Question: We are a newer company and our management team really wants us to use our blog to show customers how to use our products and introduce new features etc. The problem is we don’t have a great base of customers yet, can you help us explain how to use a blog to build an audience as opposed to just being a tutorial?
After working with many smaller companies that are seeking to build their online presence, find comfort in the fact that your challenge is similar to so many other businesses in the same spot.
The desire to immediately start using your blog as more of a “How To” for your products as well as a marketing hub for new features and benefits is quite common. Further, I don’t think there is anything really wrong with the approach so long as it is part of the strategy and not the entire strategy.
As your business is growing, it is tremendous to have a part of your website dedicated to providing continuing education on improving service, user experience and awareness of your products and services.
What I don’t recommend, however, is making this the entire scope of the content marketing efforts on your blog and here is why:
If your content is designed only with the current customer in mind, then you are limiting your audience far too greatly. The continued content efforts won’t help attract new customers and prospects which is a big part of why most companies use content.
My immediate reaction for companies that want to use content in a “education for current customer” style, is to make that one category of the blog so current customers can use the site as a way to learn tips and tricks and ways to improve the value of their purchase.
I would recommend also creating a category and driving content that helps your potential customers and brand advocates understand “Why” your business exists. This is higher level, but is terrific for generating new interest. In these posts the content should discuss the importance of products and services like yours, but not necessarily talk about your products and services at all.
One of the things I always suggest is blogging to answer questions that your ideal customer may have about the problems your company can solve. Help them feel comfortable that your company is versed in your business and that you can really help your customers solve problems that will make them better businesses and drive better bottom lines.
In short, your blog can be an educator for current and future customers at the same time. This is merely up to the brand to realize the value in doing both and then creating the content to back it up.
It is possible for your blog to be both a tutorial and an audience builder. Are you working on educating your current customers and building an engaged community of potential future customers and advocates?
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Daniel Newman is the co-founder of V3*Broadsuite and is an experienced C-level executive, serving as a strategy consultant for small and mid-sized businesses. He’s also an insight/analyst partner to four Fortune 50 enterprises and previously served as the co-founder and CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and communications services provider. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of United Visual, Inc. in Chicago Illinois.
He is a widely published writer who contributes weekly to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and industry publications such as Commercial Integrator, Sound & Communication and Corporate Tech Decisions. He’s also author of three best-selling business books including The New Rules of Customer Engagement, The Millennial CEO, and just recently Evolve: Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed.
Daniel has established a reputation as a leading thinker in topics such as Social, Big Data, Cloud and Mobile. He has been named to many top influencer lists in all of these areas, including recognition by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 business and leadership accounts to follow on Twitter. He is also an adjunct professor of management at North Central College.