Using your Blog to Market your Business
October 27, 2006
An excellent post on using blogs to market yourself was written by Rohit Bhargava, VP for for Interactive Marketing with Ogilvy Public Relations.
Bhargava shares 7 tips on how to effectively use a blog as a marketing tool for your business.
- Share your insight, not the obvious
Your point of view is what makes your blog a resource. - Link to your influencers
Bloggers pay attention to who links to them. That’s why this blog is linked to Rohit Bhargava’s blog. - Optimize your blog and posts for search
This is easily done if you’re using Word Press or Typepad. - Talk about what you know
Trust me, pick a topic that interests you. If you pick a topic that you think you “should” blog about, you’ll find it’s a chore to blog. Picking a topic that interests you means you’ll find it less difficult to sit down and actually begin to type or blog. - Make your blog part of your signature
Include your blog’s URL in the sig of your email. - Post about the moment
That’s the “magic” of blogging… it’s supposed to be topical and current. - Have a good archive
You need to keep an archive so new visitors can read old posts. Some real gems may be hidden in last month’s or even last year’s archives. Some posts will never go out of style.
The problem most business owners have with blogging is they just don’t have time to do it!
Blogging is a HABIT and it’s a LOT like the exercise habit. At first, it’s hard. My daughter always says the hardest part about exercising is putting your shoes on to do it. Once you tie your shoes and get down to doing it, it’s not that awful. The same is true for blogging.
Schedule time for it…just as you would an exercise program.
Oh, and like an exercise program, you won’t see immediate results. Lots os people will READ blogs but won’t leave comments. One company launched a blog and asked all their employees to blog. The employees blogged for about two weeks and then fell out of the habit. However, when the business owner looked at the log files and tracked visitor’s movement through the site, they found something amazing. While virtually NO ONE was commenting, people were reading the blog. Not only were people reading the blog, but those very visitors were the ones who eventually ended up purchasing products and services from the company. In the end analysis, the blog was the most important element in converting visitors into customers.
With this information in hand, management then went back to their employees and asked them to resume blogging. With the log analysis information in hand… the employees returned to their blogging with new enthusiasm.
By the way, the web analytics program used to provide the information for the company above is Click Tracks. If you’re serious about using your web as a marketing tool, then you need Click Tracks. Oh, and you don’t have to have an IT department to understand log files to use it OR understand the results. Check it out!
An issue of trust
October 25, 2006
I recently praised the blog No More Cubes about an ingenious marketing tool to increase newsletter subscriptions: the contest. After blogging my praise, I decided to put my money where my keyboard was and subscribed to the blog. I wish I could say that the praise would continue for No More Cubes.
When my subscription was confirmed, I discovered that No More Cubes is Kimberly’s blog. Hmm…. I guess I didn’t realize it before, but I know VERY little about Kimberly. Worse yet, I still don’t know Kimberly’s last name. She knows my first and last names in addition to my email address, but I only know Kimberly as “Kimberly “freedomworker.”
So I go to the blog. Not much there. From looking at her blog, it appears Kimberly works with clients in a marketing capacity, but there’s nothing on the blog to tell me why I should read what Kimberly has to say.
About now, I’m wishing that I hadn’t used my real email address to subscribe to the No More Cubes newsletter. I have a hotmail email address which I use for “low trust” publications, a club which the No More Cubes newsletter has now officially joined. All because Kimberly didn’t disclose her last name.
With that said, I get the privacy issue. As a women on the internet, it’s one I deal with as well. Way back in 1994, I launched my web development career by developing a web site in support of the CDA, a bill which was very controversial back in the day. It “limited” free speech on the internet by protecting children from pornography among other things, something that I supported as a mother of three. My views at the time got me dropped from my ISP and also generated more than a few death threats. At the time, I lived in a tiny town of less than 1000, so it wouldn’t have taken someone long to do a door to door search to find me and mine.
However, shrouding oneself in a veil of “privacy” isn’t the path to inspiring trust. Trust is SO hard to build via the internet and No More Cubes has done MANY things right in the pursuit of building trust.
