Ublog

The current economy - threat or opportunity?

From a marketing perspective I can't help but think that this current economy offers huge opportunities to small businesses. While virtually all of your competitors pull back on (or completely stop) their marketing efforts, you can seize the opportunity to gain market share by being more visible. While they are hiding out waiting to see what happens, hording their funds "just in case", you can be gaining momentum for your brand.

By being visible, I don't mean to imply that any old marketing attempt will do. You must have a well planned marketing strategy. Keys to developing that strategy are:

1. You must know precisely who your target audience is so that you can utilize the right marketing vehicles to reach them.
2. You must understand how your competitors are differentiating themselves.
3. You must communicate your benefits (not your features) in order to engage potential customers.

Once you have a clear handle on these 3 factors you're armed with powerful information that can ensure that your marketing efforts, whether they be online or offline, have better ROI potential.

So seize the opportunities that this economy is providing and stay visible. For great ways to increase leads, many of which cost little or no money, visit our site.

'Til next time . . .

Barb Batt

Benefits of Blogging for Small Business - Driving Traffic to Your Site

So just how does blogging benefit businesses, particularly small businesses? In the next few posts we'll explore some of the reasons for blogging . . .

Among the biggest benefits is increasing traffic to your web site and improving search engine optimization for your site. By adding links in your blog back to your web site you have the ability to drive traffic to your site directly from your blog. Interested readers will likely go to your site for more information and, hopefully, decide to look around once they are there. With these links from your blog, you also get the added benefit of having more links into your site which is a major factor in improving your search engine rankings. The more links into your site the more important the search engines believe your site to be so your rankings improve. There are a couple of caveats here however. First, you want to link to various pages within your site, don't just link to your home page over and over; and second, you want to be sure that your web site is as content rich as possible and that it "speaks" to your individual user sets (or target audiences). 

If you adhere to the second suggestion, it will be easy to adhere to the first. Constantly referring readers of your blog to your home page will only serve to lose their interest. The links should be relevant to your blog content. With regard to web site content, more is better. And better yet, sections of your site that cater directly to your various target audiences will keep visitor's on your site once they get there. 

You'll note that I've not linked to our site in any of my posts. That's because our site isn't "ready". Rather than send readers to our "brochure" site, I'm opting to wait to drive traffic to our new and improved site. We're in the process of redesigning our site as a content rich marketing source for small businesses and start ups. Once the new site is up and running I too will be using my blog to drive traffic and improve SEO. We'll be announcing the launch of the new site soon so stay tuned.

Remember, in blogging content is key. Keep it pertinent to your blog "theme" and be sure the links are relevant to your subject matter. Don't just link readers to your site to get more traffic. Make sure your users get something new or valuable every time they click a link from your blog.

Barb Batt 

To Blog or Not to Blog . . . (continued)

To continue my thought from my last post, time seems to be the other major concern when it comes to blogging for business. In fact, this was my major concern before I started Ublog. I think one of the advantages of blogging over, say, email blasts or newsletters, is that it really takes very little time to hop onto your blog host site and create a post. I've decided to put aside just 10 minutes for posting to my blog at least 4 days a week. For me mornings are best, so I create my blog posts from home very early in the morning. It literally takes 10 minutes or less and it's done for the day. So for the week you might be looking at a total time commitment of 40 minutes based on a similar schedule. I spend far more time trying to get an email newsletter put together.

Another time tip for business blogging; create several posts at once and schedule them to publish on certain days. Or do what I did with this post and split it up into smaller chunks so that you don't feel like you have to spend a lot of time getting all of your points into one blog posting.

As small business owners and marketers time is always in short supply so it's crucial that you spend each minute wisely. I think the benefits from spending a small amount of time blogging is worth the investment.

Speaking of blogging benefits, I'll cover that in my next post.

Here's to spending your time wisely!

Barb Batt

To Blog or Not to Blog . . .

It seems the two biggest concerns around blogging are negativity and time. Today's post will focus on negativity and I'll address the time issue tomorrow.

Remember, if someone wants to say something bad about you or your business they don't need your blog in order to do it. The thought amongst small business owners and marketers is "if I don't have a blog, then people won't (or can't) say bad things online". Wrong! If you don't have a blog, they'll just go somewhere else to express their negativity and you'll likely not even know about it. Check out some blogs and see what I mean. There seem to be a couple of different negativity scenarios out there: the "serial complainer", and the customer or client that wants to be heard.

The former tends to be transparent to the rest of us blog readers as someone who just seeks opportunities to be negative and complain. We quickly dismiss these posts as "another one of those".

The latter, however, may have a legitimate complaint (or not) and just wants to be recognized by your business. They want you to address the situation. These posts are actually an opportunity for you to shine. It's how you respond to these kinds of blog posts that can turn skeptics or disgruntled customers into raving fans. It also allows your blog readers, who are likely customers or potential customers, to see how you do business and how you take care of the people that make your business possible. I don't know about you but I want to know when my client's aren't happy with something we're providing. I can't fix it if I don't know it's broke. And sometimes it's more comfortable for people to complain on your blog than it is to do so in person.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that you can avoid negative feedback if you don't have a blog. Having a blog will just give you the opportunity to respond.

Have a day filled with gratitude for all the abundance in your life and business!

Barb

What the heck is that?

