Jim's Marketing Blog

Marketing tips and ideas to help you grow your business

Blogging is dead (again!)

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I’ve seen a few comments and blog posts recently, from people claiming (yet again) that blogging is dead. This subject seems to come around every few months; usually after a blogger realises that his or her blog is failing to work for them, the way they intended.  So, rather than adopt a different, more effective strategy, they decide the problem rests with blogging as a platform and that it’s not their fault.

Blogging is very much alive and in excellent health!  Visitor numbers to Jims Marketing Blog blog are up by around 85% over the past 6 months and enquiries for my services as a marketing coach via this blog, are up by closer to 300%.  All of my clients are seeing growth with their blogs, both in terms of visitors and business / business enquiries.  In fact, as a business development or marketing tool, I would say that blogging has never been as powerful as it is today, with the future looking even brighter!

Blogging and marketing

Here’s the thing though: Successful blogging requires a lot more than simply setting up a blog and writing posts!  Like every form of marketing, you will need to plan ahead and work to an effective strategy, if you want to enjoy commercial blogging success.  For example, I spent 6 weeks researching and planing, before I started this blog.  By the time it launched, almost 2 years ago, I already knew what my plans for the first year were.

Within a few months, Jim’s Marketing Blog was generating daily enquiries for my business and was ranked on page one of Google, for the search term “marketing blog“, where it still is today.  None of this happened by accident, or simply because I wrote interesting posts.  As we all know, some of the most gifted writers remain undiscovered.  Others manage to attract readers, but struggle to transfer their readers, into paying clients or customers.

Their experience doesn’t mean that blogging is dead; simply that they need a more effective marketing strategy for their blog.

The next time you hear that blogging is dead, see if you can get a pulse from; Mashable, Techcrunch, Seth Godin, Robert Scoble or myself!


Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

A quick look at Scribnia.com

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A few months ago, I decided to check out a new service called scribnia; which allows people to rate, review and discover bloggers and online writers.  The service was recommended to me by my friend David Spinks, who is scribnia’s community manager.  This is not a full review of the service, but rather a brief snapshot of my experience with it.

Scribnia.com

I’m always on the look out for great writers with something new to say, but find that the same old names pop up again and again on social bookmarking sites and Google.  This makes it harder than it should be, to discover new writers and sites in your niche that are worth reading.  After all, some of the best new writers have pretty poor SEO and some of the most optimised sites are generic when it comes to content.

This is why I decided to take a look at scribnia.com.  Scribnia allows you to pick a category and then check out reviews for writers in that niche – potentially a very useful short-cut.  You can see who is writing the reviews and decide how biased or otherwise they may be, again, very useful.  Also, once you have reviewed 5 writers, scribnia will start suggesting new writers to you; based on the ratings and reviews you have written.  This is my page on scribnia.

If you enjoy the reward element of services like foursquare.com, you will find the badges that reviewers can earn on scribnia interesting.  Badges can be earned for things like the number of reviews you write, the number of people who give a thumbs-up to your reviews etc.  An interesting feature here, is that you can earn a pro-critic badge, after you have written 100 reviews.  If scribnia gains enough traction, I can see this pro-critic idea as being really useful for people, who write reviews for a living or who give reviews as a part of their work.

Scribnia, chickens and eggs

Obviously, a service like scribnia relies on numbers in order to fly.  After all, people will only write reviews if they believe others will see those reviews.  This creates a chicken and egg situation, which is why I decided to write this brief post about the service when David told me about it.  Currently, there are just over 35,000 writers added to the site and there are almost 6,500 users.  The number of users will need to increase, for the service to achieve it’s potential.  However, having used the service and really enjoyed it, I believe the potential is huge.

Jim’s Marketing Blog: Now with added vitamins!

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You may recall me recently mentioning that I was moving this blog to a new hosting provider?  Traffic into this blog has increased massively over the past 6 months and the time was right to upgrade.  Our new host offers me far greater resources, which will allow this blog to continue growing without being moved again.  However, just as importantly, they also offer me vastly improved customer service and technical support.

Well, I’m delighted to say that the move happened yesterday as planned and early signs are extremely encouraging.  A number of people have already asked me which hosting provider I have moved to.  I will let you know via a review; once I have had the chance to test if their services really are as good as they claim them to be.

