Archive for category: blog marketing

Ink-smudged laptop keys or floor tile? Haul out the nail polish remover, advises Alison Caporino in one of my favorite Reader’s Digest sections “Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things”.
https://www.overdrive.com/media/1581946/extraordinary-uses-for-ordinary-things

How-to ideas are always a good idea for business blog posts.  By teaching, rather than selling, I explain to blog content writers, business owners or professional practitioners can enhance their own value in the eyes of readers.

To me, this tactic is a blog marketing no-brainer.  But what so often happens is that I’ll be discussing blog content ideas with new Say It For You clients, and I’ll get a lot of pushback. The fear is that if they include “how-to” ideas in their blog,proprietors or practitioners will lose, rather than gain, customers and clients.  (Those readers won’t need them, is the worry.)
In the real world, I hasten to assure the fearful, things usually work the opposite way. Giving advice by sharing “recipes” and instructions is a great way to showcase your experience and expertise, and consumers who feel fairly informed might actually prove more willing to make buying decisions.
The “extraordinary” part of the blog content equation needs some further explanation, I realize. Like spices in cooking, less is more. Blogging about unusual ways your products or services have been applied in different situations is a good way to capture interest. (Remember the song “You Gotta Have a Gimmick” in “Gypsy”?) “

But in order for the stuff to be really useful to readers, your reason for including it in the blog posts has to be apparent. It’s best if the new information relates, not only to your topic, but to something with which readers are already familiar.

In other words, while it’s fine to include “extraordinary” information tidbits in your business blog posts, assuming the goal is winning click-throughs and acquiring customers, your main emphasis should be extraordinary solutions to ordinary needs.

“But everybody’s doing it!” was never a successful pitch when it came to Mom letting me do something back in school days.  And, frankly, “everybody’s doing it” isn’t a very good reason for starting and maintaining a business blog, either.
Business owners, I find, start blogs (or have me start one for them) for different reasons, too. At Say It For You, we spend a great deal of time discussing business blogging, particularly with entrepreneurs who’ve heard about blogging but aren’t completely sold on the strategy.
One of my idols, Seth Godin, says he’s noticed the same thing about the variety of motivations business people have getting into any new activity, blogging included.  There are four types of people in the world, Godin remarks.  Some people want to do things because those things are interesting.  Some people want to do things because everyone else is doing those things.  Some people are too satisfied, too scared, too shy, or too lazy to do anything.  And then, says Godin, some people want to do things because those things work!
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/kinds-of-people.html
Blog content writing is definitely not for the lazy or scared, or even the too-satisfied. Maintaining an effective business blog is simply too difficult and challenging to undertake just because it’s an interesting thing to do, or even because everyone else is doing it. That leaves just one valid reason – blogging works!
But, does it always?  Of course not. Your customers and prospects encounter content every day. Some of it’s good, most of it is forgotten immediately, says Sean Royer of Social Media Today. It is your job, Royer adds, to make sure that your business content is remembered and has a positive impact on your customers. But if you’re still debating whether to pour effort and resources into creating and maintaining a blog, he says, “the answer is, of course, a resounding YES.”
http://socialmediatoday.com/seanroyer/2007981/blogging-really-necessary-marketing-tool

Content marketing is now an essential component of an effective SEO campaign, because Google values high quality content,” confirms Seb Atkinson of Social Media Explorer.
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/content-marketing-2/how-to-double-your-marketing-effectiveness-by-combining-content-marketing-and-social/

Some “why’s” of blogging listed by quickstudy.com include:

A blog provides an online platform where you can express your point of view.
A blog is a low-cost marketing tool that will reinforce and enhance all the other marketing you do.
Your blog can be emailed as a newsletter, and can also serve as inspiration for content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other networks.
Each new post you write is an opportunity to attract search engine attention.

Don’t create a blog just because “everyone else is doing it”.  There are plenty of wise why’s for blogging for business!