Archive for category: the Say It For You blog

Some years ago, I read about an experiment having to do with people’s attention and the way in which that attention is engaged. The subjects of the study were people (several hundred of them) who drove the same route every day to work and back, passing a giant billboard advertising new cars.  When questioned, almost none of these people could remember even seeing a billboard, much less that it was about cars.  On the other hand, the moment any individual was in the market for a car, he’d notice the billboard immediately. In other words, if what the billboard was advertising was not relevant to a person’s life right then, his brain “brushed off” the information as not useful, never making room in his memory for the image of the billboard.

This study about car billboards sums up the reasons blogging  has become such an important part of any business’ marketing plan. Blogging for business is about promoting yourself, your products, and your ideas.  Your blog posts are out there on the Internet “super-highway”, available for anyone to see.  But the only people who are going to notice your blog are those who are searching for the kinds of information, products, or services that relate to what you do! That’s because your blog will come up on their screen based on their search of the Internet. Millions of other people are “driving” on the Internet highway every hour of every day.  The important thing, though, is that you’ll engage the attention of the ones who might be in the market for what you sell or who need your particular type of expert advice or service.

(By the way, “strike while the iron is hot” is a blacksmith’s phrase.  An iron horseshoe needed to be shaped at exactly the time the metal was hot enough to be flexible.)  As the study with the car billboard demonstrated, the folks most likely to become your customers have an immediate need or interest in your type of product or services.  And, exactly at that time while the “iron is hot” for them, your blog is catching their attention and introducing them – to YOU!.

One good rule of thumb about business blogging is to narrow down the target audience.  To be an effective marketing tool for your business, your blog must to be the result of a well-planned strategy aimed at a specific segment of the market.  I advise picking one area of focus, rather than trying to tell your blog readers about everything you have to offer and about all the things you do.

Just the other day, in Speaker (the magazine I receive as a member of the National Speakers Association) there was an article by Terri Langham about the Alice Cooper rock music group.  By way of reminder for those blog readers not “into” the rocker scene, the Alice Cooper 1972 hit “School’s Out” topped the charts worldwide.  The groups’s tour the following year broke box office records formerly set by The Rolling Stones.  The Alice Cooper stage show was “way over the top” by anybody’s standards, complete with guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, live chickens, and a real boa constrictor.

The point Terri Langham was making about this band was that it had a signature way of doing things, a “brand”, and she advises aspiring professional speakers to develop their own unique brands.  But the point I want to bring out here relates to the thought process the band members used in creating their Alice Cooper brand.  Realizing that having a male (Vince Furnier as Alice Cooper) playing the role of a witch in tattered women’s clothing and makeup and holding a snake would cause social controversy, the band made a brilliant career decision.  They focused on one target audience – kids.  “If the parents hate it, the kids will love it.” became the motto.

I’m no rock groupie, to be sure, but as a professional ghost blogger, I find the Alice Cooper marketing strategy “right on”. Narrow down your target market.  Figure out what those people need and want that you have or that you do.  Then do everything you can to “speak” to those people through your blog. You don’t care if other segments of the market hate your blog – you want your target customers to love it… all the way to your website!