As with all my online technical issues, I used the services of Mass Media Design to handle the blog’s migration.  I have been a client of theirs for a couple of years now and cannot recommend them highly enough.  Interesting side-note – their co-owner, Gregor Spowart, was the first person I ever followed on Twitter, back in 2008!

You can expect to see my review of the new hosting provider, in around 4 weeks time.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Are you doing it often enough?

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Recently, I have had a lot of people asking me how I come up with fresh ideas for new posts.  So, here’s what works for me and hopefully, will be just as useful for you!

The short answer is that the more you write, the easier it gets.  For example, I used to publish blog posts 5 or 6 times a month and had to think long and hard, before finding a topic.  The posts would then often take me an hour to write.  Today, after publishing over 70 posts in the past 70 days, I have another 100 or so post ideas, just waiting to be written.

The more you do it, the easier it gets

It seems counter intuitive, as you would imagine that the more ideas you write about, the fewer you would be left with.  However, it appears that the process of getting ideas fleshed out, written down and commented on, actually produces lots of new, fresh topics for future posts.  So, I publish a post and usually get ideas for several more.

I have read many experts over the years, who agree that we can all massively increase our levels of creativity in a particular area (like blogging), by deliberately using our creative skills in that area, on a regular basis.  In other words, just as a muscle becomes stronger the more it gets exercised, our creativity becomes stronger the more it is exercised too.  That is exactly what my experience has been.

I have also discovered that it is important (for me anyway), to set a specific time aside each day, to write the posts.  So, although I capture ideas for blog posts all day long, I have found that the ideal time for me to write blog posts, is early morning.  This means my posts are written before my working day begins.

As a result, not only does blogging not get in the way of my work flow – It actually stimulates my creativity, for my work with clients during the day.

Business blogging at the weekends: Is it worth it?

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Have you ever wondered about the value of posting content to a business focused blog, like this one, during the weekend?  If you have, you might find my experience interesting.

Blogging on a Saturday

Reader numbers here drop like a stone on Saturdays.  I get around 50% of my weekday average, sometimes even fewer.  Yes, there are exceptions to this, but typically I see around half as many readers show up.  Even yesterday, when I published 2 blog posts, I saw only a very slight increase in numbers.

Blogging on a Sunday

Sundays are very different! Reader numbers on a Sunday are the same as a regular weekday.  In fact, I have had some of the busiest days ever here on a Sunday.

Based on my experience, if you write a business blog and you are thinking of publishing content on one day over the weekend, I would recommend a Sunday.  Not only are reader numbers higher on a Sunday, I typically see a greater level of reader engagement  too.  That is to say, a higher percentage of readers will comment here or email me.  Page view numbers (per reader) are also higher on Sundays than on Saturdays.

Do you publish posts at the weekend? Let us know your experience!

In order to make this post as valuable as possible, I would like to know what your experience is, of publishing weekend blog posts – in relation to reader numbers.  Are my experiences typical? Please share your feedback!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

What do your links say about you?

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What do the links on your website or blog tell prospective clients and customers about the kind of person you are?

One of the reasons that Google has become the dominant player in the search engine market, is that so much of what it does, reflects the way humans think.  If Google’s algorithm spots that your website is linking to what it calls a “bad neighborhood” it will penalise the site with a worse ranking in Google’s search results. 

I wrote recently about link exchanges and how they can hurt your site’s reputation.

In exactly the same way, if a prospective client or customer visits your website / blog and sees that you are linking to something that they believe is dubious, you will drop in their regard.  This can have a massive negative impact on their decision to contact you.

Just as our parents told us to be careful about the kids we hung around with when we were young, today, as businesspeople, we need to be careful not to associate our name and reputation with the wrong crowd.  Many people see a link as an endorsement.  After all, we certainly wouldn’t link from our site, to a site that we thought was dubious, right?

I think it’s a good idea from time to time, to review the people and companies we link to and the kind of message, which these links give to people when they visit our site.

If you were checking out a potential service provider, what kind of links would put you off?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Bad company?

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I had a great conversation yesterday, with the owner of a New York based SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) business.  We were talking about the way that Google penalises websites, if that site links to what Google calls a “bad neighborhood.”  Here’s a brief clip from the Google Webmaster Guidelines;

“…avoid links to web spammers or “bad neighborhoods” on the web, as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.”

I find this extremely interesting!

