All Entries Tagged With: "sales"

What’s A ‘Bad Blog’ Anyway?

Spend any time at all online and you are sure to run into someone recommending that you start a blog for your business. Stick around any longer and you’ll encounter someone warning you not to start one if you are going to have a “bad one”. But what’s a bad blog? It’s almost never defined.

The implication is that if the content isn’t a pleasure to read then it’s a bad blog. But what is a pleasure for one person to read is not necessarily a pleasure for someone else. Have an interest in reading about badminton tips every day? No? Well, maybe someone else does.

But it isn’t all about the nature of the content either. You also have to consider blog design and the quality of the writing. Sure, you want your blog to be attractive. And, yes, you want the writing to be high quality writing. But understand that not every blog has to be of the same caliber as a blog on the A-list. If they all were then there’d be no A-list.

So what’s a bad blog? Let’s start by defining a good blog. A good blog is one that:

• Informs your readers about topics of interest within your niche
• Sets itself apart as unique from other blogs in the same niche
• Drives traffic to important landing pages on your website (the job of closing the sale is on those landing pages
• If your blog is a sales blog then it closes a decent percentage of sales or converts and adequate percentage of traffic to sales, or leads, or whatever your goal is
• Adds optimized content to your website often
• If an offsite blog, builds back links to your primary web property
• Gets people interested in your niche talking in the comments section
• Provides you with information about the needs of your target market

Not every good blog does every one of these, but a good blog should do many of them. It seems to reason then that a “bad blog” is one that doesn’t do any of these or that only does a few while neglecting the most important elements of a good blog. The problem is, a blog may have many different purposes or your standards for a good blog may not match what someone else’s idea of a good blog is. What every blog owner should refrain from doing is allowing your readers from defining what is “good” and what is “bad” based on whether or not they enjoy reading it. That’s not necessarily the judge of a good blog.

Assuming that readers must enjoy reading the blog presumes that the purpose of the blog is for readership, i.e. enjoyability. But simply having readers enjoying your content won’t necessarily lead to sales. You want your blog to make you money, right?

Of course, not all blogs are sales tools either. You can have a blog simply for SEO purposes. The point is this: Define the purpose of your blog and live up to that purpose. That’s really the only measure of blog quality. Don’t do that and you’ve got a bad blog.

Should Salesmen Have Their Own Blogs?

If you’re a sales representative for a company and you are responsible for generating your own leads, you should have your own blog. There is no better online lead generation tool than a personal business blog. Note that I’m talking about a personal business blog. Not a personal blog.

So what’s a personal business blog?

First, it’s a business blog. A blog that you write for business purposes. If you’re a member of a sales organization then your blog can be used to present your product to the public. You don’t necessarily have to “sell” in every blog post. Not all blog posts are sales oriented. The purpose is to generate an interest in what you have to offer. You do that by discussing the benefits and entering into dialogue with your target audience.

I call this type of blog a personal business blog because the blog belongs to you, not your company. Because it your blog and not the company’s blog, you get to decide how the blog is written and make the editorial decisions on a daily basis. Your sales manager doesn’t do that for you. It’s your responsibility. That said, many company’s want to ensure that their image is presented accurately and within the context of their own branding efforts. And that is possible with a personal business blog. I didn’t say you couldn’t consult with your sales manager or corporate headquarters. They do have a stake in the game. But you can use a blog to help you develop your territory and generate leads that you follow up on daily. It is called efficient time management and good use of resources.

To learn more about writing a personal business blog, visit with a blog consultant.

How Many Sales Does Your Blog Make?

Speaking to some blog owners you’d think that sales was the most important thing. You’ll hear them say things like, “I haven’t made a sale in months” or “I get a lot of traffic, but it’s not converting.” The issue might not be your blog.

Keep in mind that a blog is not necessarily your best sales tool online. Your website is. A blog is often better used to drive traffic to your website. One advantage that a blog has over a static website is the ability to get crawled by search engines and ranked more quickly. That’s because every time you update your blog post you invite the search engines back to your website to crawl it and every blog post is a separate web page. Those are great benefits.

