You may be the kindest person around, but your blog must generate leads, or it has to be wiped off your server.
If you make the most of your blog, it can be your top marketing channel. Readers come to trust you and attach weight to your recommendations, allowing you to earn commissions or to introduce your sales team.
Make sure your personality is plain to see on your website. People buy from people, so the personal aspect of your blog is the ideal method to demonstrate how helpful and trustworthy you are.
Hello Bar
We have become blind to the things we see every day, on every website. Business owners need a new way to grab the attention of website users. Hello Bar offers just that.
If you have a WordPress site, then you can use a plugin to install Hello Bar, but the code is a simple line of Javascript, so the bar is compatible with any site. You can customize how your Hello Bar will look, including colors, fonts and the message you show. You might consider choosing complementary or clashing colors to see which works best using the built-in A/B testing tool.
The free Hello Bar shows a branding ‘H’ on the left, but there is a Pro version that removes the branding and lets you use an unlimited number of bars on your business site. This latter feature allows you to show different bars depending on where your visitor has come from or where they are on your site. Editing your Hello Bar is as simple as clicking on it in the HelloBar interface.
Email List
An email subscriber list is still one of the best ways to generate business. Subscribers get to know and trust you over time, especially if you are personal and give them lots of free help to solve their problems.
It is widely acknowledged that you need multiple contacts with anyone before that person becomes a customer. Email and social media both have a role to play in your marketing, but email is far and away the better channel regarding conversions. Social media accounts might help potential customers come to know your business, but email is always going to be the clincher.
For all that, you’de have to use a professional email subscription service. Email Marketing automation from GetResponse allows you segment your list according to subscribers’ interests or where they signed up from, which means you can send them emails that are focused on their particular needs. Email sequences can be automated, which will save a lot of repetition of the same tasks.
GetResponse goes way beyond email automation to marketing automation – allowing many marketers to completely automate their business tasks in an easy manner, saving time and money.
CRM software
Why do you need a CRM? Because it lets you track previous conversations that your employees have had with the prospect, which makes your company appear that much more professional when you refer to something that was said last week by another employee.
Insightly offers a free Customer Relations Management (CRM) program.
You need a CRM to convert leads into buyers. Insightly’s CRM is a good choice, and it’s free because they hope you will buy into the associated marketing and sales programs. CRM is a must, even if you have no intention of ever paying a paid subscription.
Social Media
Links from social media sites to your business website are important for the trust signals that they give. Google will rank your site higher if Internet users demonstrate that they trust it.
Social media gurus tell us every day that we should spend more time on the different social platforms. The truth is that they are right, but how do we find the time?
The only way is to use a social media management platform such as Oktopost.
Oktopost is a dedicated B2B social management platform that lets you manage multiple social accounts very simply, all from the same dashboard.
Help and Advice
Your blog is primarily a marketing channel, rather than a selling channel. Marketing means getting the prospect ready to buy. You do this by building trust and a personal relationship with every potential lead.
This Business Logs post, Nobody Cares about You, sums it up perfectly. Your readers only care about themselves, and you need to pander to their requirements.
Give, give again and keep on giving. Provide information, share your knowledge freely. You will always know more than the person you are helping, in fact, sharing deepens your own knowledge further. Every time people see you helping others, you get more kudos and your reputation increases.
Using YOUR Blog to the Full
Your blog is far from free; it costs you time, energy and money, so it needs to bring in business just to pay for itself.
The tools here will allow you to use your time more efficiently. Hello Bar and Hubspot CRM are free, GetResponse and Oktopost have a cost, but let you talk to leads and convert them into buyers much more easily. There is no getting around the cost of producing your blog content, but focusing on building trust should help to generate new business.
