Does your website have a business blog? Business blogging gives your company a powerful way to communicate to prospects, customers or people who want to learn more information about your company’s products and services. Anyone from the CEO to the Marketing Department to Research and Development can share their expertise, analysis or forecasts with a very large audience on the internet (visualize anyone in the world with a computer and internet access). An RSS feed can be added to your business blog so that someone can subscribe and get current information delivered to their RSS Feed Reader as soon as a new post is added to the blog. See our previous blog posting - What is an RSS Feed, and How Can You Use One to Your Advantage?

Whatever you decide to do, there are numerous ways to “dress up” your blog. Blogging is a great way to build your brand, share your expertise and drive traffic to your website. If you are already business blogging, kudos to you!! What I want to share with you today is to how to put a little “BLING” in your blog.

Let’s start with the design of the template or CSS stylesheet. Make sure your colors are aesthetically pleasing. There are many websites and blog services that have stock templates and CSS stylesheets to choose from for your business blog. If your budget allows, you may consider having a professional graphic designer help with the design. This is very important!! 

 Don’t forget to smile! – adding a smiley face can put a little fun into your blog posting. There are many styles to choose from. Just do a search and use them as you deem necessary. Graphics such as colorful images can be added to give some added effect to your blog. Make sure they are consistent with the content of the blog posting. Edge effects can be added but make sure the placement of the graphic flows with the verbiage. Be cognizant of image’s size and width.

Another technique is using enlarged and colored fonts. Using bold letters will draw people’s eyes immediately as well as writing in Italics. Using different colored fonts is a way of accessorizing your words.

Adding icons, badges and buttons are a good way to show respect for different organizations or groups that your company supports.

Adding a short video into or even a link to a video, can “jazz up” your blog posting by giving it some movement and aesthetic appeal.

Some bloggers have even been known to add a podcast or “audio file” to a blog posting. It’s one thing to read what someone has to write, but listening to the blogger’s voice may be an appealing change of pace from reading a blog post.

Do you want to get a little more mileage for your blog? Add a social bookmarking website link. Consider using this option (occasionally) to only your best blog posts so that anyone who is impressed by the posting can immediately post it to one of the many social bookmarking sites.

There are many to choose from and the link would look something similar to this: you are having trouble coming up with something to blog about, consider using your blog to:

Communicate a new product/service announcement (make sure you are not doing a sales

Mix in a press release about your company

Write about positive feedback from a customer/client

Talk about Charities and Non-Profits that you are passionate about

People overwhelmingly prefer to do business with others they know and like. Keep your business blog professional and avoid topics that may be controversial or ones you wouldn’t discuss at church in a mixed crowd. A business blog will not solve your business problems, make you a millionaire or get you a date with a famous Hollywood actor (unless you are REALLY lucky). However, it will add a new feature to your website, strengthen your overall business strategy and create new relationships with your readers as well as reinforce existing relationships.

So, back to my original point; what is your blog wearing? Does it look like casual, business casual or professional (Think blue jeans, khakis or Italian suit)? Put a little “bling” into whichever type of business blog you have and you may notice increased readership, more comments and even more sales of your products/services. Well, what are you waiting on?

Let the Bling begin!!

The allure and attractiveness of social media rage continues maintain its build up. At a recent meeting of the New York chapter of the Business Marketing Association, the talk was all about extending brand reputation. However, according to our research, only about 20% of marketers and agencies are able to calculate an ROI on the social media investment. Clearly some companies have been able to leverage social media to make significant and dramatic success in selling their products, Best Buys comes to mind. However, for many companies, the jump into Social Media can end-up taking quite a bit of time and investment from a company – and the ROI may not be easily discern able. But, that does not mean that social media activities are not working or beneficial.

While social media should Social Media - Facebook Photo considered as part of the promotional mix, an overall evaluation of a company’s objectives, target audience, staffing and budget needs careful consideration. Interestingly, we recently read that traditional business-to-business ad spending is expected to decline by about 8% in the coming year, but that online ad spending is expected to increase by 5.5% in 2019. In contrast, in 20 online spending had actually dropped 4.6 percent versus the previous year. Bottom line - good research and evaluation of the right “e-business” marketing mix is a must.

Do you remember the first time you saw something on the television? If you were like me I was mesmerized by the sounds, movement and all the colors – think Bugs Bunny, Wizard of Oz, etc. Even today I would much rather watch the television than read a lengthy article in a magazine or newspaper. I do however enjoy reading a good hardcover book – I digress.

