Blogging: Why Wouldn’t You Do Something That Works?
Blogging Opens Doors
Why would you not do something guaranteed to bring people to your website and introduce your company’s expertise and offerings? There are so many marketing efforts people chase that cost time and money with no guarantee that they’ll yield anything. So, I ask again…Why wouldn’t you spend a few hours a week on an activity guaranteed to pay off?
I’m talking about blogging. I guarantee you that when I write and publish this post today, I will get traffic. And I’ll get more traffic than yesterday when I didn’t post. I get traffic to my blog every day when I’m posting at least three times a week.
Some of it comes from publicizing the posts on social media. But lots of it comes from organic search – people searching online for topics represented in keywords contained in the posts — and they find me.
I almost talked myself out of posting today in favor of other things that require my attention. But I prioritized getting a post out – regardless of how short. Because I know it will get results. It will provide opportunities for new relationships and potential business.
That feels great to me and I hope that sharing this with you will be motivating and helpful. Success feels great. Blog for success!
Image from Ben Zvan under Creative Commons license.
New PR Words - and Music! 
Not everyone is comfortable with writting content. On the other hand those that are comfortable often lose their commitment or focus thanks to other priorities. One key I have found is to stockpile material in advance like an editorial calendar for a magazine.
Jim Matorin
October 13, 2011
just as Jim indicated, I have my own stockpile of material in advance. I have a few dozen YouTube links lined up too–just-in-case I can’t find something that fits with the topic. Now that I am in the weekly rhythm for two different blog sites, I actually have more material stockpiled than posted.
13485cert
June 26, 2012
Please explain for the benefit of those who are not yet believers in inbound marketing just how a blog will bring results? The only results my management team are interested in are sale. They view blogs as a bunch of people talking into the wind … and no one is listening. Or even if there are a few stars who get read, they aren’t generating SALES. To my team, cold calling and magazine articles are still the way to go.
Anita Thorn
October 25, 2011
Anita, thanks so much for checking in. You’ve asked a great question. A blog won’t necessarily generate sales as a stand-alone effort. In Inbound Marketing — which is a much larger process — blogging has the role of driving traffic (which it does if you blog consistently), establishing thought leadership and creating an avenue to begin engaging with a community of people who are interested in your topic (as you and I are doing here and which will continue through your subscription). There are other Inbound Marketing activities dedicated to converting traffic and blooming relationships to leads and sales. What guides, informs and measures the success of various IM efforts are integrated, closed-loop analytics.
Doing just one piece of Inbound Marketing isn’t Inbound Marketing at all. I don’t reject calling and magazine articles as a part of the marketing mix. But let’s face it, given voice mail, shrinking magazine ad revenues and other changes in traditional marketing and media as technology offers other options, do you think it pays to start employing new strategies and tactics that represent where we’re going, rather than where we’ve been? BTW…I welcome having this conversation!! Thank you again and I hope this is helpful if you’re trying to influence your management to take a step forward!
Ellie Becker
October 25, 2011
Hi Anita. I’m really shocked that there are still marketing and sales people that think that cold calling can even touch blogging as a method of generating new leads. It takes me a maximum of 2 hours to create a fresh topic from scratch. I have a narrow niche market (regulatory and quality for medical devices), but I have 60 views each time I post on the day of the posting. I have another 100 views during the following 3-4 days–depending upon which day of the week I post. Of these views, about 25% are from organic searches–many from outside the USA. That’s 40 new viewers every week from 2 hours of work. If I was cold calling I could never generate the same level of interest. Maybe the problem is a lack of connection between the blog posting and creating landing pages for people to connect with the company. I don’t do this well myself, but I’m learning. One of the best tactics I have seen is to offer free publications to people that fill in information on the landing page. Hubspot does this to an extreme and a client of mine does this with the a manual they wrote 5 years ago. My client continues to get requests for quotes from more than 10% of the manual downloads. Let’s see a cold caller reach 10% of leads requesting quotes (never will happen unless your list is made of pixie dust). Try repacking those magazine articles as a free download when people fill in a form. The results will beat the original magazine article if you have the blog traffic. Without the blog traffic, nobody will find the landing page.
13485cert
June 26, 2012