Blogging’s What’s-In-It-For-Them Rule

The blogosphere is enormous, with plenty of free space just waiting for your business blog, as I explained in For Business Blogging, This Space For Free. Everybody’s there on the Internet, it seems –  blogging, reading blogs, commenting on blogs. You’re ready to get started, but how, you wonder, do you plan and execute a successful launch of your new electronic presence?  . “How will people know I’ve finally arrived at the blogfest?”

As Tutor2U, a British marketing firm explains, blogs are part of what is called “pull marketing”.  Potential clients come to your blog because they are searching for information about something you sell, something you know, or something you know how to do. In contrast with, say, sending out mass mailings, which is “push marketing”, blogging is meant to address specific audiences who go online to search for what they need or to look for information on something they need to know more about.

Still, people probably won’t know you’ve arrived, at least not for awhile.  It may take a number of weeks, perhaps even a number of months of persistently posting blog entries, before the search engines, most notably Google, Yahoo, and MSN, begin to include your blog in their “indexing” rankings.  Software programs called “spiders” or “web crawlers” weigh several factors: frequency (how often you update the blog), recency (have you updated the blog recently or did you give up after the first few weeks?), relevance to the key words searchers use in their inquiry, and longevity (how long your site has been active), in addition to the quality of the information in the blog.

Speaking of recency, an article I read very recently in Speaker Magazine talks about launches.  In this case, the article’s authors are offering tips to professional speakers who want to launch books they’ve written. “A great book launch begins with well-written sales copy.” (Now, here is the part that is so apropos for business owners launching blogs): “Don’t tell your prospects how great you are; tell them how great they will feel when the ideas in your book relieve the pain they’re experiencing.”

What wonderful advice for business bloggers!  Your blog isn’t about you, not at all – it’s about them! A wise man once said that everyone’s favorite radio station is WIIFM (What’s in it for me?) Use your blog to offer searchers the relevant, up to date information they came to find.  Give it to them in short paragraphs and in conversational style.  Then lead them to take action (in another blog post I’ll talk more about using testimonials and endorsements, plus success stories). 

However you do it, though, remember it’s all about them.  How great they’ll feel when they “tune into” your website, knowing their search has led them to exactly the place they needed!