Video Allure

Is your business using video in any way? Have you ever visited You Tube? As the old saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words” has been amplified over and over with television, VCRs, DVDs, online videos and more. According to comScore, internet users in the United States view over 14.3 billion online videos a month and online video viewing accounts for over 12.5% of Americans total time spent on the internet. Quick – hand me my eyedrop medication for dry eye. NPD Group states that 97% of internet users in the United States use the internet to shop. Even the Kelsey Group remarks that 54% of Americans have substituted the Internet for the phone book.

 Video Power

So, how powerful is video? Think about the last commercial you saw that was trying to sell something. Take for instance a new car commercial. You see a person in a convertible driving down a curvy, coastal highway while the sun is setting. It was pure visual stimulation; with the engine revving, tires squealing, music playing and the sound of laughter in the background. All good stuff. Did the video appeal to your senses? Did you sense how “nice” the car would look with you driving it? Could you almost feel your hands gripping the steering wheel as your foot pushes the accelerator?

Video Persuasion

Adding videos to your website can be very effective in persuading a visitor to either purchase your product or service, and/or do more searching on the site for more information. The trick is that your video has to “Engage” the viewer. It can’t be boring, poorly created or really long. Time must be spent on crafting your message, delivering it in an informative fashion and mixing in some fun and cool colors/graphics.Show and Tell

Video Show and Tell

Since video stimulates the brain, it creates a connection that words and photos alone cannot. Most consumers want to do business with people they know, like and trust; video goes a long way in establishing that connection before they even meet you. Picture superiority effect states that concepts are much more likely to be remembered if they are presented as pictures rather than words. As you are creating your videos, remember to use “visual elements” along with the verbiage in the script.

Video Marketing

Videos are an important part of an overall internet marketing strategy. As with any marketing strategy, the goal is to grab the attention of the viewer. For example, think about those commercials that run during the Super Bowl. Many people don’t watch the Super Bowl for the game; they want to see the commercials because they know that new and very creative ads will be shown during the game.

Video marketing is the new cutting edge way to advertise your businesses’ products and services. It doesn’t require a huge investment in equipment or a large marketing budget to create an effective video – just some creativity, resources and time. Once you create the video and use it, it can be stored for future use. Your website could even have a section named “University”, “Library”, “Product Videos” or “Service Videos”. Be sure and make the video both informative and entertaining. It’s a perfect way to introduce a new Product or Service. Videos can even be incorporated into blogs and e-newsletters.

We have always been a visual society being influenced by what we see and hear. Online videos are a modern day continuation of visual stimulation. Your website and brand will be ELEVATED above your competition by the addition of video.

So what are you waiting on – go get that digital camcorder and start filming. Or, contract with a professional who can “juice” it up for you. Either way you will be doing something most other businesses want to do but haven’t quite taken that step yet. Start the journey!!

 We’ve all heard those comments that sound something like, “…You know size doesn’t matter” or “You better believe size REALLY matters”. When it comes to the size of your blog, “How big is it?”

Blogging produces results. According to Hubspot’s “The State of Inbound Lead Generation”, businesses that blog as part of their strategy generate inbound leads, increase pages indexed by Google (and other search engines) and attract visitors to a web site. Hubspot’s report goes on to say that once a blog gets to critical mass – somewhere in the range of 20 to 50 articles – median monthly leads increased by 30%. Blogs that had 52+ articles generated leads that were 77% higher than the median result of the 20 to 50 group.

To make an impact in the blogging arena requires work, commitment and a whole lot of material – at the basis of this is “heart and passion” about the topics you write about. There are many individuals who blog for a living. As mentioned above, in the business world blogging can be a huge addition to a web site – or to the company this is blogging (or being blogged about). A good blog can also bolster an internet marketing strategy and create business leads. If your business does not have a blog you may want to seriously consider starting one. If your business is already blogging, keep it going. Not only are you expanding your company’s internet presence but you are adding pages that are getting indexed by search engines. Think of it as a big library out there in cyberspace and your company is filling the shelves with books. Neat, huh? Even better, writing blogs give you an opportunity to think a bit more deeply about your thoughts, beliefs and convictions – as they relate to the business you are in.

Within the blog, links can be made to other blogs or web sites. Conversely, when people read your blog they can link back to it from their blog or website. This is commonly referred to as “back linking”. Imagine a spider building its web. A back link (or link to) creates a thread in cyberspace between two points. The more threads your blog has the more it is noticed by those “internet spiders” or robots as they are referred to now.

To blog or Not to blog could be the question. Blogging will definitely impact your business – whether by bringing more notice to your website, or by allowing you to really “think” and articulate what makes you and your business unique… solidifying your passion, if you will. It’s a lot of work; however the payoff can be huge.

So, does size really matter? Of course.