Why Your Business Needs to Blog

Sick of being told that your business should be on Twitter or Facebook? Or that it should have a blog? It's time to think of blogging in a new light.

Like many you probably think technology toys are all very well, but most of us just want to get on with business. Blogs and the like are so far down the to-do list that they're invisible, and they'll probably stay that way.

Perhaps you've already tried one, made a few entries, then forgotten to update it for months. What's the point? Who really wants to read about the minutia of my business? I'm kidding myself that 'Behind the scenes at PointlessPencils Ltd' is going to hold anyone's attention.

A Business Blog is Not a Diary

Take a different perspective on blogging. Don't see it as a virtual diary of minor triumphs and challenges. You're right - no one but you really cares about that £200 order yesterday.

Think of a blog as a stream of short, sharp articles about your business experience. Each article is independent and has a single theme. They're short, no more than 500 words. Ideally they give the reader an insight through something you've learned - perhaps about customer service, or marketing, or credit control.

The value of these articles is that people will find them through search engines, and as a result, they'll find your business. Ideally they need to be optimised for discovery by search engines (the dreaded SEO).

Over time they will form a new marketing channel. I've discovered businesses via their blogs, and perhaps you have to. The sooner you start, the sooner you'll build content that search engines, and potential customers, can discover.

If you don't have the time or inclination to update a blog at least once a week, why not employ a copywriter to do it for you? A weekly blog entry of 400 words might only cost a few pounds, especially if you put a writer on retainer. How does that fit into your marketing budget?

You're right about one thing - people won't come back to your blog on a regular basis to see how you're doing.

But people will come and some will go on to spend money with you. That's why your business needs to blog.

Andrew Knowles is a freelance copywriter.

Customer Service - Setting Expectations is Vital

Setting your customers' expectations correctly is essential to good customer service.

This aspect of customer service is so simple, yet so often overlooked. Imagine a bus company that operated a schedule without telling people when its services would depart or arrive. That's ludicrous, of course - no one would ever set up a bus company without publishing a timetable.

Why is the timetable so important? Because it sets the customers' expectations. They know the no. 31 to Notting Hill Gate will depart at 8.11am, because the timetable tells them it will. Okay, in reality it might be a little late. But it's also a benchmark against which the bus company's performance can be measured.

Exactly the same principle applies to every other aspect of business. My voice-mail does not say "Leave a message because I'll get back to you as soon as possible." Why? Because that message sets an incorrect expectation. I don't always call someone back as soon as I get their message because I don't want to, although it might be perfectly possible for me to do so.

What sort of expectations does your business or organization set for your customers? Are they realistic? Or just words that you hope to be able to deliver against?

Here are some areas where customer expectations should be set correctly:

• Delivery date for goods and services.
• What will happen next after they've made a complaint.
• How long they might have to wait before someone gets back to them.
• What guarantees they have about the product or service.
• What other services you might be able to offer them.

Customers come back to businesses they know that they can trust. That's why you don't always have to be the cheapest to succeed - you also have to offer great customer service.

Measuring Your Success

It's Friday morning. What have you achieved this week?

On Monday I blogged about the importance of setting targets and goals. Now, at the end of the week, it's time to see how you got on.

Succeeders set goals. Yesterday's headline on the Sports pages of the London Evening Standard was "Wenger: we'll win a trophy this year". The manager of Arsenal football club has set a goal for himself and his team.

How often do top sports men and women say "I'll do my best and see what happens"? Not often. The successful tell you what they're going to achieve. They claim the prize even before they've won it.

Not all of them make it. If Arsenal don't win a trophy will people say to Wenger "You were wrong again"? No, they'll admire his ambition and his determination to go for the biggest prizes that his sport offers.

Your office is probably a million miles away from the glamour of professional sport. But the same principles apply - you choose your own goals. If you aim low enough you'll probably succeed every time, but is that good enough for the long-term? Aim too high and you'll be permanently disheartened.

If you beat your target for the week - that's great. Celebrate with a doughnut or a chocolate biscuit.

If you didn't beat your target - well done for trying. You should still find time to celebrate your efforts.

Was your target a real stretch? Or was it too comfortable? And what sort of target will you set yourself and your team next week?

Start Marketing Through Everything You Do

To successfully build the right image you need to start marketing at every contact point with external organizations.

No, this does not mean having your company logo tattooed on your forehead or greeting everyone with: "Hi, I'm Sue from SmileyPeople Company and we're currently offering awesome discounts on teeth whitening products."
*wide cheesy grin*

To start marketing at every opportunity you just need to make sure you and your team focus on creating and maintaining the image that you want people to have of your business.

Please don't think that "image" is out of fashion. How do you feel about the big banks today? The Governor of the Bank of England has just told that they know they can't be allowed to fail; we know they're being underwritten with tax-payers money; and today we hear they're paying bonuses 50% higher than last year. What is your image of your bank?

We all have a mental picture of an organization, even if we're not conscious of it. The picture can be expressed in a handful of words. What's your word picture of Tesco? Compare it to M&S food halls. Would you use different words to describe them?

Now think of the picture that your customers have of your business, your department or just you. That's harder, because we can't see through their eyes. But there are ways of finding out.

That's why it's vital that you start marketing through everything you do. Every contact, whether it's an invoice, a credit control phone call or a casual enquiry, has the potential to change someone's perception of your business.

Marketing is not directly about selling. It's about building an image that's attractive and which will draw in business. Successful businesses create positive images through everything that they do. Is that what you do?

Setting Sales Targets and Business Goals

It's Monday morning. What are you going to achieve this week?

Have you set yourself or your team some targets or goals?

You might think it's enough that you're still in business on Friday. Simply surviving is a goal in its own right, particularly in the current economic climate. Worthy though it might be, it's not going to help your business to grow.

Don't wait for the economy to pick up before you start planning for growth. Another economic think tank - this time the Ernst & Young Item Club - has given its view on the near future. They're predicting another difficult year in 2010, as tax rises, including VAT returning to 17.5%, kick in. So if you're waiting for the economy to pick up before planning for growth, you'll be waiting a long time.

Start planning how your business will prosper, rather than just survive, in this climate. If your business is still in survival mode it's time to start accepting the current conditions as the norm for the next few years.

Setting targets is a great place to start. Successful sales managers motivate their staff with targets. That's because goals motivate people to try harder, and achieving them becomes a reward in itself.

If, on Friday lunchtime, you're one deal short of your target for the week, you'll make one last push to bring it in by 5pm. But if your goal is simply 'do as many as possible' it's easy to stop at lunch and say "that's enough".

The principle applies to more than just sales managers. Credit controllers can target bringing in a certain amount of money, and every job can be given some sort of target.

So make it your priority, on Monday, to set some goals for the week. And on Friday, look back and see what you've achieved. You'll be surprised at the difference it makes.

Here's the BBC news article about the Item Club report.