Top Reasons Blogs Get Read And Speakers Get Hired

According to meeting management expert Larissa Schultz, quoted in the latest issue of Speaker Magazine, two of the top three reasons planners hire one professional speaker over another are:

1. The speaker’s content matches the conference’s needs.
2. The speaker is an industry expert on a specific topic.

Reading this, it occurred to me that these are the exact factors that make one blog successful compared to others.

1. The blog’s content matches the searcher’s needs.
Of all advertising and marketing tactics, blogging’s way ahead of the pack because it attracts customers who want to be sold. In fact, it’s the close match between what the searcher Googled (or Yahoo’d or MSN’d or Binged), and what you do, what you know about, and what you sell that accounts for the online meeting of customer and company!

2.  The blog offers expert information and advice on a specific topic.
Your company blog offers the perfect platform for you to showcase your expertise in your field, while offering expert advice and information to readers who are looking for exactly that kind of advice and information!

Blogging for business, you remember, is “pull marketing”. Potential clients arrive at your blog because they’re seeking a product or a service, or knowledge about that kind of product or service, or advice on how to best use that product or service.  Your blog has just the kind of information they want.

And the third top reason professional speakers get hired and blogs get read? ROI – Return on Investment.

Meeting planners, Larissa Shultz points out, are looking to hire speakers who deliver great “takeaway value” that helps the audience (usually employees of a company or members of an association) put into practice what they’ve learned, resulting in enhanced performance and enhanced profits.

Blog readers will make their own ROI judgments – and swiftly. If the blog post isn’t a good match for their inquiry, they’ll “bounce” away and look elsewhere. To the extent their interest is engaged, readers will follow your “calls to action” – by phoning your business, faxing in a request or an order, signing up for a newsletter or RSS feed to the blog, or by proceeding to your shopping cart to buy your products or services. 

From the business owner’s standpoint, ROI is ultimately measured by the increase in the number of people who recommend the company to a friend or buy the product or service. Before either of those things can happen, though, the “top three reasons” need to be present, so blog posts can be found and read.