Tag Archive for: Business Strategy

Lead Liaison

Should I Write Business Blog Posts?

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Business blogs can be somewhat of a hot topic, as it relates to marketing investments. It might not be for every company, or every employee. Regardless, it’s important to think through the pro’s and con’s of starting (and maintaining!) a business blog before committing.

The Con’s of a Business Blog

  • It’s time consuming. You need to actually put thought into your business blog posts so that they offer value. You also want to strategically pick a topic that will drive traffic to your blog, and therefore your website. Brainstorming topics and content can take time away from other, more pressing tasks. And you’ll likely not see immediate results, so that isn’t very encouraging.
  • It can feel like busywork. Sometimes, you won’t have a fresh idea, yet you’ll still feel compelled to remain on a “content schedule” (which is important to business blog success). Content schedules are usually how marketers organize posts from team members and guest writers. It ensures that they regularly hit that goal. However, it can also lead to boring, uninspired posts if you’re not careful.
  • It goes out of date quickly. As the internet is flooded with business blog posts from companies large and small, readers are trained to look at the date of a post. If it wasn’t within the last year (give or take), and didn’t generate a lot of traffic right off the bat, it’s basically irrelevant. It feels like it was a waste of time and effort.

The Pro’s of a Business Blog

  • It increases search ranking. Google, and other search engines, have a part of their algorithm that rewards you for having lots of pages, rich with keywords, and that have been recently published. Since every blog counts as a page, there is a theory that this can help your company appear more in searches.
  • Still on the topic of search engine optimization (SEO), search engines heavily weigh the number of external sites linking to your website. External links to your business blog prove your content contains helpful, relevant information. A great blog can serve as “link bait” that other websites will be inclined to reference, creating those important external links (source). It can also help you shed light on internal links that are buried deep within your website, by linking them in your copy.
  • It’s an easy way to publish fresh content, and speak directly to your client base. And even if your clients aren’t reading blogs on a regular basis, they most likely are searching Google for answers.
  • It’s a relevant excuse to post to social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and get your name out there, encouraging brand awareness.
  • If you put proper thought and consideration into your blog post topics and content, it can be a great way to establish your company as thought leaders in your industry. There’s always a conversation going on online, and it’s important to be a part of it. Clients and Prospects will look to you as a reliable resource for information on your industry, and will (hopefully) then come to you when they are ready to buy.
  • Blogs are a relatively cost-efficient marketing investment. Your business probably already has a website. All it really costs is time.
  • It encourages your blog contributors to research, learn, and stay on top of news and trends. What better way to facilitate learning and inspire ideas?

The Conclusion

The decision to spend time on blog posts is going to be unique to your business. If you or your team is not fully on board, it will be like pulling teeth. If your company needs help with improving its Google ratings, and you can dedicate 30-40 minutes a week to come up with fresh content, blogs are wonderful. However, if you have a strong online presence already, and are already considered thought leaders, blogging may be unlikely to show you a true ROI.

Tips

If your organization does decide to publish a company blog, here are a few tips.

  • Request contributions from your colleagues. Ask qualified people on your team to take 20 minutes out of their week to email you a few paragraphs about something they have been thinking about that week, as it relates to your business and industry. You can then do the grunt work of making it blog-ready, and your posts will have more perspective and expertise if intelligent team members agree to contribute.
  • Create a content calendar, and stick to it. Decide how many posts you’d like to do per week, when you plan to post, and where you plan on sharing (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.). Make it a part of your weekly process.
  • Actively promote your content. Your blog won’t shoot to the top of search engines overnight. It takes work, dedication, and intentional promotion.

Interested in how Lead Liaison integrates with your website? Read our post on our Squarespace integration here.

Lead Liaison

Suitable Preparation of B2B Lead Nurturing and Sales Strategies

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B2B Lead Nurturing Should be Part of Your Business PlanBusiness plan creation may be the driving force behind securing proper funding for your start-up, but the driving force behind the business plan is your B2B lead nurturing and sales strategies since investors will wonder how you intend to meet your 3-5 year sales projections.  To properly create B2B lead nurturing and sales strategies for your business to deploy, several components will be necessary to collect for placement within your individual stratagems, and we’ve covered some of the key pieces of intelligence indicative to a perfect B2B lead nurturing and sales plan.

Competitive Trends and Figures in B2B Lead Nurturing and Sales Strategies

To enhance the veracity of your business plan, you’ll need to include statistics from businesses as near to identical as yours and, in finding this information, you’ll have your work cut out. Checking with common areas such as libraries, Dun and Bradstreet and possibly Hoovers for this information would prove to be provident towards accuracy.  Google searches have been known to render useful information to add to your B2B lead nurturing and sales data collection as well.

Generating leads is an educational must in learning how to network market effectively. Just how many leads you need to generate depends on how much money you desire to make, or if this is going to be a long term vested interest. Without the existence of a lead – you’re getting no buyers, and in general have not a soul to talk to. Inevitably, this means nobody to sell a product or service to, and nobody to sponsor – game over. Lead generation, by far, is the most sought after piece of the puzzle in network B2B lead nurturing today.

The goal is to avoid being the ‘seeker’ while becoming easy ‘prey’ for your niche. There are many ways to achieve this, including email B2B lead nurturing, using the vast social network B2B lead nurturing world, and networking through professional websites like Linked In to rub elbows with other people directed towards your primary purpose.

Social Media Planning

Old school methods of B2B lead nurturing were relatively cut and dry as you had newspapers, billboards, pamphlets and mailers to collect and your telephone or snail mail to nurture them with. With internet users spending greater amount of time each year online, having social media and website B2B lead nurturing plans in place are imperative if your business is online-based and reliant on traffic as the main source of potential revenue.  You may entertain having comprehensive videos outlining your products or services so people can see your offerings in motion to better judge if your company would be best suited for them.

How Others Are Doing It

There is absolutely nothing wrong with following others’ examples to have a median expectation set for your B2B lead nurturing efforts.  Using other people’s unique B2B lead nurturing ideologies then adjusting your initiatives to better suit your business style may be what works best for you and should be noted when scripting your B2B lead nurturing and sales plan.  Sales will rely heavily on B2B lead nurturing strategies and targeted audience so make sure your B2B lead nurturing and sales plan has geographic-specific targeting even if you plan on eventually infiltrating the worldwide marketplace.

Wrap-Up

Known as the ‘icing on your business plan cake’, your B2B lead nurturing and sales strategies will be heavily applauded or scrutinized depending on what information and strategies you plan to deploy for creating sales opportunities.  If need be, follow the example of businesses closely related to your niche and adjust accordingly to fit B2B lead nurturing and sales goals you intend to achieve over a 3-5 year span.