strategy

Blogging as Part of Your Marketing Strategy

Last week, the good folks over at Social Media Breakfast Waterloo were kind enough to invite me over to speak to their members.

The topic was crowd-sourced, and the chosen talk was on how blogging could be used as part of your marketing strategy. Since the audience was made up of every business size, from solo entrepreneurs to SMB owners and C-suite executives, it was a great topic to be talking about.

You can view my presentation below, but i just wanted to highlight the four key points that you can take away for your own blog and marketing combination.

1. Research

One of the most important things you can do before you start a business blog is research whether your customers and audience actually want one. It’s all well and good saying, “Well, our competition has a blog – we should too!”. But that’s just setting yourself up for failure.

Look at your customer base; are they the kind that read blogs? Are they mobile-led (which would suggest a blog-friendly audience)? Are they computer-literate?

A slaughterhouse in Moldova is probably not going to need a blog; a hospitality industry business probably should have one. Ask your customers if they’d be interested in a blog – a questionnaire, an email, when they’re in your store, etc.

Having a ready audience will immediately increase your chances of having a decent corporate blog.

2. Strategy

Just as important as the research angle is the strategy one. If you launch a business blog and you don’t have defined goals with it, you’re just wasting valuable time and resources in maintaining it.

Will it be for lead generation? Will it be to promote your business’ thought leadership? Is it to handle service questions, or give the latest news on product or company updates? Is it to get to know your customers better and what makes them tick?

Have a solid strategy in place on what you want to achieve, and how you wish to achieve it. Then set timelines in place to measure how you’re doing, and adapt accordingly.

You wouldn’t go into business without a clear goal and plan – why would you do anything different with another angle of your business?

3. Consistency

If there’s one thing that blog readers hate, it’s inconsistency. This can be across multiple areas – publishing posts, comment systems (yes, I’m guilty of this one!), voice, editorial, writers and more.

And there’s a simple reason for this – there are currently between 180 and 200 million blogs out there, and reader interest is becoming shorter and shorter as publications vie for eyeballs. So if you’re confusing your reader with ever-changing positions on your blog, they’ll more often than not decide it’s not worth hanging around.

If you want to keep your readers and grow your blog, be consistent.

If you’re going to post once a week, make it the same day and the same time of day. If you’re going to post 2-3 times a week, keep it the same days.
If you’re going to be primarily a text blog, remain that way. If you’re going to be a video-led blog, be that blog. You can mix things up now and again, but keep the prime focus the one you set up yourself up as.
Keep the tone consistent. if you’re going to be a serious blog, remain in a serious tone. If you’re looking to show the fun side of your business, highlight that with pictures and a lighter tone.

If you keep to the goals you set out with, and the way you set out reaching them, it’ll cause less confusion and encourage readers to stay with you.

4. Measurement

One of my biggest bugbears is when I speak with business owners and ask them about analytics and measurement, and how they’re tracking their success based on their goals, and they reply with a blank stare and an, “Uh….” soundbite.

If you’re not tracking your activity, how do you expect to know if you’re succeeding; where you’re succeeding; where you need to adapt and more?

The best of it is, you can track all this stuff for free (with the exception of cost of man hours to do so).

Use Google Analytics or Woopra to track your web visits, as well as where the traffic is coming from, what your visitors are doing while on site, where they’re going afterwards, and much more. See which content works, which doesn’t, and amend your approach accordingly.
Track social media success with tools like Jugnoo (I’m biased, but we do track pretty well!), Most Shared Posts, or social campaigns in your analytics solution(s). By knowing what content resonates, and where, you can be far more strategic on your approach to both your blog and that platform.
If you’re selling products from your business blog, use something like WooCommerce and Improvely. This can identify the source of the purchase, the referral, the costs involved and much more.

You don’t have to run a bells and whistles measurement solution – but for the love of all things common sense, please do have at least some way to track what you’re doing!

As I mentioned, these are the four key areas for any business blog to really concentrate on and get right. There are more, which the presentation looks at. But as a starting point, they should be the ones you answer if you want your business blog to succeed.

The rest is up to you.

How to Pitch This Blog

Before I start this post, i just want to give a heads up that it’s geared towards PR folks and advertisers.

If you’re more a “normal reader” of the blog, and don’t fall within these two industries, feel free to skip this post completely and come back on the next regularly scheduled updates. 🙂

So, with that heads up out the way, let’s get cracking.

How to Pitch Your Story or Partner On Your Product

I get a lot of pitches form either PR agencies or consultants on behalf of their clients, or from business people themselves wondering if I’d be interested in taking a look at their new product or service.

This is cool – after all, this blog looks to help you, the reader, in being more successful in whatever it is you want to succeed in, from your business and where social media fits to understanding blogging and everything in-between.

The problem is, the pitch needs to fit the audience here – and very often they come nowhere near that. In the last week alone, I’ve received pitches on vodka and fashion news.

Now, while I might like the odd vodka shot now and again, I’m anything but fashionable and single malt scotch is my tipple of choice (though Whyte & Mackay may change that!).