What Google is doing there, is exactly the same as you and I do, when we see that a person, business or brand is associating with something that we believe to be negative.  If Google believes we are linking to something dubious, it assigns less credibility to us.  If we, as people, see that a person or brand is linking to something dubious, we do exactly the same.

Just about every book on personal or professional development, advises us to be very careful about the kind of people we associate with.  I still recall getting into bad company as a kid, and then being accused of things I never did; simply because I was associating with the kids that were responsible for 99% of the mischief in our area.  By linking with these kids, I was making it easy for people to think that I was “like” they were.

There are a number of good reasons for this sage advice.  For example, if we associate with negative people, it’s all too easy for us too, to become primarily negative in our outlook.  Conversely, if we associate with people, who are goal orientated and positive in their outlook, it’s a lot easier for us to remain primarily positive.

Be extremely selective who you align your name, reputation or online presence with.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Are your competitors being marketed professionally? Here are 5 clues!

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Here are 5 tell-tale signs that your competitors are not marketing their services professionally:

  1. Their marketing contradicts itself.  For example, they will have a website that was clearly “built on the cheap” – Yet their cheap looking website will tell you that they focus on quality.  Clearly they do not!  This kind of fractured message immediately turns people away.
  2. When describing what they do, they use the word “solutions” instead of the word “services”.  For example; “we provide a range of small business solutions”.  This use of the word solutions totally fails as a marketing term and really irritates a lot of people.
  3. They have a section on their website called “news” that has not been updated in 6 months.
  4. Their written marketing is dull, filled with generic promises and far too wordy.
  5. When you ask them why their sales numbers are down, they blame the economy – NEVER themselves! This is despite the fact they have competitors; selling the same offering, to the same people, in the same marketplace, with great success.

So, what would you add to that list?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Get to the point!

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One of the fastest ways to improve the effectiveness of your marketing messages, is to get to the point as soon as possible, in as few words as possible.

For example, I recently helped a new client increase the conversion rate of a page on his website by 450%, after reducing the number of words on that page by 75%.  I have also seen response rates from email marketing soar by over 700%, when rambling copy was changed into a shorter, compelling and more powerful message.

Most of the written marketing I see is at least 50% too long.  This is because amateur copy writers feel they have to include everything in every marketing message they write.  They feel compelled to tell the reader about every benefit of what they do.  They don’t want to miss a thing, so they go into way too much detail.  Thus, what needed to be a brief, focused message with impact, becomes a meandering, diluted message instead.

If you are disappointed by the conversion rates of your written marketing, it might be time to focus more on brevity.  Concentrate on delivering your most powerful points and do it with impact!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Increase your blog’s readership the easy way!

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Here’s a quick marketing tip, to help you increase the readership of your blog.  To get started, I would like to ask you a quick question:

“Do you offer people the option to subscribe to your blog, via email?”

If not, you should!  Why?

Reading blogs via email RSS

Email is one of the single most popular ways for people to read blog posts.  For example, over 50% of this blog’s subscribers, read this blog via email – NOT via the Internet!  That box on the upper right hand side of the blog, allows people to have this blog delivered to your inbox and that’s exactly what they do.  I’m suggesting you offer your readers the same option.

How to offer YOUR blog posts via email

feedburner, rss, how to,I use and recommend a very popular free service called Feedburner, for delivering my blog posts via RSS (Really Simple Syndication.)

Feedburner allows you to do a lot more than just deliver your blog posts via email or RSS readers.  For example, it offers lots of useful stats, to show you how people read your posts, which links they click and dozens of other metrics.  You can also tell Feedburner when to send your posts via email, allowing you to reach your readers at just the right time.  It’s a great service.

The key thing is not to worry too much about the terms I’m using here, it’s simply a matter of setting up a Feedburner account and following the set-up process.  Here’s a nice guide to setting up your Feedburner account, though there are also YouTube video tutorials, if you prefer a more visual approach.

UPDATE: In the years since this post was written, I have switched to a service called Mailchimp. You can get my blog delivered for free, by clicking here.

Make your RSS options visible

Once your Feedburner account is active, make sure it is highly visible on your blog.  If you check out most professional marketing blogs, you will see that we place our RSS subscriber options very close to the top of the page – so EVERYONE can see it.  You can also publicise your Feedburner RSS feed in the signature file of your regular business emails, using a simple piece of code.

