Let’s Rename Blogging “Expertise Sharing”
Although I am encouraged by the growing number of businesses that are using blogs as part of their marketing plan, I am sill astonished at the number of business websites that still don’t have a blog in this day and age. I have a hypothesis about this and I believe it has to do with a stigma about the word “blog”. I think that many people think blogging is something you do in a coffee shop while listening to a John Mayer album. In reality, blogs are great ways to share relevant and dynamic information.
Share Your Stories
I have worked for a plethora of companies in my life and the one thing that they all have in common is they have great stories. Stories of how they came to be and why they do what they do. This is your chance to tell these stories. Answer questions that you get asked regularly. You can even proactively pose questions that you wish your prospects and customers would ask and answer them. Often times, your customers don’t know what they don’t know. Blogging is media that you own and can control what gets talked about. Use this power that is available to you
We Need Experts
According to study by the Corporate Executive Board, business to business buyers are 57% of the way to a buying decision before they are willing to talk to a sales rep. This means that customers are self qualifying and you have to prove you know your stuff before you are even part of the conversation. Unless someone has recommended a business to us, we are going into it blind. This is true for b2b and b2c. We will go with the company that makes us fell confident that they are experts. Big no longer beats small, it is now those that provide insight beat those that don’t.