So, here are some ways for you to increase your chance of being shared here:

1. Know my readers

They’re a huge reason this blog exists so understand who they are. A really simple way to do this is use the Demographic feature on Alexa. You can also use tools like Quantcast to grab more information about this blog’s audience. If you’re looking for me to introduce you to them, at least give them the courtesy and respect they deserve by understanding whether or not they’re right for you.

2. Know my topics

I don’t think I’ve ever written about fashion. I know I haven’t written about healthcare. So why pitch these topics? I make it really easy to see what this blog is all about – you just need to check the black category navigation menu at the top of every page. Or, simpler still, check the About This Blog page. If you don’t take the time to see if there’s a fit, why should I take the time to make the fit?

3. Check the archives

A lot of the time when I’m pitched, it’s clear the person behind the outreach hasn’t carried out even the barest of research on this blog. If they had have done, they would have known I’d already talked about their topic before, often more than just the once. Save your time – use the Search This Blog option in my sidebar (or homepage), and use the keywords for your pitch/product/service. If the story angle has been covered, it’s not likely I’m going to do it again.

4. Know my style

I recently received a pitch where the PR agency wanted to control the editorial; only allow for positive praise; and moderate the comments for negative replies. I told them to go shit a porcupine (maybe not in these words, but you get the drift). The voice of a blogger is his or her currency when it comes to readers and their trust – don’t compromise that. Ever. If you don’t understand the tone here – upfront, no bullshit, honest and questioning – then don’t pitch me.

Save Time By Being Diligent

These are just some tips to help you have a better chance of sharing your news here. While the tips are mostly geared towards PR outreaches, they can also be applied to advertorial content and partners.

It’s pointless asking me if I’m interested in advertising skincare products or painting materials, when this blog is primarily about marketing, social media, business, digital/mobile trends and occasionally the odd blogging tip. So try and make the advertorial partnerships a relevant fit for that kind of audience.

If you want to interact with some of the smartest folks on the web, then I’m very fortunate to have them share their expertise in the comments regularly.

They’re probably also interested in hearing from you – as long as you do it right. Sound fair?

Note: While these tips are for this blog, you can pretty much transpose the basics to any blogger you’re looking to connect with.

State of Independence

Years ago I worked in retail on both sides. I started out working for an electrical goods chain store, then moved onto a smaller local one.

Both jobs were great (at least for me), because they satisfied the tech geek in me. Surrounded by home theater kits and massive TV?s? Sign me up!

But as much as I loved working at the big chain store, it never felt fulfilling.

We had to pretty much stick to a sales script and only if we were lucky could we occasionally offer our own take.

We weren?t encouraged to be ourselves.

Same went for special promotions. If a brand was paying to be highlighted that month, you had to sell toward that brand, even if another product was clearly the better one for the customer. It was snake oil salesmen tactics at their worst.

Jump to the little store, however, and the difference was palpable. You actually talked with your customers; asked what they wanted; offered your advice; agreed on essentials versus luxuries; and built an understanding.

Most of all, you were talking as if you?were?the customer.

No BS; no sales crap; no false advertising. Just simple customer-to-customer selling. And it worked. And continues to do so today.

Think about it. When you last went to a record store, or DVD store, or video games store that belonged to a chain, did you come away with just a purchase or a transaction? Because there?is?a difference.

Did you feel that you had bought your purchase yourself, or had bought it because it was sold to you? And I don?t mean because the salesperson picked it up and showed you what was on sale; I mean it was really?sold?to you.

The Indie Effect

From my experiences, independent retailers score every time over the chain stores. Sure, you get the occasional bright spark at a major retailer who lets their passion shine through. But generally, it?s just a job to them.

Indie retailers, on the other hand,?love?what they?re doing. They live the atmosphere that the small store brings. They know customers by name. They know the difference between Product A and Product B because they?use?it and?learn?about it, and not because they?ve read some manufacturer spiel. Then they pass that learning on.

Sure, the major stores might get the big deals from the manufacturers, but as the collapse of some of the big brands in business show, it?s not always about the best deals. At least, not price-wise.

Instead, a lot of the success is coming from the little independent guys jumping in and making people know about their service. By talking to them. By listening to what their customers want. By?being?the customer.

Sound familiar?

Be an Independent Retailer

Social media. Marketing. PR. Advertising. Customer service. Business deals. Business building. Branding. Unbranding.

Everything you do day in, day out ? are you being a major retailer or are you being the independent retailer? Are you saying and doing what all your competitors are doing or are you doing what?you?redoing?

There?s a big difference in approach and sales time is fast approaching. So. What are you?

Building Catapults

Catapults are a great piece of engineering.

They can be small and simple enough for a child to use. They can be intricate and building-sized for an army to use.

They can hit a target a few feet away. They can zone in on a target hundreds of feet way.

Catapults are built to hit whatever you’re aiming for with the least amount of fuss.

Couldn’t businesses benefit from more catapult builders?