But within every benefit lies a burden. The downside to every blog post being able to rank faster is that they also become irrelevant much faster. Most people don’t read every blog post of every blog they subscribe to. They read the ones with the catchy titles and that cover the topics in which they have an interest.

That said, instead of focusing on hitting home runs with every blog post, instead try to just get on base with each blog post. Sometimes you’ll strike out (Babe Ruth struck out more often than he got hits but look at how many home runs he had). Sometimes you’ll walk or hit a single. Other times you’ll hit a double or triple and, yes, sometimes you’ll hit that coveted home run. The key to blogging, however, is long term permanence. If you effectively use your blog to drive traffic to your website and you aren’t making sales then it may not be your blog’s fault. It could be your website’s.

Does Your Business Really Need A Blog?

Blog Content Provider has maintained for a couple of years now that businesses of shapes and sizes would benefit from having a company blog. But is it really necessary? Yes, in today’s dog-eat-dog Internet marketing culture you gain a significant edge by having a company blog.

The following article shares five ways to improve your company blog. Where necessary, we will discuss our own differences with the author, but by and large, Terry Philpott has some good suggestions here:

5 Tips to Improve Your Business Blog

By Terry Philpott

Do you have a business blog that seems to absorb all your efforts and still doesn’t perform up to your expectations? Many folks start a blog with the desire to make money online but often are guilty of misdirecting their efforts leading to frustration and a lack of success.

It is best when starting out to draw up a plan for your blog. It doesn’t have to be elaborate but you want to know where it’s headed. Do you want your blog to serve a specific niche? Should it address certain topics and stay away from others? What keywords will your blog focus on the most? It’s important to know as much about what you want your blog to do as possible so that you can measure the results and keep the blog moving in the right direction.

If this sounds like you let’s consider 5 points you may need to re-focus on to improve your results.

• Learn to give your readers with what it is they want or need. Many bloggers focus primarily making money and neglect the readers. Remember without readers THERE IS NO BLOG. Listen to their comments; in fact encourage them to leave comments. By responding and acting upon their concerns or needs you are creating an environment ‘tailor made’ for them. It was their input that guided the creation of this environment to begin with.

Don’t be afraid to take a reader poll and asking your readers what they want you to address through your blog. Getting your readers to interact with you is an important step in achieving your goals through the blog.

• If you don’t have anything to say in a post then don’t post. Feeling compelled to post every day or even multiple times daily could lessen the quality of your content. Emphasize QUALITY over QUANTITY when posting to your blog. If you post good quality content your readers will be willing to wait a day for it as oppose to reading shallow and pointless ramblings. If this occurs too often you can kiss your readers good-bye and say hello to a decrease in your blog traffic.

At Blog Content Provider, we are advocate of posting every day. The more often you post to your blog, the more likely you are to get the attention of the search engines and get more pages indexed and ranked. That translates into more traffic and readers. If you have trouble coming up with topics for your blog then you probably need to consider hiring a ghostwriter.

• Be careful to not become ‘anchored’ to your blogging duties. A blog is born out of the passion the blogger has for the blogging material itself. By investing an over abundance of time to your blog you run the risk of burning out. Push back from time to time to re-energize. Fresh, invigorating, and insightful blog posts are what the readers want and it would be difficult to deliver this if you’re overworked.

Again, a blog ghostwriter or consultant can help keep you focused and on track.

Business blogs are a fine balance between a blogger passionate about the topics they post on and a desire to make money online. It is important to remember you always need to put your reader’s FIRST. Introducing any aspect of your marketing strategy should be secondary to this.

• Conduct a blog search for sites that offer content related to yours. By visiting these sites you can pick up new ideas not only for your content but also for the blog layout itself. Also don’t be afraid to participate at these blogs by leaving a comment when appropriate. Leaving a comment that is useful, humorous, or insightful will catch the eyes of other participants. With a link back to your site in your signature file you can usually expect an increase in your blog traffic. Once again however your comments should appropriate!

