This is my third post on the things we should do to assess our small businesses. One of the items we must have is a blog. I know I can hear some of you screaming…noooooooo!
Small Business Assessment
As of January 14, 2012 BlogPulse had identified 182,397,015 blogs. It is said that most blogs are inactive and typically die after a few months. I am certain this happens because it is not easy to stay with a blog consistently. Blogging as with everything requires a plan. (This is where I need to take my own advise.) 🙂
In a post by Sonia Simone @Copyblogger titled Digital Sharecropping Sonia says, and I quote: “There are three assets you should be building today, and should continue to focus on for the lifetime of your business:
- A well-designed website with your own hosting accunt
- An opt-in email list, ideally with a high-quality autoresponder
- A reputation for providing impeccable value
These things are the equivalent of buying your building instead of renting it.”
In the past we would create content when we had something we wanted to promote. Today, business owners must consistently produce a constant flow of new content, from blog posts and social media updates to videos and ebooks, this content serves us in many ways: improving our search engine juice, it drives traffic to our websites and allows our audience to get to know us and ultimately trust us. But that only happens with relevant engaging content. Talk about stress.
This is where your assess what you did last year and how you will move forward this year. Of course if you are using Google Analytics it will help you determine what search terms your readers using to find your content. And that can help you determine where their problems are that you can help them solve. If you don’t have that information available to you yet then use Google’s keyword tool to determine what is being searched for as it relates to your businesses solutions. Those search terms are a great place to begin developing your Editorial Calendar (feel free to use this one-I don’t remember where I initially downloaded this but it is very helpful when put to use).
Unfortunately, it is not just the blog posts you will want to develop from your research, you will also want to develop ebooks, videos, social media posts and even webinars that help to provide your audience with even more resources. It is in developing that content that helps you to build your email lists. You drive your traffic to your opt-in that Sonia speaks to and then you also need to create a series of auto-responders to help convert your opt-ins into customers/clients.
Okay you have a lot of work to do so get busy. This small business assessment stuff is crazy. I want to make it a little easier for you, I have a template for writing your first six auto responders that you can download. Business Assessment Tool – Auto Responders
Just in case if you missed the Cleaning the Cobwebs From Your Business