How Any Business Can Incorporate a Blog in Their Marketing Efforts

It’s no secret that blogging great content and updating a blog regularly is a phenomenal way of attracting potential customers, getting leads and eventually sales. Every time a business creates a quality blog post and shares it, they are creating more incoming links to their blog, strengthening their brand and increasing customer loyalty.

Every time a blog is updated, it’s another opportunity for Google and other search engines to pick up activity on your blog. It increases your “findability” on-line.

With all the craze around blogging though, I often get asked “How can a business like mine incorporate a blog?” So, I thought it valuable to provide some specific examples of how specific industries and niches could use a blog to grow a business, aside from just creating an on-line presence. Small businesses don’t always have big budgets for marketing but they don’t necessarily need to either.

Below are some real examples that illustrate HOW a business can use a blog to grow business, increase their reach and their bottom line.

Local Restaurant/Pizzeria

Blogging could be an especially lucrative way for a local business like a restaurant to increase their reach.

Imagine for a moment, a restaurant blogging about their specials, local activities and contests. Imagine them blogging about their specific events at the restaurant, sharing those posts on Social Media, as well.

For this type of business, I would suggest an opt-in to a freebie/ a coupon for a discount or a give-away that would allow the local business to 1) Collect potential customers info for future marketing and promotion and 2) Encourage the customer to visit the restaurant to collect their freebie or discount.

Contests and freebies are extremely shareable. People absolutely love to spread the word about freebies and contests and since they are location specific, it is very easy for a business to reach a very targeted local market fairly quickly using these means.

The “opting-in” or collecting of emails in exchange for something of value, is not to be taken lightly. It’s powerful and it is KEY to long-term marketing efforts. A local restaurant would be wise to combine off-line and on-line marketing efforts via newspapers, postcards and flyers encouraging customers to visit the blog, enter their email address and in turn proving the business with a way to continuously build a relationship with their subscribers.

Pretty cool isn’t it?

Network Marketing/ Direct Sales

Most network marketers are still being taught to make a list of friends and family and target anyone with a heartbeat.

I am certainly not discouraging traditional off-line efforts, especially if you enjoy it and are having success with it. However, I truly believe that by providing valuable content on a blog about your Network Marketing/Direct Sales niche, you could increase your reach, become the hunted, not the hunter and potentially make money while you sleep. I have included two specific Direct Sales niches below and specific ways those businesses could grow exponentially via blogging.

Skin Care Direct Sales company

If you want to attract people interested in skin care, does it not make sense to provide incredible value and education on skin care that people are actively looking for?

Give. Give. Give.

The people on-line who will find you are looking for what you are selling. The Network Marketing rep of XYZ company is no longer chasing, you see, but is being hunted by people who are actually interested all because they are actively and consistently providing content and solutions for the people looking for answers in the skin care niche.

Here’s a tip for this type of company: I would personally capture those leads by collecting an email address in exchange for a “how to” on skin care. For example ” 20 steps to radiant skin without harsh chemicals” or ” 10 Ingredients you should avoid at all cost in your cosmetics”.

Building your Direct Sales team? Why not direct the to watch the video explaining how they too can earn an income sharing your product?

Are you beginning to see the trend here?” Get targeted traffic by creating and sharing valuable, niche specific content, collect prospect information by providing valuable information in exchange for their personal information and then follow up by building a relationship with them via email, continuously providing them value until they are ready to buy. This is where a powerful system using a blog, a Lead capture page, and an auto-responder (more on that later) can truly work for you 24-7, making you sales while you sleep!

Weight loss Direct Sales Company

While this is a very popular niche, if approached correctly, with the use of a blog you can truly differentiate yourself from the competition and dominate this niche. Similarly to the skin care example, there are many create things a weight loss blog can do to attract visitors and buyers and it could be a lot of fun too: Exercise videos, recipes, 30 Day Weight Loss challenges (everyone loves a good before and after story! and an opportunity to be part of it!)

Here’s my take on using a 30 Day Weight Loss Challenge on your blog: Share your own journey and your challenge. Blog about it. Have a Call to Action inviting others to partake in your challenge…and as part of your challenge, they buy your product. Offer support. Add them to a private Facebook group where challengers can support each other, be part of something, stay excited, motivate and refer others. You’ve just created a loyal tribe!

These are just a couple of examples of Network Marketing niches using a blog as part of their system. You can use a blog to compliment your Home Party Jewellery business (there’s only so many hours in the day to host home parties), your non-toxic home care products, herbal supplements… whatever niche you are in. Just be creative, give value and be consistent and the leads can start pouring in.

