How a single blog post created thousands in business (and how you can do it too)
This is a guest post by Cas McCullough.
Cas is an author, speaker and entrepreneur Cas McCullough is founder of Content Marketing Cardiology, a dedicated content marketing agency based in Brisbane, Australia.
She is also co-founder of The Likeability Co and co-host of The Social Media Panel podcast show. Cas has a new book coming out soon: Your Brilliant Un-Career: Women, entrepreneurship, and making the leap, and she is a regular contributor to Social Media Examiner and Startup Smart.
Adam and Cas met at the ProBlogger event in August.
Over to you Cas…
Just a few weeks ago, I received an email from someone I’d never met before asking about one of my services. I didn’t recognise the name from my email database or Facebook following, so I was curious to find out more. In our initial phone conversation, Alan (not his real name) said he’d read a blog post I’d written.
In fact, Alan was so enamoured by the post he’d read that he was quoting sections of it to me over the phone. The funny thing was, I didn’t even remember which post he was quoting from, but I was in awe of the fact that a single blog post lead him to pick up the phone and book me to run workshop for him. That workshop then lead to an ongoing business relationship.
Every week I get phone calls from people like Alan who are pre-qualified and ready to buy and that I owe largely to my blog.
Can a single blog post really be that powerful?
People ask me all the time if a blog is really all that powerful a tool when it comes to converting prospects into potential clients. My answer is a qualified “Yes”. Why qualified? Well a number key elements will be in place for a blog post to produce that kind of result.
Let me explain.
When I started my content marketing blog I had four subscribers and I had to beg them to join, just so I could test that my email marketing funnel worked. That was two and half years ago. Now, I have just under 1500 subscribers (not earth-shattering but still… way more than 4), and I run a busy digital marketing agency, a blog, training programs, plus a new startup and I do it all from home (or wherever I happen to be in the world).
So, how did it get to that point?
The answer lies in the inbound lead generation system I created around my blog. An inbound lead generation system pulls prospects into your marketing funnel rather than you pushing your sales information on them through pressure-based marketing, cold calls and broadcast ads.
Every blog post I write is designed to relate to my ideal buyer. I use relevant key words in every post but I also inject a healthy dose of story and often wear my heart on my sleeve. Some colleagues have said this is not very “business-like,” but for me, it’s authentic. I’m the type of gal who says it like it is. If someone is going to do business with me, I want them to know who I am and what I stand for, so this strategy works for me.
The upshot of this is that people relate to me, because they can identify with the struggles and experiences I relay on my blog. What happens next is the magical part.
When you send your blog post out into the world, and people relate to it, they not only comment on it but they share it with their friends and talk about it on social media. In my experience, the more more authentic and story-focused my blog posts are, the more they are shared and talked about.
I recently wrote a blog post on the LinkedIn platform that relayed a controversial experience at a networking event and that one post resulted in more than 4000 views and hundreds of shares across the social web. I then capitalised on the post’s popularity and wrote another post explaining why the first one went viral… that second post also went viral and was reblogged on Mark Schaefer’s blog {grow}. When your content moves throughout the social web and creates conversation, it also creates opportunities for new people to find you and check out what you have to offer them.
Once people are talking about you, what tends to happen is they start to hunger for your content. They may even be impatient for your blog posts to come out and complain when you’re late (that is if you post regularly on the same day of the week).
When someone’s at that point, converting them to your email list is pretty easy. It makes their life easier because they don’t have to search for your content; it’s delivered to their inbox instead. It also now means you can communicate with them directly.
The next step in the cycle is nurturing subscribers.
I find that the majority of customers either come from my email list or they have a friend on my email list who was kind enough to forward an email to them or share a tweet with them. My email marketing has been a work in progress and I’m still improving the way I communicate with subscribers every week, but what I’ve noticed is that if you give your subscribers just that little bit more insight than everyone else, they’ll love you for it. I don’t sell via my email list very often. Instead I use it to build relationships and to share stories and content that will help my subscribers make an informed decision about whether or not to do business with me.
