I love blogs… blogs are great. They make delivering your message to a widespread audience SO easy. No FTP, no HTML… just type and publish.
When you’ve got a WordPress blog with the proper plug ins, you get a super charged Search Engine Friendly way to deliver those messages effortlessly to hundreds of thousands of people who are interested in hiring you to provide products or services.
So what’s not to love?
Well, marketing message mis-steps are NOT to love.
My business is exploding and I’ve been subscribing to the RSS feeds of various blogs maintained by people who provide the services for which I’m in the market. By subscribing to those RSS feeds… I’m shopping. After all, hiring a service provider is a Major Sale … so I’m doing my research.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve read blog posts by SEVERAL service provider that have effectively removed themselves from the running in my decision of choosing a service provider.
One just ran a post so off topic that it was an obvious “I’ve just signed up as an affiliate, use my link and buy!” Um, you’re a business professional and you’re promoting a membership site on which focuses upon getting you to eat your vegetables?
Another web site was listing characteristics of the service provider’s “ideal client”. I laughed out loud when “physically attractive/ works out / Pilates” was listed as a characteristic she seeks in her clients.
EXCUSE ME? Is this your business or an Match.com profile? Are you looking for clients or dating partners?
Whether it’s the chiropractor who is blogging about having a “bad day” or the marketing maven who’s blogging about her latest visit to a local sex shop…. you’ve got to ask yourself, “Does this help build my potential client’s TRUST in my ability to provide goods and services?”
Just Because You CAN, Doesn’t Mean You SHOULD!
Last month, a lot of bloggers engaged in playing “April Fool’s Jokes” on their readers. Many discovered that their readers were there for a reason… and that reason was not to be played as a fool.
I once had a client who was fun and energetic. She had engaged a branding professional to create her marketing materials. The branding professional did a wonderful job of “capturing” this client’s persona. Unfortunately, that business professionals clients weren’t seeking that “style” of help. Of course they adored her infectious enthusiasm… but when she sent those potential clients to her web site, she found they wouldn’t return her phone calls.
She hired me and we “toned” her website “down”. We created a more “professional” approach (including switching the color scheme from orange/purple to blue/gray.) The result… her potential clients returned her phone calls AFTER they had visited her website.
She was still funky, fun and infectious… but her website said “This is a serious, cool, effective professional who gets results” through the images AND the copy. As a result, her business took off.
Blogging makes communicating EASY and even FUN! Just watch the message you’re sending…. people ARE watching!
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