Small business blogs are now a must-have for most companies that find buyers via the Internet. Especially small businesses that know that many of their buyers are finding them as a result of Internet search engines and want to be easy-to-find on the Internet. There are tons of blogs by marketing companies (as captured by the ever-popular marketing blog The Viral Garden), technology firms and management experts (like David Maister).
Small businesses are blogging for all of the well-documented reasons:
- Search engines love fresh content: new posts, links, content with keywords
- It’s easier to update a blog (for most of us) than it is to add new content to your company web site
- Blogs offer you a way to be your own public relations wizard—publish stories about your company’s new products and service (using an educational approach–not marketing or selling)
- Blogs are one of the best ways to establish you and your company as industry experts
What if your small business is in another type of industry that does not seem to lend itself to blogging?
For example, a swimming pool company, office furniture provider or plumber? What if there are no major bloggers in your space? Hooray! You can be the first small business blog for buyers of swimming pools, expert bicycles or fill-in-the blank.
It’s All About Your Customers’ Problems
When thinking about topics to start and keep a blog going, consider the conversations you have with your current customers, your prospective buyers and even your partners.
Here are some key questions to ask yourself, as you consider starting a blog for your small business:
1. What are the most common questions you hear from current customers? Since blogs are conversations, your company blog can focus on sharing …the variety of ways to solve problems that your customer audience deals with everyday. Blog about the solutions only a few people have thought about. Share your most frequently asked questions and answers. Sharing well-explained questions and answers on your blog can improve the experience (and your brand).
2. What are the different problems, questions that your sales team hears from prospective buyers? For people not using your products and services yet, think about the most common issues they face. Think of the type of information you offer during your first sales call with a future customer. This can be a treasure trove of customer conversation (blog) topics.
3. What is the most common type of email message your company sends to existing customers? Set aside a quiet Saturday afternoon (soon, before the summer weather makes it harder) and look over all of your customer correspondence: emails, letters, customer service log books. What are the problems that are encountered over and over? How could you create a blog post, or series of blog articles, to explain the choices of solutions available to your customers?
4. How much and what kind of information do you share with prospective buyers of your products or services as you’re closing the sale? To attract potential buyers to your blog (or even web site) think about the kinds of information that they want to know. What are the most frequently asked questions by prospects? Also, check in with partners that refer potential buyers to you. Ask them to describe the buying signals that indicate it’s time to refer a customer to your company. How do your partners know a customer needs your products/services?
Blogs have, as predicted by Robert Scobel and Shel Israel’s 2006 in their book, Naked Conversations, changed the way businesses talk to customers.
Isn’t it time you looked at new ways to use the Internet to talk with your current and future customers?
Related posts:
1. Very Cool Small Business Blogger from Blogworld
2. Why (A Few) Executives Use Blogs to Communicate with Their Customers
Great article Cynthia. Blogs are very useful, not only for sharing information with buyers, but also prospective employees. Our blog gives people an idea of our culture, so they can see if there is an employment fit.
Thanks for the insight SEI Design Group. I will add “recruiting” to my list of small business blog benefits. Actually, I recall now that my partner, who blogs at http://www.wordpress.socalbuzz.com did a podcast interview with a CEO, several months later someone listened to the podcast, called the CEO and said “I just listened to you talk about your compnay. We need to talk and you need to hire me as your VP of marketing…” and the rest as they say, is history. That’s how H2O Audio found a new VP of marketing.
The podcast CEO-interview demonstrated the culture, the CEO’s vision and prompted the marketing VP to place the call. Well maybe part of it was H2O Audio is in San Diego… http://h2oaudio.com/
Thanks,
Cynthia