This
blogging thing just doesn’t seem to be getting you those
prospective clients that could turn into customers. You know, those people who keep coming back, tell their friends about you and your business and eventually make a purchase.
The words are there, you know they’re good and your message seems to be clear, but nobody is biting the bait.
You
have a service that will benefit a large group of people, you may have
even conducted some research based on friends and family to see if they
thought you had a good service…
But the problem is that no one is listening (or in this case reading) and you have no idea what the next step is.
If
this is occurring, you should turn around! No, don’t look over your
shoulder… turn all the way around and look at what you have done so far.
The
business startup was a success because you have the website, money has
changed from your first client’s hands to yours and then you just start
blogging about topics related to what you offer as a service.
See any problems here? You should!
People
read all the books and try to dot every “i” and cross every “t” before
they throw themselves out to the public (because as you know, YOU are
the business—or at the very least the face of it). But, many people
neglect some basic tenets of successful business planning.
The first thing you should re-examine is your ideal clients. You need to
KNOW your customers
(put that KNOW in even bigger caps and a bold font in your mind). This
means you have to understand every facet of that person/those people you
are targeting (your target market).
A business grows through many different types of
marketing procedures (e.g., word-of-mouth, email campaigns, etc.), but you have chosen to blog as the starting point for your
online marketing strategy.
A blog can definitely work, it has for a great many people, but you
have to know what you should write about to appeal to those you are
targeting.
So how exactly do you
find the right people who both
need your service and will be also
be attracted to your blog? Well, as was mentioned above, you have to
KNOW your customer. So keep the following in mind when researching your ideal clients.
Your Offer
1. What do you have to sell to the public? Do you really understand what you are offering? Many think they do, but they really don’t. Why?
Because you see the world through your own prism.
You understand the service from your own perspective, but you have no idea how others see it.
So break your offering down according to someone else’s perception (or hopefully many other people’s perceptions).
• What is attractive about it?
• What is unattractive to the majority?
• How can you tweak it?
2. Who is going to buy it? Based on this research, build a persona.
• What does your customer look like?
• What do they like about the service and what do they dislike?
• What will your service help them with?
• How does this parallels with what you have already done above?
A
persona
is a marketing construct designed to give you an idea who your ideal
client is. You can perfect this construct as people buy your services.
Your Words
Now
that you know who will want your service, you have to understand what
will draw them to your blog. You have to use the correct words and
phrases to get their attention.
SEO: SEO stands
for search engine optimization. This is a term that was coined soon
after the first internet search engines were developed. People have a
hard time knowing all the URL’s available so they look to a search
engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) to help them find what they are
looking for. Of course, this is common knowledge, since we have all used
them, but do you, as a business owner, know how to use them to promote
your product?
Find out what about your service is special and
describe it in a few keywords and key phrases. Think of what words
someone would use when searching for your service/product online.
Once
you have determine those, also look at close representations of those
words that people could use if they misspelled a keyword or were close
to the key phrase.
Test: Marketing is all about
testing the efficacy of newfound knowledge before you throw it out to
the wolves. Since you are a small business owner and don’t have a
marketing department at your beck, you have to use what you have.
Run the words and phrases by your test group and ask them the following questions:
• Are the words effective?
• Do the phrases evoke a picture of the product being sold?
Start Blogging Again
Now you understand the very person you are talking to with your blog.
Tip:
It is best to envision a single person that you are having a
conversation with—Hey! You could even make a little doll and put it next
to your computer as a representation of that person. Okay…this may be a
little too much.
You also understand all the ins and outs of your service.
So, the only thing left to do is
start blogging consistently again – just make sure your blog posts contain quality content and are
valuable to your readers. If you do this, you will definitely be ready this time!
A few extra items to keep in mind as you go along…
1. Who reads blogs?
Your first readers may be other bloggers. That’s fine. As a matter of
fact it’s perfect. These people can be a big help. Sure, they may not
buy your service, but they may be willing to tell others about what you
have to offer. They have readers, so they are a great initial audience.
2. How well are you writing?
Some people can write quality blog content that attracts your ideal
clients and others just cannot. Where do you fall on the scale? It may
pay to hire a professional, someone with copywriting and SEO experience,
to write your blog posts for you.
3. Recheck the key words and phrases often.
Google changes its algorithms daily it seems. One day you are on the
first page of an inquiry (where you want to be) and the next you are on
page three (no good). Make sure that your keywords and phrases are still
landing you on that first page.
Blogging is great marketing tool, but you have to target your audience.
Building a persona, using that knowledge to discover the
correct keywords and phrases to use and then
writing quality content will build readership and sales. Make sure that you conduct the research needed and find out who you are selling to
before writing your blog.
By Missy Tincher, Content Marketing Manager at My Miss Assist. Missy
is like a “high-octane” Hummingbird… efficient and vigorously energetic
about dynamic blog content marketing! Missy is passionate about helping
clients leverage their blog post content in order to drive more traffic
to their websites. Receive FREE video tips about blogging and content marketing on Missy’s YouTube Playlist by clicking here.