The bottom line:  If you have not been offering your readers the opportunity to subscribe to your blog via email, I strongly recommend you start.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Social media marketing – A more social approach

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Some people have asked me, why I place so much emphasis on building a community rather than a following.  Yesterday, within a 30 minute period, I received 2 emails from people enquiring about my services.  I believe the way these emails begin, (see excerpt below), demonstrates the marketing value of community.

Email 1:
“Dear Jim,
You don’t know me, but I feel I know you very well through reading your blog for some time now.”

Email 2:
“Hey Jim,
I read your marketing blog and although we have never met I feel like I’ve known you for years.”

Clearly, in both cases the person enquiring felt comfortable writing to me.  There was no barrier in the way – I was approachable.  Equally, in both cases, the writer said that they felt like they knew me.

This is REALLY important!

Why?

Because one of the reasons so many business owners and marketers fail to transfer their online networks and social media activity into bankable results, is that they place too much distance between themselves and the people they network with.  Even if they do try and build a community, it’s a community that has them positioned as the leader, rather than a host.

I’ve written about the host approach to social media before.  Here’s a brief overview.

Social media hosts

For the past few years, business owners and marketers have been told to build a following or tribe and then market to them.  I’ve always been uncomfortable with that.  So, I use a very different approach, which is based on the idea of a level playing field, where everyone is equal – No tribal leaders.

Think of the host at a really enjoyable party.  He or she greets guests when they arrive and spends the evening mixing with everyone and making sure that a great time is had by all.  The host of the party is not the leader, but rather an attendee; with a responsibility to ensure that everyone has the best experience possible.  They are eating, drinking and dancing alongside you.  They are talking with you and laughing with you.  When you leave the party, you leave with a great, positive feeling.  My approach to social media marketing, is based on that same host model.

The pay off?

The pay off for the kind of approach I advocate, was demonstrated in those 2 emails from yesterday.  By developing a network of people around your work, who feel that they know you and that you are approachable, you also build a deep and wide prospective client pool.

I would really like to hear your thoughts on the whole idea of social media rock stars.  Is it time for a more social approach to relationship building?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

A simple way to stay on your reader’s radar!

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As you may know, I’ve been on holiday for the past 8 days.  Because blogging is such a valuable part of my communications strategy, it was important for me to be able to maintain my blogging pattern, whilst I wasn’t here.

This post is all about how wordpress’ scheduled posts feature allowed me to have a fresh post here for you each day – even though I was holidaying with my family, and why scheduling posts can be so valuable for business bloggers.

WordPress’ Scheduled Posts feature

Scheduled postsLike many people who blog regularly, I often write several blog posts at once and then use wordpress’ scheduled post feature, to publish my posts over the coming days.

This is always a really useful feature, but when you are away from work and, as in my case, away from an Internet connection too, it’s pure gold dust!

Why bother posting when I’m not here?

There are a number of reasons, why it makes sense for business bloggers to maintain the regularity, with which they post.  I mention most of them here, in “why some bloggers post every day.”

However, on a very basic level, I have found that just as people get used to visiting a blog regularly, they can also get used to NOT visiting that blog just as easily.  This simple, long established feature of wordpress means that so long as you have the content written up, a blogger never needs to have those 7 or 14 day gaps, where they drop from their reader’s radar.

Do you use scheduled posts?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Blogging perfection?

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Are you interested in improving the regularity and value of your blogging?  If you are, you might find this post extremely useful!

I was recently asked how long I spent, writing my blog posts.  The answer I gave was that it usually takes me between 20 to 30 minutes; occasionally a little longer.  The guy who asked me, said that he often spends a couple of hours writing a single post.  This is something I hear about a great deal – people who love the idea of blogging, but who find it takes too long to produce great content regularly.  This makes it very hard to build a substantial readership or develop a community around the blog’s readers.

Blog posts do not need to be perfect

I’ve spoken with dozens of bloggers, who are only able to publish a post a handful of times a month or so, and in almost every case, their problem is that they are seeking perfection from every post.  The challenge with the perfectionist-blogger’s mindset, is that it stifles their creativity.  It clogs up momentum.  In my opinion, it also makes the blogger seem less natural or personable too – which is a BIG mistake, if you want your readers to identify with you as a person!

