What a load of blog!

Newsflash! Tesco is blogging about 5 things you can do with a pineapple...... 

 
OK I'm not sure if they actually are, but its the sort of thing that they would blog about. 

What a load of blog!

How blogging can help your business identity.

Guest Blog

Written by Joanna Clark from popular blog 'Today We Craf't

Visit Joanna's blog, Today We Craft >

In today's social media culture, nothing is private. Your savvy customers want to know everything about your business so they can make an informed choice about who you are, and if they want to do business with you.  

 
And that's a good thing!  
 

A customer that is engaged with your story and your brand is far more likely to buy from you, and more importantly keep buying from you.  

 
Blogging is about strengthening your businesses identity. Creating and sharing content that promotes your businesses core values instills interest in your customers and helps them to trust you. This makes them want to buy from you, because they feel that they know you better than they do your competitors. 

  

Blogging is the human face on the mechanical business machine. 

 
I'm not saying that your business is a faceless robot. But if your looking to have hundreds or thousands of customers that could be spread all across the globe, It's difficult for them to really "know you" unless you help them out a little.  

 
But your blog doesn't need to sound like a teenagers diary entry. 

 
"Dear diary, today I made a sale *happy dance*" 

 
Blogging needs to set the tone of your business. The blog of a legal firm will sound very different to that of a sweet shop. Imagine you are talking to your customers sitting in front of you. What sort of language would you use? How formal would you sound? Is the tone conversational? Frank and to the point? Chatty? 

What will it cost you? 

 
Quite often, nothing. 

 
If you have a website already then you probably have everything already in place to start blogging. You may want to add a page to your website that you can keep updated and use as a blog. Alternatively you can use a free or very cheap blogging platform and link it to your site. 

 
These are two of the most popular free blogging sites; 

 
Wordpress.com 

 
Wordpress is so simple to use!  

You can create a very professional blog in literally minutes. It looks great, but it costs.  The most basic packages are available for a minimum of £2.50 per month but these are so basic that I'm not sure that you would find them much use for business purposes.  

 
Their business package means that you can use your own domain name, remove the word "Wordpress" that would otherwise be plastered all over your blog as well as a host of other benefits.  

But with prices starting at £20.83 per month, (that's a whopping £249.46 a year) you need be sure that your blog is going to be earning you some revenue before you leap in.  

 
You can get a free website or blog through Wordpress. But if you are serious about blogging then I would recommend upgrading to one of the more professional packages. 

 
If you want to monetise your blog or use it as a store/shopping platform for their product then it's great. 

 
Blogger.com 

 
This is hosted by Google. The advantages to this are that you blog will be fully integrated into your google profile making sharing your content and getting it seen easy peasy. Blogger also includes Google analytics free. So if you like to know where your audience is coming from and what they are looking at, then this is the one for you. 

 
Blogger is compatible with Google Ad-sence, so making money from having ads on your page is as easy as clicking a button. 

 
It is also absolutely free.  

 
The downside it that it is not as user friendly as Wordpress. It's also quite complicated to try to set it up as a shop. 

 
How often do you need to blog? 

 
This entirely depends on your audience. You want to keep your content fresh so that your readers have something new to interest them each time they visit.  

Popular blogs with 10,000 readers a day need to update their content every few hours but that's because they have a huge reader base to be kept entertained.  

Blog as often as you think your readers will visit, whether that be once a week or once a month. 

 
What content should you put into your blog? 

 
Content needs to be; 

 
Honest 

 
Part of the reason why you are writing a blog is so that potential customers can get to know and trust you. If you value your businesses integrity (and I'm sure you do) then you will only write about what you know to be factually correct. Giving your opinion is fine so long as you make it clear that's what it is, and so long as that opinion fits into your brand. If in doubt, leave it out. 

 
Interesting 

 
If what your writing is boring, your customers won't read it. If what you are writing about is fundamentally boring (tax legislation for example) then use interesting language and try throwing in a few info-graphics to liven it up a bit. 

 
Relevant 

 
If your business is a bouncy castle rental in Ledbury, don't blog about the political situation in Cuba. Leave that for your own Facebook page. 

Do however blog about the largest bouncy castle ever made, or link to an article about throwing the best ever kids birthday party (just make sure it recommends bouncy castles). 

 
Helpful 

 
Your customers want to be better informed about your business, so inform them!  

Write an article on how your product has helped someone live a better life. Or how your service has helped someone save a ton of money. Your blog is about promoting YOUR business. 

 
Shareable  

 
Shareable content is like the philosophers stone. One article that hits the right note with your readers can be shared countless times, propelling your business ahead of your competitors. There is no real formula to what makes something go "viral".  

New, innovative content that makes people go "wow, I haven't seen that before! everyone I know needs to see this!" is what makes people press that magic "share" button. 

