One of the biggest mistakes businesses tend to make when brainstorming content for your blog or e-newsletter is placing too much emphasis on products or services themselves while forgetting to include your customers in the equation. Unless you’re explaining how your products and services are actually beneficial to your clients, there’s really nothing in it for them. Remember to include the “whys” and “whos” and “hows” along with your “whats.” Why is this particular product or service so helpful, useful, worthwhile? Who can benefit from it the most? How does it work?
If you do decide to focus on what your clients want by providing them with more beneficial content, strongly consider blogs and/or newsletter articles that focus on general topics, such as personal finance, financial planning, savings and retirement planning, etc. When it comes to blogging and newsletter articles, your main job is to 1) entice and 2) engage your readers. What may excite you and get your tail wagging, so to speak, (a.k.a. nitty gritty details about your business) is typically not going to grab your readers on the same level. They’re not as invested in your business as you are. Can you change that? Absolutely. But the key is to include your clients’ wants in the brainstorming equation.
Should these general topics stay within the arena of your business industry? They can. But don’t be afraid to think outside of the box for balance. When you focus on helpful and interesting content, both directly related to your business and not, you’ll quickly establish yourself as an expert, a business that’s devoted to your clients, and even a leader in the community. It’s a no-fail approach. If you’re still hesitant, look at it from this perspective: if a client is reading an article of yours that’s either interesting or beneficial, what’s more likely—that he/she will question why you are writing the article in the first place or that he/she will be impressed by the helpful information you provided?
For all its convenience, the internet is a complicated universe with its own code of operating, and how your content ranks is huge in terms of searching and user-interaction. Even if you are writing blogs and content that has high potential of either entertaining or informing prospective clients, there’s a strong chance that it will never be seen unless people are directly Googling your specific business name. That’s because where your blog actually lands in terms of searchable content is incredibly important. But unless you’re focusing on keywords that are both 1) highly searched but 2) produce few results when searched due to low content availability (in other words, people aren’t writing about this topic much), your content most likely won’t land on page one of Google. And that’s really bad if you’re relying on this content to attract new business.
Here’s what happens when your content doesn’t make the “page one” cut: you can practically forgedaboudit. Studies show that the number one position on Google will get a third of search traffic. And just 10% of people will continue their search past page one. So unless you’re strategizing the perfect key words and using them enough times to land on that first page, your chance of readership drops by 90%—and that’s assuming you’re fortunate to land on page two.
The saddest part? All of the work you’ve invested in your blog, from the original draft and keyword strategy to your final proofing and editing is all lost because of its low reach. Sure, you can email it to your clients and post it to your social media. But that has its own set of limited reach challenges as well…
We hate to be the bearers of more bad news, but unless you have “insta-worthy” images snapped by professional photographers and amazing connections with popular bloggers within your industry, social media and email marketing isn’t going to help promote your content much either.
Do you use email marketing? Do yourself a favor when you get a spare moment and go review the open and click rates for the most recent 5-10 mass emails you’ve sent to clients. Is your open rate consistently above 25%? Probably not. In fact, if you’re getting above 22%, you’re doing really well; the average open rate across all industries is 21.73%. What about the click rates within your newsletter? Were they above 3.57%? Because that’s the average email marketing stat for click-thrus (Source: The State of Email Marketing By Industry Report 2016 by GetResponse).
Let’s review the math here. At most, only about a fifth of your clients actually open your emails. Of that number, approximately 3-4% are clicking on your appointment or website links. That’s not very promising reach and follow-thru. And statistics show that email marketing is far more effective than that of social media in terms of reach.
Whether it’s your actual content, where it lands on Google, or whether it’s being opened or seen, there’s a reason you’re just not getting the response you’re hoping for from your blogs or e-newsletters. But if you’re willing to step out of the digital funk you’ve been stuck in, there’s a much better way to showcase your content. Disclaimer: it may seem a bit old-fashioned at first. But when you consider the 98% same-day open/reach rate, who cares whether the strategy is considered “hip” in the marketing field? What matters is that there’s a direct way to reach nearly all of your customers and assure that your content is seen: printed newsletters sent directly to your clients and/or prospects via old fashioned mail.
Why Printed Newsletters Should Be Your #1 Marketing Go-To: