Tag Archives: Public relations

Follow These 5 Tips to Turn Your Blog Into a Customer Magnet

Posted on March 30, 2011 by | 1 Comment

It’s one thing to keep saying that you should have a blog, but having a blog that actually attracts customers and builds loyalty means that you have to provide great content.

Here are some tips for providing great blog content:

  1. Make a list of the 5 -7 top reader frustrations. In the same way that our eye is drawn to the crooked picture in an otherwise perfect room, we tend to focus on frustrations and peeves that drive us crazy.  Whenever someone mirrors those frustrations, we feel a sense of camaraderie.  Use these frustrations and your solutions as the anchor and mission of your blog.  You want each article to be a salve against the painful frustrations that your readers are experiencing.  Literally make this list and keep it handy use it as a rotating theme for your content.
  2. Identify keywords and phrases from that frustration list.  Recent studies have shown that people aren’t exactly looking for solutions first.  BEFORE they look for a solution, the search out their problem — looking for ideas and options on what the solution is.  For example, “Leaking Roof” is a problem that I will search on hoping to see what options are available to fix it.  Is this a quick fix or do I need a roof replacement.  Or I might search on a term such as “sales process” because I feel like I have no control over my sales process or I’m not getting consistent results.  So all these terms are hot button issues that you can write about.  Your audience is searching for guidance on how to buy.  They are more likely to buy from the company that helps them understand and choose.
  3. Answer customer questions. The easy way to do this is to have a board or Google Document  that people can contribute customer questions to so that you can create content that answers them and gives advice.   Take a helpful and educational tone in your writing and be open about where the question came from and then simply answer it.  Keeping tabs on customer questions will also give you ideas on additional kinds of content such as video.
  4. Recruit contributing experts for each “frustration” your customers have.  Blogging can becaome a daunting task — but not of you recruit experts in your company or in your industry to be contributing experts.  Ask if sales, customer service, technical or engineering folks would be interested in writing out answers to customer questions or writing about events they’ve attended.  Also think about writing about events that you’re attending such as trade shows and what you’ll be featuring there.  Another win-win strategy is to recruit the experts in your industry to write for your blog.  Trust me – they would be honored and happy to do it.  It’s a HUGE promotional and marketing opportunity for them and a big help for you and information for your customers.
  5. CEO or president is a regular contributor.  I’ve separated the CEO writing for the blog as a separate tip because it is so very important.  You don’t have to be a journalist or the next Tom Clancy to communicate what you’re up to as a company.  CEOs miss a HUGE PR opportunity in NOT writing for their blog.  You’d be amazed at the CEOs who blog.  I mean if the CEO from GM can find the time to blog — so can YOU.

Referrals are still the number one way of getting the best, most profitable customers.  And don’t think that just because you’re in a more B2B or industrial market that referrals don’t work — I’m working on a heavily industrial project right now where the most popular way that people choose suppliers is by calling other suppliers and customers and asking who they would recommend.

Your blog is a tremendous promotional and advertising tool – don’t let it go to waste.

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Successful Survey Tips: Setting Your Survey Up For Success

Posted on April 16, 2010 by | 3 Comments

I’ve been thinking about the “zen” of doing a successful survey.  As with many things, it’s taking the time to perfect specific techniques that ultimately leads to not only high response rates, but high quality feedback that actually means something.

I’ve pulled together a series of successful survey tips that I’ll be sharing with you over the next few days.  Take those in and why not add your own successful survey tips.  When the series closes, I’ll include your tips and put out a best practices list!

As I was thinking about this series, it dawned on me that none of these tips are actually new.  Yet, it’s our skill at implementing each of these elements that ultimately determines our success.  The next thing that popped into my mind was the “Wax on, Wax off” scene from the “Karate Kid” and how the learning to do basic mundane actions can yield winning results.  Enjoy.