The first step in inspiring trust is through a professional site design. It’s a fact that a slick design inspires trust. It’s why, if you’re not a graphic designer, that purchasing a web site template is probably the best investment you’ll ever make. I once did a redesign for a site where the content remained the same but the affiliate income generated by the site increase over 450% in the next quarter. All because the graphics on the site were replaced with high quality, professionally created images.
No More Cubes did that with her blog design. It’s slick and it inspired trust. Too bad she dropped the ball on her newsletter. Make sure you don’t hurt your credibility by trying too hard to protect your privacy. It’s one thing for a subscriber to provide “fake” credentials. (As a newsletter publisher, you should expect them to do so.) It’s quite another when the publisher tries to hide his/her identity.
Marketing 2006 style….
October 25, 2006
John Dodds is a self proclaimed marketing deviant, which makes me love him before I’d read a word on his blog. John is speaking to geeks trying to get them to embrace marketing as their friend.
According to Dodds, rule number one is “Marketing is not a department.”
Is it me, or did angels just start singing?
His second commandment is “ Marketing is a conversation, but most people don’t speak geek.
I swear the room began to spin. I feel a religious experience coming on! Oh, maybe that’s just the Dexatrim kicking in.
Marketing IS merely a conversation between you and your potential customers. They have problems and you have answers. Marketing is communicating the availability of your solutions to your customer’s problems. It’s just that simple.
John addresses this in Commandment #8: “People hate hype, spin and unfulfilled expectations. They do not hate having their needs met.”
It’s hard for most geeks to understand marketing of their products and services. They honestly believe that if people would just RTFM (read the freakin manual) that using technology would be as easy for their customers as it is for them.
After 10 years in the web dev game, I can tell you that different people are wired differently. I recently received a 120 page fax from a client who had purchased software which promised to make him a web guru in a matter of days. My client bit, bought the package and found himself hiring me to install and configure the software. Sure, the software came with a COMPLETE video tutorial and a COMPLETE manual. After three months, my client threw up his hands and called me. (I designed his first web site in 2000. I’ve designed three other sites for him since. He was hoping that he could launch future sites without paying my fees.)
So, I’m installing “easy to use” software for him and I don’t begrudge him the effort or the dream. I hope that once I have the software installed and configured that he’ll be able to launch his various membership sites with very little effort. But for now, he still needs his “geek” and I’m here to help.
I have to admit, when I began the project, there was a part of me that was grinding… not with my client but with the purveyor of the program. The list price is about 7X what the software should have cost. His “manual and videos” are poorly put together and had I not had a sufficient background in software installation, I’m not sure I could have achieved a successful install by using his instructions alone.
Yeah, I get the geeks mistrusting marketing. Any geek who got a gander at this program would soon find his blood boiling as mine did. However, the lesson to be learned is this: providing exceptional customer service is what brought my client knocking on my door 6 years later when he found himself in a “geek jam.” He knows he can trust me and he refers me frequently to friends and colleagues.
No more cubes wins again!!
October 24, 2006
BRAVO to the blog No More Cubes.
To generate interest in their new newsletter launch, the’ve launched a contest! Contests are GREAT ways to get visitors involved.
If you never tried using a contest to promote your business, you really MUST give it serious thought. Contests can act as both a reward for current customers or an incentive for new customers to come “join your family.”
A contest is a great way to gather testimonials from current clients. It not only rewards your current customers for choosing to do business with you, it’s also a great way to gather testimonials for your business. Just set up a contest where current clients/customers rave about your business. The “winners” claim their prize, but you are the real winner, with a stack of testimonials which will not only serve to help promote your business but also help you gain insight as to why current customers love doing business with you!
The other way to use contests is the way the blog No More Cubes is using the power of contests…. to gain new customers. If you’re the 25th subscriber to the No More Cubes newsletter, you’ll get a darling little play set which will help remind you why you left the nice comfortable (but stifling) world of Corporate Amercia behind.
Looking ahead to 2007…. isn’t it time to schedule a contest? Heck, schedule two. Schedule one to reward current customers and schedule another to try to attract new customers. Your customers will love it and so will your CPA.