We encourage bloggers to subscribe to a good number of RSS feeds from other blogs in their industry. Our ghostwriters subscribe to the influential blogs in the industries that they cover and will use trackback techniques and other blog writing tactics to draw attention to your blog. If you’re going to write your own blog then you should get familiar with these types of strategies as well.

• In addition to a blog search find forums and other online communities that contain niches within related to your blogging theme. Once again your participation and interaction at these sites can help you boost your blog traffic. This should be part of your overall marketing strategy due to the strength of networking.

Focusing on building relationships and building links is the way to keep your blog balanced between quality content and social media marketing.

Although a business blog is established for the purpose of making money online it is essential to remember the readers come first. They arrived at your site for the content not the merchandise. Your primary responsibility is to supply good quality content whether it’s informative, humorous, or insightful. Always set aside your blog marketing efforts until your readers needs have been met first.

We do not focus on making money. We focus on delivering quality content that will attract readers and deliver that traffic to your website where you will close the sale. It is important to think about your blog as a marketing tool and not a sales vehicle.

T.J Philpott is an author and Internet entrepreneur based out of North Carolina. For more information on succeeding in blog marketing and to receive a free guide that demonstrates how to find both profitable markets and products visit: http://blogbrawn.com

Sales is an important part of any business, but our experience has shown that most blogs are better equipped to be marketing tools, not sales tools. That’s why we take a long-term approach to blogging and not a short-term sell it now approach.

For more information on blog ghostwriting services that deliver targeted traffic, visit Blog Content Provider today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Terry_Philpott

Is Your Blog Outside Of Your Funnel?

When it comes to blog marketing, you’ve got to fit it into your marketing funnel somewhere. One of the biggest challenges to companies just starting out with a company blog is integrating the blog into their current marketing plans. It’s a challenge, but it can be done.

First, a definition of your marketing funnel. If you picture a funnel, with its large mouth at the top and it’s small exit at the bottom, you’ll notice that the entrance is where you meet your customer. You’ve got to have a lead generation plan that draws your customer in. Then, you want to canalize your customer deeper and deeper into your marketing funnel until you filter them out into the closing process. Where does your blog fit in to your funnel?

Here are some possibilities:

• Lead Generation – Many companies successfully integrate their company blog into the marketing funnel by making it their primary online lead generation tool. This is a very successful approach and one I recommend.
• Lead Qualification - Another approach that is success is to use the blog as a lead qualification instrument. It may capture leads as well, but in this approach the marketer usually has another method of marketing that drives leads to the blog (articles, pay-per-click, or something else) and then qualifies the leads with a narrow focus on the blog writing so that potential customers either leave the funnel because you don’t provide what they are looking for or stick around because you have something they want.
• Pre-Sales – Pre-selling must be done somewhere and a blog is a good place to do that. Many affiliate marketers use blogging as a pre-sales tool for the companies and products they want to promote. You can do the same thing with your own products and services, highlighting them and discussing features and benefits in a nonthreatening way so that your customers “warm up” to the idea of doing business with you. You aren’t closing sales on the blog, but you are making the sale possible by keeping your readers informed and driving the qualified leads to the final sales pitch and closing statements.
• Blogging for Sales – I’ve seen a few instances where closing sales on the blog is successful, but by and large that’s not what a blog is for. There are bloggers, however, who make this work and using your blog as a sales tool is something that you can consider as a part of your marketing funnel.
• Customer Service and Feedback – Another successful blog marketing strategy is to use the blog as an after-the-sale tool to communicate with customers. In this scenario you are using the blog to discuss ways the customer can benefit from what they’ve already purchased. You can receive feedback from the customer so that you can refine your product and processes and then regurgitate information back to the customer that is valuable and helps them improve the uses of your product for themselves.

Where in the marketing funnel you place your blog is not as important as deciding where you want to put and then following up on that plan. If you haven’t defined your marketing funnel just yet then I’d encourage you to do so before starting your blog. It will make the blogging more focused and successful.

When Should You Hire A Blog Ghostwriter?

