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Home > The Off Farm Income Podcast > OFI 261: Is Your Company Missing Customer Connections Because It Only Communicates With A Blog?
Podcast: The Off Farm Income Podcast
Episode:

OFI 261: Is Your Company Missing Customer Connections Because It Only Communicates With A Blog?
Category: Business
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2017-03-03 01:30:29
Description: Does your company have a blog?  Have you ever asked why? Maybe you started one because someone thought that was what you were supposed to do.  Perhaps more went into the decision such as increasing web traffic through search engine optimization.  Over time this could have developed to the point that you began communicating your companies message in the way that you want it delivered.  Even better still, your vision may have evolved to the point that you have a solid content marketing strategy in which you are providing very valuable information to your potential customers while positioning yourself as the expert in your field. Congratulations to you if your company publishes a blog for any of the above reasons.  It demonstrates forward thinking, the abandonment of a static website and a continual focus on sharing your message and mission with the people you hope to work with. In the Entrepreneur Magazine article “Why Your Small Business Must Start a Blog” the author describes a business blog as a salt lick.  I rather liked this description since my world and the world of those who listen to my podcast is farming and ranching.  But putting my own personal bias aside, it was a great metaphor.  If you are not familiar with how farm animals utilize salt licks, what the author of the article was saying was that if your blog is providing compelling and useful information, it will continue to bring potential customers back to your site, over and over, exposing them to the other messages you want them to see. Who are these people who are spending their time on a computer, tablet or smartphone reading blogs?  Is this anyone that you know?  All of us at one time or another have searched for information on the internet and been directed to a blog post.  Probably one that was useful.  But, did we really develop a habit of going back, over and over, and reading every new post from that site? If you did, did you develop a connection with the author?  Here is a more fair question, can you tell me the name of the author of the company blog you read?  You probably cannot, even if the post is written consistently by the same author, which they frequently are not. If we count on the “salt lick” blog metaphor to be true, we have to accept that readers are going to want to keep coming back to consume your content, over and over.  Why would they want to do this?  One answer is compelling content.  We are all passionate about our companies, but when you are really honest with yourself, how much compelling content can we come up with if we have a non-compelling business?  If your line is tractor sales, you can come up with not just consistent but compelling content about tractors?  It is going to be difficult to write one post after another that makes the reader look forward to the next post. Another reason that a reader might come back, over and over, is that they feel a bond with the blog.  But we already know that many business blogs use a collection of authors, so the possibility of creating this bond is diminished.  That is a difficult sell already. 93% of communication is non-verbal, but that is when you are standing in front of someone.  When you are putting words on paper, there is no body language, voice inflection, volume or pitch changes and no spontaneity.  Even if you have just one author for your blog posts, unless your business is involved in a business that tugs at the heart strings, it is going to be difficult to create this “salt lick” type situation. Even if your company blog is capable of developing a connection with its readers, do the people in your target market have the time to consume it on a regular basis.  Let’s take my target audience as an example.  I am focused on agricultural people.  My ideal listener is already working in agriculture, farming, ranching or hustling to find a way that they will eventually be able to do this.  The person who listens to my show is likely not in a cubicle,
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