The document discusses how businesses can use blogging to grow their business. It recommends that businesses use blogging to attract an audience by informing and interacting with them, retain the audience by providing value and keeping them engaged, and recruit help and customers. Blogging can help businesses build links and traffic, establish their brand, offer better customer service, and generate more sales. The document provides tips for businesses on how to plan a blog, determine what content to post, grow their audience, and convert visitors into customers.

1. BLOGGINGBUSINESS
HOW A BLOG CAN GROW YOUR BUSINESS
Chris Garrett
http://twitter.com/chrisgarrett
Friday, 27 February 2009 1

2. Business Blogging
WHY BLOG?
Attract an audience
•
Inform and Interact, learn from your audience
•
Retain your audience
•
Energize your audience and motivate action
•
Recruit help, contacts, employees
•
Respond to stories and customers
•
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3. Business Blogging
BLOG SIDE-EFFECTS
Grow Links for traffic and to improve search rankings
•
Build familiarity and trust
•
Communicate and establish your brand
•
Grow a sense of community
•
Offer better service
•
Initiate more sales
•
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4. Business Blogging
BLOG VERSUS ...
• Website - Static pages of information or sales letters
• Newsletter - Information sent to inbox, drive action
• Forum - Conversation and interaction
• Blogs combine elements of all of the above
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5. Business Blogging
ATTRACT, RETAIN, RECRUIT
SEO
Social
Links
PR
Email
RSS
Twitter
BLOG
Referral
Forwards
Re-tweets
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6. Business Blogging
RETAIN WITH STICKY FACTOR
• Provide value with empathy, keep engaging, be inclusive
• Video/Audio - keep on site longer, more emotive, entertain
• Comments/Polls/Surveys - show interested in opinion, interaction
• Series/Related Posts/Categories/Tags - serialize content
• Events/Competitions/Call-in - fun, rewards, excitement
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7. Business Blogging
PUBLICITY+-
2004 2009
The conversation is happening with or without you
Back in 2004 Kryptonite had a famous PR problem with blogs - today companies learning same lessons
You have to have a place where you can put your story, state the facts and establish your position.
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8. Business Blogging
SUCCESS STORIES
• Gary Vaynerchuk
• Family wine store
• Wine Library TV
• $50m business
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9. Business Blogging
SUCCESS STORIES
• Woot.com/blog/
• Launched July 12, 2004
• Sold its 1,000,000th item, a
4GB micro hard drive, on
February 5, 2007
• Little to no advertising.
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10. Business Blogging
SUCCESS STORIES
• Thomas Mahon
• Bespoke Tailor
• Using only blog as marketing
• Full order book, including
celebrities inc. Prince Charles
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11. Business Blogging
WHO SHOULD NOT BLOG?
Be Present, Be Interested, Be Authentic
•
Listen, Serve, Delight
•
Starting a blog raises expectation of openness and interactivity
•
If you don’t want a conversation,
•
don’t start one.
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12. Business Blogging
PLAN
• Must start with a plan, or at least know where you want to go
• Why are you building a blog?
• Who do you want to attract?
• What story do you have to tell?
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13. Business Blogging
RESEARCH
• Find out what your audience is interested in, needs, wants
• Surveys, Polls
• Forums, Comments, Q&A sites
• Social Bookmarking sites
• Search.Twitter
• WordTracker, Adwords Tool
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14. Business Blogging
YOUR COMPETITIVE EDGE
Audience Your
Needs Positioning
Brand
Experience
• Serveyour audience needs, wants, motivations
in a way that is uniquely yours
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15. Business Blogging
WHAT TO TALK ABOUT
What
What
they
you
want
know
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16. Business Blogging
DRIVE THEM HOME
Don’t leave your content scattered. As
•
well as post on Flickr, YouTube, etc, also
post in on one easy to find place - your
blog.
Find people where they are and bring
•
them to you.
Drive people from their inbox or feed
•
reader to interact with you rather than
passively read.
Your Brand Here
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17. Business Blogging
GROW YOUR AUDIENCE
• Think long term
• Offer overwhelming value
• Be genuine, approachable, helpful and friendly
• Raving fans are created by going extra mile
• Make strong and lasting connections based on mutual respect
• Ask questions, get feedback, learn as they learn
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18. Business Blogging
TRAFFIC PROBLEMS
• Attract targeted, engaged
traffic
• Attention for own sake =
bad
your brand
• Remember
photo by chadmiller
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19. Business Blogging
STICKINESS
Stop the “revolving door”
•
Harder and more expensive to attract
•
new visitors and customers than to
retain existing.
Happy, loyal visitors also much more
•
valuable than constant stream of
strangers.
Friday, 27 February 2009 19

20. Business Blogging
SOCIAL MEDIA JOURNEY
• Take your audience
on a journey
Advocate
“Converted”
Subscriber
Return Visitor
Visitor
Friday, 27 February 2009 20

21. Business Blogging
PERSUASION+CONVERSION
Education, Articles - Inform, solve problems, demonstrate your solution works
•
Community - Encourage conversation, involvement and sense of belonging
•
Call to action - Remember to make offers that match audience wants/needs
•
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22. Business Blogging
TWEAK YOUR SALES ENGINE
• Audience Targeting
• Attraction Tactics
• Persuasion Content
• Conversion
• Consumption + Results = Proof
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23. Business Blogging
CONSUMPTION
• Encourage sampling
• Follow-up, encourage, enquire
• Get to consume then consume more
• Consumption leads to best positive
“Word of Mouth”
• Positive experience shared leads to
powerful trust in your brand
Friday, 27 February 2009 23

24. Business Blogging
PEOPLE NOT HERD
• Keep interested with engaging content
• Personalization
• Empathy ➙ Loyalty
• Learn from actions
• Customer Service
• Segmentation We are all unique individuals!
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25. Business Blogging
SEGMENTATION
Create an email list just for customers, if possible split along product lines
•
Use highly specific topical lists to Sell / Cross-Sell / Up-sell without annoying
•
uninterested
Discover your best customers and give them extra special treatment
•
Work out via email unsubscribes which content causes defection, loss of interest
•
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26. Business Blogging
SOME DON’TS
• Don’t Me-Me-Me - It’s not all about you!
• Don’t force it if it isn’t working
• Don’t over-sell - Give first
• Don’t use business-talk - and don’t assume
• Don’t try to “control the conversation”
• Don’t ignore your audience
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27. Business Blogging
SUMMARY
• Attract targeted visitors who have a problem you can solve.
• Inform, advise, discuss, help.
• Build trust with positive experience over time.
• Demonstrate positive results.
• Make offers that match audience wants/needs.
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28. Business Blogging
ACTIONS
• Decide agreed metrics (eg. Links? Sales? Traffic? PR mentions?)
• Gather keywords and content research
• Create valuable content that meets audience wants/needs
• Promote content with social bookmarking
• Retain with email, feed, and social media engagement
• Learn from feedback and metrics, repeat
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29. Business Blogging
THANKS FOR READING ;)
• http://chrisg.com
• http://twitter.com/chrisgarrett
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