 

To find out more about blogging and about Joanna, visit her very popular blog:

Visit Today We Craft >

 

The cost of marketing. The cost of not marketing.

Rumour has it marketing is an expensive thing to invest in. Oh, in that case best not dent the budget on those less important things like marketing and advertising. Problem solved!

Or is it?

Let’s stop and think about this for a minute... Are your customers buying as much as they were? Are your phones ringing off the hook demanding your services? Is your turnover where you want it to be? I would like to hazard a guess that the answer may be ‘no’, which means that you need to still be driving demand – you need to be out there, being seen by your customers.

Marketing services are key to helping businesses continue to grow, even through the tough times. By reminding customers you are there with the products they want and need, rewarding customer loyalty and offering additional benefits and savings to gain new business, will all help to drive your business forward.

The businesses that are proactive in their marketing strategy will be in a far stronger position, putting them ahead of the competition. Investing in marketing now will not only be addressing immediate needs, but building positive impacts on your business development for the future.

Just remember, demand for your services can only come from awareness of the services themselves and the fact you are offering them. If people don’t know about you or what you do, why would they come to you?

So in summary... Marketing is not a cost, it's an investment. And it doesn't have to be an expensive investment either.

Be seen. Be you. Be effective.

“Hello, I'm looking for an interior designer. I've just bought an old farm house and want to redecorate the whole place. Money's no object. I'm open to wonderful new ideas. Anyone there? ... Anyone?”

Wow, a perfect potential client. They have money, they want to give you creative freedom and they have a big project. Couldn't be better. Well, it would be better if that client had contacted you.

You are fabulous, why didn't they contact you?

Simple. They didn't know about you.

The simple science (aka logic) is just that, simple. If people can't find you, then they are not going to contact you.

Every organisation needs to make sure they are visible and being noisy. Logos, signage, advertising, events, online, media coverage, customer referrals, word of mouth... the list can go on.

When making sure you are seen, you need to be seen in the right light and you need to be making the right noises. No point having a whacking great billboard up if the writing is too small, or it is torn and dirty, or if you forgot to put on a telephone number. And no point having a great sponsorship of the local football club if your advertising is nothing like your business website or branding.

So... can your potential customers find you easily? Will they like the look of you?

Are you being seen and being seen in the best light? 

How well does your marketing fit?

Marketing has many hats and comes in many guises, but the important thing is finding out what best suits you and what you really need. No point doing things for the sake of it, or because it's what you've done before, or because you read it was a good idea, or Harry from the golf club said it worked wonders for his business.

You are unique. You are an individual organisation with your own goals, personality and tantalising things to offer. So start there...

A good marketing consultant/company will spend the time to find out about you and your plans. They will have a look at what you look like from the outside and then have a really good peek inside too. Marketing will only truly work to its full potential if you honestly know yourself and what it is you are offering and what it is that the people out there want.

And remember, every little thing is as important as the bigger things. You want to be sure that your business card is the one people keep hold of, as well as knowing you have the right marketing strategy to grow your business.

How well does your marketing fit?

It's not just what you say, but how you say it

Your voice is how you present your personality and represent your brand. The words you speak, the posts you post, the content of your websites, how you answer the phone and write letters...

People don’t always remember the words and images you use, but they will remember the impression and the feelings they created. So how you say things is just as important as what you are saying. The right words delivered in the right way can influence your customers and persuade them to choose you.

Everyday your business personality and voice is being delivered through your website, leaflets, adverts, social media, emails, phone calls, letters, meetings, etc. So have you looked at all these things recently? What are they saying about your business.

Your business needs the right personality and voice.

To get new customers, you need to appeal to them. To appeal to them, you need to create the right impression. To create the right impression, you need to speak the right language and portray your business in the way that will appeal directly to that target audience.

Your business’ personality and voice needs to reflect who you are and directly appeal to your target audience. It needs to be:

·         Honest - a true representation of you and your business

·         Clear - create a strong impression

·         Distinctive - set you apart from your competitors

·         Consistent - so it becomes recognisable and memorable, building familiarity and trust

Setting the tone.

Giving your business the right voice and personality is not easy, as you very often don’t have an actual person delivering the words. Written (typed!) words do not come with body language, facial expressions or different tones of voice.

So it is vital to clearly define your tone and then help deliver it by:

·         Using the right imagery to influence the tone and impression of words

·         Making potential customers feel like they are dealing with actual people

·         Appealing and speaking direct to your target market

·         Evoking positive emotional reactions – don’t just provide endless information

·         Exciting and enticing, not preaching and boring

·         Being consistent across all forms of communication and interactions

Try this.

