Blogging, Web 2.0 and social media must be examined very differently when it comes to return on investment. A blog account and domain is usually less than $50 a year, plus your staff time. If bring 5000 new eyes to your business, is it worth it?  If you get 5 new clients, is it worth it? If even a few customers are helped as a result -  the cost is cheap!

 

Katie Paine is an expert on blog ROI. And she was quoted in Paul Gillins The New Influencers.  She is a vetran public relations executive and has spent the last fifteen years researching, writing and speaking on the topic of measuring the value of public relations and social media investments. She believes nearly everything online is measurable; it’s just a matter of choosing what to measure.

 

We always say, and she agrees, blogging and social media marketing is a competitive necessity and can be a competitive advantage. If you are not out there building new networks and webs, chances are your competitor already is. If he is not, great! You get the first mover advantage. If he is, you can catch up.

 

Paine has said for her own business, she likes to monitor click-throughs from her blog, to her website.  We also monitor very closely performance on Google key search terms and the traffic those bring in. Good search performance is money in the bank. If you can “own” your keywords, that’s  a huge ROI, that isn’t quickly translated to dollars, but will, eventually.

 

It’s all about search. We say it time and time again. Can you be “found”  easily online. Are you coming up in keyword searches. Search is the best thing that ever happened for small business. Many companies can not afford costly pay-per-click campaigns around certain keywords. However,  through blogging and Web 2.0 strategies you can come up in the same searches and reach an international audience for much less.

We had a client recently spend $5000 with us. Within 90 days he had traffic, owned 4 of 6 keywords on Page One Google, AND he got a new client for $4000! THAT'S HUGE ROI! That DOES NOT usually happen. We usually caution clients to view their investment and ROI over a one year period. It takes time to plant all the seeds and watch them grow. But the return is that people have so many new channels to find you and your services -  besides just 1 static website. 

Remember, it's all about SEARCH! Can you be found?


Derrick Sorles and Michael Snell - We Help "Pull"  New Business To You!
            Your Business MD's- Business Blog Consultants -Web 2.0  Consultants and Strategists 

Is your website a glorified business card?

Are you even being "found" by search engines?

How much traffic do you get?
 
How do people find your website and what keywords do they use?

I met someone last year  that is a great example of not knowing what to do to promote their business in this new  Web 2.0 information age.  Liz Stapleton. She  is an expert electrologist here in Chicago. (And she was written up  recently in the Chicago Tribune about her blog.)


Liz had a good website - called  www. facereflections. com  -  but she made mistake number 1....a bad name. At least one of your main keywords, should be in your domain.  When you open the Yellow Pages (does anyone use those doorstops anymore?)  or when you search online, if you don't know the name of the business you are looking for, you look through the category for what you need. You would look under electrolysis -  or  electrologist -  and probably look in your  area. So I would search for CHICAGO ELECTROLYSIS or CHICAGO ELECTROLOGY.  -  I like to search for "Best" when I search.  I will search for  BEST CHICAGO PIZZA.  BEST DIVORCE ATTORNEY CHICAGO.  BEST GAY TRAVEL. BEST BLOG CONSULTANT. And I usually only look through the first couple pages of Google and find what I need.

After hearing me speak about the possibilities of blogging and how it can attract new customers, Liz had me help her set up a blog. Step one was the name. For ease of remembering for her clients, since her main site was www.facereflections.com - she bought the domain www.facereflectionsblog.com - this has no search engine pull but would be easy for people to remember.

For her main domain she chose 2 with great keywords -
www.bestchicagoelectrolysis.com  and  she also bought www.bestchicagohairremoval.com
So all three of the domains are used for the one blog.

Webistes are usually good selling tools. They describe your services, prices, location, hours, and all of the basics. A brochure of your services.  Sometimes companies will post some descriptive articles on their website. Or maybe they send out e-mail newsletters to exisiting clients. This is usually a good starting point for your content development.

A lot of clients ask "What am I going to blog about?" The answer: INFORMATION. What would someone be looking for, that could lead them to you. In Liz's case, THE BIG MYTH ABOUT LASER HAIR HAIR REMOVAL, PERMANENT HAIR REMOVAL,  TRANSGENEDER HAIR ISSUES....Content is the attraction strategy. You are going to post information people are looking for you. The blog becomes your online newsletter. Your own little magazine. And you can post as often or as little as you want. However, think of it as a huge mall in the middle of nowhere, when you first set it up. Each time you post something, you are a creating a new road that leads people to you mall. Put up 10 posts, you have 10 roads leading to you. Put up 100 posts, you now have 100 roads leading to you. The more roads you build, the more ways search engines can index your information and lead people to you.

Not every reader of your information will be your client. If your services are local, of course only local readers can be your client. If your product or services are not localized, then the world is your market. Liz currently gets about 20-30 hits a day -  and most of that traffic is coming in by way of Google searches around her keywords and what she posts about. Pure organic traffic. She is "pulling" people to her, 24 hours a day.  In the last 3 months, 10 new clients have come to her through her blog and hired her!

Out of those 20-30 hits, which equals about 700-800 a month, she has readers in 78 countries! Most of the readers are in the United States, and a lot of hits come from the Chicago area, but is reaching a worldwide audience. As a blog grows, you can develop an audience. People who look to you as the  expert.  They may not be a client today, but they could be tomorrow. Or maybe they work with a group who might hire you to speak at an event. Or maybe  publisher will find your site and think your posts are terrific and offer you a book deal! The possibilities are endless. Blogs  blow away websites, print advertising, direct mail and even radio and TV advertising! Today the Internet has become the ultimate place to accelerate the flow of relevant information and the fastest growing form of media.

When you Google  "chicago electrolysis"  there are 2500 entries - Liz is on Page one!

When you Google "health and wellness expert" - there are 6200 entries, our client,
Dr. Gaziano is one page one with his blog www.feelgoodhealthnow.com

When you Google "gay travel" - there over 1,500,000 entries! And our site is on page one!

Is your website on page one, around your keywords? Probably not.

So why aren't you blogging??



Derrick Sorles and Michael Snell - We Help "Pull"  New Business To You!
            Your Business MD's- Business Blog Consultants -Web 2.0  Consultants and Strategists