Blogs can establish expertise to new clients

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Jacksonville Business Journal - 2008-09-24 by Dolly Penland Staff writer

Use your blog as a way to reach out to sales prospects.

Blogs have been around for a few years, and more and more business owners are finding that starting a blog can be an excellent way to connect with potential customers.

“In terms of blogging for businesses, it’s phenomenal for building a brand. It creates exposure” to potential customers who find the business through online subject searches and “it’s great for customer service,” said Rhea Drysdale, a search engine optimization consultant and blogger.

But don’t just tap out any random thoughts for the blog. There is an art to blogging to leverage the Web as a way to increase sales.

To do that, good blogs and their bloggers must be seen as a trusted source of information.

“Blogs allow you to begin a conversation with a client before they need you or are even ready to decide to work with anyone,” said Michelle Chance-Sangthong, president of Red Hawk Strategies Inc., a Web marketing consulting company. “But you’re in their stream of consciousness as an expert on that product or service.”

The goal, then, is to be recognized as an expert. “While I serve all parts of Jacksonville, I focus [my blog] on Jacksonville Beach because I live at the beach,” said Carol Zingone, broker associate at Vanguard GMAC Real Estate. “It allows you to show your expertise. I blog about stats, how long homes are on the market, about listings we have, what’s going on in the market and it allows you to be in a community. It’s networking; I have gotten prospects and referrals from people in other parts of the country” via the blog.

Showing that deep industry knowledge is a great way to earn business without overtly selling to someone.

“I’m very resistant to strong sales messages,” Zingone said. “I hate it. I want to know who I’m dealing with and if I have something in common [with them] before I’m going to buy something from them. It’s so difficult to reach people one-to-one, and traditional advertising — that was my background before I became a real estate agent — isn’t as effective as it used to be. This is another way to be out there in front” of the target market.

Blogging not only helps identify potential business, it adds content on the business’ site and can be used for everything from announcing and reviewing products and services to updating employees and clients on everyday company news.

“It provides fresh content and that’s something that search engines consider,” Drysdale said. “You can blog a couple of times a day, or a week, or a month, but by continually adding new content that is hopefully keyword-rich, it will likely improve your ranking. [Content can] react to things happening in your industry or on the news. The more you post, the more people see you as being astute on a particular subject as you establish your reputation, and over time that really adds up.”

The main idea, of course, is to draw traffic to the site. “You’re most likely going to blog about topics being searched,” pertaining to your industry, Chance-Sangthong said. “So, I’m coining a new phrase, ‘human search optimizations,’ which means optimizing the site and content for what humans are looking for. We [worry] about what search engines are looking for, but that doesn’t matter if you don’t bring the humans.”

And while the information presented in a blog should be accurate, the writing doesn’t have to be perfect. A good blog just needs to be easy to read and engaging.

“People fear their blogs have to be journalism-quality writing,” Chance-Sangthong said. “Really, it just needs to be sincere. Make the grammar as good as possible and use spell check. It’s doesn’t have to be editorially perfect content. You get away with a little more than with a marketing piece, because it is more like a diary. Also, don’t put anything in there unless you’d be OK if it were going to be scrutinized on the front of the JBJ. People wonder how personal they should be. There is still a level of professionalism. And it’s permanent. It’s there forever, sometimes even if you delete.”