One of the great things about writing a blog, is that errors can not only be fixed (if you wish;) they often open up great debates in your blog’s comment section.  Yes, you should always strive to make what you write as good, valuable and clear as possible, but ultimately, you need to give yourself permission to be human.  This means allowing yourself the freedom to be just 99% right, occasionally ;)

A blog post or a special report?

Another reason why many people find it takes them so long to write their blog posts, is that they write such LONG posts.  Some of these posts are so detailed, that they read more like special reports, than blog posts.  Now, for those people, who are happy with blogging less often and writing GREAT, long, detailed posts – this is perfect.  However, if you blog (like I do) as a way to market your services and you want people to regularly get involved with your blog and contribute – you may want to think about shorter, punchier posts.

I know that many people struggle with brevity.  Some find it hard to make their points in few words, others feel that the length of a post is a key determinate of that post’s value.  I can tell you from experience, that most popular posts on this blog, are usually the shorter ones!

Your blogging tips

I know that many of you are bloggers and I would LOVE to hear your tips, for producing great quality, regular content.  It would be great if you could share your ideas here, with your fellow readers and myself!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

It’s all about them!

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Why do so many marketers focus on what THEY want in their marketing messages, rather than the needs of their marketplace?

I was looking through my inbox earlier, and found several emails from people, who have been hounding me for business.  Not only have they been emailing me too frequently, but the tone of their emails is all about them, them, them.  Here’s what I keep seeing, from various people marketing AT me, right now:

  • THEY WANT the opportunity to show me their wonder product.
  • THEY WANT just 10 minutes of my time.
  • THEY WANT to add me to their mailing lists.
  • THEY WANT me to call them before Friday, when THEIR sale ends.

Guess what?  The marketplace does not care what THEY WANT!

It’s all about the customer

One of the golden rules of effective sales and marketing, is that it needs to be customer focused.  We need to look for ways to help our prospective clients or customers, using our products or services as part of that solution.  As a wise man once told me;

“To a guy with severe toothache, who is in constant pain and has not slept in 2 days, the pain of that toothache is more relevant than the news that scores of people perished in a disaster on the other side of the world.”

The more relevant something feels to us, the more inclined we are to give it our attention.  This is just as true with marketing.  A well targeted marketing message, which focuses on helping the reader improve their situation, is far more powerful, than a self-focused sales pitch.

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Quick blog announcement

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This is just a quick note, for regular readers and especially those, who comment here.

As you may already know, I’m on holiday until Friday 28th.  This is just to let you know that although I will be publishing blog posts this week, I won’t be available to reply to your comments until I get back.

Be good while I’m away and enjoy the posts ;)

My name’s Jim Connolly and I am a blogger!

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Last month, someone introduced me to one of his friends.

In his introduction, he said:
“This is Jim Connolly, he’s that marketing blogger I’ve been talking about.”

This REALLY made me think!

Why?

This may sound nuts, but here goes:  You see, although I own a blog and write posts most days, I have always seen myself simply as a marketing guy, who uses a blog as a way to share ideas and connect with people.  When I think of a blogger, at least a commercial blogger, I have always thought of those people who attend the blogging shows, have lots of ads around their sites and make their primary income via their blog.

Then it dawned on me…

Maybe I don’t attend the blogging shows or have lots of ads here and no, my primary income is not connected with the blog – BUT I DO market my coaching services here, which is my second largest income stream and what I am best known for.  I also post here regularly and have made a number of fantastic business contacts, directly via this blog.

Perhaps just as importantly, I LOVE blogging.  I see it as a wholly pleasurable experience and something that is actually a lot more important to me than I could have imagined, when I started out 19-months ago.  Of course, all this happened slowly over the course of almost 2 years.

So yes, around 5 weeks ago I came to the conclusion that I am a passionate, commercial blogger.

Interestingly, in the weeks since I changed my perceptions about being a blogger, reader numbers have grown faster than ever before – with a 57% increase in the past 4 weeks alone.  I have also written a lot more regularly than before, and found that the posts have come to me effortlessly.

I always find it amazing, how the way we perceive things has such an enormous impact on our performance and results.

Have you ever experienced anything similar?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

Google, link exchanges and you!

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Do you get emails from people you don’t know, asking you to do link exchanges with them?  If you do, before you decide to do the exchange, please consider the following very carefully.