  • Focus on what decision you’re making. This is a twist on setting a survey objective.  Often the reason we do surveys or gather feedback is to collect data so that we can make a decision.  State the decision that you are making and include the criteria of the decision.  For example, “Should we launch product X?”  You might say that if more than 100 people are very likely to purchase product X at price Y, then you will go forward.  This puts a laser focus on the questions that you will include in the survey.
  • Use an invitation with well written subject that grabs the respondent’s attention.  It’s no secret that respondents are focused on what’s important to THEM and not you.  Write your invitation in a way that points out the potential benefits to the respondents in filling out the survey.  The invitation is actually a PR opportunity for you to communicate to your respondents that you are engaged in creating a product or service that will benefit them.  It’s an opportunity to differentiate your organization from others and highlight some potential improvements that your competition may not be offering it.  Don’t let this opportunity go to waste.
  • Use an introduction that makes the respondent feel important. Just because you’ve sent an invitation doesn’t mean that you should ignore the introduction to the survey.  Today’s respondents want to know what you’re up to.  Use the introduction to the survey as an opportunity to make them part of your team and include them in the development of something new and beneficial that will bring them value.  This will put them in a mindset to provide honest and valuable feedback.

What are your successful survey tips BEFORE the survey even starts?

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7 Ways to Be Great At Social Media

Posted on August 24, 2009 by | 1 Comment

iStock_000002807197XSmallIf you’ve ever wondered how you’re going to build your brand using social media, then pay attention to our our guest columnist today.  Staci J. Shelton is a social media expert and blogger who specializes in building and maximizing online relationships.

There is a great benefit to being active as a business in Social Media.  As a business, there are amazing opportunities to create a Global Network and control more of your marketing activity, and for a great deal less than traditional marketing and PR.

Social Media is a great place to engage, promote your brand and even build relationships. But the “hows” of engagement can be a little sticky. There are a lot of people talking, but what makes a brand great is getting people to listen.  There is a difference between just being on Social Media and being great at Social Media.  Here are some tips to help you move along from just being part of the chatter and being part of the conversation.

  • Be Relevant- You’re a Brand

There are lots of applications on Facebook and Twitter.  No matter how much you’re tempted, you are not allowed to poke, prod, give gifts there, if you’re interacting as a brand or trying to build a brand image.  If you give gifts of any kind, be sure that they tie into an overall promotional strategy.

Consider your content before you post.  Does what you’re saying fit into your overall brand strategy?  Be sure that grammar and spelling are correct.  You want to be taken seriously.  Provide great content.  Talk about what you “are” about.  If you are a business related to green living, talk, blog and post strategies on that initiative.  There is no substitute for great content.

  • Be Creative

Creativity gets attention.  Be creative in your word usage be a good copywriter.  There’s a great difference between saying:  “Getting ready to survey our customers to find out what is important to them” and “Want to be in charge of our company for the day?  Give us your feedback and tell us what we need to be doing!!!” Use creative contests and give-aways to encourage people to interact with and even promote for your brand.

  • Be Consistent

If you’re married or in a relationship, you would never go a day without talking to each other at all (hopefully).  Remember, that followers and friends of your brand are real people.  Build great relationships by showing up consistently.  If you blog, post regularly.  Post statuses daily or a few times during the day. Whatever you do, don’t start to engage then walk away from the relationship.

  • Be Brief

Although we need to be consistent, we don’t want to overwhelm our readers.  Make posts and updates brief and easy to digest.  If you’re on Facebook, update sparingly.  Some companies and people update every hour on the hour, which burns people out, or worse, causes them to tune out.

If you like talking a lot or have lots of links/content to share – Twitter is your playground.  It’s a great place to talk, engage and share information quickly without overwhelming people.  But still be sure not to over post.

In most cases, even outside of Twitter, keep it to 140 characters or less.  If you have a lot more to say, place the content in a note, not a status update.

  • Be Engaging

Talk with people.  Listen and comment on content other people post.  Show interest in what people are talking about and join the conversation.  Nothing makes brands shine more than listening and interacting in meaningful ways with customers.  By watching your friends and followers, you find out what is important to them, which gives you a great opportunity to do market research of some sort.

  • Be Meaningful

Once you’ve engaged and listened, you’re now in a great position to meet the needs of your friends and fans.  Post things that are of value or interest to your readers.  Create and or tweak products to meet the needs that you’ve discovered.

  • Be Polite

It can be tempting in Social Media to feel like you know people much better than you do.  While it is very possible to learn about people, get to know their personalities, likes and dislikes, until you’ve met, you don’t truly know them.  Move into relationships using good etiquette.  Talk to people publicly in the stream when the information is relevant, supports your overall brand or is applicable to more than one person.  When your content, conversations or questions are not relevant to the entire community or if information you want to applies only to one person, consider a direct message, e-mail, phone call or in person conversation.  Don’t ask overly personal questions.

Using these simple but effective ways to engage, interact and promote on Social Media, you’ll not only be GREAT, you’ll be FABULOUS!

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