Okay, I admit it. I had absolutely no clue what I was doing when I created the widget in the post below. At least I had no idea that I was creating it as a post on my blog . . .

All my research on the blogosphere indicates that it's best to learn by doing. Get out there. Try various tools out and figure out what works for you and what doesn't. This approach to blogging and the internet in general seems to be pervasive. So, something along my blog journey's prompted me to create my very own widget. I thought I'd try it. And the post below is the result. If anyone out there can tell me what the heck that is for please feel free to share. While I feel competent in many aspects of online tools, this one eludes me! ;-)

I was going to delete the post but I understand that blogging etiquette calls for leaving your posts "as is" and posting corrections or explanations rather than deleting anything that has already been posted. So to be true to blog ethics I'll leave the mystery widget where is it and hope that someone can explain it to me someday.

Go out and explore the world available on the internet. While there are some questionable "tools" out there, there are more that can add value to your experience.

Happy trails!

Barb

Ublog Widget

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Challenge to Online Marketing Workshop Participants

GET ONLINE!

1) Check out the competition and see what they are doing with their own online marketing strategies. Is there an opportunity to be a leader here? Can you capitalize on their lack of online marketing tools or do you need to play some catch up to increase your potential online presence in light of what the competition is doing? Never before have we been able to do our own competitive intelligence as easily as we can now with the internet. Take advantage. Learn what your competition is saying and doing on the internet.

2) Visit blogs related to your industry, or subscribe to blogs that offer content to help you do business better (like this one) and start participating in those conversations. Visit the blogs of your competition and check out the comments they're getting and how they respond. Get a feel for it before you launch your own blog.

3) Go to iTunes and search for Podcasts of interest to you either personally or professionally. Subscribe to a few and listen to them on on your lunch break. Get comfortable with this medium. There is a wealth of information out there and you can listen to podcasts on the go, at the office or at home. Buy an iPod Shuffle or other MP3 player and start playing with them.

4) Get your LinkedIn account set up and look for good contacts there. Open an account at Digg or Delicious and start getting comfortable with other social media sites. You can always cancel your accounts later if you decide they aren't the right tools for you. But give them a try.

It's time to jump into the online pool of resources that can help you market your business on the internet. You can start right now by commenting on the workshop or ask questions if you're still feeling intimidated. Hit that comment button below and let's blog!

Confessions of an "Offline" Marketer

Yes, I admit it. I HAD a problem. A problem that many small business owners that I encounter every single day still have—being scared to death of the new online methods of getting business messages out to the masses. What is it about blogging, podcasting, social media, etc. that makes those of us in the 35+ age range want to run and hide?

I can say for myself that it was just the good ol' basic fear of the unknown that had me shaking in my shoes every time someone inquired about blogging or one of the other newer online marketing strategies. I came up in the world of offline marketing and knew how to play in that world quite well. That was my comfort zone. When I decided, very reluctantly, to start venturing into web site creation for our clients it was scary at first but we figured out how to play the game and created some very nice web site designs for our clients.

In those days (what was it? a whole 3 years ago?) we took an offline approach to building and messaging web sites (many still do, the web is filled with "brochure sites"). They were, for all intensive purposes, online brochures. They push(ed) information at the visitor and require(d) or requeste(d) very little (or no) interaction with the viewer. Today, our web sites need to be content rich (for SEO and to add optimum value to the visitor/potential buyer) and they need to show our buyers how we can solve their problems or meet their needs in ways that work best for them. To do this effectively we have to speak directly to each of our "buyer personas" (see David Meerman Scott's book, The New Rules of Marketing & PR or the Buyer Persona Blog authored by Adele Revella for information on buyer personas). We called these "target audiences" in offline marketing and couldn't stress enough how important it was to know your target market. This is just as critical now for marketing your small business effectively online, and still often undervalued.

Web sites, blogging, social media, etc. make it easier for us to understand our buyers, their needs and how to solve their problems. I confess that I was slow to adopt these new marketing tools but, after months of exhaustive research, reading, and surfing, I get this now . . . and we're running full steam ahead with online marketing programs for ourselves and our clients. It's an exciting time to be a marketer and a small business owner. These tools allow us to play in a much larger marketplace than we could just several years ago.

In the weeks to come we'll be launching our new, content rich web site, launching this blog, and launching a podcast series (Ucast) dedicated to offering free marketing advice (both online and offline strategies) and workshops. Subscribe to our blog or our email tips and we'll let you know when all is up and running. There will be numerous free ebooks and resources to help you get over your fears of both online and offline marketing!

Small Business Success Series Continues

Join us on Tuesday, October 14th at the Boulder Chamber of Commerce for the 3rd of 4 workshops designed to help small businesses market more effectively:

Online Marketing: Podcasts, Blogs & Other Online Media

Not sure about these "new" marketing modalities? We'll demystify some of these online marketing tools and help you decide if they are right for your small business. Some of the topics we'll cover include:

Understanding blogs and 3 uses of blogs for marketing/PR
Podcasting made easy
Online news rooms & news releases - how can they benefit you?
E-mail marketing - is it right for your business?
The content rich website
Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
And More!

Workshop, presented by Barb Batt of U Creative Group, llc, will be held at the Boulder Chamber, 2440 Pearl Street, Boulder Colorado. Free to Boulder Chamber members. $25 for non-members.