FEATURE
CUSTOMER RECRUITMENT UNDER THE SPOTLIGHT
Customer acquisition A B2B blog is not that hard
By Bill LaPierre, VP Business Intelligence & Analytics, Datamann, USA
I never thought that having a blog would be an avenue to customer acquisition, but it has proven so for Datamann. I’ll come back to that in a minute. I noticed a few weeks ago that another
catalog industry supplier was becoming more “aggressive” with their promotional emails. Just by chance, I got a personal email from that company’s CEO about something, and so I asked if they were in fact becoming more aggressive. “Yes, we are jumping on the blog bandwagon, but because we have so many authors it’s going to be difficult to gain a following such as yours. No “one voice” or a single point of view. But at least we are trying! I envy your discipline.” I’ve got news for you: It has nothing to
do with being disciplined. For me, it is the pure enjoyment of watching the feedback on Mondays through my web analytics, as to which postings do well, and which ones don’t. I can tell by the way the blogs spreads around the web, that the topic hit a nerve. But the main reason I have kept up this
blog to the degree that I have (a posting nearly every week for the past 4 years), is the knowledge that almost all of our new clients have come to Datamann in the past two to three years because they learned of us through the blog. It is an unbelievable recruitment tool and retention tool, although not a sales tool. It has also been an awesome recruitment tool for the annual seminar which Datamann sponsors for the VT/NH Marketing Group. I believe a blog can work in both
consumer and B2B. But, I don’t believe that it will work for everyone. Basically I believe you don’t have an edge, if you don’t take a stand, if you don’t have something special to say, no one is going to read it. You have to take sides and make a point. Kevin Hillstrom’s edge is that he gives
analytical insight that no one else is even thinking about – and he gives it for free. If you follow his advice, you can make a boatload of money. Amy Africa’s blog takes no prisoners while dispensing unique online and mobile advice. You either love her style or you hate it – but Amy offers no apologies for her style or content. She’s good enough that she doesn’t have to. And me? Well, I enjoy pointing out the foolishness that runs rampant in so many
catalogs and in the catalog industry. I must be doing something right as I routinely get between 55 per cent to 65 per cent opens each week. But in all three of those aforementioned
blogs, we are not trying to overtly sell anything (most of the time). Te blog allows people to know that we are challenging the status quo, and that we can help them. But we are not always ramming client case studies down your throat. Yes, once in while we will tout a specific product that we offer – but hey, we have to pay the bills to keep the lights on. If you are a reader of this blog, you
know I absolutely hate the types of blogs or articles that offer “5 tips on improving your homepage”. Tere’s nothing there. Tere’s no challenge to you as a marketer. It’s just insipid drivel. However, in my response back to the CEO mentioned earlier, in which I challenged her perception of my “discipline”, I offered her the following “helpful hints” that have helped me in keeping Datamann’s blog going. • I’m constantly looking for ideas for the blog in everything I read. I’m reading a book right now that my wife gave me for Christmas on the maple sugar/syrup industry, and I’ve already come up with ideas for four new postings. You never know from where ideas will come.
• I mentioned to our minister one time that I had a blog. He told me that he often spends days working on a sermon, reworking it numerous times, one that he thinks covers all the theological bases. He is excited in the anticipation of giving it. After he delivers it Sunday morning, a few people will politely say “Nice sermon”. Ten there are ones that he throws together Saturday night, which he feels almost embarrassed to deliver from the pulpit because no time or thought went into it, or it was (in his opinion) too shallow. Afterwards, parishioners will come up to him with tears in their eyes to say how that sermon had touched their souls and moved them. Well, no one’s soul has been touched by any of my postings – but the scenario is the same. Postings that I think are the best thing I’ve ever written, and which touch on some major catalog issue, will often times
go nowhere, generate no comments, no emails, and has low readership. Conversely, some postings that I threw together at the last minute get tons of comments, huge readerships, etc. You just never know which ones are going to resonate with the subscribers, and strike a nerve (and of course, that’s usually what I’m trying to do).
• Keep it short. My minimum posting is 800 words, my normal is around 1,200 to 1,300 and my max is 1,800. If it runs longer, it becomes a Part 2. And you’d be surprised at how many people contact me and say “when are you doing Part 2?”, when I’ve labeled something Part 1. I also think it is a mistake for me to publish more than weekly. I have done it a few times, with special postings. But given my type of content, which is not as analytical as Kevin Hillstrom’s, I think I would over-expose myself publishing more often than once a week.
• I also write for my existing readers/ subscribers. Although my number of subscribers has nearly doubled in the past 12 months, I don’t write with “key words” in mind, hoping to attract attention through organic search. However, I will share one funny anecdote. In March 2013 I wrote a posting titled Bra Catalogs – More Tan Storage and Organization. If you search Google for the term “bra catalog”, my posting is always either at the bottom of page one or the top of page two’s search results. It is my number one most read posting from organic search, but it is read by average consumers – which was not my target audience.
• Here is the most important piece of advice – don’t start a blog unless you can be committed, and yes, have the discipline to keep posting new material. What is your impression of a company when you go to their blog, only to realize that the last posting was in 2011? Not good. I find it fun, and it sure beats cold
calling. After 200+ postings, I think I have become a much better writer than when I started, although my wife still shutters at some of my punctuation. My parents would be proud that my liberal arts education is finally paying off.
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