How blogging leads to business
July 28, 2007 at 12:21 pm | In Networking, Personal Branding, Positioning, Project Management, Success Methodologies, Success Strategies | 6 Comments
People from around the world are interested in a variety of subjects. They scour the internet, using google and technorati to search for these subjects in order to gain knowledge. Blogs have become the center resource for this knowledge, providing a first hand and personal feel that people can relate to. When visitors or perspective customers visit a blog, they can not only gain insight into a subject they are interested in already, but get a feel for the author who is writing it. There is no better way to start, grow and expand your business than creating a blog that is the interface to the customer. A blog acts as the middle-man between your business and the potential customer. It is a touch point by where visitors are converted to customers. Your Personal Brand allows for this connection to take place. By branding yourself as an expert in your field, readers are more likely to be interested in your writing, your brand and your corporate brand. Your goal is to be perceived as a major player on the subject that you deal with on your blog. There are 3 stages that will help you generate new business or retain customers, which I call “The Blog Conversion Cycle.” It all starts with writing a blog!
Stage 1: A visitor searches the internet and lands on your blog. They enjoy the material, as well as your subject matter expertise. They are an active participant in the blog by commenting or emailing the author. Once this connection takes place, there is a relationship and as we all know, that leads to new business opportunities. Remember that not everyone who visitors your blog will purchase your products or services or even subscribe. The percentage that hold interest are more inclined to travel to your corporate webpage afterward.
Stage 2: When a visitor has enough interest in your blog and perceives you as a leading service provider through your bio (could be LinkedIn), then they will be more likely to visit your corporate webpage or the page in your blog designated to product or service transactions. With a clear value proposition and marketing collateral to back it up, your business will be viewed as attractive to this customer. After learning about the topic, your business and your Personal Brand from your blog, visitors will be converted to customers that are ready to purchase.
Stage 3: As an expert providing a high quality product or service through your business webpage, you have now found an evangelist to spread awareness of your blog, business and Personal Brand to others. This may be done virally through the internet, physically through word of mouth or by links on other blogs or webpages. Either way, a happy customer is bound to speak about your business to others. Customers who refer others in their network to your blog are valuable assets to your company because they are your spokesman. Your customer can create new visitors to your blog, who will go through a similar cycle.
By using your Personal Brand through this cycle, you can expedite the results. I say this because the deeper the connection and relationship you have with visitors, the quicker they will be converted to customers. By blogging you are establishing that connection and through comments, email and other forms of communication, you are creating a bridge from your blog to your business.
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Entries and comments feeds.
a blog is a novel way to Enable, Encourage, and Ease others to recommend your products, services, and expertise.
blogs also enable context-based selling. nowadays, with free services like google checkout, we can do a 1-click to our prospects’ credit card.
make a sale. get ten bucks or something. even if you make a lot more.
My #1 Thumb-rule: “Get paid for your marketing!” Blogging makes us money …
(and it’s a lot of fun).
~ Vikram
content is king. be known for some value to the target market community.
if you just want a boss, then sure… they’ll be googling you.
but for a while to come, your target market or community of prospects will be searching for your competency value, or expertise. your expertise has specific jargon, currents, trends, news… and already successful personal brands. Hitch upon these stars!
Blogging on the most relevant topics will make you popular, insightful, practical, and entertaining … in your Community. You will also come up in google when people are searching for those keywords.
I have a widget on my blog that shows me the key phrases people search and then click on to get to my blog. Its such a valuable market research tool.
Get to know your prospects. You will get to know what your personal brand should be.
~ Vikram
PersonalBrandMarketing.com
Comment by Vikram Rajan — July 29, 2007 #
Dan – Great post.
Blogging is one of the best ways I know of when it comes to building your personal brand. The blog medium allows you to communicate on a personal rather than a corporate level, which is essential for encapsulating customers rather than the more distant, professional copy of a mainstay website.
It’s all about image and community, and through blogging, you can enhance your personal brand no end through the channel you create with your readership.
Comment by Biz-Blogger.net — July 30, 2007 #
Dan, you did it again…
That’s a GREAT post! It’s not easy for people new to Internet marketing to realize the importance…or shall I say significance of blogging.
When people read, they are verbalizing to themselves – far more impactful than listening!
Comment by Roger Loh — July 31, 2007 #
I like what you say here. I also, especially like the graphic at the beginning of the post. It very well sums up the entire post! Not many graphics do that.
It is so amazing to see people/businesses flourish with word of mouth advertising. That is the best. On a large scale, this is part of Google’s success.
Comment by Mark Mathson — August 7, 2007 #
Dan,
I enjoy your blog, it has a lot of great information in it.
I also tagged you in my post today.
http://glcavalier.wordpress.com/2007/08/17/tagged-and-8-things-you-didnt-know-about-me/
LaneC
Comment by G. Lane Cavalier — August 17, 2007 #
I started a marketing blog a couple of months ago with the sole purpose of getting business from it, but soon realized that blogging success was more subtle than an actual sale. Much to my surprise the other day I got a phone call from someone living three hours away (and in a different country) saying they would like to drive up and meet me for a marketing makeover. Needless to say I cleared the calendar and we met 2 days later. When asked why they selected me without a reference they stated that they felt after reading all of my posts they knew we were a perfect fit.
Comment by Mike Blaney — August 20, 2007 #