Signmaker and extraordinary blogger JD Iles from the great Signs Never Sleep has a very practical nuts and bolts list of the ways he uses his blog to communicate with the customers of his small business.
WHY MY BLOG IS A GOOD TOOL #2:Check out the other three reasons why his blog is a good tool here.When a customer first calls me to talk about a sign project, I have about 3 minutes to convince them I can do a better job that any signmaker out of the Yellow Pages. That's a lot of pressure on those 3 minutes...
What I tend to do now is at the end of the phonecall, I ask them for their e-mail address. I e-mail them a thank you note for taking time to talk to me on the phone, and send a link to my Blog and encourage them to take a look. Now, my Blog can be the "automatic salesman" and sell to them for the next 10 minutes or 6 months (depending if they take a peek every now and then). Using the Blog this way had gotten me jobs, period! and I have not had to do the "sales work"!
Now that's a good tool...
How is your blog working for you?
I agree wholeheadedly.
My blog works the exact same way. In fact, I operate on the Seth Godin approach: perfect your product (my blog) more and more and more, then you increase your chances that if a big client stumbles upon you, he'll be impressed and give you much business.
A computer book publisher stumbled upon my web usability blog and asked me to write a book for them. I put my blog URL on every promotion piece, if I had pens or coffee mugs, it would be on them. Blog URL on my business cards, letterhead, brochures, etc.
Drop by my site sometime and see what I have to offer. You may be interested in such Vaspers The Grate posts as:
* Characteristics of Web Site Content (18 "R"s)
* Wikis and Blikis: Beyond the Blog
* Blogs: the New Ham Radio?
* CEO Blogs: Polish Them Up Please
* Primary Purpose of the Web (is NOT "communication"!)
* Content Hypertext Spam
* Comment Spammers: internet pigs and how they feed
* Buzzwords vs. Benefits
* Basic Guide to Power Blogging
* Altruistic vs. Narcissistic Web Sites
* Blog Voice: how to command attention
* Blogs as Deconstructionist Monsters
* Horrible Web Monstrosities
and much more.
My blog is like my digital sample portfolio. It is my #1 Salesperson for my business of web usability analysis.
Posted by: steven streight aka vaspers the grate | Monday, January 31, 2005 at 10:27 PM
That's exactly how I use my blog. I'm selling how I think. What better way to showcase how I think than my blog? I direct everyone to my blog and it closes the sale for me. So much more effective than a static web site or brochure.
Posted by: jennifer Rice | Tuesday, February 08, 2005 at 11:32 AM