5 Ways You Can Secure Your Web Conference
What if I told you, the reasons people give you for having a small business blog are inaccurate or misguided? It’s a huge generalization but give me a few minutes and I’ll tell you why. In the earlier days, when businesses were just beginning to explore blogs as a possible marketing media, there is much need to educate business owners about the more technical aspects how blogs can work to their advantage.
It is true a blog can help bring you traffic much faster because it can notify search engines you have added new content. It is true that blogs with the power of RSS built right in, help bring people back to your website and yes it’s true that blogs are easier to update and do search engine optimization for. If you build a blog for these reasons, you are certainly not wrong and are probably reaping some of its benefits. However, you may be missing out on perhaps the more powerful use of a blog and that is – To Win Friends And Influence People.
In case you haven’t noticed, marketing today has changed considerably and if you want to do business online, that change is even more distinct. It’s no longer about a company telling people about their products it’s about customers discussing and sharing experiences about a product. People do not want to interact to machines or customer service reps who seem to have no authority to do anything but answer and log phone calls. What people want is to become part of a company’s business process, be heard and to communicate directly. In short, winning friends and influencing people work a lot better.
Because the world is so tech centered, people are more and more connected. Despite the nay sayings, technology does bring people closer together and beyond. They also now hold the power to share information, the positive and negative to any product or service, to share their knowledge which in turn draws people to them. Even people who believe themselves socially awkward find themselves being influencers with many a following.
The power of blogs is not in how much traffic you can rake in by pinging a million sites, or how quickly you can get up there in the search engines. Yes, it helps but the the true power is in it’s social qualities. Think about it; the whole blog community is a huge networking arena.
Your blog can and should do just that. Do not try to sell on your blog – it doesn’t work. You can include a note or two about your new special offers, products or your joint ventures but if that is the theme of your blog, you probably won’t get many repeat readers or interaction. Your blog’s ultimate goal should be to share your knowledge, get people comfortable with you, gain friends and better yet, fans. Have you ever recommended a friend for a job or a friend’s product to others not because she is your friend but because you have intimate knowledge how she operates, you know she will do the employer or customer right? That is the kind of relationship you want to build with your blog readers.
Maybe you’re thinking – why do it with a blog when you are already applying the same principles to your newsletter? Good question. Email is an awesome marketing tool, nothing comes close to it. Unfortunately, nothing comes close to email spam either. People are weary and with fake emails threatening to rob people of their identities, bank accounts and what not, it’s scary and makes people guard their email address even more closely. By blogging, you aren’t forcing them to give you anything. If they are interested in what you have to say, what you have to offer, they can return to read your insight at their convenience without any kind of commitment. This is a very important time in the sales process especially online because people can’t be in your presence and experience you for what you are. Since blogs are so informal, where your personality often comes through, it gives you a chance to warm up your prospects. When they are ready, they will not only give you their email, they will be loyal customers.
Have you ever wondered why some bloggers who seem to appear out of nowhere are now earning six figure incomes through their blogs and every post they put out generates tons of comments and here you are probably struggling to get one or two comments and you’re the expert, you’re the business veteran. It’s simple – people read and revisit these bloggers because they are part of their social network; the I-know-someone-who-knows-someone-who-in-turn-knows-someone-else. By virtue of being recommended by peers, popular blogs instantly get viewed in a more favorable light and if you really look closely, few of them sell anything at all but you can almost bet they dish out the insider knowledge by the boatloads and they are often all out to help.
They are winning the game in this new marketplace; as my friend Alice Seba puts it, “By being an Internet Marketing Sweetie”.
As the author of the course, her blog is naturally one of the most successful small business blogs I’ve seen. If you want to know how to be use Internet Marketing Sweetie principles in your blog (or podcasts), head on there now.
The other thing about blogs is, they allow comments which is a great way to allow your customers to be more involved with your business. Unlike a forum where the discussion is group centered, when you participate in a discussion with prospects and customers on your blog, it feels much more like a direct one on one communication which is what people are seeking.
Put this to the test right away. Center your blog around the prospects; blog to make friends. You’ll be surprised where it might take you.