Jim Connolly Marketing

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 ;)