1.       What adjectives describe your brand?

2.       What adjectives describe what you stand for?

3.       What adjectives describe your target audience?

4.       What adjectives describe what your products/services do?

(There is a list of adjectives at the end of this blog for you to pick from)

Your answers will outline your business personality (formal, informal, fun, focused, professional, experts, authoritative, approachable, innovative, etc.), and therefore the voice you need to deliver this.

Understanding your personality is understanding your target market’s perception of you. Create the right personality to create the right impression.

Here are some adjectives which may help you...

Able

Adventurous

Affectionate

Agile

Aggreable

Amazing

Ambitious

Amusing

Artificial

Awesome

Balanced

Beautiful

Big

bold

Brave

Bright

Brilliant

Careful

Casual

Cautious

Charming

Childlike

Chic

Clever

Confident

Conservative

Contemporary

Cool

Co-operative

Courageous

Curious

Decisive

Delicate

Devoted

Direct

Discerning

Discreet

Dramatic

Dynamic

Eager

Earnest

Easy-going

Edgy

Efficient

Elegant

Emotional

Energetic

Enterprising

Enthusiastic

Established

Excellent

Excitable

Experienced

Fabulous

Fashionable

Fast-moving

Fiery

Flashy

Formal

Frank

Friendly

Funny

Fussy

Generous

Gentle

Good

Glamorous

Grave

Great

Hearty

Helpful

Hot-headed

Humorous

Imaginative

Impatient

Impressive

Impulsive

Independent

Industrious

Informal

Inspiring

Intelligent

Interesting

Inventive

Jovial

Joyous

Keen

Kind

Leader

Level-headed

Lively

Local

Logical

Lovable

Lovely

Luxurious

Mature

Methodical

Meticulous

Modest

Motivated

Musical

Mysterious

Natural

Neat

New

Noisy

Normal

Obliging

Old-fashioned

Orderly

Outgoing

Outspoken

Passionate

Passive

Patient

Peaceful

Pensive

Persevering

Picky

Plain

Plain-speaking

Playful

Pleasant

Plucky

Polite

Popular

Positive

Powerful

Practical

Predictable

Pretty

Proficient

Professional

Progressive

Proud

Provocative

Prudent

Punctual

Quick

Quiet

Quirky

Realistic

Reassuring

Rebellious

Reliable

Reluctant

Reserved

Resourceful

Respected

Respectful

Responsible

Ridiculous

Rugged

Rural

Sassy

Saucy

Sedate

Self-assured

Sensible

Sensitive

Sentimental

Serene

Serious

Sexy

Sharp

Shrewd

Shy

Silly

Sincere

Small

Smart

Snazzy

Sophisticated

Soulful

Spirited

Stable

Steady

Stern

Stoic

Striking

Strong

Stylish

Sturdy

Subtle

Surprising

Sweet

Tactful

Talented

Thinking

Thoughtful

Timid

Tolerant

Tough

Traditional

Tranquil

Urban

Versatile

Vigilant

Warm

Warmhearted

Wary

Watchful

Well-behaved

Well-developed

Well-intentioned

Well-respected

Well-rounded

Whimsical

Willing

Wonderful

Worldly

Youthful

Zealous

On a mission.

A mission statement is a short paragraph defining your business strategy, your business aims and values. It tells people what your business is all about.

It should be realistic and representative, and not just a load of jargon and industry terms.

Source: Dilbert

Why do you need a mission statement? 

What’s the point!

1.       It will provide a focus on what really matters – your business objectives and how you will attain and retain customers

2.       It gives you a marker to align your business decisions with – do your plans sit work with your Mission Statement (your business objectives and values)?

3.       It shows new employees what the business is about, what it’s trying to achieve and how it wants to achieve that

4.       It defines your business personality and character, which will in-turn influence marketing activities and planning

How do you write a Mission Statement?

Ask yourself the following questions and then put the answers together. Tweak and play with the words until you have a concise paragraph with clear messages.

·         Why have you set up your business?

·         What does your business do?

·         How do you do it?

·         Who are your customers?

·         What benefits are you providing?

·         What makes you different from your competitors?

Example: 

‘Don’t Hide. Be Seen’ - mission statement:

It is the mission of ‘Don’t Hide. Be Seen’ to grow a successful business providing small, local businesses with the essential marketing knowledge and tools they need to get new customers. 

With a smile and a good listening ear, I will use my extensive experience of small business development and start-up business needs to provide the right marketing solutions at the right price for my customers. 

I keep things straightforward, clear and effective and I want you to love my work as much as I do.

Does this answer the questions above? Yes!

·         Objective: Grow a successful business and deliver solutions that customers’ love

·         Services: marketing solutions and knowledge

·         Delivery: Listening and smiling

·         Customers: Small, local businesses

·         Benefits: Get new customers

·         Differentiate: Focus on what is needed and the importance of how customers feel about my work