Should SMBs Blog to Customers or Colleagues?

It’s a question that I’ve seen come up a lot: When you’re blogging for SEO, who are you writing for? Should you be aiming your content at your colleagues in the industry, or are you blogging for your customers? Obviously, both are worthy approaches, but which gets the best results?

Over at GeoLocalSEO, Steve Hatcher recently offered a strong opinion for why SMBs should be blogging for their peers, not for their customers. Today I thought I’d bring the other side of the argument, because I do think it’s a worthy discussion.

That said, I respectfully disagree with Steve. For a small business owner, I think your blogging investment is far better spent producing content for your customers, not for your colleagues in the industry.

Why?  Below are a few reasons.

Your customers are performing searches.

When we encourage small business owners to start blogging, we talk to them about keyword research. We offer them advice on how to find out what types of queries their customers are entering as a way to understand what they want, what they’re looking for, and what types of needs the business can fill. Once you know what your customers need and what they’re looking for, you can make yourself the answer to their problem. For example, if you know that 300 potential customers a month are searching for [product name battery life], you can create content that addresses that concern or problem. You make it so that when they’re looking for authoritative content, they find you. That’s not keyword stuffing. That’s solving a problem.

You need to build authority with customers, not colleagues.

We know that there are more businesses blogging today than there are businesses not blogging today. And one of the main reasons so many companies have made the leap is because they know with more competitors, more noise and a tougher fight for visibility, small businesses need to differentiate themselves by establishing an authoritative voice in their market. While people looking for a locksmith may not spend all day trolling blogs about locksmiths or hanging out in locksmith forums (those exist, right?), they are going to do their due diligence before hiring someone. When they get a recommendation from a friend or when Google shows them the nearest locksmiths in their area, you’d better believe that user is going to do their homework and check the company website, the blog, the Twitter account, etc. This happens. This is how we vet companies now. And by creating that authority via your blog, you put yourself in a better position to get that customer.

You want to start conversations with customers, not colleagues.

Steve makes a worthy point in his post when he says that the people who comment on his SEO blog are other SEO experts, not people looking for services. And that’s often the case in the world of SEO and Internet marketing, but when you venture away from this circle I’d argue that it changes.

• Do you know who comments on blogs related to cooking and recipes? People who are interested in cooking and possibly buying your cookbook.
• Do you know who comments on active lifestyle blogs? People who may be in the market for a new kayak or a six-person tent.
• Who comments on blogs about cars and automotive issues? People who love cars and often spend their weekends working on theirs.

Those of us in the marketing world live in a very incestuous bubble. But  “normal people” do not.

Your customers are checking for your pulse, no one else.

The Web is changing customer buying behaviors.  Today customers go online to research companies on their own before they ever attempt to contact them about their product or service.  They’re looking for signs of a pulse when they do this–signs that you can give them what they need but also that your company is human and relatable. One of the great things SMBs have been able to do through their blogs is to tell their stories and show their human side to an audience that’s waiting for it. They’ve been able to talk about how they got started, share what drives their passion, and introduce their customers to people on their team. This has helped them find customers and differentiate themselves from everyone else in your industry. Your colleagues probably don’t care why you love what you do or what drives you to get up every day. Your customers absolutely do.

As a small business owner, there are many different approaches to blogging that you can take. You can blog for your customers, the people you’re trying to attract to your website. Or you can blog to your colleagues. In my opinion, your time is better spent appealing to the first group. They’re the people searching for you, evaluating you, and coming to your site (and the search result pages) looking for helping solving problems.  Speak to them.

What about you? Who is your blog content aimed at?

About the Author

Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media services, and other Internet services.

Connect with Lisa Barone:

 

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6 Ways Your Small Business Can Steal Customers From Big Brands

It’s easy to psych yourself out as a small business owner. You see the campaigns your bigger competitors are running and you’re intimidated. You know that you don’t have the same marketing budget or the same reach, and it’s harder for you to get out there while still focusing on your business. But all of that is OK, because as a small business owner, you have a lot going for you that the big dogs can’t compete with. You have the ability to steal customers away simply by focusing on the many strengths that come with being small.

How can you steal customers away from big brands? Below are just six ways.

