I know that a lot has been written on this subject, but I’m putting up what I consider the top 5 Best Practices in Business Blogging for your review–if you feel I’ve missed something or I’m off the mark, please let me know!

The 5 Best Practices in Business Blogging

1. Write with a specific audience in mind — Who is your audience? As you’re writing, pretend like they’re sitting down right next to you. What is going to get their attention? What can you write about that’s going to help them solve the problem that’s been keeping them awake at night?
2. Focus on the content and help your readers solve a real problem–Chances are, you know how to help your customers solve a real problem, or else you wouldn’t be in business. Your article (or blog post) should fulfill a real need, or else it is not relevant.
3. Be educational not promotional–Blogging is not broadcasting, so educate your readers, don’t pander to them. This is your chance to show them you know what you’re talking about… by helping them solve a real problem you are establishing yourself as an expert, and you increase the likelihood that when they have a need they’ll call you first.
4. Write for readability–”Pretend like I’m in 8th grade“–that’s what one of my old bosses used to say. You impress people the most when you get your message across. In most cases, your writing should be made to be simple so that your readers follow you, and understand what you’re writing about. Write in plain english and avoid foreign languages and jargon. (This post was written at an 8th grade level--which means that most 13 and 14 year olds can understand it–you can check your own readability at http://www.read-able.com)
5. Create ways for your readers to engage with you–Comment forms, polls, social media buttons, live chat buttons encourage your readers to interact with you. Your objective shouldn’t be to get a purchase right now at this moment–but rather interaction, engagement, and feedback. Engagement deepens relationships.

When you boil it down to its very essence, Blogging is just another way to communicate–a very powerful way, because like all “real” communication– it’s a two-way street, an opportunity to engage and build relationships with others–by commenting on blog posts you can show off your active listening skills, and offer value to the conversation.

Make your content so good that people want to share it

If Social Media is about (1) connecting with others (2) collecting  information that’s important to you, then blogging is about making your content relevant so good that your readers will want to collect it and share it with their connections, friends, and followers. If you follow these 5 Best Practices for Business Blogging, your content will be so good they’ll want to share it with their friends.

So those are my 5 Best Practices in Business Blogging, and I’m sticking to them! I’m sure there are other best practices out there, so if you have any you’d like to share please “make my day!”

It’s kind of mind-boggling, really…

So why do so many companies keep doing the same old thing, and expect anything different? It’s insanity.

If you’d like to break out of the same old routine, and produce some real results you need to try something new.

Here are 12 great marketing ideas you can try in the coming months to achieve better results.

12 Marketing Ideas you can implement to produce better results

1. Update your strategic positioning so you really stand out from the competition
2. Create a new offer, like a payment plan, to make your services more affordable
3. Simplify your website to make it easier for customer and prospects to do business with you
4. Do an SEO Makeover to achieve a #1 ranking so prospective customers and buyers can find you on the web
5. Get other websites to link back to you using Off-page optimization to boost your search engine rankings and your website traffic
6. Start a Business Blog to establish thought leadership and niche dominance
7. Implement a Social Media Marketing Program to share your ideas with your followers
8. Create a Pay-per Click Program to augment the leads you’re getting from other sources
9. Test Landing Pages (Landing page optimization) to maximize the results from your Pay-per-click budget (you can do a lot with $200/month)
10. Create an Affiliate Marketing program to get others to identify opportunities and generate leads for you
11. Implement a Marketing Automation System with powerful marketing automation sequences to educate the prospects who aren’t ready to buy yet and convert them into ready buyers who want to do business with you
12. Accept Credit Cards online with Automated Recurring Billing to reduce time spent on invoicing and collecting payments from customers

How many of these ideas have you already implemented? Are there any other ideas you’d add to this list? What are you doing to ramp up your marketing activities?

The most successful companies are continually trying new ideas to achieve better and better results. That’s the only way that you can hope to improve.

So why aren’t companies more adventurous when it comes to trying new things?

It’s the “I hate brocolli” syndrome of marketing and business.

If you ask the average CEO, “What’s the rationale for the way you’re currently marketing your services?”  Many say: “It’s what we’ve always done.”

The sad truth is that many companies are engaging in the same old tried marketing tactics rooted in strategies that were developed eons ago (a.k.a. 2007).  They’re wasting money on tactics that are not rooted in any real, current strategy – or based on the realities of today’s marketplace.

How to get higher response rates and higher conversions

 Any Direct Marketing old timer will tell you that the secret to getting and maintaining high response rates and higher conversions is: “Test. Test. Test.”

In fact, there are some who say that  30% of your budget should be set aside for testing.

If you’re testing new ideas agains the old ones it’s the only way to know for sure that you’re marketing is continually improving. 