Link Exchanges: A brief overview

The reason people want you to exchange links with them is simple: The more links pointing to a site, the higher it will rank with Google and Co.

In fact, the number (and quality) of links pointing to your site, is the single most important part of your SEO (search engine optimization).  So, SEO companies regularly send emails to thousands of people asking for links, hoping to increase the number and quality of links that point to their customer’s websites and blogs.  Usually, the higher your Google Page Rank, the more requests you will get.

Link exchanges: The risks

Link exchanges and the old “Switcheroo”: Increasingly, people are building what look like regular websites and asking for link exchanges.  Then, after a set number have been gathered, the site is transformed into a scam site.

This switch tactic is starting to gather pace and as I will explain in a moment, it’s not a good idea for you to link to sites, which Google considers “spammy”, as they call it. If you HAVE already offered links to people you do not know, it might be worth checking their site out again.

Link exchanges into bad neighbourhoods: Linking to the wrong kind of sites can also see YOUR site penalised (see below.)  Bad neighbourhoods exist on the Internet, just like they do in the off-line world.  In online terms, a bad neighbourhood is a site that is considered by the search engines to be spammy or dubious in some way.

Google does not like link exchanges: If you want to attract visitors from Google, you need to know that Google considers link exchange schemes as a violation of their guidelines and that they will penalise sites, which they believe are involved in them.  You can learn about Google’s policy on link exchanges here – Along with a link that you can use to resubmit your site, if you are already being penalised.

Why is Google so strict on these exchanges?  It sees them as a way of deliberately trying to manipulate their page ranking system.  This system is how they deliver search results, and those results are what keep people using Google – and allows Google to make the BIG advertising bucks!

Legitimate linking?

The general consensus is you should link to people, when appropriate for what YOU want to achieve.  If you want to share other sites, posts, articles or online resources – link to them.

Where do I stand on this?

I get link exchange emails at least half a dozen times every day and I delete them.

Why?

Because I refuse to associate my name or reputation with someone I don’t know.  I don’t really care what Google thinks about my blog, but I DO care passionately about the 15 years I have spent building my business and my brand and I won’t risk negatively impacting that.

Ultimately, you need to do what you believe is right for what YOU want to achieve.  I just think it’s useful to have some additional info, so the next time you get a link exchange request, you can make the right judgement for YOU – NOT the other guy!

Say it like you MEAN it!

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Have you ever noticed how powerful it is, when someone talks to you about something they are passionate about?  It makes a massive difference to the effectiveness of their message and the energy created can be really infectious.

So, why do so many business owners totally fail to inject REAL passion into their communications with people?

Marketing and passion

Whether you are speaking with people, recording a message or writing about your product or service, you should be doing it with passion.  After all, how the heck do you expect other people to be interested in you or your business, if you don’t sound like you are?

I decided to write this post, after watching a video presentation on a guys website, where the guy sounded half asleep.  There was no energy or passion when he spoke.  He talked about his services, like he was reading a shopping list.

Marketing and motivation

Equally, I read copy every day on websites and blogs, which is supposed to motivate the reader to take action – Yet the copy is pedestrian and lacks impact.

The bottom line: If you want to compel people to take action; to buy from you, call you, email you or click a link – you need to inspire them to do so. You need to motivate your site visitors, so they go from being a reader (passive) to a being a participant (active).

Are you getting bankable results from your blog?

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Fact: Very few small business owners who blog, generate anything like the results they could.

Why?

This is the easiest question I have ever answered here! The reason so few bloggers attract the volume of sales, leads or enquiries they should, is that they copy what they see other bloggers doing.

Here’s what I see all day every day:  I see bloggers writing a valuable, correctly optimized blog post, before heading off to their preferred social networking sites to try and get the post noticed.  Sound familiar?  If it does, I hope it’s not because you are using that same approach.  If you are, you are missing the most important elements – those rare, additional steps that make all the difference and get people spending money with you!

I was explaining this to a new client of mine yesterday afternoon.  She’s intelligent, charismatic and a specialist in her profession.  However, like many specialists who use blogging as part of their marketing mix, she had been using the same approach that I outlined above – which failed her (which is why she hired me.)

