website is lucky to receive an update a year. Search engines love change!
It’s a Marketing Conversation
Blog content is more like a conversation than a sales pitch. Readers often feel a greater connection to content that is open, honest, and transparent – the very nature of most blog content. Blogs make it easy for readers to connect and participate in the dialogue through linking and commenting.
Where Do I Get a Blog?
Some website platforms (like Wordpress) have blog software built in, so first check with your website administrator. If a blogging option isn’t available on your website and you don’t want to change your website platform check out a free blogging site like www.blogger.com. It is always best to blog on your own site, since the main goal is to drive traffic and links back to you, but using a free blogging site is bettter than not blogging at all.
There are a ton of other reasons for and benefits to blogging for small businesses; I hope this overview gives you a few answers to your questions about blogging. If not, feel free to ask them here in the comments and I promise I will answer them! Click here to leave your comments.
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