Apply the principles of continual improvement to your marketing. In Direct Mail it’s called “A/B Splits and Multivariate Testing.” In Google Web Optimizer it’s called “Marketing Experiments.”

Test everything. Test in order of importantance. Your offer, your keywords on your pay-per-click ads, your landing pages.

Or if you don’t really want new and better results, you can just keep doing what you’re doing — what you’ve always done.

What is the purpose behind Blogging? It’s not to show how smart or cute you are. If it’s going to be a part of an effective business strategy, you need to provide value, to show people the way, and establish yourself as a thought leader.

What is the purpose behind Social Media? It’s to connect with People: Friends, Associates, Affiliates, Prospects, Customers, and let them know what you’re up to. If you are using social media, you get to build your own channel, and you are literally the Editorial Board, Editor in Chief, Writer/Anchor, and Ombudsman all in one person.

What’s the purpose behind integrating your Blogging and your Social Media? Quite simply, it’s a radical new opportunity to put yourself “out there” in front of your clients and prospects, to help them solve problems,and position yourself as a potential solution provider, so that when they have an itch they’ll remember that you provide the scratch.

How to Integrate Blogging and Social Media: In 8 Simple Steps

1. Reserve your social media profile names: If you haven’t done so already go to Linked in, Facebook, and Twitter, and reserve your social media profile names. Optionally you can create a corporate Facebook account, or a Facebook Page, so that people can follow your business (“like you”) instead of you as an individual.

2. Build out your social media profiles: Building a good profile takes time and evolves as you evolve. To start take an hour or two and do your best to build your social media profile so that it tells people what you do and how you do it better than anyone else.  Optional: On Linked-in add Wordpress (if you have a WordPress website) and Twitter.

3. Build your base group of followers. Upload Gmail, Yahoo, AOL accounts. Or Upload a .csv file. This allows you to connect with everyone in your address book quickly.

4. Work to add followers on a daily basis. Did you meet someone at a networking event? While you’re adding them to your CRM, invite them to connect, to be a friend, or a follower.  This requires some discipline. But once you add it to your routine it’s easy.

5. Blog about things your customers and prospects are interested in. And educate them about what you do at the same time. Make what you do relevant to your followers. Jerry Seinfeld was a genius at this. Share practical tips, insights, humor, personal triumphs. Your editorial could be topically-related business news, the economy, or about the seasons and the weather.

6. Download Tweetdeck: Add your social media accounts to Tweetdeck. There are others tools out there like Hootsuite, Social Oomph. I’m wary of “auto-magic,” i.e., anything that automates your marketing so much that you end up losing the human touch. Think quality over quantity as it pertains to the content you’re writing, and your number of followers. There are no shortcuts. Just do a good job, and success will follow.

7. Update your statuses: When you post a new blog, update your statuses to all three networks (Linked-in, Facebook, and Twitter) using Tweetdeck. This will increase the likelihood that your thoughts will be seen, and picked up by others. The more you interact the more you get picked up.

8. Interact with Others. Remember that Social Media is a two-way street. It’s not simply a broadcast medium. If someone takes the time to comment on something you’ve written, take the time and have the courtesy to respond. Also, comment on other posts that you find interesting. Retweet (RT) other people’s Tweets.  Follow and comment on status updates that you find interesting. Take advantage of opportunities to interact with others.

If you follow this Simple 8 Step Plan, others who use Social Media will see that the lights are on and someone is definitely home. 

Don’t forget that Social Media is “Social”

Remember to emphasize the “social” aspect of ”Social Media.” Its purpose should be to genuinely connect with people because you genuinely care about connecting with people (**not to connect with them so you can sell something**). If you’re at a cocktail party, you are a boor if all you do is talk about yourself.

So that’s how you can begin to integrate Blogging and Social Media. And if you do it right, first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes YOU pushing all your new business around in a baby carriage shopping cart.

Postscript: The one item on this list that people ask me the most about is #5. “What specifically should I write about about?” My answer: “It all depends.” What is going to engage your followers? You’re the Editor-in chief; you decide what will engage your followers. Write about problems and solutions (and oh by the way if you provide the solution let your followers know, but don’t lead with a solution before you’ve got people agreeing that there’s a problem in the first place).

Why is everyone talking about “Inbound Marketing?” Who cares about the “Real-time Web?”

Several years ago when Google modified its Pagerank Algorithm, and started factoring in how other influential websites link to yours,  few people really could imagine the explosion of social media engines like Linked-in, Facebook, and Twitter. Your search engine visibility is determined not only by the quality of the content on your website, but by who is linking to you.

Just recently, Google has launched the real-time web. Now more than ever there is an extraordinary opportunity for small businesses to carve out a niche in their social media marketplaces — effectively creating their own channel to communicate with their customers and prospects.

