Using Business Blogs To Attract Customers

Fact: 1 out of every 3 guru's who read this message will be highly offended, however, I promise you my reader that I won't give you any B.S. -- business blogs can be a waste of time, effort, money, and resources. Clients ask me all the time about starting blogs, and here's my answer.

Especially for consultants and small service organizations, blogging takes a lot of effort. I find it difficult to blog daily, not because I don't have things to say, but because I actually have work to do.

I wonder about those guru bloggers who post everyday, long, eloquent posts. How busy are they really? Just like marketing, blogging takes some time and effort -- but doesn't stand alone in the overall marketing scheme of things.

The other side of that coin is the blogger who posts small rants, rambling comments pointing to other peoples content, or nonsensical gibberish. Instead of creating their own relevant content, they scrap content from other sources.

If you are going to use a blog in business, especially to attract customers, it needs to have a clear purpose. Here are a few ideas that help guide your blogging efforts for results and profits:

• Use a blog to interact with customers. Bob Bly has a conversation with readers that asks questions on his blog, elicits response, and focuses specifically on the topic areas Bob Bly covers. Reactions and responses to his posts gives him an idea of what customers want.
• Share news specific about your industry. Become a hub for industry information to attract a specific individual, buyer, or end-user. Write about your companies angle, but not their products and services. Link into lead generation only after providing value.
• Address every angle of clients problem. Brian Carroll of B2B Lead Generation uses his blog to cover a challenge his organization solves for customers. Focus your blog on the issues top of mind to your buyer. To make the most of his efforts, he recycled the content into a book on the same topic.
• Treat your blog as part of your marketing. A blog isn't a separate thing, it's part of your overall marketing strategy. It should be monitored, measured, and required to pay it's own way. Stop blogging if you are not attracting customers.

I could include 7 to 10 more great bloggers, but I've got work to do. Don't haphazardly get into blogging because it's popular, blog software is nothing more than an easy way to post new messages on-line. Unfortunately, so easy that many companies embarrass themselves with random musings that just make no sense.

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Justin Hitt helps technical services providers communicate their message on a business blog of their own, as well as other effective marketing channels. For support with your content marketing program, contact http://HittPublishingDirect.com/

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