Web marketing strategy
Is Blogging Worth My Time as a Business Owner? How Can I Spend Less Time Get Better Results?
What’s the Real Value of having blog or being sites like Twitter, Facebook? – Ben
Dear Ben,
That’s a great question! I’d like to answer the unspoken question as well, “Is blogging worth the time it takes to do it?” There are many reasons having a blog is a good idea for a business owner. It’s become common knowledge that a blog, Twitter account and Facebook page can help you increase business.
The fact is that less than 50% of businesses have even a simple website, never mind a blog. The real dilemma I see for business owners is that it takes a lot of time to write a blog, something most business owners aren’t prepared to do. Yet most will say they plan to market their business online in the coming year. The problem is they don’t know what to write and they don’t know how they’ll find the time.
What’s a Busy Business Owner to Do?
The real value of blogging and social media is marketing yourself and your business. Think about your current advertising and marketing budget. How’s it working for you? If you are paying big dollars for offline advertising, like print, radio or direct mail you’ll like the price tag of blogging and creating a web presence. You can do it pretty much for peanuts, often with much better results.
Think about when you last looked for a business in the Yellow Pages? Now, think about that last time you used Google or Yahoo to search online to find a business. For most of us the old Yellow Pages has been collecting dust on the shelf (or in the recycle bin.)
The real value of blogging and social media is getting your name out there online and have it connected with your niche topic and keywords. That way when your prospective customer is searching for information about your topic you have a chance of being found. The more content you have online in the form of a blog or in social media the more liking those searches will come to you.
Blogging is about establishing yourself as a market leader and a credible expert in your field – and, of course, attracting that target market to you. You have to use your blog strategically though or you’ll waste a lot of time, money and effort. By strategic, I mean that you must target and organize your blogging around your specific niche, target market and keyword phrases.
Most business owners will not take the time to blog because the results are less immediate than making a sales call. What they don’t know is taking time today to set up an online lead generating system that includes a blog and using social media will save huge amounts of time later on. That’s because their web system, once set up, will be attracting, engaging and following up with qualified prospects on autopilot (i.e. clients coming in with very little addition effort)
Ok, so there’s still the time issue. The answer? Create a system. Set up a system to blog so that it takes you less than an hour a week to keep your blog and online lead generation system updated with content that will attract your audience. You’ll increase your credibility, your authority and your close rate when you have a presence online. That system can include using available technology and/or outsourcing to minimize the amount of time you need to spend directly. (Hint: A new, yet to be released, Marketing Monsoon product will show you exactly how to set up that system)
Find more tips and ideas about blogging and setting up a lead generation system on my website. http://www.marketingmonsoon.com. Coming soon: ”Constant Content: A Guide to Blogging for Busy Business Owners” the newest Marketing Monsoon product.
Do you have a blog now? What is your biggest challenge with blogging as a business owner?
How to find a Niche to Market Your Biz Online
Just read a great article by Lynne Terry, one of my favorite Internet Marketing experts. Choosing a viable and lucrative niche for your online business is no easy task. Whether you have traditional business experience or not, getting online sales is in many ways a whole new game.
Finding a niche where there is money to be made is the key. What I love about Terry’s article is rather than going with the shop-worn advice of “do what you love” or “Choose a niche where you have professional expertise,” she suggests that you first do a little excise to dream and dream big. If your starting something new anyway (Internet Marketing), why not go big!
She recommends two very vital next steps once you’ve identified your dream… Keyword and market research. Then find out if it’s a buying market. Wise advice. So many have been discouraged by their Internet marketing results because they didn’t do this first!
If you are a business owner looking to expand your business online, do yourself a favor, find a related niche that has a buying online market before you do anything else.
How can a service business thrive locally, have a global reach and create passive income? Read more…
Dear Jayne,
I'm contemplating a service industry that is locally based. I'm also interested in attaining global reach and creating passive income. How do I combine those two? - Lynne
The Internet is ideal for building a traditional service business (local or global) and creating passive income at the same time. The common denominator is marketing your expertise.
For the last several years I have been teaching psychotherapists, for example, how to be entrepreneurial and thrive in this economy. Therapists, like consultants, or other service-based professionals often get stuck in the "hour for dollars" business model. That can seriously limit your income and your ability to help your clients because there is only so much of you to go around.
When professionals make the shift in mind set to understand that what people are buying is access to their expertise, their experience and attention, they can create a whole realm of innovative ways to provide value to their clients.
This is the Information Age. Sales of information products online is growing at an exponential rate. Create a digital information product that can purchased and delivered online and you are well on your way to passive income. Plus you've "monetized" your biggest marketing expense (your website) and turned it into a money maker, instead of just another expense.
Of course, there's more to being successful online than just writing an ebook and offering it online. Successful Web marketing ALWAYS starts with Finding a Market and ends with creating a product that market wants.
As for building a traditional service business in conjunction with marketing information? It's a natural fit! Most service businesses (e.g. consulting, construction) are what I would call "big ticket" sales, usually have a long sales cycle. The Permission-Based Marketing System that we set up for business owners combines both business models of face-to-face service and information marketing. (Look for a Permission-Based Marketing System, Step-by-Step Course to create your own, coming in June, 2010!)
You will make more money and put in a fraction of the effort when you give your prospects choices and opportunities to get to know you, know your work and your expertise and to discover whether you are a good fit.
The very good news is, that your Permission-based Marketing System is designed to automatically attract, engage, qualify and build a relationship with your ideal client with very little work on your part. You then can work with the ones you really want to work with.
Stay tuned for more on the Permission-Based Marketing System!
New Product Makes Email Capture Easy
If you’ve be following Marketing Monsoon you know that WordPress is the heart of the Marketing Monsoon System. We’ve been developing a product called the Permission-Based Marketing System that includes an email capture page using WordPress. WordPress was originally created for blogging so getting the one-column design that works best with an optin page has been a challenge
Well, halleluia! Unique Blog Designs has just released a product that is going to make your Permission-Based Marketing System(TM) even better!
Does Your Web Marketing Strategy Include Multiple Web Sites?
Does your web marketing strategy include more than one website? There’s more than one type of website and each has it’s own purpose and function. Why would you have just one? The most important purpose your web site can have is to attract, qualify and capture new leads.
In the past, a website was more like an online brochure or even a storefront. Today, the web can do so much more for a business than a passive brochure or sign out front. Today, a website can be an active participant in building your business.
There are are two types of web sites that can generate leads for you:
About Me
Jayne Burch is Founder of Web Enterprise Development, LLC and creator of the Marketing Monsoon System helping business owners unleash the power of the internet to build their businesses.
Connect with Jayne on these sites:
