Posts Tagged ‘blog’

I have spent most of my life failing, or so it seems. When I think of failure, I can see a list of things half-done, not accomplished, or downright failed. Thankfully, I have been blessed with a healthy dose of optimism, so I can keep going and keep trying. In fact, I don’t spend a lot of time looking at past failures, and you shouldn’t either. But from time to time, it is a good idea to reflect on failure. If you can figure out what went wrong, if you can identify a negative pattern, you can learn from it.

That is what Jason Markow had in mind when he started #FAILweek. He wanted businesses to look at their failures not for the failure, but for what can be learned from it. And in encouraging people to share failures, the hope is that others who come behind can more easily learn fr0m our mistakes.

The Potential

The failure I am going to share here is only a half failure. It is the story of what could have been, and maybe a little about the potential that is still there.

I little over a year ago, I was just getting going with my blog and was getting more and more active on Twitter. I still didn’t really know anybody on Twitter. That all changed when I sent out a tweet something to the effect of “I feel like an idea wrangler.” This tweet was read by Neal Rohrbach, a truly amazing and creative guy. Something about what I said hit home with him. We had “met” prior to this on a Twitter chat called #sbbuzz and had gotten along. So Neal, being the go-getter that he is, got inspired and registered a domain name. IdeaWranglers.com wasn’t available, so he registered IdeaAnglers.com instead. The rest, as they say, is history.

When Neal let me know what he did on a whim, I was surprised and excited. At the time, I was also buying up all kinds of domains and dreaming of the businesses that I was going to start with them. In Neal,  I found someone with similar passions, and most importantly, the same heart to help others, especially entrepreneurs. So when I found out what he did, I naturally said, okay, lets see where this takes us.

Where it took us was a partnership. We wanted to develop Idea Anglers to be a site that helped small business owners. We wanted to make money at the same time. A membership site seemed to be the natural fit. So Neal created a site and a great logo (he is a graphic designer, among other things). I brainstormed concepts. We pre-launched and immediately got some good traction. Everyone liked the idea, or more accurately, the story of two strangers meeting on Twitter and launching a business.

The Failure

The idea was the problem. We never really nailed down exactly what we wanted to do. I take the blame for this, since that was primarily my department. I tend to have too many ideas. Turns out, I needed the kind of help that Idea Anglers would eventually offer. Unfortunately, I needed it before Idea Anglers was there to help.

What we ended up with was two very creative people trying to build a broad-based solution for entrepreneurs. We never found the kind of focus we needed, I now realize. Secondly, we both had full time jobs plus side projects we were already working on. We were very busy, so we didn’t have the kind of time we needed to get things launched. So very little time plus not knowing what to focus on when we did find the time meant we couldn’t push it forward fast enough. The fact that we pushed it as far as we did is a testament to what can be accomplished when you work together on something with shared passion.

There were lots of good things. Neal and I got along really well, and still do. I found out that you can really establish meaningful friendships with people that you meet online. Also, it is possible to meet business partners online. Knowing that, what we should have done was narrowed down a focus really fast and then sought to bring more people in to help run things, people who had more time and more focused expertise.

The Education

Idea Anglers is not dead. It is just on vacation. Neal has a great new job that keeps him even busier than before. I am trying to build a business of my own, plus grow this blog. Idea Anglers still fits into my vision of helping small businesses, but it will play a very specific role when I am ready for it.

The lessons I learned are many.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with trying. I got a great friendship out of this. I also saw how opportunities can open up if you just go after them.

Second, it is possible to build meaningful relationships online. My goal this year is to increase those friendships and build on the ones that I have started.

Third, collaboration is better than working at something alone. Idea Anglers would have never gone anywhere if it was just an idea in my head. By bouncing things back and forth with another party, you can move things forward. The key is to have a focus and goals.

Going from here, I have plans. Perhaps too many plans, still. I appreciate more the importance of focus, so I am focusing on fewer things. I want to help small businesses in a lot of ways, perhaps eventually having a full-service coaching/consulting agency. But for now, I am just focusing on one area where I can be of service, helping small businesses with web sites and online marketing. Of course, I am also focusing on this blog and making it better and more dynamic.

I am also going to explore collaboration more and get better at reaching out. I value things like Twitter so much more when I am having meaningful interactions there. I want to build on that. I still want to build some things with other people. This time, however, I am going to go in with a plan and spend time up front building a focus and specific goals.

And maybe there is one more lesson. Neal and I are both very creative. We thrive on the ideas. If we wanted to build a membership site, what we should have done was bring in an expert in that. A good expert can really help you focus your ideas and broad thoughts, no matter what they are. When you are having trouble moving forward, but you know you have good ideas, I really suggest getting some expert help.

So that is my story of failure. It wouldn’t be a good story if there wasn’t something to learn from it. How have you used failure as a learning tool for success? Because that is all failure is, another tool that you can use to build your dreams. Its nothing to be afraid of, really.

–

Bradford Shimp helps small businesses build web sites and online presence. Follow him on Twitter @bradfordshimp.

Do you ever feel like you are the king of the world one day, with things just clicking in your business, only to find yourself wondering what you are doing and where you are going the next day? I have been personally struggling with this of late. The problem comes from having a general idea of what you want to accomplish with your business, but having no real, day to day, plan of how to get there. Call it non-planicitis.

You Need a Plan

The truth is, without some kind of plan, you have a much harder time staying on task. Staying on task directly relates to meeting your business goals, so it is very important.

You need to know where you are going if you ever want to get there. So, if you feel like you are hitting walls pretty often, or if you find yourself constantly changing direction, stop everything. Take the day off and work on a plan. Thats what I am going to do. Its time to refocus and really get a handle on where you are going.

Track Your Progress

Once you know where you are going, you need to put in place markers along the route so that you will know that you are still on track. A good plan includes a step by step map that takes you from where you currently are to where you want to be. Draw the map, and then trust it every day. For me, I think my map will include some non-blog writing every day. I really want to create some info products, but in order to do it I have to work on it a little every day. Your daily tasks will be your own. Your job is to make sure that you know what to do every day to get you to the goal.

Learn the Power of No

Just as important is knowing what not to do every day. I, for one, am easily distracted. Because I am in the beginning phases of my own business, I could take it literally anywhere. If you are in a more established business, you are already a little more focused. But it is still possible to take your business off the path if you are not careful. Say no to things that aren’t going to move you toward your goal.

I think the only way to keep things moving forward daily, and to avoid rabbit trails and walls, is to have a good plan. Read my article on business planning for some advice on how do that. Or just think of your business path as a map. Figure out where you are going, and then put in place the steps and the daily activities that will get you there.

Happy planning. I hope you have smooth sailing.

photo credit: Horia Varlan

Depending on your type of business, you may have customers all over the country, or the world. The internet has blown wide open the doors of international commerce. Customers from all over can find and buy from you if your service or product is portable enough.

What they can’t do is meet you face to face and shake your hand. The internet has opened up and people are more ready to trust interactions that take place on it. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to try extra hard to develop a good relationship with your long distance customers.

There are three areas in particular that you need to have a plan for when you have customer relationships that span the distance. They are trust, connectedness, and attentiveness.

Trust

Trust is hard when you can’t meet someone face to face. Sure, there are some people who readily extend the hand of trust. But if you want people to pay for your product or service, you need to be able to prove to them its worth it. They need to trust it, and by extension, trust you.

So how do you get someone who lives on the other side of the country to trust you? You need to show them the complete package. This means that your web site needs to be more than a placeholder. Consider adding a blog to communicate regularly. It also means that you will benefit from positive online reviews, so tap some of your favorite customers to write reviews of your business on popular review sites, such as Yelp.com.

A great way to build trust is to include online videos of yourself talking about how your business can make a customer’s life better. If you are comfortable getting in front of a camera, you should be using online videos. People have an easier time trusting someone when they see them.

You can also build up trust by building your reputation. Get involved in online communities and make thoughtful contributions. The more you are thought of as a caring expert, the easier it will be to get people to trust you.

Of course, the first rule of garnering trust is the most important. Be worthy of trust.

Connectedness

People want to feel connected. You can’t sit down for a coffee with your customers if they don’t live nearby. So you need a plan for staying in touch. It is helpful if you think of it in terms of sitting down for coffee. Staying connected isn’t about keeping your marketing message in front of your customers faces. Its about always being there. Its about sharing with your customers.

One great way to do this is with an email newsletter. Use it to just talk to your customers. Write to them weekly in a friendly, conversational tone. Point out things that will be helpful. Answer questions. Tell them what’s new. Think of customers as friends, and communicate with them in like manner.

On the flip side, find ways to be available when your customer needs you. Provide ways for them to reach out to you with their questions. And, as I talk about next, get back to them quickly.

Attentiveness

The best relationships are the ones where if you call someone and get their voice mail you can leave a message and you know that they are going to call you back the first moment they get a chance. In life, you can measure the health of a relationship by how often you talk and how quickly you get back to one another.

To be personal with your long distance customers, you need to pay special attention to attentiveness. Be quick to answer questions and to solve problems. Follow up more than you would with a local customer. Send emails out of the blue to see how your customers are doing and how you can better serve them.

By paying attention to your online customers, you establish the fact that you value them. They are important to you, even if they are not near you.

One way this might play out is if your business has a bunch of customers in a different time zone. Wouldn’t it be nice if you put live customer service in place to help them in their own time zone? That would be really paying attention to and caring about your customers.

It is possible to be personal at the distance of the internet. You need to have a plan and work at it, but with a little extra effort, you can make each customer feel cared for.

photo credit: jurvetson

–

Bradford Shimp teaches small businesses how to interact online. Learn more at BroadRiverCreative.com.

What makes online conversation marketing via blogs, social media, and the like such a success is that it spurs interaction. Interaction can lead to many things, most importantly sales. However, for all the talk of interaction and customers gladly spreading your story for you, there is another side to the coin. While there are the conversationalists out there that will quickly build relationships with your business if you meet their needs and exceed their expectations, there are also a whole lot of listeners out there.

Listeners are quiet folk. They don’t engage nearly as much. If they get on your forums, its probably to find a specific answer to a specific problem. They aren’t commenting on your blog. They aren’t responding to your tweets. Because you don’t see the interaction, it is easy to discount the listeners, or to question if they are even there. But these people are listening. They are being impacted by the content you put out. They are just as loyal as the conversationalists. Sure, they don’t write blog posts recommending your company to everyone in the world, but that’s because they don’t have blogs. They are probably recommending you quietly to a trusted friend who they know will benefit from your business.

The quiet ones can be a hard group to connect with. If you are doing all of the right things online, but not seeing the results spring up like you wish they would, be sure to not throw in the towel too soon. The listeners outnumber the talkers, in my opinion. If you just stop blogging because you aren’t getting comments or seeing sales, you might be leaving some people out in the cold. If you have visitors to your blog, you should keep blogging. If you don’t have visitors, you should invest some time and money in education so you can be a better business blogger, but that is another story.

While you won’t get the kind of gratifying interaction on a regular basis out of the quiet ones that you will get out of the talkers, you will get great value. You get that value by consistently providing value. The listeners are the steady force behind your online efforts. They will subscribe to your newsletter and actually read it. They will attend your webinars. They will buy your products.

Chances are that they will also help you spread the word. The difference is, they won’t do it on their own, at least not on a large scale. That isn’t because they don’t love your product, its because they aren’t talkers. They do not have platforms of their own. But don’t give up on them. Connect with your regular loyal listeners and buyers. Draw them out. You can probably get some pretty amazing testimonials from them. When they send you a referral, it will likely be a dead-on qualified lead. You’ll take one of these a year over countless unqualified visits to your site or hundreds of spam followers on Twitter. The quiet ones make up in value what they don’t deliver in amount of interaction.

You’re job is to not give up on them. Keep writing your blog. Keep posting your best insights on Twitter. Keep talking, and they will keep listening. While your words won’t always trigger a response that you will see, you are planting seeds. And if you ever do find yourself in a conversation with a quiet one, you will be amazed at the depth and value there. Listeners are learners and doers. They have an important place in your online conversation marketing plans. Don’t leave them out by stopping your end of the conversation.

–

Bradford Shimp helps small businesses develop online marketing plans at BroadRiverCreative.com.

