Why you’re not getting results from your blog and social media
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When you started your organizing business, you were probably told that you needed a website, a blog, and a social media presence. Maybe you even jumped in with both feet.
So now you’re now blogging regularly and posting on one or more social media sites, but nothing seems to be happening. Sure, your friends and colleagues are following you, but where are all the potential clients?
What nobody told you is that social media and your blog aren’t just new platforms for the old ways of advertising, and simply broadcasting messages about your services isn’t going to get you anywhere. Neither is posting random links and articles.
You may have heard that it’s important to build relationships with prospects before asking for the sale, but you don’t know how to put it into practice. So you write an article about bedroom organization and close it off by inviting the reader to call you if they need assistance organizing their own bedroom, but nobody calls.
Sound familiar?
Read on to learn about four important actions and how you can work them into your marketing strategy.
1 – Attract
Let strangers — people who don’t yet know about you and your business – know that you exist. Attract them to your website by posting to your blog and on social media, ideally using the same keywords or phrases that those who need your services would enter into a search engine.
2 – Convert
Rather than trying to convert your website visitors to clients, you first must convert them to leads. Don’t just hope they’ll bookmark your site and come back again — offer something that’s so interesting and valuable that they’ll be happy to give you their email address in order to receive it. I was in business for many years before I finally came up with an offer and I’m still kicking myself over that!
3 – Close
Transforming leads into clients is clearly a crucial step, but it’s also the most challenging for many of us. Sending messages that are specific to the individual’s stage in the buying journey can go a long way.
4 – Delight
It’s no secret that if you treat your clients well, they’ll return the favor with repeat business and referrals. But don’t stop when the current project is over – show your appreciation by providing additional content that caters to their needs.
For an overview, take a look at this graphic from HubSpot:
In a nutshell, it’s all about creating and delivering content that will appeal to the right people, in the right places, at the right times.
The “spray-and-pray” approach, where you send out generic messages in the hopes that they’ll reach the right people, rarely works. It’s crucial to identify your ideal client and to tailor your content marketing to capture the attention and meet the needs of your target audience.
For a more in-depth look at this topic, read What is Inbound Marketing? on the Albacross blog.
Photo © puhhha / DepositPhotos
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Do you have more tips for How to attract visitors in my blog… One friend told me that I have to pay for some ads.
Yes, Grey, I’ve got a few articles here on that topic. Simply type “traffic” in the search box to find them. Paying for ads won’t help you if you’re not catering to the needs of your readers.
Great post, Janet! I haven’t found one way to find clients. For me, my small business clients come from all different industries. I am OK with this, however, when I want to focus on a particular industry, it’s hard. So, I need to be more general in my approach. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It’s a work in progress. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
It might be worth it for you to focus on a specific client group. Even though my blog is called “Your Organizing Business” and is written mainly for professional organizers, I still attract clients from other industries. I think most readers will consider how a particular post applies to them.
Nice post Janet! You are so right about using keywords and phrases on your website, it’s super important. I think people are still under the misconception that once you build a website people will just find you. That’s not the case. You will spend about 70% or more of your time promoting yourself and your business. Once you get some good testimonials, reviews, word of mouth referrals and come up in search results , then you know you are on to something. 🙂
Autumn, thank you for stressing the amount of time you need to spend promoting your business! So often people publish a blog post and think their work is all done, but it’s really just the beginning.
Great post Janet! It’s all about having a strategy and you are right about doing your research. That’s what pays off!
It’s like any other activity – the more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it! Thanks for stopping by.
Love the graphic and the action steps that you outlined to move someone from a lead to a client to a promoter. Wouldn’t we all love to have a tribe that is constantly singing us praises to others! Thanks Janet!
Absolutely – and I’m very grateful to have you in my tribe!
Blogs, websites, and social media sites are great IF you use a strategy to tie them all together. And knowing who your audience or audiences are and why you even want to have a conversation to begin with are key.
You do a great job of writing about the things that your potential clients are interested in. A shining example.
Thanks, Linda! It took me nearly three years from the time I started blogging to realize how important it is to have a focus – better late than never though!
Another helpful post that has got me thinking! I need to work on step 2: convert!
Don’t we all! 🙂 The secret of effective inbound marketing is sharing content that will appeal to people and each one of those stages.
Thanks Janet for this input … especially in light of the fact you are developing another website for me.
I hope it will inspire you as you create your content for the new site! 🙂
Maybe I have to think for Call to action button or text…
Thanks for you tips.
Thanks for the post! If you succeed in turning people into your followers, sooner or later they will become your customers, or will send you customers.
Well, probably not all of them. 🙂 I have over 3000 followers just on Twitter, but I don’t expect most of them to use my services.