Blogging for Dollars?

While we're on the topic of the ROI of blogs (see post below) I thought I'd point out a brand new case study over at Marketing Sherpa on one small business's experience with using a blog to increase leads and sales. (Access is free until March 18.) While this is about a real estate agent, not a consultant, it still shows how a blog can be used to generate leads for a professional service firm.

Time,  energy, writing ability, and blog-versus-email-newsletter debates aside, it's becoming evident that search engines really love blogs.  If you can manage to cough up some good content for your posts, a blog can help attract prospects and clients.  And, if you do a blog and an e-newsletter, and post the archived issues on your Web site, you're giving the search engines even more ways to find your site.

Naturally, you've got to write about topics your prospects care about so your blog has relevant key phrases. As Cathy Moore at Authentic Voice points out in her comment to Michael Katz's post, she sometimes gets people searching for, among other things, "dumb British people."  I'm sure Cathy hopes those people never call her.

But if someone Googles "consultants hourly rates," guess what blog is at the top of the list?

-Andrea Harris-

Comments

[Cathy Moore]

The Marketing Sherpa piece has great ideas for a blogger whose prospects are likely to be searching for them on the internet. Blogging on a set of keywords is guaranteed to get you high placement in search results. Even just mentioning a stray term like "wombat" gets you a high placement for wombat seekers.

I think keywords are less important for the many blogs aren't intended to pull in prospects. These blogs function more as relationship and reputation builders (which is why their ROI is so hazy).

For example, I'm an instructional and marketing writer. My ideal clients aren't going to search Google for a writer. They're going to ask a colleague, "Who do you know?" Or they're going to see an article I wrote for a trade publication. Or they're going to be mercilessly hounded by my emails and calls. Eventually they'll end up at my blog, which will enthrall them forever and I'll never have to prospect again. I've got it all figured out.