Lured to the House of Mouse
October 23, 2006
Despite having three children and living for nearly 18 months within 100 miles of Disney World, my steadfast resistance to the magnetic pull of the Mega Mouse finally ended last Tuesday.
I have NO idea how many hundreds of thousands of dollars has been spent by Disney trying to lure me and mine into their money pit, but until recently Disney’s efforts have fallen upon deaf ears. Not even my minister’s rendition of a trip with his grandchildren could move me. This is probably because in my youth, my parents took our family to each of the Disney destinations in the United States. Needless to say, if my memories of either of the trips had possessed ANY “magical” qualities, I might have been more interested in exposing my children to the experience. However, my memories of our trips to both Disney World and Disney Land are almost without exception of us standing in line for the rides under a blazing hot sun.
The most memorable “standing in line” experience was while waiting for Disney World’s “It’s a Small World” ride. I distinctly remember wanting to take an ice pick to my temple in an effort to remove that @#$% song from my head. As I forced my children (ages 19, 16 and 12) to ride the ride, I was amazed that the music wasn’t nearly as loud or incessant as I had remembered. My forcing of my children to ride the ride is now referred to in our home as “continuing the cycle of abuse.”
So what changed my mind? What made me pull out my credit card and order tickets online?
Was it a television ad? Was it a billboard? Was it an advertisement on a soda can? No, none of the above. It was another mother at a fall baseball game who told me about the “Mickey’s Not So Scary” events that are held on various nights at the park. The words she spoke,
“It was great fun. The lines aren’t long at all and we had a blast last year.”
So I pulled up the website, entered my zip code and within a few minutes I leap frogged over 30 year old memories to purchase tickets for the event and she was right. The lines for the rides weren’t long and we had a blast.
That is the power of word of mouth advertising. Sometimes it’s called a “testimonial.” Either way, it’s powerful stuff.
Control of your brand….
October 19, 2006
There’s an obsession out there with “branding”…. like it’s a separate and distinct entity, one that is easily controlled and manipulated. The buzz at the ANA was over giving “control” of your brand over to your customers….
In a comment at Hespos.com, James writes in response to Tom’s post on “I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got” :
“Marketers can control their brand to a large extent but it dosn’t start or end with advertising messages…it starts with creating an awesome product or service; standing behind it with great customer service and a commitment to their community and stakeholders. At its best advertising is only a inspired reflection of that. Everything else is BS, whether it comes from an ivory tower or not. So when you note hamburgers at BKs Tom, you are right on the mark. If the meal sucks so does the brand. “
Instead of fussing over the brand, obsess over what’s important and the “branding” will take care of itself.
In stark contrast to the BK branding obsession, is the Cold Stone Creamery’s definition of their “brand”.
We Will Make People Happy
At Cold Stone Creamery, we consider ourselves fortunate to be in the “people business.” Who wouldn’t get a thrill out of serving up a Founder’s Favorite or a Cold Stone Creationâ„¢ dreamed up by the wild imagination of an excited 5-year old peering at us through the glass? The fact is, smiling is contagious around here. You might even say we’re really in the “smiles” business.”
Instead of worrying about their brand, BK had better start worrying about the faces serving their product. The last time I frequented a BK drive thru, I can’t say I left with a smile on my face. As a matter of fact:
- BK’s food does not make me smile.
- BK’s service does not make me smile.
- BK’s advertising does not make me smile.
Unfortunately for BK, it doesn’t make my 16 year old son smile either. According to Crain in his article, BK’s bad-boy promotions are built around the creepy king character which is aimed at male teenagers. Sorry BK. It’s not working.
Which probably explains why we haven’t eaten at a BK for quite some time. The last time we did (in late night desperation), the topic of conversation centered around WHY it had been so long since we’d chosen BK for a meal on the go!
Instead of trying to be edgy and develop “social currency” perhaps BK should get back to the drawing board with regards to the menu or, GASP, focus more upon employee training. I think it’s called “back to basics.”
Nutrisystem’s Secret to Success
October 16, 2006
The woman on the screen raves for two solid minutes about her new body which is 33 pounds lighter. “Look at me, I’m a size 2,” she says as images of her skipping along a beach in a bikini, smooching her husband on a footbridge and cuddling her baby at a picnic fill the screen. In the corner, you see the before and after shots, which are powerful. Then comes the kicker: “My husband said, ‘I got my wife back,’” she exclaims. Each time the spot airs, dozens of women pick up the phone and call NutriSystem to place an order.
What is the secret to Nutrisystem’s raging success?
In case you didn’t know, Nutrisystem is not exactly a “new” company. Founded in 1971 by Harold Katz, the latest Nutrisystem rebirth at the hand of Forbe’s Entrepreneur of the year, Michael Hagan is just the latest to pick the company up for a song and take his hand at the helm of a company whose history has more ups and downs that a feeding rod.
To make a long story short, Hagan took over the beleaguered Nutrisystem in 2002. His first step was to take the 30 year old menu and revamp it. Once the product was brought up to snuff, then the real job began. According to Forbes, “Smart advertising and relentless data-crunching fuel this lean company.”
Hagan hired Thomas Connerty, the marketing brains behind that info-mercial wonder the Bowflex exercise machine and fired the ad agency. Connerty focuses on creating marketing copy that SPEAKS to his target market. He knows they way to sell the Nutrisystem program is through testimonials and plenty of them.
Nutrisystem runs a semi-annual $10,000 contest to collect these testimonials. Connerty then carefully crafts each message to not only speak to his customer’s needs, but also shows how the excess weight is working to hold potential clients back in other areas as well. He then closes with how easily the Nutrisystem program can solve those problems in a pain free, delicious way. Add in a generous helping of “call now and get one week free” plus dozens of toll free lines and you’ve got the makings of a raving success.
Connerty admits that the ads won’t win any awards, but they do make the phone ring… and ring… and ring. Since 2002, revenue has jumped from $28 million to $413 million and profits have risen from $2.5 million to $55 million. NutriSystem’s stock is up from 65 cents to $63 a share.
Nutrisystem is truly a lean mean marketing machine and illustrates not only the effect powerful testimonials can have on sales but also the effect of knowing your customer and focusing on solving his/her most pressing problems. You can argue that a woman’s self worth shouldn’t be wrapped up in what size jeans she wears, but Nutrisystem is definitely riding that wave of insecurity to wealth and prosperity.
Working with the wrong niches- the nudist and the ballerina
October 14, 2006
GREAT story about defining your niche over at the No More Cubes blog.
What can I say when it’s been said so well.
GREAT STORY! GREAT ILLUSTRATION!
I hate liars…
October 12, 2006
I hate liars and I’d be willing to bet you do too.
So why, oh why is this “marketing guru” lying in his latest newsletter?
This guy has done almost EVERYTHING right. He’s listed high on Google for some GREAT keywords. He has the word “marketing” in his domain name and he appears to have some GREAT products. (The only recommendation I would make if he were my client is that he put in place an affiliate program.) He’s got a compelling offer and you have to sign up for his newsletter to get a report that sounds like it has REAL value.
Actually, that was the first “oops” in the process. When I got his “free, valuable white paper” it was nothing but a long sales pitch for his many ebook products. However, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and continued to open his newsletters, hoping to see something of value there.
See, an email newsletter is a GREAT tool for ANY online business person to use. It’s conventional wisdom that it takes 8 “touches” before a customer will make a purchase from you. That’s the whole POINT behind the whole e-mail newsletter system. A visitor comes to your web site, subscribes to your newsletter and then begins reading what you have to say on your topic of expertise. After reading your pithy and pertinent newsletters for a few days or weeks or months, finally you will have built up enough TRUST with them to have earned their business and they’ll follow the link to your product and buy, buy, buy. It’s a delicate process.
Julie Andrews sings..”Getting to know you… getting to know all about you….”
So why, oh why, would you open your first SIX contacts (a.k.a. newsletters) with a lie?
