Hey Small Business – Commit to Your Blog
Merrit Colaizzi posted from the Online Marketing Summit on the 24th with Live from OMS: The 10-Step Content Strategy
I’d like to take a minute and discuss what I feel are the two most important parts of the strategy:
6. Commit to your blog. In Arnie Keunn’s business, Vertical Measures, 25% of his Web traffic comes from its blog. The blog should be the hub for your marketing activities, with platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, [and] LinkedIn as the spokes. Your blog is real estate you own, and you can control 100% how your content is presented.
Control. Something that every business wants to have, over every aspect of their marketspace.
Too bad. Social Media and user-generated content is outside of your control, but you can control the content that is on your own site. You can use it to do some things that can push the conversation in a healthy direction:
- Promote the people that have nice things to say about your company, publish links to their Tweets, their websites, etc.
- Engage them in conversations about your company.
- Provide them with a forum to discuss their issues and problems – make a case study out of how they used your company to solve those issues.
- Remember that it is your job to let the conversations take place. While the website is your hub it is your job to get out of the way and let people share.
Here is another important concept, that I just discussed with my colleague Kevin Ferrasci O”Malley: (@kfom on Twitter)
7. Make content educational, not promotional. Tell stories about problems your customers have, don’t just pitch your product. Consider asking for registration/further engagement with your audience at the end of your content — once readers are hooked — rather than at the beginning. Shoot for 200 to 400 words, which is the sweet spot for blog-post length, and don’t forget to augment your content with video whenever possible.
Video is important, and something that small businesses need to invest some time and energy in learning, because (sooner rather than later) video is going to be essential to your success. I am still experimenting with video, especially in my book review posts, and I have found these types of posts to be much more popular and successful.
Videos are fantastic tools for teaching, and for exposing the “wow” factor of your product or service. It is one thing to tell people about what you do, it is another to be able to show them and let them show other people.













