Blog

Does your business blog? No?! Do you know you are missing out on acquiring new business? In my humble opinion, blogging is one of the most effective and cost efficient ways of being found by new customers (and even your existing customers). Don’t believe me? Let me walk you through two case studies in the real world.

First, to set the stage, follow my logic on how your customer finds you, your business, your product or your service.

• STEP ONE: Customer determines they have a need. Assuming that you are not using advertising to create a need where one doesn’t exist, if a customer determines they have a need for “service X” their most common action is to go to search engines and “search” for key words around that topic. We want to educate ourselves around a service before we commit.
• STEP TWO: Content is found. If you have a website with words related to that service then you have a potential of being found. If you use a blog to produce active content around that topic then your opportunities of being found increase. Those increased opportunities are increased potential for a call, click or visit. If your website sucks and you don’t have any content related to your service then you are limiting your opportunity for new business.
• STEP THREE: Many savvy past, they may go to social networks life Facebook or Twitter to validate their decision.
• STEP FOUR: At some point a decision is made. These decisions are, in most cases, heavily influenced by the content found in search engine results and the peer influence on social networks.

CASE STUDY #1 WINDERMERE REAL ESTATE SPOKANE

In January of 2014 Windermere Real Estate began a real estate blog. Their goal was to promote Spokane and Inland Northwest Living. The focus of the blog was not always real estate or specific agents but the topics included local events, seasonal activities, local restaurants and attractions and a focus on specific Spokane neighborhoods. New content was created 6-8 times per month and this content was shared through the main social channels of Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

RESULTS:

For the full calendar year of 2014 WindermereSpokane.com saw a 69% increase in referral traffic from Facebook and a 3600% increase from Twitter (2013 was very minimal from Twitter). Overall page views were up 2.58% and there were 7000 views on the blog posts created. This is 7,000 more opportunities for home searches, agent searches, and Windermere Spokane brand impressions.

CASE STUDY #2 NECTAR NEW YEAR’S EVE 2014

Each year Nectar Tasting Room hosts a New Year’s Eve party. Capacity for the dinner, wine and music event is approximately 60 people. The event tickets are $50 per guest. As part of the overall marketing strategy, Nectar writes a blog post with key words, New Years, Spokane and First Night. Additional marketing is an email distribution, social network promotion and word of mouth from previous guests. The goal is to sell out!

RESULTS:

Nectar Tasting Room received a phone call and an order for 22 tickets for a group of friends and family. After processing the transaction, I asked, “How did you hear about the event.” The customer had recently been talking with a friend who mentioned the tasting room (but not the New Year’s Eve event specifically) and then said, “I Googled things to do in Spokane for New Year’s and your web site (blog) was in the search results a few times. I clicked the link and saw your New Year’s Eve Offer.” The irony is that I had written the blog post just two days before the phone call. Good thing I didn’t delay! Not only was this a $1100 return on the investment with the ticket sales, that group of 22 spent an additional $300 during the evening!

Customers are searching for solutions to their needs. Are they finding you and your business content?

Ready to start a blog? Contact me at nectarMEDIA. We can get you started and help you out with optimizing for search engine results (SEO). mayhem@nectarmedia.co or 509.869.1572