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I’d like to share something with you, which has greater potential to improve your marketing, than anything I have ever known.
Imagine you were able to communicate with your prospective clients. Not through advertising. Not through pestering them for attention. But through building a relationship with them, where they value your expertise. So they look forward to you communicating with them. And they want to hear from you.
Does that imaginary scenario remind you of anything?
Here’s a clue: You’re reading this. You’re a business owner. I provide services to business owners.
Blogging isn’t dead
Every year since I started blogging, people have claimed that blogging is dead. It isn’t. In fact, it’s vastly more effective today than it was 10 years ago, when I wrote my first marketing blog post. And back then, it was already the most powerful marketing tool I had ever known.
Blogging is so much more powerful now.
Why?
Here are just a few reasons.
1. People are eagerly looking for blog posts
There are close to 2 billion people using social networks. Many millions of them are actively looking for relevant information to share with their friends. And that’s exactly what they do. If a post is interesting and marketed correctly, it will be shared.
This sharing increases your reach, as new people subscribe to your blog. And not just “people”, but new people who are interested in what you do. Yes, prospective clients and customers!
2. The power of email
Email distribution of blog posts allows people to have a one-to-one communication channel with the blogger. If you’re reading this via email, hit reply and your email will arrive in my inbox. Readers do this every day. Think about that for a moment.
How useful would it be for your business, if prospective clients were reaching out to you every day?
And how valuable would it be, if you had a growing email list of thousands of prospective clients, who eagerly want to hear from you?
3. Your prospective clients or customers read blogs
People wrongly assume THEIR prospective clients don’t read blogs. And they’re wrong. (I wrote about this here.)
Did you know, Wordpress blogs alone account for almost 30% of ALL INTERNET traffic? Well, it’s true! Here are some you may have heard of: CNN, Time, The New York Post, Variety, USA Today, The Star Wars website, Sony Music, MTV News, BBC America, The Walt Disney Company website, The Harvard Gazette, The New Yorker, The Mercedes Benz website… all these sites (and millions more) are built on the same WordPress blogging software as mine.
If you’re serious about growing your business today, you need a blog and a darn good blogging strategy. Otherwise you’ll miss out on the world’s most powerful marketing tool.