Does your business need a blog?

We all know that having an internet presence is an important part of your marketing strategy. For many businesses this includes having a blog. But for some, they wonder – is a blog really going to help me reach my customers? Is it worth the effort?

The short answer to that is YES. The longer answer follows; 

Times have changed and as a company, you can now reach more people on the internet (using a smaller marketing budget) than ever before. One way to do this is with a blog BUT (and that “but” is in capital letters for a reason) you have to make sure that each and every blog post gives value to your customer.

Sometimes the value is in a hint or a trick that will save them time. It may be advice about using your or a competitor’s service – a sort of “be careful of” post. And sometimes, it might mean that you provide your clients with entertainment in the form of a joke or photo.

A blog is NOT about how you spent your day or what *you* think about anything (unless those musings add value.) Readers don’t want to hear about boring things. They want to have a reason to go to your site.

And much like the baseball field in the movie “Field of Dreams”, if you build a value-packed and entertaining blog, your customers will come – again and again.

So what does an effective blog look like?

• A good blog has a schedule. It’s published 2, 3 or even 5 times a week, you decide the schedule and then you stick to it.
• People are for the most part visual, make sure that your blog has graphics, pictures, and that each of your posts has a visual that fits with the writing.
• Let’s talk about time, no one has enough of it. An effective blog post is short – between 400 -600 words, if you go any longer than that, you run the risk of losing your audience.

A blog post, unlike traditional journalism, should have a voice. People want to know that a real person is writing the information, so feel free to add some of your own voice (style) to the posts. People read differently on the internet, they tend to scan vertically instead of reading horizontally, as they would in a book. Take advantage of this by using techniques like:

• ·        Shorter paragraphs
• ·        Shorter sentences
• ·        Bulleted lists
• ·        Bold text

See what I did there?

A blog post is not a newspaper article. Journalists are tough to write for newspapers by including the Who, What, When, Where, and How in the first paragraph. Blog posts are written to lead the reader to the most important idea which is usually located at the end.

Sometimes it’s a punch line, or a call-to-action, or even a “moral to the story.”

The point is to make your post be of ultimate value to your audience. Once they see that you are credible, reliable (in your schedule, format, and topics), and that you have sometime worthy to say, trust me, your audience will start coming out of that corn field that is the internet to start playing on your ball field.

Need help? Contact us at info@2difore.com and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Manta & Google+

Don't Forget Your Friends!!!

It’s easy when talking about a marketing campaign to think “big and sexy.” You want to get people’s attention and you definitely want to make a splash.

This is all well and good however; many companies make the mistake of forgetting about their existing customers when they design their marketing plans.  You know - the loyal guys who came back again and again to consistently buy your product or services.

It’s easy to take existing customers for granted. After all, they’re a captive audience, right?  They’re not going to go anywhere soon, or at least you hope so. But here’s the thing – your existing clientele is also a gold mine of feedback and goodwill that you can use when trying to attract future customers.

Your current loyal customers are the ones who will loudly speak your praises, if – given the chance.

And that’s where a lot of marketing plans go wrong. They don’t account for catering to (and let’s face it, if you want to cater to anyone, it’s to the people who are loyal to your brand) those who already support your brand. So how do you balance your marketing strategy so that you attract new clients, as well as support and acknowledge your existing clients?

Newsletters – I’m not talking about a boring newsletter that, for all intents and purposes, is just self-promotional verbiage.  I ‘m talking about a newsletter that gives your existing customers extra value. Do you have tips to share? A new way a product is being used? Let them know the inside information of your company, let them feel like insiders.

A forum where customers can communicate – sure you might get a few complaints but those complaints can then be quickly addressed. More likely, you’ll find customers who are banding together in solidarity over your product or services. You might even be able to use some of their comments as valuable testimonials in your other marketing. And of course, when two or more start singing the praises of a product, others are going to take notice.

Solicit input from your customers – everyone likes to know that they’ve been listened to. Send out surveys, create polls, and make it easy for your customer to contact you and send feedback. Once you’ve collected that information then do something with it. Make sure that your customers know you are hearing what it is they have to say, institute changes due to the comments, alter a policy, or acknowledge a success.

Reward your customers – if they’ve spoken highly about your product, thank your customers publically. If they’ve referred another customer to your business, hand out a reward. Offer special deals to those who have purchased from you in the past. People like to know that they are doing a good job and a gift or reward from a company they know and trust can make a huge impression.

Want to know more about 2DiFore Marketing Solutions...visit us at 2difore.com today!

Do it well or just don’t do it! 

The classic “make or buy decision” has its roots in manufacturing and is one of the most common of important business decisions companies make all the time. As manufacturing firms encounter new or expanded opportunities, the question often becomes how to fulfill the need profitably. Do we invest precious capital in new equipment to make additional products ourselves or do we partner with another manufacturer from whom we can buy those parts cheap and continue to sell finished products at a good profit? “Make or buy” applies to all kinds of business services in our daily management march. Marketing leads that procession.

A business owner can spend time doing all kinds of business functions to save labor and service costs. Before delivering any billable products to customers, he may be struggling through the learning curves of Wordpress CMS and Constant Contact email design templates. He may get overload shock from the fire hose delivery of industry chatter online, not understanding the point of it all.

So, Mr. Entrepreneur, what do you want to do with your day?  Work toward becoming the leader in your industry or teach yourself through trial and error how to be a great marketing communicator? We have another question to add perspective. Let’s say you rarely or never play golf. If you had to represent your company with a player in a high profile charity golf tournament, would you send a scratch golfer from your team or go for the glory yourself, risking the embarrassment of player disqualification?

The problem with Do-it-Yourself Marketing can be likened to this scenario: While you’re hacking divots all over the fairways of marketplace, your competition is hitting sweet spots and setting up the birdie putts of better products and fortified relationships. While you’re practicing marketing executions (probably poorly), your competitor is out playing golf with your customer. He’s telling the customer all about product upgrades and service efficiencies while his expertly managed marketing program is delivering new leads to his sales team. One of those new leads happens to be another long term customer of yours.

Whether it’s for legal services, taxation, HR staffing, training or marketing, doing it yourself means going it alone and that can be dangerous. Lacking the support of caring professionals with the proper training and tools to address your challenges can put you at a major disadvantage. On the other hand, having an savvy expert marketing consultant working on your behalf ensures that a consistent quality message is being communicated to the right audiences at the right times. This helps you focus on your core business and enables you to better meet the needs of your customers – the product/service needs as well as the need to maintain good relationships.

The reason most business owners ultimately call 2DiFore Marketing Solutions is because word of mouth referrals dry up for whatever reason. They need more qualified leads to come in. They often say “Once we sit down with the customer and have a conversation, we almost always win their business!”  So, that’s your job – to work with customers and keep winning new business. Our job as marketing consultants is to help convince those prospective customers they need to talk with you so you’ll get to have more of those winning conversations and keep growing.