An hour into our meeting, I showed her what’s possible when you use the right approach.  I quickly checked the email account, which gets all the enquiries generated from this blog.  In that hour alone, there had been 3 emails, including an enquiry for my services.  By the end of business yesterday, that enquiry became a confirmed, new client and I’m really looking forward to helping them achieve bankable results too.  I’m not telling you that to impress you, but to impress upon you just what’s possible, when you use the correct strategy.

Of course, there are 2 major problems with trying to achieve success, by copying what you see others doing.

  1. You might be copying what does not work.  It’s easy to see a blog with lots of comments or lots of retweets / facebook “likes” etc – and assume this means the blog is also commercially successful.  It doesn’t!All those measurements show you is that there are people who commented there or retweeted the post.It tells you zero about how commercially effective that blog is at generating new business for it’s owner.  Many of my clients come to me with large social networks and active blogs that they have worked really hard on, with nothing to show for it.  You know what?  People will have been copying THEIR approach too, because it looked successful from the outside!
  2. Not only may you be copying what does not work, but even if you found a blog that was doing things right, the untrained eye will miss it completely.That’s because the many differences between a blog that’s an income generating machine and one that’s not, are extremely subtle.For example, I don’t know much about golf, so when I see a golfer hitting a golf ball, that’s all I see.  When a professional golfer sees that same guy hitting that same ball, they can identify exactly what’s happening – what’s failing, what needs removing and what needs to be added to the golfer’s swing etc.

When it comes to marketing, a blog is like any other tool.  If used correctly, it can easily become your best source of new, targeted business.  However, just like every other marketing tool, only a tiny fraction of small business owners use blogs correctly, for what they want to achieve.

The rest just dabble and as a result, it costs them a fortune in lost business and YEARS in wasted time.

In short, if you want to enjoy better results you need a better strategy.  You need an effective strategy that’s been developed for; you, your business, your industry, your unique resources and what you want to achieve.  Whatever you elect to do, if you are not currently getting the regular stream of new business from your blog that you deserve, please change course.

As I have said here many times before; if you are rowing your boat in the wrong direction, no matter how hard you row, you will simply end up further and further away from where you want to be.  You deserve far better than that!

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!

7 ways to improve your Internet presence!

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Here are seven quick tips to help you improve your online presence.

  1. If you have a section on your website or blog, called “news” either update it regularly or delete it.  When someone clicks on that page and sees that the last entry was 6 months ago, it hardly makes you or your business look dynamic.
  2. Write the copy (wording) of your site exclusively for your target prospective clients and no one else.  If you are reading this, it’s almost certain that you are the owner of a business – that’s because you are the person I write for.  Everything I do here, is designed for you.  A message that is 100% relevant to a target group of people will generate massively better results, than a message that tries to be all things to all people.  If you want to work with your ideal type of clients, write just for them and stop trying to please everyone.
  3. If you ask people to comment on your blog or email you, you owe it to them to reply (if a reply is necessary.)  I find it amazing that even the top social media gurus get this wrong.  They ask for comments and then ignore 75% of them.
  4. Look before you link!  What do you think it says about you and your professionalism, if prospective clients visit your site and see that you link to sites that are unprofessional?  The power of association is incredible.  Show that you associate with great people and brands.
  5. If you have a blog, it’s nice occasionally to tell your readers how great some other people or companies are.  Don’t just talk about yourself.  It shows confidence and class.  BTW: Most of the people I tell my readers about on my blog are fellow marketing guys; my supposed competition.  If they provide useful, valuable content, I want you to know about them!
  6. On the subject of blogging, it’s not for everyone.  I find it amazing when I hear social media gurus telling everyone to get a blog.  Here’s the problem with that: Not everyone wants to write or enjoys writing.  If you don’t like writing or find it hard to come up with interesting ideas – leave it!  A poorly written blog that’s seldom updated, is not going to help you achieve anything.
  7. If you make a claim on your site or social network, make sure you can back it up.  My friend Irene Koehler from almostsavvy.com met the top tech journalist and blogger Robert Scoble at an event in San Francisco last year.  She introduced herself to Robert, by saying that they had a mutual contact; Jim Connolly from the UK.  Scoble smiled, said yes and asked her to say “hi” to me.  Can you imagine how bad I would have looked, if I had told her we knew each other, and he told her that he’d never heard of me?  If we make a claim about who we know or what we have achieved, it better be true; because it’s never been easier to bust a fake!

So, what tip or tips would you like to add to that list?

Let’s work together and grow your business. To find out more click here!