Archive for Attracting Clients – Page 19

Smart Blogging + Smart Traffic =
How to Avoid Blog Oblivion

If you’re part of the 80% surveyed who say you don’t have enough traffic to your blog, then here’s a workshop that could make a big difference in your online marketing with blogs:

The Ultimate Traffic Formula with Michael Martine of Remarkablogger

Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 4 p.m. ET (recorded)

Phone, webcast, your choice

Tutorials, videos, handouts, bonuses

I am so convinced this will help you, that I’m giving away a program I was going to start selling, to the first 25 people who register for the workshop.

Time-Saving Tips for Smart Blogging is a blog tutorial with audio, transcripts and 23 pages of worksheets for business blog success, a $39 value. Read More→

Dart Board Marketing: How to Avoid Holes in the Wall

I was at the beach a few weeks ago at my friend Amelia’s beach house. She put a dart board up on her kitchen wall. There are a lot of holes on the wall around where the board hangs.

Which reminds me a little of marketing. Sometimes it’s tempting to think that the more you do, the better results you’ll get as far as getting found and getting leads on the Internet.

Social media marketing is a little like that. You post here, comment there, retweet this, update that… and hope you’ll connect with someone at just the right time and right place… and that something good will come of it.

It does happen, I know. I’ve gotten a few clients signed up for my teleseminars because I tweeted something and it led them back to my blog or sales page. Read More→

Blog Traffic for Smarties
…and the dumb things they do

Attracting ideal clients to your blog and driving blog traffic is part of Blog Outreach: everything you do technologically and personally to let the search engines and people know where you are on the Web.

I talk about this in my free ebook Content Marketing with Blogs. To maintain a successful business blog, you have to pay attention to four key areas, and neglect in any one of these will cause blog failure.

When you work on each of these four areas, your blog is the best marketing tool on the planet. When you know how to attract people AND search engine traffic to your blog, you’re a smart blogger. Read More→

Get More Blog Traffic: Initial Survey Results

There’s nothing worse than spending time and energy writing on your blog and not reaching the very people who need your help, the ones who have the problems you solve.

I take that back, there is one thing worse, and that’s NOT to write your message at all. At least when you publish on a blog, you put it out there on the world-wide bulletin board. Eventually someone will see it, and if you do a few things right, many will see it.

In my ongoing traffic survey, www.surveymonkey.com/s/getmoreblogtraffic, more than 80% respond that they don’t have enough readers to their blog, and more than half report they’re not sure how to attract their ideal clients.

If you haven’t taken the survey yet, please do so now. I’d like to find out what your challenges are with driving traffic to your blog.

If you’re going to use a business blog to drive sales and grow business, you’ve got to tackle the traffic problem. But don’t worry, you don’t have to hire an SEO expert and spend a lot of money. You don’t have to be a techie-geek type either. Read More→

Get More Blog Traffic: Take the Survey

What problems are you facing with traffic to your blog or web pages? What do you know about traffic tips and how they work to help you get found, get known and get clients on the Web?

Indulge me: 3 minutes, 6 questions, a quick survey:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/getmoreblogtraffic

Myths & Realities of Blog Traffic: 7 Steps to Clarity

It’s sad and disappointing. My friend and colleague Sam spent some big bucks on a fancy new website, that included an attractive design, a flash banner, nice pictures and ten pages of text… only no one was finding him.

Hardly any traffic at all. He tried using his name on some of the search engines but he could hardly even find himself.

I told him he needed a blog, so he had his web people add a blog page, but he really didn’t do much better. A few months later, over coffee and a phone call, Sam confided his frustrations:

  • The only comments he gets are spammers: “Nice post, visiting my site for Viagra/insurance/poker, etc.
  • He’s in a competitive market with well-established players/bloggers
  • He has no idea how to get the attention of his ideal clients
  • He fears his clients don’t read blogs
  • He’s baffled by his low traffic, and Google analytics seem like Greek to him
  • He tried going over to Twitter and came away with a headache
  • He’s recently discovered an Internet Marketing Millionaire Guru site and is about ready to invest in an expensive Traffic program

When I heard that, I  yelled into the phone, “STOP right there, bubba! Don’t you dare throw your hard-earned money at this problem and expect it to be fixed. First off, you don’t have a traffic problem.” Read More→

Pivotal Moments in Blogging

Why are you blogging? How is it you discovered blogs, and at what point did you make a decision to start your own?