Real Estate and Mortgage Industry blogs

This is an industry I am fairly familiar with and all too often I see agents promoting their generic company website, and just posting their listings or, in the mortgage industry,-posting rates …on the off chance that their target market may come across a listing. How can blogging help with your mortgage business or your real estate business? While I can say with certainty that these are industries where you can’t exactly sell a home or close a mortgage while you sleep, there is no reason why you can’t collect leads while you sleep and have a blog working for you while you sleep.

Mortgage Brokers and Real Estate agents are busy. They don’t have time to spend a lot of time blogging. I get that. But, having a well planned strategy around a blog and using it correctly can differentiate them from all the rest and does not need to take a lot of time. Incorporating that blog with Social Media and an email marketing campaign can do far more than just sharing new listings on a generic site. Imagine sharing listings and rates with an list of 1000’s that opted in to your list and LIKE you because of who you are and the value you provide!

Here are just a few quick ways an agent can blog without spending too much time:

– Share financial tips

– Share credit tips

– Share short personal stories or case studies related to your niche

– Share a variety of tips regarding preparing your home for sale

– Re-purpose content by sharing it via video post or written post

– Share other people’s videos

– Share excerpts to industry articles with just a paragraph with your take on the article

… and again, you should have something of value that your target market will give you their email in exchange for, such as :

– a video series on how” xyz City” citizens can be mortgage free faster or

– Secrets to selling your home in “xyz city” at over asking price quickly and easily.

Set it up so that an autoresponder will send them regular emails. That is a time saver in itself. Set it up once and have the system do the work for you while you are out getting listings. Then, occasionally send a broadcast email to your entire list regarding a hot new listing or the crazy great mortgage rates we are seeing.

Non-profit/ Charities / Organizations / Churches and Ministries.

Can you see how following a similar strategy to the ones in the examples above can help various organizations and causes spread the word? In the advent of “internet-everything”, non-profits have an opportunity to have a voice on the internet and reach the masses, as well. A church can share sermons and words of wisdom on a blog and provide daily bible quotes, prayers, and keep local residents in the loop when it comes to local church events. It can be a powerful way to fund-raise and accept donations beyond just local reach.

Tools referenced

I referenced a few tools I use and recommend when you are getting started with your blog, namely a Lead Capture page and an auto-responder. If you are just starting out, adding tools to your blog does not need to be complicated or expensive. You can start with a free newsletter like Mailchimp (it has its limitations) you can use a relatively inexpensive option but with many more features. The auto-responder I use for most of my lists and email campaigns is Get Response. (tip: Get response also now has unlimited lead pages included in one of their packages). I use MLSP for my Lead Capture page and a built in CRM

Cashing in on your passion

The above examples reference just some of the ways any business can use a blog. Most recently, I have seen bloggers blogging about their passions… yoga, cross fit, gardening, personal development.. and then they market and sell products that are completely unrelated to their niche. Their reasoning? They blog about something they love and provide such unbelievably great value, regularly and consistently that they attract tons of traffic . The more eyeballs they have reading their passion based blog leads to a greater number of people viewing the products they are selling. More views… more interest… more leads and sales and happy customers.

Cool way to make a living isn’t it?

To your success,

P.S You can learn more about getting more authority, more leads, more sales, and more income with blogging here.

21 Day Blogging Challenge · Network Marketing Business Tips · Recommendations · Small business tips

The key to earning automated income online and it’s not what you think

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I believe in people and I believe in people doing amazing wonderful things with their talents, their perseverance and their hard work. If you read my past blogs, you know that I am all about outrageous goals . I am about taking the steps necessary to achieve those outrageous goals. I LOVE people and I love personal development.

…so it might seem a little odd that here I am writing about automated income online.

…but bear with me.

There’s a slight misconception about what an automated internet business really looks like.

First off, there’s a picture in my head that I get (because I have been there) of someone either searching Google for an “automated business” , “ turnkey internet business”, “automated income online” after hearing about success story after success story of people who made it big on the internet by just “clicking on the link”.

I personally couldn’t help but wonder if there was some truth to it and so, yes, I have often “Clicked on the link” in search of freedom. Isn’t that what most of us want when we get into business.. freedom?

The truth is, most of the time, when someone goes to click on a link and buy an automated online business, they are given another link and told to promote and left hung out to dry. And even if you are a go-getter, and try your best there are some missing elements that were implied or promised that just aren’t there. Without those elements it is near impossible to succeed. No personal contact. No training. No real business.

Yet, I personally kept looking and through my failures, my training, my perseverance and belief, I realized some key elements in a home business in the online business area. There are some essential criteria in creating the freedom you are looking for:

Systems

Grasp the importance of this and you will achieve amazing results in your business:

I will never forget when I was at an important family event last summer, outdoors, all day without a computer. I remember coming home that evening to an inbox full of new leads and sales.

