Feeding Instructions for Your Business Blog

Bo Mattsson of CintAB, was initially surprised by just how many customers think it worthwhile to participate in market research. It’s because, he learned, brands listen more today to what customers want.

Mattsson’s OpinionHub survey found that:

• 62% of consumers are more likely to buy a brand’s product if that brand has sought out their feedback
• 56% of respondents feel more loyal to a brand if it makes the effort to solicit their insights.

Nobody likes people who can speak of nothing but themselves. And business owners and practitioners whose blog content writers appear to be consumed with the products and services they’re ” serving up” (regardless of how those are being received on the consumers’ end!).

True, as a corporate blogging trainer, I stress the importance of first person business blog writing because it reveals the personality of the business owner or of the team standing ready to serve customers. But, without readers’ feedback, SEO marketing blog writers are “driving blind”. Using testimonials in blog posts, capturing customer success stories, and welcoming comments to your blog are all ways to get feedback.

During corporate blogging training, business owners new to corporate blogging for business marketing often express a fear that, if they allow comments on their blog, some of those comments might be negative. Corporate Blogging for Dummies authors Doug Karr and Chantelle Flannery put that fear to rest, explaining that negative criticism is an incredible opportunity for any company. " There’s probably no topic more powerful in business blog content writing than a detailed story of how company owners took a customer complaint to heart and made things right.
 
“Listening to your customers’ feedback can be invaluable to your business, especially if you take the time to consider their input and put their ideas into practice,” is what the National Federation of Independent Business has to say on the matter. NFIB lists online tools for soliciting that feedback, including Get Satisfaction, SurveyMonkey, PollDaddy, and Search.Twitter.com.

 As a longtime corporate blogging trainer, and professional ghost blogger, I find this “truth” to be self-evident: One crucial element in the care and feeding of an effective business blog is – feedback!