Do you remember the thrill of publishing your first blog on the Web, where you could publish your own thoughts without having to go through any tech person or getting your content accepted by someone else?

I’ll never forget the day, because it was September 4, 2004, my birthday. I’d injured my shoulder and couldn’t play tennis, which meant I was home, bored, and looking for something to do on the computer.

I opened an email from Debbie Weil. She said, “Every business should have a blog, and any idiot can go over to Typepad.com and start one in under an hour.” Read More→

8 Tips for Content Marketing on Your Blog,
One Conversation at a Time

If a blog writing is “like having a conversation,” then how should I write it? How can I possibly have a conversation when I don’t know who’s reading it? And…if it’s one-way, then it’s really not a conversation, but a monologue…

Okay, let’s not get so literal here that you talk yourself into writer’s block. All I’m saying is when writing on a business blog, forget what they taught you in school about writing an essay or an article or a report.

My point is this: on your blog, write more like you talk, and write sentences like you would use in a conversation with a favorite client.

You can even make up a typical response like I did in the opening paragraph. Invent a conversation.

Direct marketers and copywriters are expert at doing this. They are the ones making a fortune writing sales letters that persuade people to pick up the phone or click the buy button with their credit cards in hand. Read More→

Top 3 Content Marketing Challenges: Survey Results

  1. How do I get more people to my site? I need more traffic
  2. How do I convince them to sign up? I need to build a list to market to.
  3. How do I convert readers to clients? I need to write content that influences action and makes sales.

These were the top three challenges you told me about in my recent Content Marketing Needs survey. (If you haven’t done so yet, you can still take the survey here:  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q7GRSKX)

Which makes me think about something I often say about blogging being “the best darn marketing tool on the planet to get found, get known, and get clients.”

  • Get found: you need to attract the right people with traffic to your site
  • Get known: you need to get people subscribed to your blog or e-newsletter so they can get to know you with consistent posts that build trust and relationships
  • Get clients: you need to publish content that gets readers to take action and invest in your products and services

Like the old song, you can’t have one without the other.  And yet, some professionals give me the impression they are spending their time and energy in the wrong places. Some of you are working hard on one out of the three key elements, ignoring the others. (I know, there’s only so much time in a day. Maybe I can help you integrate these marketing systems, though.)

Which one are you good at? In which area are you weak? Which one would you be wise to invest in learning? Read More→

The Nuances of Writing About Yourself on the Web:
10 Content Marketing Tips

What’s the most difficult thing about marketing your services to people on the Web? If you’re someone who sells your expertise, like a doctor, lawyer, an executive coach, any kind of consultant, it’s probably hard for you to toot your own horn.

Unless you’re a raving narcissist, you probably struggle to publish a blog where your goal is to look like the smartest in your niche. And yet you must, if you want to get found, get known and get clients.

You can write about what you’re an expert in, share your knowledge, and talk about your work with the people you’re helping. But even if you’re the world’s number 1 best at what you do, this challenge is one of the most difficult:

How do you build trust with readers who land on your blog or website in 25 seconds?

(Because that may be all you have to impress them. Studies show that people usually spend 25-35 seconds on a web page.)

One of my clients is a successful coach. She helps high-achieving executives become better at what they do. And  she’d love for other people to know how good she is at doing what she does, because she’d love to help more people.

She hasn’t started her blog yet, because she’s not clear how she would convey her message. She knows she’s good at what she does, but doesn’t want to come across as a “know-it-all,” when it comes to coaching people to make lasting improvements in their lives.

Here are 10 tips professionals in any field can use to write about themselves on the Web and get marketing results. Read More→