I wasn’t working but I still had prospects interested in my business and product offerings. I had the ability to make sales even though I was outside away from my desk all day. I had a system in place to take care of the interested prospects for me.

I was collecting emails

The system was presenting the product, making sales and accepting credit cards.

There was a follow up system in place to aid them in the buying decision.

Step by Step Training

While this may not be necessary for the seasoned pro, someone just starting online and checking out an opportunity does not want to have to figure everything out from scratch.

… and they shouldn’t have to. Not in this type of business.

And most importantly… (at least in my mind)……is the personal touch.

The Personal Touch

What good would McDonald’s, Subway, Tim Hortons etc be to a business owner if the business owner couldn’t contact Customer support or if the franchise was provided with no training?

I truly believe that this is the secret sauce.

I have seen a lot of great systems out there. You can automate your lead capture page, your email follow up, your website presentation. There can be a wonderful, flawless payment system in place for your customers and an automated way of you getting paid too but if you have no one to contact when you are stuck, when you need a hand or perhaps just a little nudge in the right direction… then you can end up right back where you started.

This personal touch goes beyond technical issues and support calls. It’s the live trainings, the live events, the teams that you get to know both online and offline that help you with your outrageous goals.

I remember hearing once that in order for a product or business to be super successful, it needed to either be 1)First of its kind 2) the only one of its kind or 3) have the WOW factor. I believe I have found all three and more.

The online system I plugged into is as automated as it gets without leaving you high and dry. Average people are making their first money online after clicking link after link in other opportunities only to be disappointed.

It has all the elements above and more, to get you on the right track as well as ongoing training and support in business and personal development. (my kind of company). The WOW factor for me is the personal coaches, available to help you build your business.

They are aligned with my beliefs and have my seal of approval. You can check them out here.

To your success,

21 Day Blogging Challenge · Network Marketing Business Tips

Are you treating your business like a business?

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“Treat your business like a business and it will pay you like one… treat your business like a hobby and it will pay you like one”

It’s easy to fall into the trap of treating your new online business or Direct sales or Network Marketing business as if you are just “testing the waters”. Perhaps someone sold you on the dream of easy riches so you are spending an hour or two here and there expecting the money to start rolling in magically?

While I am all about big dreams and leveraging the internet to build a business in less time, the truth is that no matter what business you are in, whether it is online, traditional brick and mortar or door to door sales, you can’t get something for nothing and you do need to have a plan of action and treat your business like a business. Here are some things to consider:

Crunch the numbers

Know what is coming in and coming out. Make a plan as to what you want your revenue to be withing the next three months, six months, a year and five years. What do you need to do this week to achieve your goals? How many new customers do you need? How many new leads a day will help you achieve this? What will your expenses be? What hours do you need to put in?

Speaking of hours….

Set office hours. This isn’t a hobby. Make sure your family members and your customers alike, know exactly when you are working and when you are not. Just because you work online or work from home does not mean that you aren’t working. If you were running a store, you wouldn’t close the doors mid-day to watch Oprah would you?

Back to the example of Network Marketing, it is understandable that many Network Marketers are still working full-time hours at their day job while they build their businesses. (What an awesome business model that is to be able to do so, by the way), however that does not mean that you can’t or shouldn’t put in the hours to build the business you set out to build. 20-25 extra hours doing productive income producing activities in a time span of a week is doable. That’s over 80- 100 hours a month dedicated to working at your new business. It’s not impossible . You will reap the rewards if you put in the time.

Take Daily Action

It’s easy to get stuck when you are just starting out. Uncertainty, lack of immediate results and fear can often lead you to a standstill … but only if you let it. Take daily action, however small. Always move forward and you will get through the stuck points. There’s nothing that activity won’t solve.

Treat Your Business Like A Baby

The metaphor of a business like a newborn baby rings true. At the beginning, your business needs constant attention and nurturing. As the business grows and matures, it will to a degree sustain itself and you can step away a bit while still keeping watch.

Success Is A Decision Away

These aren’t just nice words meant to motivate and inspire. Success truly is a decision away. Once you decide with conviction that your business is a business, that it is not a hobby, that you are in it for the long haul… trust me, everything will fall in place. Decide on what you want in your future and take the steps to necessary to achieve it.

To your success,

P.S. Not all home businesses involve recruiting and building teams. If you have not had success with that model and that’s of no interest to you, that’s O.K – it’s not for everyone!! Click on the Orange image below and learn about the e-commerce business I started that had me making sales in 24 hours with no recruiting!