In an article in Huffpost by Manish Mehta, the Vice President, Social Media and Community at Dell Inc. (who can attribute $7 million in sales to Twitter for doing nothing at all!),  Mehta affirms “Social media isn’t a means to further a corporation’s strategy, it’s a means to help determine it.”

Sometimes pictures (or mindmaps) are better than words, so I’ve created a Mindmap that illustrates a general Inbound Marketing/Social Media Strategy.

Inbound Marketing / Social Media Strategy Cashmap for Small Businesses

It’s anchored by strategic marketing: (with introductory offers to acquire new customers, upsell/cross sell them into higher margin/higher value products, and convert them into customer advocates), and it includes what I consider the essential elements of inbound marketing strategy, which dovetail with Google’s Pagerank Algorithm: (1) a web presence that is search engine optmized, and empowers real-time expression (2) content generation to display thought leadership / attention to customer’s problems and (3) off-page optimization strategies which are essential to building followers and getting other influential websites to link back to yours.

For those who’ve been sitting on the social media sidelines hoping the whole fad might go away…, social media is not a fad, and it’s not going away. It’s going to be a critical way for you to reach your customers and prospects, and it’s more important than ever to get connected.

On the web, the time is literally now.

When Warren Buffet speaks, people listen.

Recently I happened to catch Warren Buffet on TV talking about how leaders should set business priorities.

Buffet was saying that you should run your business like it’s a family business–one that you are going to hold onto for 100 years, and the #1 thing you should think about is how to build a sustainable competitive advantage, like building “like a moat around your castle.”

If you look back to medieval times, moats were excavated around castles as part of the defensive system–an obstacle immediately outside the walls–and usually they were filled with water.

A good moat made it difficult for your enemy to access your walls with siege weapons, such as towers and battering rams, which needed to be brought up against a wall to work effectively. A water-filled moat made it impossible for your enemy to dig tunnels under your fortifications in order to effect a collapse of the defenses. A good moat protected your castle and everything in it.

The wider your moat, the longer you can protect your profits. The deeper your moat, the more profitable you are.

“Understanding your customers” is key to building a good moat

If you’ve followed him for any time, you also know that Warren Buffet invests primarily in companies that “understand their customers.” To me this means companies that make Marketing a priority in their strategic plan…, not just the 4 P’s (Product, Place,  Price, and Promotion), but also RSPT (Research, Segmentation, Positioning, and Targeting).

In essence, applying the Fundamental Principles of Direct Marketing not just to your Marketing but to all your Operations.

One of the best ways to protect your profits and build higher margins, the key to a successful business, is to continally work to understand and serve your growing customer base. The way you do this is by mastering the Fundamentals of Acquiring and Managing Customers:

1. Find a suspect (on a good list or use of demographics)
2. Convert the suspect to a prospect (a lead),
3. Convert that prospect into a customer (an account),
4. Convert into a regular customer or multibuyer (someone who has purchased from you 3 times or more), and
5. Convert that regular customer into an advocate for your business who provides you a testimonial and a stream of referrals.

Literally all the things you can do to protect your profits and increase your margins derive from “understanding your customers, managing this fundamental process, and managing it well, i.e, all of the traditional methods of creating a competitive advantage: (1) Product Differentiation (2) Branding and Positioning (3) Pricing Strategies (4) Locking in customers, and (5) Locking out competitors derive from making great offers, establishing a real relationship with your customers, and being responsive.

“Understanding your customer” is the equivalent of protecting future revenue streams, and forms the basis of value. It’s the modern-day equivalent of building a good moat.

With this perspective, what are the competitive threats in your environment, i.e., the towers and battering rams that could impact your profitability? And what are you going today, this week, next month, next year to ”build your moat and protect your relationship with your customers?”

Everyone’s looking for results. Is there a sure-way method to find them?

Many companies think they’re practicing “Direct Marketing” without taking the time to measure and report the results… they enjoy the results, but they don’t try to figure out how they could do better. Like Direct Marketing, Lean Marketing is targeted, personalized, measurable, but most importantly, it’s improveable.

As consumers, We’ve all seen successful examples of Direct Marketing. You go to your mailbox, open your mail, and there’s a letter that stands out — it comes from a real person directly to you with an offer designed to delight you and make you want to respond.

As marketers, if you use Direct Marketing regularly, you know that for every $1.00 you spend you can get $20 back, or $24.00, or whatever. Predictable return on investment helps you with your budgeting, your cash management, and your profitability.

Quality Marketing

Lean Marketing is Direct Marketing with a commitment towards improvement, it’s Quality Management or Continual Improvement applied to Marketing, which can be illustrated by the PDCA Cycle that was popularized by Edward Deming, who is widely recognized as the forefather of improving design (and thus service), product quality, testing, and sales.