Prospects who convert into clients at that point then go on to become raving fans (if you provide quality services that is). I have clients who are raving fans, and let me tell you, it makes marketing my blog posts and offerings so much easier. Whenever I want something shared, my happy clients are the first to put their hands up. I am so grateful to them.
Happy clients send more potential clients your way and you can then check out your analytics to make sure that the people you are reaching are the ones you want to be reaching. If your marketing is hitting the wrong target market, then it’s time to tweak your website, your content and do some more digging to find out what hits the spot with your ideal buyers.
Your blog is the trigger for your lead generation system
A single blog post can be the trigger for your lead generation system, but you need to have a number of key elements in place for that lead generation system to be effective.
When Alan phoned me, he’d come across the blog post on Facebook because it was shared by someone in his networks. It seems like such a random thing but it’s really not. The more pre-qualified people (people who are your genuine potential clients) who share your content, the more likely you are to reach new genuine prospects.
Elements that drive the inbound marketing lead generation cycle
In the story I just relayed I explained how a blog post triggers the inbound lead generation cycle. Let’s now look at the exact elements that help this process along.
A self-hosted website that you can fully customise and update for your business.
You want to have ultimate control over your website and its functionality. For this reason, I highly recommend small businesses invest in WordPress self-hosted websites. It is worth paying for a digital conversion strategist to project manage your site design and architecture because, at the end of the day, you want a website that converts the right people into subscribers and clients.
Compelling branding and design.
Clear, and compelling branding and design is essential to building trust and creating a delightful customer experience. When you get your branding right, customers are less confused and more open to buying from you.
Genuine potential clients following you on social media.
There’s no point having followers if they don’t engage with you. It’s important to reach the right people for your business and not just any people. This point alone could fill another blog post.
Subscribers.
Once you have people’s emails you can communicate with them directly. You are no longer reliant on them losing your information in a social media newsfeed. The ability to directly communicate is another essential element for feeding the inbound lead generation cycle.
Raving fans (ie. Happy Clients) who recommend you to others.
The secret to converting from social platforms is others’ recommendations. I can’t stress this highly enough. 84% of people trust the recommendations of friends and acquaintances on social media (Nielsen study on Trust in Advertising, Q1 2013). Bottom line: Having raving fans means less work for you and results in more new clients coming your way.
Integrated social media on your website and collateral.
Lead people to your social media hangouts from your website and marketing material. In this way you ensure more genuine, pre-qualified potential clients engaging with you.
Analytics data from Google analytics and social media analytics tools
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Constant evaluation and tweaking will help you stay ahead of the game and ensure you’re reaching the people you want to reach, those who will most likely buy from you.
SEO
Search engine optimisation is essential to lead generation. Again, another topic that deserves an entire blog post. It’s not rocket science but you do need to think like a consumer when you are identifying quality key word phrases to use in your posts and sales pages. If you find SEO daunting, a terrific blog that can help you understand the ins and outs of SEO is moz.com.
Media/third party reviews and mentions.
Media and other blogs that mention your blog give you credibility in the marketplace. When you say something nice about yourself, your mum might like it, but most people prefer it when others say nice things about you. That’s why publicity is still a great tool for building your credibility and authority.
Networking and relationship building.
Getting off my computer and connecting with people in real life is something I’ve always done in my business. I find it cements relationships that begin online and if the relationships start offline, they can be cemented by continuing that interaction online. In fact, I first met Adam at an event and we’ve stayed in touch since, which is what lead to this blog post. So, it works both ways.
As you can see, there’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes when a blog post produces a great result for your business. However, once you’re on a roll with your marketing system and you have your lead generation elements in place, it’s easy to generate business from your blog.
Can you spot any missing elements in your lead generation system? Have you ever had a high paying client call you based on a single blog post? Leave a comment below.
