blogging to market your business
TRANSCRIPT
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Blogs: Today’s Marketing and Sales Tool for Business
SEM Made SimpleAnita Campbell – May 2007
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Your Presenter
• Anita Campbell • 20 years in Corporate world• Blogging since 2003• Small Business Trends is flagship blog• Blog started as a better way to publish
newsletter articles • Blogging transformed my business
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Blogs in Business
We Will Cover:
1. What is a blog?2. Why have a business blog?3. Blogging Do’s and Don’ts4. The power of RSS
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About Blogs (web + logs)• Chronologically arranged websites • Lots of content • Easy to update / instant Web publishing• Attract inbound links• Informal two-way conversations• RSS feeds = more ways to be found
– develops loyal readers who subscribe– indexed in additional search engines
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Business Blog Anatomy
Chronological entries: most recent at top. Easy to scan.
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More “Conversations”
Conversations continued on other blogs through trackbacks
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Who’s Blogging?
• Mainstream – small businesses• Technorati.com tracking 70+ million
– One third are active• 5% (over 1 million) are business blogs• 55 million read blogs (Pew Internet study)
“Everybody has a blog today” – Website Services Magazine, May 2007
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Benefits of Biz Blogs• Sales and Marketing
– Generate leads– Build house email list via online sign-up box– Cut through marketing-speak – communicate
authentically– Develop status as an “expert”– Replace a newsletter / content does double duty
• Online Search– Naturally high search engine rankings– Draw traffic to your main website
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Benefits of Biz Blogs (cont’d)• Public Relations
– Fast / inexpensive way to publish press releases online
– Back door to media interviews– Repeater effect – expands impact of other PR
• General– Inexpensive -- levels the playing field for small biz – Recruit employees – Network with industry professionals
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Are Blogs for Everyone?
• Not everyone likes to write– Possible solution: team blogs or hire writers
• “Blogging is a contact sport”– Interaction with visitors and other bloggers is
important: are you comfortable with this?• Not a substitute for a full Web strategy
– Just one element of your Web marketing plan
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Biz Blog Tips: Do’s• Get a professional design using your logo • Integrate blog into your overall Web presence• Host at your own URL• Post at least once a week • Write for customers – information they can use• Participate in the conversation / comments• Use photos (team & office)• Do “day in the life” posts• Use keywords customers are likely to search by
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Biz Blog Tips: Don’ts
• Don’t try to be Google News – add value• Don’t forget the “Mom” rule• Don’t stray off theme• Don’t oversell• Be inclusive, not exclusive – watch that lingo!• Don’t be boring • Don’t forget to link, link, link!
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A Word About RSS Feeds
• Blogs generate RSS feeds – your content is also distributed as a news feed
• Expands reach of your message– More search engines to be found in– Embraced by the Big 3: Google, Yahoo and
Microsoft (Vista and IE 7) • Develops community following – readers
subscribe through “feedreaders”
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Feedreaders are convenient, letting a person read many websites from
one place at one time
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…all it takes is one click to jump
to see another site’s updated
content
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… it’s a little like reading
email – except that you are reading Web site content – and no spam!
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RSS is the Future
• Blogs automatically generate RSS feeds of your content
• Another important reason to have a blog!
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Getting Started• Experiment with a free, hosted blog:
– Blogger - www.blogger.com – WordPress.com – www.wordpress.com
• But not for long – upgrade to a professionally-designed blog at your own URL for flexibility & branding:– WordPress -- www.wordpress.org (notice the dot org)
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Website
Email marketing
Blog
Pay-per-click ads
SEO
Affiliate program
MySpace
Voting sites: Digg, Mixx
Squidoo, Knol
Podcasts
Video / YouTube
Bookmarking: Del.icio.us, Stumbleupon
Online press releases
Forum / Blog commenting © 2008, Small Business
Trends
Small Biz Online Marketing ROI
Yellow Pages listings
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Blogs in Business
• Thanks and Questions???
• More resources: www.smallbiztrends.com/blogging