Your website is just part of the picture when it comes to marketing yourself or your business online. Getting yourself an easy to manage ‘marketing ecosystem’ is the best way forward when it comes to making the most out of your online sales routine. But what do we need in place to make all this work? Let’s have a look.
Blog, Email, Post (Repeat)
Take a quick look at the image above. Seems easy right? That’s because it is! The best thing about this system is that once you’ve got yourself a website, the rest of the circle doesn’t cost you a single cash penny. OK – now we’ll see about how we set this up.
1. Blog free information
We’ve already gone into this part in a little bit of detail in our previous post about why you should get started with blogging, but let’s have a quick refresher. The reasons to blog are simple:
- Blogging will get more people to your website
- Blogging positions you as an expert in your field
- Blogging improves your SEO (findability)
If you already have a website with us here at Webwalrus you’ve got a blog set up and waiting to go – just drop us a line and we’ll help you login and get going. If you are using one of our competitors or have your own website you maintain, then getting yourself a blog might be a little bit more tricky. We recommend the WordPress platform for all your blogging requirements, but other platforms can be useful too. Try tumblr.com for a simpler blogging platform.
The content that you write is largely up to you, but remember to blog about something relevant to you or your business, make it something you know about, and ensure you are getting it right! As far as the actual article goes we will be detailing what makes a good blog post at a later date. For now though remember these major points.
- Your readers want to learn from you
- Longer articles gain more kudos with Google (300+ words)
- Maintain a conversational style and good structure
So that’s it for stage one – let’s move on.
2. Email your mailing list
Mailing list huh. A lot of people when they first start out are not going to have a mailing list. Fortunately in the UK we can email previous customers with sales emails as long as they are similar to products or services we have sold to them in the past. Making sure our existing customers are on our mailing list is our first step on the way to getting a successful email marketing strategy. But who looks after the list? That’s where mailchimp.com comes in.
There are lots of email marketing providers out there but for the beginner we recommend mail chimp above all others as their system is easy to use, and up to a limit is completely free. If you don’t already have an online list I’d recommend signing up with them today. Once you are used to how mail chimp works I would certainly advise spending the small amount of cash that unlocking the pro features costs as it can really benefit your email marketing strategy. More on this another time.
So you’ve got your list set up in mail chimp – what is it that you should email them? The answer as I’m sure you have already guessed (if not check out the image above again!) is a brief summary of what it is you have said in your blog post and a link to the full details available on your website. This way you are not only informing your customers by email, but also encouraging them to visit your site for the full juicy details. Who knows – whilst they are there they might also buy one of your widgets.
3. Post on social media
By now I’m sure you are getting the hang of it. But let’s just run through this to be sure. Your social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, whatever) are where you should socialise with your customers and potential customers – i.e. interact with them, comment on their posts, laugh at their jokes, answer their questions. I’m not going to recommend posting endless memes with cats doing the most hilarious things. For most businesses that just isn’t a good fit, and can make you look a little ridiculous. If every now and then you post some good information that people will enjoy reading then this is certainly beneficial for everybody. So post your latest blog post once you’ve written it and if it’s any good people will repost it for you. If it’s not any good they might share it anyway if you give it a good punchy headline. The more shares and likes you get from your social media buddies the better Google will like you, and the higher up the listings you’ll rise.
So that’s it for this time. If you thought this was all a bit obvious then maybe you should have been writing this post yourself. If not let me know what you thought about it below…
Bye bye for now
J
We’ve all heard that blogging is a great idea when it comes to marketing. But why exactly is that? Why would anybody be interested in what I have to say, and how does that help my business? Let’s see if we can answer a few of those questions and get you started on the road to a great blog.
Why would anybody be interested in what I have to say?
Online, people are both passively and actively looking at new content every day. Social media passively feeds you a list of articles you might like to see, or if you are a go getter you might be looking for the right article using a search engine. Although the events of your day might sometimes seem a little banal (got up, drove to work, sat at my desk, drank coffee) the real gold of writing your own blog is when it contains information that is of use to your reader. Take this article for instance. You are reading this hoping to learn something I already know- why people blog. So the first rule of blogging is say something useful.
How does that help my business?
The benefits of ‘saying something useful’ to your business are three fold.
- Firstly people are looking at your article on your website. Just a few clicks away are those pages illustrating your products or services. Maybe they will have a look around at your site while they are here. Maybe in the weeks to come they’ll pop back and have another look. Maybe they’ll click that buy button, or give you a call. None of these things can be a bad result.
- The second great thing that is happening whilst your reader is sucking up your content is that in their mind you are becoming an expert in your field. Remember back to before you first visited my site or got to know me. Did you think I knew anything about this stuff then? Well with any luck by now you’re thinking of me in a new light – one which makes you much more likely to buy from me or recommend me to your friends.
- OK, number three – Search Engine Optimisation. The moment I hit publish on this article and promote it around my social media outlets, Google is going to pick up on that event and think – “Hey this guy has added some new content to his website”. That light that goes on at Google means that your Page ranking is going to go up a little bit. Not a lot, but overtime all those new articles you post will all add up to a big increase in your page ranking. Couple that with the interest you can generate on social media and things can really improve for your findability.
So How Do I Start?
Well the good news is that if you already have a website with us you’ve got blogging capability built in. All of our business and trader tier sites come with a blog included, and if you are on a starter package you can simply upgrade to add the functionality. If you are looking for a cheap alternative to get you going, why not try out a free account with wordpress.com? You can always move your content over to us at a later date once you are ready.
Got any questions? Why not leave me a comment and I’ll be happy to get back to you.
J
p.s. if you’re looking for information on how to write your fist blog post – try out this post: Writing Your First Blog Post
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