Some small businesses have blogs because they think they should. They toy around with one, post occasionally, and see little benefit. The problem is, they produce a boring blog, all about the business in most cases. The blog is just another sales page. Even more small business owners never start a blog because they can’t think of anything interesting to say on a regular basis.

The thing is, producing an interesting blog that people will actually pay attention to is not that hard. Here are some ideas on how to do just that.

Cut the Sales Talk

You can give all of your sales information on the static pages of your web site and in your hand out materials. Use your blog to build trust. For instance, instead of talking about how great your widget is on the blog, do an in depth interview with one of your customers about how they are using your widget with great success. This still puts your business in a positive light, but with a human story.

Also, its okay to talk about things on your blog that aren’t directly related to your product or service. A blog is a place to have conversations with customers and prospects. You will want to cover a range of topics that is interesting and useful to your target audience.

Give Advice

One great thing to do on your blog is to give advice. People are searching for answers all of the time on the web. If your blog can provide good answers to specific questions, it will attract an audience. So think about the advice your customer base will most benefit from, and then provide content on your blog that gives that advice.

This works well for every type of business. A mechanic can give advice for basic car maintenance and upkeep. A marketer can give advice on how to set up a marketing plan. Don’t worry about putting yourself out of a job. Remember, you are a specialist. If you are a baker, you could give instructions on how to bake a perfect cake and still attract buyers for the cakes you make. The fact is, you will always be able to do it better, and people will come to you for your expertise.

Spice it Up With Other Content

You don’t have to write every article on your blog. You can find other content to include that will be useful to your target customers.

One way to do this is to pull articles off article marketing sites, such at EzineArticles.com or ArticleBase.com. Sites like these allow you to repost content. Simply search for your topic and follow the instructions to post the content on your blog.

You could also find guest authors to write unique content for your site. Blogger Link Up is a good resource for this. You can also find experts using Help a Reporter Out. Both of these resources allow you to reach out to a list of people who want to write content or be interviewed.

Share the News

If you are a local business, sharing local news can be a great move for your blog. You will attract local visitors who will then be introduced to or reminded about your business. Add your own take on the news or break stories, and you will have even more visitors.

You can share news by providing a brief overview and then the link to stories on other web sites. Link to other sources generously. If you start sending a decent amount of traffic to a news site, they are bound to notice your blog and your business. At the same time, do add some personal touch to the news you share. You can also treat your own company news as legitimate news stories.

Interview Your Customers

Putting up interviews can work very well for some businesses. This is especially true if the interview can help other customers. I work with a business that sells to volunteer organizations. These organizations can benefit from learning about how other volunteer organizations are succeeding.

Interviews also give you a chance to get to know your customers a lot better. This has huge benefits as you figure out how to better communicate with and sell to your customer base.

Finally, interviews are almost a guaranteed way to get visitors to your blog, as your subject will visit and share the link with others.

Be Personal

Your blog is a place where you can truly connect with customers. Its okay to add your personality to your posts. By being real on your blog, you are building trust. If customers feel they know you, even before they buy, then you are succeeding.

I don’t suggest making your business blog a personal journal. Customers don’t need to know about the movies you see, the parties you go to, or about your latest hobby. Instead, sprinkle personality into your business posts. Use your real voice. Write and record as if you were having a normal conversation. And if you want, slip some personal information inside the business posts.

Keep Talking

Here is an important key to writing an interesting blog. Do it regularly. This is counterintuitive to many business owners, who think that by writing too often they will drive people away. The fact is, the more often you blog, the more people will visit.

Its not just about the visitors. By blogging often, you will be able to develop a rhythm and a voice. You’ll find your groove, basically.

If you blog only once in awhile, your blog will attract cob webs and the posts you do put up will likely be stilted and boring. Commit to a regular schedule, and your blog will be dynamic, on point, and conversational.

By blogging regularly, something unexpected will begin to happen. You will begin to understand and relate to customers like you never have before. You will unleash new ideas for your business and see new opportunities. Blogging regularly gets you to think, not just about the next sale, but about the greater story that you are involved in with your business. I would argue that blogging makes your a better business, and a better person.

If you still need help getting your blog off the ground, please feel free to email me at bradford@allbizanswers.com.

–

Bradford Shimp helps small businesses develop their web presence at BroadRiverCreative.com.