Continuing with our Love Your Blog Series, where we interview blogging and marketing experts, we’ve interviewed Janet Slack, lead coach and business consultant for SoloPreneur.Biz. During this unique interview, Janet shares effective and proven business success tips that have helped her, as well as countless small business owners build their businesses.
See below for this exceptional interview:
1. What are some of your most powerful business success tips?
Business success can be highly dependent on your ability to stay current in the marketing world. There have been rapid and fundamental shifts in the effectiveness of marketing in the past few years. Potential customers are overwhelmed with marketing messages and are depending more and more on businesses they are familiar with and have some kind of relationship with. These days, to keep pace, small businesses need a way to reach out to their target market and converse with them in order to gain familiarity in the marketplace and stay current in the minds of potential customers.
I suggest to all my business clients to have a blog as a top way to do this. Although there is a place in business for a static website, a blog allows a level of interaction with your audience that is important for marketing. The ability for readers to make comments, be in the conversation, and simply to see the interaction of like-minded people, are all highly correlated to positive feelings towards a business on the part of consumers. The familiarity you create with your blog will greatly increase your ability to convert those potential customers into paying customers.
In addition to having a blog, the use of other social media sites has become almost mandatory for successful businesses. Having a successful presence on a social media site where your target market is already in the conversation can lead to a wealth of business opportunities, including web traffic, referrals, joint venture, and new clients. Don’t be fooled, though, by “if-one-is-good, more-is-better” thinking. My clients get the best success from focusing their marketing efforts on one social media site than from scattering attention to three or four sites.
2. What three tidbits of advice would you offer to small business owners who are new to blogging?
First, I would suggest widely reading other blogs, both within your own field and in others. As you read, look for ideas on types of posts, how to get interaction and comments from readers, how posts are titled, and other details. As you explore the world of blogs, you will gain exposure that will help you develop a blog that is relevant to your target market and construct a community centered on it.
Secondly, a blog is a marketing tool and as with any business tool, success comes from a thorough understanding of the tool. I highly recommend learning as much as possible about the uses of any new tool. For success, you need to know both the how-tos of the technical details and the whys of the strategies that lead to success. Use of a tool without understanding is often a waste of business resources. Enroll in a class about blogging, buy a program specifically related to blogging success, or consider getting a mentor who has already built a great blog. In short, make sure you know how to use this tool to effectively grow your business.
Thirdly, think of blogging as community building. Make it easy for your community to find you and the information they want through the appropriate use of tags and keywords. Make it easy for them to follow you through subscriptions by RSS and email. Make it easy for other bloggers to connect with you by adding links to relevant other blogs within your posts.
About Janet:
SoloPreneur.Biz provides business growth services for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. Through highly successful group programs, workshops and 1-1 coaching, the SoloPreneur.Biz offerings provide expert guidance, education and support for new and developing businesses. Lead coach and business consultant Janet Slack has a background in management of both non-profit and for-profit businesses and two decades in the helping professions. She is able to move her clients forward by helping them develop an entrepreneurial mindset, develop business systems and marketing plans, and gain visibility and increased income.
Stay tuned for Part II of this interview, scheduled to publish tomorrow, Thursday, August 11.
Visit the SoloPreneur.Biz website.
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Yes I totally agree with you that being up to date with the latest developments and always keep on learning would really help a lot in gaining success.
This is a great post and I completely agree with your point of view. It is very important to keep up to date with all the advancements in order to be successful. I would definitely implement this in my business and I am sure that this will be very effective. I would like to share a quote here:
“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.”
Mark, I LOVE that quote! That’s the first time I’ve heard it. Thanks for sharing!