How To Attract Amazing Prospects Through Blogging
Have you heard me talk about the four ACES? I learned them from Tony D. Baker while working in my first job in the industry at Xeal. It made a little bit of sense to me then but I understand all the steps now and how each part is important.
The four ACES are:
- Attract
- Capture
- Educate
- Sell
Attract means that you have an attractive online presence. This includes a professional-looking website that works on all devices. It also means having a social media presence that looks good and is constantly bringing value to your prospects and customers. You can also attract traffic through paid advertising and other direct marketing.
Capture means that when you attract prospects to your website that you have some sort of mechanism in place that will capture their information. This can include popups or other opt-in opportunities. You usually bribe them with a valuable piece of content to capture this information. Most people just try to offer newsletter signup but this isn’t effective at all. Mostly because they never write a newsletter to send.
Educate means that once you have captured your prospect’s information, you can begin to educate them in the value that you can bring to them. You can do this through indoctrination campaigns. You can also educate and provide value to prospects through blogging, research papers, webinars, and more.
The purpose of this education is to set yourself up as an expert in your field. But you also use it to establish a relationship with your prospect. This is when you can become a thought leader. Once you have that perceived relationship you are ready for the next step.
Sell means that once you have gone through all the other gates, you are finally ready to sell your products or services. Most people try to go right in for the sale and it causes problems if you don’t have a way to connect with them or have built a relationship. If you follow the other steps, then you are ready to get going.
So why is this formula important? Because it sets a pattern on the journey that your customer is going to take. To do business online with this formula, you will need a website with a domain name, a social media presence, capture mechanisms (like Opt-in Monster), the ability to blog, and a way for your customers to buy your products or services online.
But what about blogging?
If you have everything set up and ready to go, you can do like most people do and just wait. They think that traffic is going to just come to them. Let’s say that setting all this stuff up is like having a body. Blogging is what adds life to the whole system. It is what adds your soul to your business online. It is the difference between a pond and a lake.
Unless you are a brand that has traction, without blogging, your online business is like a pond – isolated bodies of standing water that only get replenished when it rains. Consistent blogging can turn your online business into a lake – a constructed body of water built for a purpose that is fed and drained by rivers and streams.
The Benefits of Blogging
Isn’t blogging for mommies who want to make money online? Sure, but blogging is for anyone who wants to make money online no matter what they are selling. (Especially if you are an assassin. You should blog…so that the authorities can find you.)
When you blog, you get to express your passion for your business. You get to express the impact that you make on the world. You get to share your expertise and illustrate value. This is what sets you apart from the other experts.
Content is king and blogging is a great habit to generate that content. If the content is king, then consistency is queen. You can’t just blog once or twice and think it’s over. You must be disciplined to generate content on a consistent basis.
This is going to help your website with search engine optimization. The more you talk about your business, the more keywords related to your business are going to be attributed to your domain. You will begin to attract search engines on a regular basis. Blogging is relevant content that search engines like to share.
This is also going to keep fresh content in front of your prospects that they will consume, like, and share. In doing so, they will begin to know, like, and trust you. This is the bedrock of sales. Plus, by blogging consistently, you get more chances to attract your prospects.
Your articles will also age and forever provide value to your website. Each article is its own product and brings value back to the business.
Tips for Blogging
- Do it: This first tip is you should do it. To some people, it is a chore but doing it will help your business.
- Be consistent: As I said before, consistency is queen. It is what makes the content king.
- Talk to your prospect: Some people when they write about their business like to write in what I call “resume speak.” Don’t do it. You are talking to a human. Have a human to human interaction.
- This is not a pitch-fest: You don’t need to pitch your products when you blog. Strive first to bring value. The sale will come.
- Interact with your audience: Your audience will respond to you and comment. BE sure and respond back. Have a conversation with them.
What to do with my blog posts?
This is going to sound technical but I will try to make it as painless as possible. If you are blogging for business, you must have a website on your own domain with a blogging platform. Some businesses will go out and blog on blogger or wordpress.com but because the content isn’t posted on their website that they have control over, they miss out on the benefits of search engine optimization.
If you are going to blog, do it on your own website. I use WordPress because it is a blogging platform that you can run your website on. The blog is already built right in.
Once you post the blog, you can generate several social media posts to promote the blog. I am a member of a few groups on Facebook and LinkedIn and will post the article there to help get more exposure. I also post a part of the blog on the LinkedIn publishing network and direct traffic to my blog post on my website.
If you have the blog on your site, you can control what you place around the blog post. This is prime real estate for offers and lead capture. When you attract prospects to your site through blogging, then you can capture their contact information. I have an offer on the side of the blog post, at the end of the blog post and if you try to exit my page, I try to give it to you again.
Some Tools for Blogging
What are some tools for blogging? I use a few different things.
First, I initially write my blog in a word processor. This helps me keep track of spelling and grammar.
I also run my title through two headline analyzers. The first one gives my title an emotional marketing value. This determines how successful your title will be at being shared online. You can find it here: http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/.
Once I find a winner, I take it to http://coschedule.com/headline-analyzer and run it a few more times to perfect the title. This tool values a few additional success factors.
I also use https://www.grammarly.com/. This helps me run through and triple check spelling and grammar. However, there will still be errors. Because I am writing these posts, it’s hard for me to self-edit. But, I have a few friends that will message me on errors and I will go in and fix them.
That’s about it. I also find a compelling image that will stand out for the article, post the article, and distribute it.
What if I’m not a writer?
Don’t despair. There are a couple of tactics for this.
I recommend having a webinar. You can invite prospects and customers to a webinar and give a presentation. If no one shows up, who cares. Do your presentation. Act like you have an audience of 1000 people listening in. Record your presentation. Then send it to Rev.com and have them transcribe it.
When you give a presentation, you will give an honest value-filled presentation that will express your value and expertise. When you get your transcription back you can edit it. You will probably be able to get about 5 different blog posts out of this tactic.
The other tactic is to hire a writer to help you. You can use a service like BlogMutt or iWriter to help you create content but sometimes this isn’t the best method and can end up costing more time and money in the end.
So, there you go. I’ve covered the why, how, what and when of blogging. If you start blogging, you will start to attract amazing prospects. You start to develop mindshare and become a thought leader. It’s cool when you start getting engagement with people. It’s awesome when people start telling you about your article that they read. Even if they aren’t necessarily a prospect, you may start getting referrals. Consider how blogging can change your business online.
Did I attract you to my website through my blog? Tell me what you think and share your blogging tips below.