There comes a time when you should think about hiring a ghostwriter for your blog. But when?

Maybe it’s time to start thinking about a ghostwriter when:

• You’ve realized that you don’t have the time to write any more
• You need a professional approach to blogging
• You want well-optimized content that delivers traffic to your important landing pages
• Your blog isn’t performing as well as you think it should be
• You are not confident of your own writing ability
• The competition is beating your socks off

I know what you’re thinking. A blog ghostwriter will cost me money. Yes, you’ll have to pay for the service, but if you get a decent ROI on the expense, would it be worth it? Let’s say that you pay out $300 per month for a ghostwriter and you get 1 lead each month from that. The cost of your lead is $300. Is that more or less than what you are paying now per lead acquisition?

Even if the cost of acquisition per lead is less than you’d normally pay, you still need to close the sale. Right?

Well, if closing one sale means an additional $1,000 in your pocket and you know you can close one of out every three leads, your ROI is $100. You have a positive ROI, correct?

But let’s say you only close one out of every four leads and you have $1,000 coming in out of a $1,200 expense on ghostwriting services. Are you losing money? Not necessarily. Your blog could be sending you one lead per month, but it is also building up new content and building links to your website, which pushes up your search engine rankings. Let’s say it takes you two years to capture the top spot in Google for your key search term and once you do then you realize a 500% increase in traffic.

If your traffic count from organic listings was 1,000 unique visitors and you start getting 5,000 unique visitors per month knowing that you can close 1% of those, your sales conversions go up from 1 per month to 5 per month on organic listings. Your income will also increase from $1,000 per month to $5,000 per month based on the $1,000 per sale. Two years of spending $300 per month on blog ghostwriting services equates to a total expense of $7,200. You’ll make that up in two months after you hit the top spot in Google. How’s your ROI now?

I’m not guaranteeing you a top spot in Google for blog ghostwriting services. We’ve accomplished that feat for customers in the past and I believe we can do it again. But the illustration does show that ROI is not as cut and dry as measuring the sales developed from your blog alone. There’s more to ghostwriting than mere dimes and nickels.

Should You Splog Or Blog?

There is a huge prejudice against commercial blogs in the blogosphere. And there’s even a racial epithet equivalent that seems to shut down conversations quicker than a Republican press conference. It’s called a splog. This blog may even be one.

According to Wikipedia, master of all knowledge (note the sarcasm), a splog’s main purpose is to increase the PageRank or backlinks of related blogs. In actuality, those benefits only go so far.

Another defining characteristic of a splog is that it is made up of “fake blog posts.” I’m not sure what a “fake blog post” looks like. I do know that this blog post is very real.

I think sometimes a legitimate blog is characterized as a splog because the person making the declaration doesn’t really understand the purpose of the blog in question. What if a blog is written by a real human being who writes original content yet uses keywords, links, and other SEO tactics typically associated with sploggers and their spammy creations? Is that blogger a splogger or a bona fide blogger?

Distinctions can sometimes be hairy. Or harrowing.

The problem with Wikipedia’s definition of splog is that it doesn’t allow for some middle way. Many professional bloggers with custom designed blogs and unique, original content in every post are fine bloggers and human beings. They are good business people who understand their business model and try their best to provide a good user experience. But they aren’t making any money. It isn’t because they aren’t writing good material. It isn’t because they aren’t targeting the right market. Primarily, it’s because they aren’t selling. And this is where it gets hairy.

Thanks to the uprise in social media and the inherent dislike of blatant marketing messages online, which are understandable by the way, it has come to be expected that blogs will not be used as direct marketing pieces. The problem with this thinking is you are running a business. You want to see a return on your investment, don’t you?

Whether you spend $10 or $2,000 on building your blog, you want it to earn you some income. And that’s the bottom line. The difference between a splog and a blog could be your ROI. If you are writing a blog the way that many professional bloggers tell you to write it and you aren’t seeing a return on your investment – counting your dollars and your time in your expense calculation – then you probably need to change what you are doing. I’m not saying you should become a spammer, but you might want to employ some stronger closing lines and use sales and lead generation tactics to get people to contact you for business. You might even employ a ghostwriter. But whatever you do, you want your blog to make you some money.

