Think that starting a business blog is not worth your time? Think again.

Following are some rather compelling stats on business blogs, courtesy of Hubspot:

• The average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages
• HubSpot’s 2011 ROI Study shows that 69% of businesses attribute their lead generation success to blogging
• 57% of businesses have acquired a customer through their company blog
• The Nielsen Company shows that US internet users spend 3X more time on blogs and social networks than in email
• Inbound marketing, of which blogging is a crucial part, costs 62% less per lead than outbound marketing

If you work in a marketing department (or you are the marketing department) and want to make a strong case for starting a company blog, please share this post with your boss.

Soapbox Marketing writes blog posts. If you don’t have the time or inclination to write the blog yourself, but recognize the huge value that a blog can have on your business, then contact us at jsaunders@ soapboxmarketing.com

Networking is marketing at it’s most personal level. How you approach networking not only influences how successful you will be at bringing in new business; networking with a hidden agenda can adversely affect your reputation. Even in a large professional community like we have here in the D.C. metro area, word gets around.

Let’s have a look at some “networking gone bad”.

The sales call disguised as opportunity This is when you contact someone you’ve met to schedule a time when you can talk about their services. You pretend to be interested in hiring them to do work for your company, when in fact you really just want to sell them on your own services or products. You tell them that in order for them to help you they first have to understand your business. That’s when you launch into your sales pitch and demo.

The free advice session disguised as a 1 to 1 A “1 to 1″ is you invite another professional for coffee so that you can educate each other about your respective businesses so you can become mutual referral sources. Great concept, as any BNI member can attest, but in this scenario, your real motive is to get free advice, and lots of it. You explain that you have this situation for which you would like to know what they would recommend. When this happened to me, the person brought the conversation back repeatedly to how he needed a marketing plan to launch a lead generation program. He had specific questions about how to attract attendees, what lists to use, how webinars work, what I thought was the optimum point at which to email non-responders, etc etc. Self-serving is this person was, after 30 minutes of grilling me he didn’t even have the decency to pay for my coffee!

The test run You just landed a sales job and want to impress your boss by scheduling as many sales calls as you can. You need to hone your pitch and meet your meetings quota, so you contact professionals you’ve met so you can discuss how you can work together. Only you couldn’t care less about the “together” part, only that they are in your target industry and you need to make a sale.

These bait and switch sales tactics offer short-term busy work but no lasting traction. Furthermore, you are most assuredly burning your bridges. Business professionals talk to each other, and you will fast earn the reputation as a User and a Time Waster.

If you want to grow your business by using the power of face to face marketing, then recognize networking for what it is: a way to make honest connections. Find out what you can do for the people you meet, and then do your best to connect them with others who want to do business with them. If you want to sell to them, then be up front about it. If there’s something you need from them, ask. Use your sales skills to earn business; don’t steal it.

True story: Looking at a photo of Cher in a magazine the other day, my 14-year old asked me, “Wasn’t she married to Bono?”

Aside from making me feel like a dried fossil, his comment made me realize that what we see, read and hear registers in our brains according to how we associate new information with what we already know. This influences what we retain and what we mentally toss as being useless or too confusing to process.

When you’re writing web or brochure content of a technical or complex nature, be cognizant of your audience’s frame of reference. Use terms that they’re familiar with, and don’t assume that they understand industry or professional jargon. Do your homework and talk to actual customers.

Also consider the interests and influences of your audience; research each segment and understand what matters to them.  For example, your contact automation software may be installed and maintained by the IT director, but it could be the call center manager who does the initial web shopping. Your content must speak to them both, and address the benefits to each group. (easy installation and low maintenance to the IT director, reduced costs and greater productivity to the call center manager). Otherwise, your information will be irrelevant and ignored; and you miss influencing those who research, suggest and approve the purchasing decision.

A few years ago I was writing a website for a software developer, a brilliant guy who was very much into theoretics. He wanted to go into great detail about his scientific approach to software development, and the content he suggested was not only overkill, it was over the heads of anyone with an IQ under 135. While the content would have clearly demonstrated his genius, it was irrelevant — far beyond the scope of what any potential customer would want to encounter when web-shopping for someone to develop their app.

Remember your audience, their prior knowledge of your subject matter and their painpoints.

BTW, I’ve got a few good Bono jokes. Pity, they would fly miles about my son’s head!