Hello there! For those of you who are new here and don't know me yet, I won't bore you by repeating the About section. Instead, you should know that quite a few things have changed since my second daughter joined us late last year, compared to the "before" business that has been established in 2011.
First and foremost, "streamline, automate and eliminate" has became my motto. And with that, something had to give in my marketing efforts:
The newsletter has never been late - not once. Every Tuesday at 8:30am EST, a new one is sent out to my community. Every. Week.
And that's about it - as consistent as it gets, and the only consistent thing I've done in my business.
(Before I continue to disclose some surprising numbers that came out of this unplanned "experiment", may I point out that my tactic doesn't necessary apply to you and your business. Also, when working on marketing strategy with my clients, they are still expected to have about 3-mohts-worth of the material prepared and ready to go! And, they have my writers at their disposal for assistance - I personally insist on writing my own stuff, grammatical errors included... Which is probably not the best representation of the level of professionalism we as a team provide, but it allows for 100% authenticity from my end. We can hold a debate on this topic at another time...).
Back to the topic:
I used to blog - every Tuesday at 8am EST, a new blog was posted. When the rebranding process started early this year, and the website moved from vbmpro.com to here, I put blogging on a back burner.
Social media updates used to be scheduled weeks in advance; 3 updates for Facebook and LinkedIn, and 5 for Twitter. Per day. That stopped, too. Now, I only share something when there's something to share, either on my two pages, 3 private groups, or about 5 other groups I participate in.
LinkedIn, on the other hand, is where my activity has really picked up - in April alone, I reached out to 1,200 people!
But you know what?
The results will surprise you
Several months into this "experiment", let's take a look at some of the numbers first:
Mailing list grew by nearly 10% without any specific strategy or added effort.
Twitter followers increased by more than 12%.
Facebook likes went up by 10%.
LinkedIn 1st tier connections went from 673 to 1083.
As the result, networking calls skyrocketed, I've been averaging 33 per month. For comparison, this time last year, I had 5.
Sales calls, on the other hand, decreased significantly. And this is where "bringing back the blog" comes to play.
Connecting the dots...
Although crunching the numbers isn't necessary my virtue, seeing the above results was enough to understand one thing: when I was blogging consistently, clients who were ready to work with my team and me, came on their own. They approached us. They were ready. They knew what they needed and wanted. They wanted us.
And this is the reason why you should - if you aren't already doing it - at least consider adding blogging, article writing, being interviewed, publishing newsletters and somehow connecting them all to your website. It's not just about the SEO - it's about building the know-trust-like factors. It's about pre-qualifying your customers. It's about being a resource for them, so that once they are ready, they know what to do and who to turn to for support.
Bottom line is that we're bringing the blog back not just for the reasons listed above, but first and foremost for you! It's important for us to give you unlimited access to information, resources and insights relevant to building a business around your family, flexibility and freedom.
Fair enough?