1. By Focusing on Simplicity

Users want websites they can navigate, products that are easy to use and services that make sense the first time they’re explained. They don’t want the red tape, the hassles or the extra clicks that bigger brands throw into the process. As a small business owner, by keeping it simple you focus on your core user and ensure that they’re going to be happy doing business with you. Most users aren’t looking for the “experience” of it all. They just want to get what they want and then be able to leave. Let the big guys be complicated. You just be profitable.

2. By Solving Users’ Core Problems

One of the biggest advantages of life as a SMB owner is that you live and breathe what you do. You’re in it every day and you’re always talking to customers and hearing about what they’re struggling with. That gives you an opportunity to solve the core problems they’re discussing. It gives you that real-time feedback and knowledge that the bigger brands have a much harder time trying to replicate. Related to the point above, don’t add lots of extra features and bells and whistles that your customers don’t really need. Instead, focus on their core problems. What are they coming to you for and what’s the biggest challenge on their plate right now? That’s what you need to address. The rest doesn’t matter.

3. By Outmaneuvering Big Brands

When you’re small, you’re nimble. You have the opportunity to react to what you see happening in the market. You can change your plans based on what your customers are telling you or you can look for timely partners or tie-ins to what you’re doing. Bigger brands don’t have this luxury. It takes time for that advertising to be created, be approved and be sent out. It takes time for legal to reject, edit and then approve a new message the company wants to deliver. As a small business owner, the fact that you can bob and weave as necessary is incredibly useful.

4. By Excelling at Customer Service

Do you know why many customers prefer to do business with SMBs rather than larger brands? Sure, we all like to feel like we’re supporting our community, but we also know that we’ll be treated better if we go to a small business. We know that if we eat at that local café often enough, pretty soon the woman behind the counter will learn our name, our order and how we like it cooked. We know that if we have a problem with something we bought at the local electronics store, we can take it back and explain to the person what happened. One area where SMBs really set themselves apart is in the area of customer service. They go above and beyond for their customers and the result is return customers. People like going where they feel valued. SMBs give them that the way bigger brands simply can’t.

5. By Being Fearless

Being fearless doesn’t mean being reckless, but it does mean being bold and taking chances. It means experimenting with new technology or methods while the big dogs are still fighting for approval to even create a Twitter account. Being fearless allows small business owners to take risks and try things while the cost of failing at them is still relatively low. Read about something on a blog you think may work for your brand? Try it. Have an idea for a different way to use your Facebook page? Try it. Want to host a meetup in your store? You can do it next week. Take advantage of your size by acting while the big brands are still having meetings about it.

6. By Becoming a Big Brand Yourself

So you’re small? So what? That’s no excuse for not taking the time to develop a trusted and visible brand of your own. By incorporating blogging, Twitter, Facebook, forums and more into your marketing mix, you can work to create consistent content around your brand to make sure you’re visible and in front of your audience at all times. Who says rockin’ brands are only for the big boys?

Above are just a few reasons why it pays to be small. What do you like about not being a big corporate brand? How do you use your small size to your advantage?

About the Author

Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media services, and other Internet services.

Connect with Lisa Barone:

• Twitter
• LinkedIn
• Facebook

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Connect Your C-Suite to Your Customers

Executive team members can benefit significantly by putting customers first and getting to know them better. Here are suggestions for making the connections happen:
1. Move research from ignored to inspired. Elevate the importance of research and ensure it is a function that informs all areas of your business. Insist that content and presentations be insightful, engaging, and actionable, fueling decision-making. Ban PowerPoint and insist on conversations rather than presentations.
2. Move research from analytical to directional. Research is often overlooked or quickly forgotten because the presentations are data-driven and dry. Insist that all forms of research be delivered with data-driven insights presented with clear implications and provocative questions to inspire new thinking.
3. Move from research that illustrates statistics to stories that profile people. Bring your customers to life in a way people can understand and relate to. Insist that profiles are created that show them as real people, with all facets of their lives clearly illustrated to help connect your company to the way your customers live their lives.
4. Move from static to dynamic research. Ensure you have an active portfolio of research methodologies that provide you with regular and directionally informative updates about the needs, wants, opinions, behaviors, habits, and concerns of the people who buy your products.
5. Transform data into business intelligence. Develop a dashboard model that connects all of your data so it tells a story and becomes a predictive tool that models scenarios for business performance, business decisions, and strategy development. The model should connect sales and traffic performance data with indicators that are combined to help you understand how your customers are changing.
Shawn Parr
Chief Executive Officer
Bulldog Drummond
San Diego
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