7 Ways for Your Small Business Blog to Reach Its Full Potential

Interruption Marketing has been around for such a long time it may be tiresome to some. It involves the notion of pulling the targeted consumers’ attention away from whatever it is they are doing, such as a Television show or a radio show, or even those annoying little internet pop-ups that practically no one bothers with. Enter ‘Permission marketing’, a term coined and developed by Seth Godin in his book of the same title.

The idea of Permission Marketing is to act as a polar opposite of interruption marketing. You do promotions through the use of blogs, videos, SEO, eBooks and many other myriad forms of content marketing. A ubiquitous example is YouTube, a public free-for-use video-sharing website which allows users to upload, share and view videos. Many firms by now have gone into the use of YouTube as part of their social-media marketing, from French luxury brand Dior to Japanese Pearl Drums Company. Huffington Post is another one that has a clear permission marketing approach. One of the main benefits of blogging is that it is simply cost efficient, as you are able to tap on low cost online tools, search engine optimization and the social media. It also has a higher conversion rate since your target consumer has already expressed interest by searching up and reading your blog.

The potential benefits for start-up and small businesses are indeed extensive, but it is also common for businesses to fail to reap the rewards they were looking for when they started blogging. Here are 7 ways how your Permission Marketing through your business blog can reach full potential.

1. Content Saturation

One of the first reason that comes to mind is the fact that there quite possible hundreds or thousands of other blogs out there doing marketing in the same area that you are. There is so much noise it puts in a position where you have think hard about the marketing terms you use and content saturation. CSI stands for content saturation index and it is the reason why so many blogs are not reaching their full potential. In other words, the content saturation is one key factor that affects your blog’s search engine visibility [SEV]. SEV leads to at least two corollaries.

2. Choice of Words to Include in the Title

Here is the second, how optimized is your Blog title? The blog title is one of the first thing search engine users will see. This means there is a choice of words in your blog title involved, choice implies that there is something you can choose with regards to a goal you want to achieve. That goal is greater search engine visibility. Search engine visibility means that using catchy phrases are less important than an efficient one that will get the blog link up to the first page of the search result. Remember also that search engines place more emphasis to the first few words in the title. The first word is given more emphasis to the second, the second more emphasis to the third and so on. Strategic placement of your keywords is thus important for your title optimization.

3. Knowing your Prospective Target Consumers

How well do you know your prospective target prospects? It is one thing to have a good and well written content with regards to interesting topics, but as far as marketing goes, there will not be much success if they do not appeal to the intended consumers in the first place. Some useful elements in building an accurate profile of the prospect is their problems and their goals, what means they have, and the keywords they are likely to use in a search engine.

4. Establishing Objectives and Setting Realistic Goals

Perhaps this is an important caveat. Having a business blog will not have any radical impact on your business’ performance or improve revenue overnight. It is a slow but gradual process. It takes patience, and effort to reap the benefits of having an online presence through regular blogging. Having realistic expectations will prevent the mistake of jumping into the world of blogging without realising that it requires vast amounts of hard work, knowledge, dedication and perseverance. Ask yourself some key questions as to what you want to achieve with your blog. Are your goals realistic? Learn from other blogs; take note of what they did to be successful, or what they did not to.

5. Presentation and the Layout of your Blog

Layout of the format is an important aesthetic point that you should also look at. Many people struggle with the organization of contents on blogs and websites. A clean and simple presentation format of your blog is worth considering. While it is true that a blog should have sufficient content, some research has also pointed out the paradox of choice. Too many choices, too many links, too many destinations may be off-putting to a reader. Simplicity and relevance should have precedence over style and shock factors.

6. Utilize the Power of Networking

Having a good network and good networking skills may not be essential for successful blogging and permission marketing. It can still give you a significant amount of leverage though, especially if your area or industry already has a very high saturation content. We have, by now, seen a small businesses that launched from obscurity to prominence in a relatively short time through the use of networking. Even a school or a faculty within a large university can be a platform in which the power of networking can be realised. Networking helps to develop a feeling of trust and it could be one key factor that propels your blog above the common chatter.

7. Acknowledge and Value Comments

Finally, constructive criticisms can be infinitely helpful in improving your blog and propelling it to reach its potential. Your blog should be giving consumers and clients some means of providing their own opinions. This could be in the form of public commentary sections, or an online feedback form. Of course, you will not be looking forward to negative and hurtful comments, but encouraging a supportive culture of giving helpful comments, shows that you not only recognize, but value the contributions of your clients. This acknowledgement and cherishing of comments extends to the contributors of your blog, both internal and external. A little acknowledgement goes a long way in building your community.

Want to learn how to further your business blog's potential? Get in touch with our digital marketing consultants to find out more.