The PDCA cycle is designed to be used as a dynamic model. The completion of one turn of the cycle flows into the beginning of the next, creating a “virtuous circle of continual improvement”. The process can always be reanalyzed and a new test of improvement can begin. 

PDCA Cycle

PLAN: Establish the processes needed to achieve an acceptable response rate and a cost-per-acquistion of new customer.

DO: Implement the processes

CHECK: Monitor and measure the processes and report the results

ACT: Take action to test new ideas and maintain and continually improve the response rate and the cost-per-acquistion of new customer.

By testing new ideas, i.e., New offers, new creative strategies, new package formats, you’ll continue to make improvements… and in the process you’ll acquire new customers, sell them more, get them to refer others to you, and ultimately you’ll be a stronger and more profitable company.

By monitoring and measuring the processes and reporting the results, you’re able to quickly see what’s working and what’s not working, which will then allow you to align your budget with achieving your company’s strategic objectives.

And that is why Lean Marketing is so powerful.

It’s Direct Marketing the way it’s meant to be practiced.

Rotary International

Herbert J. Taylor (April 18, 1893 – May 1, 1978) was the creator of the “4-Way Test of the Things We Think, Say or Do” (see below). He wrote this 24-word statement of business ethics in twenty minutes as he set out to save the Club Aluminum Products distribution company from bankruptcy. 

Founded in 1923, Club Aluminum Cookware was sold by door-to-door salesmen until the Great Depression made this method of sales too costly. In 1932, it teetered on the verge of bankruptcy. The then-Vice President of Jewel Tea Company, Herbert J. Taylor, was asked come and help out in the hopes of avoiding insolvency. After he settled the law suits pending against the company, Taylor concluded that Club Aluminum was $400,000 in debt with no chance that existing sales could service even the short-term debt. He was advised to file for bankruptcy. Jewel Tea had concluded that the situation was hopeless and asked Taylor to return full-time. 

Instead, Taylor left his $33,000 salary at Jewel and became President of Club Aluminum, with a salary of $6,000. And, using his Jewel stock as collateral, he purchased the controlling interest in the Club Aluminum for $6,100. When Taylor took over the situation was so desperate. In developing his plan of action, his first priority was to change the ethical climate in the company. “If the people who worked for Club Aluminum were to think right, I knew they would do right,” he affirmed. ”What we needed was a simple, easily remembered guide to right conduct – a sort of ethical yardstick- which all of us in the company could memorize and apply to what we thought, said and did.” 

If the people who worked for Club Aluminum were to think right, I knew they would do right. ~ Herbert J. Taylor 

The Rotary Four-Way Test

The yardstick Taylor referred to ended up being The Four-Way Test, which has since been used by hundreds of thousands of business people as their guidepost for ethical conduct. When Taylor became president of the Rotary Club of Chicago in 1938, he introduced The Four-Way Test to Rotary International. 

Never changed, the 24 word Four Way Test remains today a central part of the permanent Rotary structure throughout the world, and is held as the standard by which all behaviour should be measured. 

In the meantime, Club Aluminum returned to profitability. The company was able to pay off its $ 400,000 debt within five years. Over one million dollars in dividends were paid over the following fifteen years. And net worth climbed to $1.75 million over the same period. 

Source: Wikipedia and American Business Hall of Fame

You have what it takes

Yes, you do… if you’ll just get over yourself and do what it takes.

From my experience, 99% of people have everything they need to succeed.  The only thing holding them back is… themselves. 

It’s all about actions…. creating a presence, promoting yourself, finding someone who has a need, showing them you can fulfill the need, confirming that they understand you can fulfill the need for the price you’re proposing, creating a formal  proposal and closing the deal.

Yes, it’s important to have a website, business cards, and a cell phone… that’s it.

The Cowardly Lion already had courage

Just remember the Cowardly Lion. He followed the Yellow Brick Road and finally met the Great Oz, only to learn that he already had courage… that he always had it… he just needed to use it. 

Just like you already have everything you need to succeed.

Once you come to the realization that you’re completely in control, then you can quit looking to others for permission, or for their approval, or whatever is in you that is holding you back from doing what you need to do to be successful.

Call 20 businesses per week, ask to speak with the owner, and offer something for free that shows off your expertise. If they take you up on it, perform your analysis, and create a two-page report. You’re almost guaranteed an engagement. If they don’t take you up on your free offer, send a follow up email to say thank you. Move on. That’s only 4 calls/follow-ups per day.

You have the power, you probably just need to push yourself to do things you haven’t done before.

You most certainly have what it takes. The question is: “Will you do what it takes?”