by tradesmeninsights | Oct 6, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
Blogs are still a very effective way of reaching an audience, especially if you’re in a niche market. While it may be true that social networks and microblogs have outpaced the traditional blog, the opportunity for you to build thought leadership and branding is better served by blogs.
More than 50% of web users will read blogs this year. According to eMarketer, by 2014, 150 million Americans, or 60% of the population of the U.S., will be reading blogs. Blogging has become an accepted part of the online media landscape and blogging is easy to do.
“Trends in blog reading are expected to maintain an upward course as blogs continue to gain influence in mainstream media,” said Paul Verna, a senior analyst with eMarketing and author of “The Blogosphere: Colliding with Social and Mainstream Media.”
What’s the upside for someone looking to make an impact using social media: think about doing a blog.
Here are some other posts about blogging you might find interesting:
Pros and Cons of Starting a Blog
6 Tips to Make your Blog More Successful in Reaching the Professional Tradesmen
LinkedIn: Great Tool to Drive Traffic to Your Website
by tradesmeninsights | May 25, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
B-to-B marketers, to be successful in the world of blogging, you must truly be focused on your target market.
A blog should be central to your company’s social media strategy for new business. What fuels the engine to this strategy is good content.
You must consistently feed your inbound marketing machine with rich content or you will see a slow-down in traffic, search engine results and prospective client leads.
Here are my 6 tips to be more effective with your blogging:
- To be successful, you need to write a lot. The more posts you add to your blog, the more traffic you’ll get. The more content can also fuel repurposing content through other social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. No content = no fuel = no traffic = no new business leads.
- Be consistent. To keep writing, I visualize someone walking to the end of their driveway to pick up the morning paper, only to discover there’s nothing there. That helps me to stay motivated to write 2 to 3 posts per week. My readers know what to expect. I want to give them a reason to consistently come back.
- Write concisely. People are busy. They need your content to be easy to digest. Provide them with the Readers Digest version. Make your content easy to scan, provide bullet points and numbered lists. People will be much more interested in what you have to say if you don’t try and fluff it up.
- Use your analytics. Know what your readers care about and what they respond to. It will help you to connect with your audience. They’re the judge and jury of whether your content is relevant or not. I know daily where my readers are coming from, what post titles and content generates the most traffic and what search terms they are using.
- Use your writing to learn. When I first started blogging, I was reminded of the old saying, “you don’t know what you know until you write it down.” It’s true. Writing strategizes and invigorates my learning. It can get me ahead of the learning curve and provide me with a system to stay there.
- Keep focused. If your blog is broad, you will not generate any significant traffic. Narrow your focus. Think narrow and deep rather than wide and shallow. Know who you are writing to, what you are writing about, know the categories you will be writing to, the key words that you want to dominate for search.
If you like this post, please pass it on.
Here are some other posts that might be of interest:
5 Quick Tips to Promote Your Posts.
How to Find Readers for Your Blog.
Forrester Report: Most B-to-B Blogs Fail.
by tradesmeninsights | Feb 9, 2010 | Marketing Tips, Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
Manufacturers are missing an opportunity to build brand awareness and thought leadership if they don’t consider using a blog as part of their marketing mix. Contractors, plant engineers and maintenance workers are looking at ways to solve problems and learn quick tips on how to do their jobs better.
In a recent post on eMarketer, Bloggers and (personal) brand building, they cited a poll done by Technorati on the state of the blogosphere 2009 that showed that:
- Over 70% of those polled talked about products or brands on their blog.
- Nearly 60% said they were better known in their industry because of their blog.
- 63% had converted prospects to customers.
- 56% have seen their blog bring their company recognition as a thought leader.
So why aren’t you considering a blog for your business to reach your audience?
by tradesmeninsights | Dec 2, 2009 | Marketing Tools, Social Marketing
With more B-to-B marketers jumping on the social media bandwagon, some are so focused on the content that they sometimes ignore the metrics to see if what they are writing is being read, and more importantly, acted upon. Analytics are a crucial component to successfully generating traffic to your blog,Web site and inbound new business leads. But for many manufacturers, best practices for using analytics isn’t understood at all.
The tools are available and be sure to use them. A good resource is the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). Their IAB SmartBrief is one of the daily e-mail newsletters that I receive. It always has helpful information, “what you need to know,” about analytic practices, trends and research pertinent to your company.
Here’s a sampling of some of the latest articles from IAB Smart Brief newsletter:
Click Here to sign up for the IAB SmartBrief.
by tradesmeninsights | Sep 16, 2009 | Marketing Tips, Social Marketing
I’ve never been much for beating around the bush. I like to get to the point and move on. Much like a missile, which when programmed, is focused and keeps on track to its target…so should a good post. I guess that’s why I like Twitter so much, because it makes you choose your words carefully, not only to communicate the message, but to be impactful as well. I read a post recently on Copyblogger by Michelle Russell, How to write with a knife, that gives great insight into how to sharpen your message. She does an excellent job showing you how to get the wheat away from the chaff. So enjoy.
Here is some other interesting reading:
Why most Blogs Fail
5 Tips on How to Improve your Blog