How A Blog Writer Drives Traffic To Your Landing Pages

Blog marketing is really nothing new. It’s been hitting the mainstream pretty hard for the last two to three years, however. But we’ve still got years to go before we saturate the Web with too many blogs. Every minute a new blog is started and probably three times as many are abandoned. What can you do to make sure yours isn’t one of those left high and dry?

For starters, you need a plan. You need to define your blog’s purpose and hit it strong. Who is your target market? What do they want? And how will you move them to being customers?

While a blog is not the answer to every problem, it can become an integral part of your online marketing strategy. But you shouldn’t miracles. A blog is a pre-sales tool. It isn’t your primary closer and you shouldn’t expect it to be. A blog can, however, be used as an SEO tool as long as you don’t overdo and use it to spam the search engines with useless content. First and foremost, you’ve got to provide your human readers with valuable and helpful content. When you do that you increase your visitor count and you can drive traffic to your most important landing pages. But first you have to capture the traffic.

That’s where a professional writer comes in. To make sure your blog attracts traffic and drives traffic to your most important landing pages, you need an experienced blogger who understands SEO and sales strategies to get your blog to perform its mission. Do you have one your team?

Give Your Blog Time To Perform

One of the most common mistakes people make with blogging is expecting too much too soon. You aren’t going to get a wave of orders overnight from your blog. If you’re lucky (and a lot of people are lucky in this regard) you’ll get your blog crawled and indexed at the search engines rather quickly (like 48-72 hours). There is no guarantee, of course, but I’ve seen it done.

Even then, if you get your blog indexed that soon, you won’t see any real results from it right away. You’ll get traffic, but you won’t get any sales until people trust you. To do that they’ll need to subscribe to your blog over a period of time and get to know you. When they feel comfortable knowing they can trust you, they’ll buy from you. But it may not be from your blog.

People don’t generally buy from blogs. They’ll read a blog every day if it’s on a topic that interests them. But they won’t buy anything. They’d much rather buy over the phone, in person, or through a static website. But what you say on your blog can lead a person to that decision to buy from you on your website. You just have to give it time.

5 Ways To Increase Traffic To Your Blog

It’s important to keep traffic flowing to your blog. Traffic is what makes you money. Without traffic you are simply writing into a vacuum.

But a blog doesn’t necessarily have to be the place where you close the sale. You want to talk to people, if possible. Or at least get them to visit your web site. A blog post is really about getting them interested in you. Then, you and your sales team can close the sale.
We had a real estate agent who let us write her blog for a while then she left because we didn’t make her any sales. But she did tell us that we sent her more traffic to her web site than anything else she’d ever done. Still, she was disappointed that we didn’t close any sales. Sorry. That’s not our job. Our job is to drive traffic to your web site so that you can close the sale.

That’s not to say that we won’t ever close sales with blogs. Sometimes we do. But we don’t make that our primary effort because most people prefer to speak to someone and visit a website before they buy something. Especially in real estate. People aren’t going to buy a house from a blog.

So keep your expectations realistic. And keep in mind these 5 ways that you can drive traffic to your blog so that you can get their attention and close the sale:

1. Search Engine Optimization – There is no substitute for SEO. Have a list of keywords that are important to your business and use those keywords in your blog posts. Link to your website pages in your sidebar using those keywords.
2. Social Bookmarking – Pick some popular social bookmarking sites and make friends. Bookmark your blog posts and bookmark your friends’ blog posts. Be a social butterfly. It works.
3. RSS Feed – Set up an RSS feed for your blog and invite your readers to subscribe.
4. Use A Blog Promotion Newsletter - Not everyone understands RSS. But they will read your blog from an e-mail or newsletter. Offer them one. For free.
5. Write Articles – Articles are a great way to drive traffic to any website, even a blog. Write articles and include your blog’s URL in your author resource box.