by tradesmeninsights | Apr 16, 2009 | Marketing Tips
Once someone goes to your web site, what reason do they have to go back?
I think most of you will agree that once a tradesman has been to your site and got the product info or downloaded some basic info, they normally don’t come back because you haven’t given them a reason to.
Want to scare upper senior management? Go to them with this idea: Make your blog the center piece of your online marketing.
You might initially think that this is a bold concept and many people haven’t considered the possibility of giving up their web site (or their job). I’d imagine for most bigger companies, that would be a hard sell upstairs.
Social media quarterbacked by your blog will bring you more readership and that translates into more opportunities. Think about it. Most everything you have on the web would work on a blog.
Here’s an idea on how to test it without scaring the powers to be. If you have a microsite targeted to a specific trade, niche, product or service, you can check the metrics of how many and how often users go that site, and when they are there, where they go. So you have benchmark data already set up. Now start a blog to that same group of tradesmen, add the same content from your current web site and check the numbers in 3 months.
I’d be willing to bet a good steak dinner that when you look at the metrics for the blog, it will far outperform the web site. Two main reasons for this are that you’re drawing more people because of the content and you’re interacting with them.
Something important to remember is that content is written differently for blogs than the web. Successful blogs write from the benefit angle instead of the capabilities angle which engages the users quicker.
Conclusion: Don’t just make your blog a journal you keep on a daily basis, make it one of the most powerful tools in you marketing tool box.
by tradesmeninsights | Apr 9, 2009 | Marketing Tips
Will blogs replace e-mail?
After Al Gore invented the Internet, everyone was saying that print magazines that served the trades would be a thing of the past. They said that this old technology would be replaced by the Web. Well since the invention of the Internet, there have been thousands of new magazines launched the old-fashioned way via the printing press.
Darren Rowse from the ProBlogger wrote an article on Hendry Lee from BlogBuildingU. Hendry makes a point that the same was said about e-mails once blogs were introduced.
E-mails lead all other channels by a wide margin in terms of performance. 80.4% of more than 3,000 surveyed choose e-mail as a strong adverting performer compared to 56.8% who chose search.
He suggests a combination of both. Here’s his rule of thumb:
Reach your readers whenever they want and via the content distribution channels and formats they prefer. That almost sounds too simple, doesn’t it. Give the customer what he wants, when he wants it. Brilliant!
He goes on to highlight some benefits to both e-mails and blogs.
Here are some highlights:
E-mail lets you deliver content on a regular basis which promotes recognition… good content creates interest … interest encourages interaction.
E-mail helps you move the prospect down the roads by nurturing a relationship and interaction.
Blogs. E-newsletters are the most popular method of driving people back to your blog… build buzz… create a series of lessons that can be delivered using a sequence autoresponder which will deliver them one at a time over a pre-determined interval.
By using both these tools, you can improve your marketing efforts .
To read his entire post: Blogs and Email How to Get the Best of Both Worlds
by tradesmeninsights | Apr 6, 2009 | Marketing Tips
I’ve been reviewing dozens of manufacturer’s blogs and have noticed that a number are committing a fatal error. They are trying to be all things to all people.
That brings up the subject of “niche marketing” and in this case, “niche blogging.”
The more general the blog, the less effective it is if you’re trying to reach a particular target audience. This is never more true when you’re trying to reach a specific group of tradesmen.
The purpose of a blog is to have an ongoing conversation with your customer or potential customer. In the case of professional tradesmen, whether they be electrician, plumbers or iron workers, they only have so much time, and when they’re looking for info, it has to be relevant to them. By focusing in on a niche, you set yourself up as an expert.
Here are six quick tips on how you can make a niche blog work in your favor:
- Engagement. If your blog is focused on an niche, you will develop a following that will be easy to engage in topics presented.
- Expertise. Because you’re focusing on a niche, you become an expert.
- Feedback. Because your focused feedback will increase significantly.
- Relationship building. Isn’t that what blogging is? What a better way to engage someone in a non-threatening way.
- Organic search. Because your topic is focused, it will certainly increase the number of hits.
- Branding. Added exposure, interaction and loyal readership translates into brand building.
Remember that casting a larger net won’t insure you’ll get more fish. You are better off fishing where the fish are.
