Dipping your toes into content: 3 reasons a blog is your best sales tool.
The connection between marketing and sales.
When it comes to sales, we have talked tirelessly about some of the strategies businesses and marketing companies like ours use to create great content that ultimately winds up turning into revenue for your business. We've challenged the traditional sales funnel and we have talked about the changing demographic of buyers today. What people are looking for, to steal a line out of the Donald Miller playbook, is a guide. (Note: if you haven't heard of Donald Miller or his books and StoryBrand, I can't recommend it enough - check him out here). Getting back to the point, anyone today who is looking to make a purchase for something wants to first be educated in their decision. That is, they want to feel like they are going to be able to make the best decision they possibly can because they have learned as much as they can in whatever time frame they have allowed themselves. With this, they are seeking someone to help them learn. And the company or person who creates the best relationship and gains the most trust wins.
So what all does this have to do with marketing? And how's it going to make money? Glad you asked!
The easiest way to make money with your website is by starting a blog. I'm sure you've seen countless websites with "Blog" in the navigation menu and blown right by it. You may have even thought to yourself "Why would anyone still have a blog?".
Here are three really great reasons as to why we say a blog isn't just "completely necessary", but it could, in fact, be the best sales person you have.
The three reasons your newest sales asset is your blog.
1. It drives ranking in search engines. Sure, not the sexiest reason, but think about it this way... You have a website, you spend time and money crafting the words on the homepage, carefully placing the "Email Us!" buttons (you did use call-to-action buttons, right?), and making sure the images were super spiffy. Now what? Without creating the living, breathing, ever-changing thing that is a blog on your website, you've just paid a salesperson to sit in the office and stare at the wall all day. Search engines look at your page as old, dusty content. When you start writing and releasing blogs on a regular basis (or hire someone like us to do it), these same search engines start looking at your website in a whole new way. They see your website as active, creating content, and in their eyes, creating content is creating value. Excellent! Now in our example of your blog being a salesperson, your newly hired salesperson is picking up the phone and dialing. But what is it they're saying? Your blog, when properly written with timely, helpful, and useful content, will be a supercharged Tony-Robbins-type salesperson with unlimited power in the eyes of search engines. Soon enough, after some consistent, helpful content, your site will start climbing the ranks organically, putting your new super sales specialist in the right place at the right time every time.
2. It builds a brand's goodwill. Now, I'm not saying blogs aren't going to actually close for you. They can. And it's awesome when they do. But what blogs do best is build up the relationship and guidance that your customers are craving. Take one of our clients, for example, The Restaurant Technology Guys. Their blog sets out to educate the hospitality community on technology that can make their business better. As we craft the messages for this blog, we don't just stick to point of sale (which happens to be what their parent company sells, and what happens to be the goal of the blog) content. We write about social media, and kitchen technology, and all types of other technology happenings. Add in reason number 1 (see above), organic traffic will start to increase. In fact, over the course of the 2 years we've been writing content for the Restaurant Technology Guys blog, organic traffic has increased over 100%. Now, when it comes time to make a decision for a new point of sale system, who is it do you think that visitor will call? Even if they never need a new point of sale or if they don't go with the RTG-backed solution, there are a bunch of restaurant operators out there running their businesses better.
3. It always says the right thing at the right time. Because a blog lives on the web forever and is accessible at any time, it increases the chance that a buyer may need to see that particular piece of content at exactly the point when they are ready to make a purchase decision. For example, maybe you sell air conditioner repair services. Let's assume one of the blogs your company (or someone like us) wrote 9 months ago was about "Ways to tell when your air conditioner needs to be serviced." It's now the heat of the summer and one of your neighbors air conditioners is blowing hot air. They hit the Internet and search "What does it mean when your air conditioner is blowing hot air?". Because you've been diligently producing well-thought content that's helpful, and your 9-month old blog addresses this answer, search engines will rank your blog as an authority on blowing hot air (pun intended) and will show this content to that person in their time of need. Just like that (and with a well-placed call to action) that person is likely to pick up the phone or fill out a service request form. Even though you "said it" almost a year ago, it reverberates for years to come.
Do you have a blog? How do you come up with the best content? We'd love to know. Feel free to reach out and contact us with your methods.
Action Ready Marketing is a boutique full-service marketing firm that specializes in helping small to medium sized businesses automatically create powerful blog content without distracting them from the day to day business needs. Get Started Today!