The offending practioner opens each of his email newsletters with the following:
“Have you read my latest resource? Just a reminder in case you haven’t read it yet. It’s only online for two more days.”
The thing is, this is how he’s started the last SIX emails with that exact same sentence. It’s the same link and it never expires. I just visited it now, a full 10 days after he sent it and it still works!
Maybe it’s a man thing. I mean, one of my favorite comedians is Bill Engvall and he has a bit where his wife catches him lying about smoking. In her way of thinking, if he would lie about something so insignificant as smoking, then how can she trust him on the bigger issues such as marital infidelity?
During Bill’s bit, he reacts in disbelief. How did his wife get from smoking to infidelity? “Evil Kneivel couldn’t make that leap.”
So maybe it’s just a woman thing, but when someone who is trying to sell me something lies to me about how long a link will be live, I begin to doubt whether I can trust him with my financial information. Gee, maybe it’s best that I used my hotmail address to sign up for his stuff. Maybe with that lie, he’s just earned himself a place in the JUNK mail folder.
Guys, you should know that as my 19 year old daughter and I watched Bill’s skit, we both looked at each other and said, “Yeah. I can see the connection. If you’d lie about little things, you’d lie about big things.” After all, character is what you do when you think no one can see you.
It maybe it’s just that I’m a “girl,” but I don’t think it’s a huge leap to worry about whether this guy will charge my credit card for purchases I’ve never made based on the fact that I can’t trust him to tell me the truth about how long a link will be live!
The devil is truly in the details. In sales, the marketing guru’s closing technique is referred to as “The Impending Doom Close.” It’s really old school and if you want to see it in action, visit just about any used car lot in the area and try to walk away without making a purchase.
“I had a young couple looking at that VERY car this morning.”
“That one is going to the sale tomorrow, so if you want it you’d better get it now.”
The problem is, when you drive by the car lot a week or two later and still see the car sitting on the lot, if you didn’t know it when the line was being applied you do now… you can’t trust that dirty slimy rat’s word! If you can’t trust his word, how can you trust him with your money?
Make sure you let your potential customers know that they can INDEED trust you with not only their time, but also their money!
Are you forgetting about the end user?
October 10, 2006
Kathy Sierra in her blog Creating Passionate Customers says, “Until talking about the users/customers/members/clients becomes the most important thing, we’re going nowhere good.” She then creates a cute bingo card with phrases such as “Customers don’t want to hear about how hard this is for us to do” and “It’s not about us, it’s about the customer.”
Her post reminds me of the trials and tribulations of working in Corporate America and why, as small and nimble solo-entrepreneurs we can provide a better product with better service all day, every day. We don’t have to endure the endless stream of meetings where the next meeting agenda is the topic of discussion.
Never underestimate the value of knowing your customer. As a small business, you have the opportunity to actually VIEW your customer in the sublime act of purchasing. If you’re a brick and mortar store owner, you can actually watch your customers move through the store. Have you ever done that? Have you ever set up a video camera so you can watch your customers move through your store?
If you’re a web site owner, it’s actually easy to watch customers move through your web site. There are many tracking tools and software that can allow you to see how customers move through your web site. What pages they visit? What links do they click?
I have a client who was awed by the information in such a report. Her Measure Impax report flew in the face of traditional “eye tracking studies.” 16% of the clicks on her page were at the bottom, not the top of the page. 1 out of 6 of her visitors were reading/scrolling to get to the links down below the fold. It flies in the face of every bit of conventional wisdom out there… and is an example of someone who “gets it.”
Her web site is very customer centric. She knows her audience. She knows what visitors to her site are seeking and she gives it to them. Even if they never become an official “customer” of hers, she still wants them to leave with the information they were looking for when they arrived at her site.
Her visitors have rewarded her. Google has rewarded her as well. Her traffic numbers are impressive, yet she’s not “monetizing” her site. Why? Because her visitors might not like it.
It’s that kind of thinking that makes the solo-entrepreneur much, much more nimble than any top heavy corporation could ever hope to be.
