Marketing With Blogs - Part 4
Copyright © 2005 Priya Shah
In the first three parts of this article series
on marketing with blogs, I discussed the reasons why blogs are
excellent tools for marketing, and provided some tips on using
your blog to brand yourself, boost your reputation and sell
your products and services online.
In this article, I provide specific tips on
using your blog help you boost your marketing ROI and visibility
online.
#7: Use Good SEO Practices
Besides using keywords appropriately, take the
time to learn about using trackbacks, pingbacks, good linking
practices and basic SEO techniques.
Remember that in blogging, public relations
equals PageRank. The more you link to others, the more they
will link to you.
Submit your blogs and feeds to directories and
search engines.
#8: Track Your Results
Keep track of your sales, inbound links, citations
by using tools like adtrackers, Blogpulse and Marketleap. Also
offer your readers incentives to participate in surveys.
This information is very valuable because it
will help you understand what your market needs and how to give
it to them.
It will also help you understand how much your
blogging is helping your marketing efforts so you can tweak
your methods and get more out of them.
#9: Listen And Learn
When we’re blogging we usually stating
our opinions openly. As bloggers its alright to be controversial
and frank while blogging.
But what happens when a potential customer posts
a nasty or rude comment? Some bloggers think its OK to be rude
right back, and even go so far as to call that person names.
I don’t believe that’s the way to
treat someone who take the trouble to sign-in and post a comment
on your blog. For all you know they may have a genuine problem
and could be speaking for others who have experienced the same.
Being rude will not only lose you a customer,
it will also expose you as someone who is too immature to handle
customer complaints.
Granted, some customers can be a pain in the
butt, but everyone deserves to be heard. And handling nasty
or rude comments with restraint will not only demonstrate your
maturity, but build your customers respect for you.
People prefer doing business with someone they
like and trust. So if you want your blog to be a place where
your potential customers can interact freely and openly, I suggest
you learn how to handle brickbats as well as bouquets with grace
and maturity.
It used to be said that the internet was
the great leveller because it empowers small businesses to compete
with big businesses. But blogs have completely levelled the
playing field for marketers.
Anyone with an internet connection can now sell
their products and services solely on the basis of the quality
of information they provide.
And that is the reason blogs are creating a
revolution in marketing online.
Priya Shah is CEO of the blog
publishing firm, Connect10. Subscribe to her free Marketing
With Blogs email course. Request the whitepaper Boost
Your Search Engine Visibility With Blogs And RSS here.
This article may be reprinted as long as the
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