by tradesmeninsights | May 14, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
If you’ve been blogging for a while, might I suggest you take the time to revisit some older posts to see if they can be updated and revised. In an ideal world, every one of our posts would be perfect, but let’s face it, we don’t live in an ideal world.
The information we used may be dated, there might be some wrong info in it or you’ve become more of an expert on the subject. And if we’re honest with ourselves, some of our posts weren’t our best efforts. Even changing a post title can dramatically increase traffic to a post.
All good reasons to rework, revise and update.
Here are 5 suggestions on how you might improve and update a post:
- Post Title. This by far is the most important. If the title doesn’t get them hooked, you could be giving away a million dollars in the copy and they wouldn’t even see it.
- Opening Paragraph. We need to remember that when writing blogs it’s different than writing ad or sell sheet copy. You need to answer the question (WIIFM) what’s in it for me. If the reader gets a sense upfront of what the post is about, you have a good chance of keeping them engaged. Newspaper writers are good examples; they lead with a strong headline, give the highlights in the first paragraph and then deliver the details. Go ahead and be a Clark Kent and you’ll see that you might turn into Superman!
- Add more meat. Since your last post, either the industry has changed or you’ve become smarter, so put more meat on the bones.
- Add more depth. Spend a few more minutes giving examples, sharing opinions or suggesting a book.
- Call to action. After all, isn’t one of the purposes of a blog is to engage our readers? Ask a question, direct them to another site or give them some sort of next step.
I’m sure you could think of other steps as well. Darren Rowse has an interesting post, Updating old posts on your blog, that might be of interest to you .
by tradesmeninsights | May 13, 2009 | Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
Micro-blogging is an effective way for people to get messages to the world.
Unlike regular blogging where your posts can go on and on and cover numerous subjects, a micro-blog communicates one event. A good comparison is thinking of it as a cross between social networking and blogging. Another way of thinking of it is it’s the new instant messaging vehicle .
If you’re a Facebook user, chances are you’re already micro-blogging to your friends using their status update. Beyond Facebook, there’s Twitter (which is the fastest growing segment of the online market) that allows you up to 140 characters to convey your message (you really have to be good about what you want to say).
Micro-blogs can be used for both personal and business use. For example, if you’re going to a trade show and are introducing a new product, why not do a tweet or a status update on your Facebook page to let people know where and when this event is happening. These can used for product launches, special promotions or new strategic alliances. You must remember that social means conversational (you can’t be putting a hard sell on someone).
Here are examples of Twitter micro-blog posts to @HomeDepot:
Home Depot is using Twitter to offer help and receive feedback.
Do you have any interesting micro-blogs you’d like to share?
by tradesmeninsights | May 12, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
In today’s economy, you won’t find any marketer that isn’t looking for a better ROI.
I recently read a post by Modern B2B Marketing, sharing some insights as to best practices from some of the industry leaders. I couldn’t say it any better, so here are the top 5 tips that will help you increase your ROI:
1. Be Found — “According to a recent study by Marketing Sherpa, 80% of B2B purchasing decision makers say that they found the vendor when they were ready to buy, rather than responding to a vendor finding them,” answered WebMarket Central’s Tom Pick.
This is coming to be known as inbound marketing. It boils down to ensuring that you have content spread across the web wherever your prospect may be looking, and that your web site is optimized so that prospects can easily find you regardless of where they are in the buying cycle.
2. Implement Lead Nurturing — “Lead nurturing is having consistent and meaningful communication with viable customers regardless of their time to purchase. One of the speakers at a conference recently said, ‘someone is a lead for life.’ I would agree with that sentiment,” said Brian Carroll, author of the popular book, “Lead Generation for the Complex Sale.”
Combined with lead scoring, lead nurturing programs enable you to profile the behavior of those most interested in your company’s goods or services, keep in touch with prospects until they are ready to buy, build preference for your brand, and in some cases, accelerate your customers’ buying cycles.
3. Create Content That Compels Your Prospects To Buy — A compelling video from your CEO may be just what it takes to convince your prospect to buy from you. From white papers and email to blogs and podcasts, there are several ways to share your message in an engaging way, as detailed in our interview with Craig Rosenberg, Vice President of Products and Services at Tippit, Inc. If your goal is to increase the ROI of your marketing efforts, the key is to create and promote content targeted to be relevant to buyers at each stage of your funnel.
4. Integrate Everything — Your prospects don’t just visit web sites. They go to events, enter social media discussions, read blogs, and so on. Amy Hawthorne, Director of Marketing at B2B lead generation company ReachForce, said that your prospects don’t exist in silos, and your marketing efforts shouldn’t either.
When you determine the types of content that will compel your prospects to engage and eventually purchase, promote it on your web site, on your blog, in social discussions, or anywhere else your prospects are spending their time.
5. It All Comes Down To Testing — Nearly every thought leader I spoke with insists on testing. There are potentially hundreds of channels for you to push your marketing message and thousands of combinations of elements for your web site. The best testing programs are ongoing and can include everything from “offer tests,” which experiment with varying pieces of fulfillment, to testing various elements of a web site including images and navigation. The goal of testing is to predict what combination of channels, offers and elements will be most profitable.
Marketing automation can help immensely with the effort it will take to implement the tips above, particularly as they relate to lead nurturing and lead management. By properly implementing the advice offered by our B-to-B Marketing Thought Leaders, you will soon be heading up a detailed and profitable marketing program.
by tradesmeninsights | May 11, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Trends, Social Marketing
A report by Forrester Research found that most corporate blogs kept by business-to-business (B2B) firms failed to energize their intended audiences and engage them in meaningful conversations about trends and products.
Corporate bloggers are apparently struggling to sustain a conversation, while many B2B marketers are failing to realize that good blogging style should resemble a coffee shop conversation, not a whitepaper.
As a result, most B2B blogs are dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion, according to the Forrester report.
More than 70% of the corporate blogs it reviewed stick strictly to business or technical topics and don’t share much personal insight or experience.
74% of B2B blogs receive a minimum of commentary or trackbacks because readers fail to find conversations worthy of their involvement.
Successful blogging, Forrester insists, is not a one-way street, but most corporate bloggers yak away about their companies and products, seemingly oblivious to whether their audience is listening or not.
56% of blogs we examined simply regurgitate company news or executive views, while relatively fewer blogs work to establish thought leadership by enlisting internal experts–with deep, specific knowledge of a particular topic–as their primary blog authors.
“B2B marketers should embrace strategies prominently used by mainstream bloggers to attract readers, build conversations, and engage community members in sharing their experiences with their online peers, the report’s author advises.”
If you can’t get excited about what you do, then please don’t start a blog. It takes time and commitment, and without passion, it’s going to be impossible to move it forward. Your readers will soon spot the lack of passion in what you write.
This isn’t a school project that you do for a set period of time and then it’s done. It’s an ongoing dialog with your audience and it takes planning and managing content and having the right contributors. If you’re organized and have a road map of where you’re going, it will lessen the daily time commitment each of us has. I’ve said in other posts that if you can’t allow 1-2 hours a day to your blog, then don’t do it or find someone who can.
Lee Odden recently gave a presentation, Tips For Better Business Blogging, where he outlines 4 tips for developing a successful blog:
- Develop a practical purpose for your blog
- Plan your editorial and source content
- Socialize by utilizing Facebook, Twitter, Trackbacks to generate traffic
- Measure and promote success to that committee
Conclusion: Social media isn’t going away and businesses will sooner or later figure that out. The key is those that do it first will have a competitive advantage.
Have you had a similar experience you’d like to share?
by tradesmeninsights | May 7, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I keep reminding folks that other than disseminating good information, the #1 goal in my mind is to identify and engage in a conversation with either a customer or potential.
Questions are a great way to give your readers a sense of belonging to a community.
People who have this sense tend to come back for more since they feel a part of your blog. Reader responses give you a gage on your topics as to their relevance and gives you content for future follow-up posts.
I read a post recently from Darren Rowse, Ask a question: 10 reasons why questions work & 12 tips on how to ask them, that gives a good overview. Here are 7 of the top tips:
- Keep your questions relevant to the topic.
- Ask questions that builds on a previous post.
- Ask questions readers will want to know the answer to.
- Give them some options to get the discussion going.
- Use a poll tool to give readers a vote.
- Ask some controversial questions.
- Be willing to share your answer.
Questions initiate conversations, so what do you think?
by tradesmeninsights | May 5, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I’ve written previously that one of the primary objectives of a blog is to engage readers. Unfortunately, we sometimes get so focused on our message and making our blog stand out that we forget about our audience, the people reading our posts. These folks bring new insights and ideas to our posts and provide us with the opportunity for dialogue and feedback .
Here’s an idea: Why not recognize a reader and give them their 15 seconds of fame.Yes, you heard me right, make it about them.
If you create a space or regular column highlighting some of your readers, you accomplish both the benefit of acknowledging that your readers have something to contribute, but it also shows other readers that you value their opinion as well even though you only recognize a few.
A recent post by Darren Rowse, Pay special attention to a reader, outlines 8 ways to highlight your readers. Here are some highlights:
- Promote a comment to a post. When a reader makes a good point, recognize them and talk about their comment.
- Write a post about their blog. Check out some of the blogs of people who share your ideas and write an unpaid review of their blog on what you like about it.
- Send your readers to comment on others blogs. Write a post that links people to another site and ask them to comment on the other person’s site.
- Give readers opportunity to promote themselves. Run a contest/project that gives readers an opportunity to promote themselves.
- Reader of the week. Highlight a reader once a week, say on a Friday.
- Projects/competition. Invite readers to post blogs and share a link with others.
- Run a reader poll. Then highlight it in a follow-up post.
- Invite guest posts. A great way to get another perspective as well as giving someone else the opportunity to have an impact on your blog.
Those are some ideas. What have you found that works?
