Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Are You Blogging For Business? Is Blogging A Part of Your Business Plan?

SEO Blogging- Blogging For Business- Are You On The Online Track?

If you are Blogging for business and Blogging from your heart with SEO sprinkled on top you are on the right track. Don't give up. Never give up. Remember that right after the point where people quit is where the success lies. Just one more post, just one more day. Keep going because it will pay off.

You need to be setting yourself apart from your competition and from the big boys right now. The big boys are catching on to organic traffic but don't yet understand the heart part. Stay out in front. Now is your time to get that footprint on Google so when they try to kick you off your spot they won't be able to.
This is what companies are starting to realize:

Most traditional marketing is dying.

When was the last time you picked up your yellow pages? Where is yours? Most businesses, when I ask them, they say it is a doorstopper or they recycled it.

When was the last time you got a listing from the ads you place in the newspaper? Readership in newspapers is rapidly declining. It is expensive and no longer gets the phone to ring the way it used to.

When was the last time you watched TV looking forward to the commercials? If you are like the majority you are using DVR or TiVo and skipping right past the commercials. Companies are finding this out.

When was the last time you hired a telemarketing company or did cold calling in your business? The Do Not Call list has made telemarketing a tough field. The results are not great because this is considered "interruption marketing". The consumer is turned off by that. They want to engage on their own terms.

Direct Mail- We still do a lot of direct mail but truth be told, it is expensive. A good return is 1% to 2%. We get about 3% to 4% on our Expired Listing open rate and return call rates. But not all agents can afford the time and the expense of direct mail. Companies are realizing that this is still a great vehicle in which to drive offline traffic to their sites online. But most companies are not doing that.

Print Ads- When was the last time you put a listing in the homes review magazines? I see even on the shelves at Publix that the numbers of these magazines is dwindling. Most of those magazines are trying to now compete on line. The rising costs of printing is also a factor. Oil is used in print inks. Oil is used in print presses. As the price of oil rises so does the price of printing. In my product launch mastermind group there is a man who is a printer. His print shop was doing well over 2 Million in print jobs in 2009. In 2010 he saw the number plummet well below 1 million.

Email marketing by the blasting methods is pretty much out the door. With Spam Software and people reporting spam every hour you are not getting your message across in a delightful manner. Again, this is not permission based marketing. Of course the exception is in building your own list. That is still the most valuable asset you have on your computer.

The fact is that only 1 out of every four businesses have a website today in 2011!!! Most brick and mortar businesses still don't have websites.

Make sure you get on the right track. If you have not started blogging, get on that task now. If you are afraid to write, take a writing class. Study those who write well. Find your voice. Discover your passion. Cater to your audience. Have plan and a message. If writing is not for you than do podcasting or video blogging. Whatever you can learn to do and like, you can do it. Study, learn, practice on your friends and then get on the right track to your online success.

Katerin is also a coach, consultant, author and trainer. She is the #2 Top Blogger with the second most subscribers on Active Rain, a real estate network blogging platform. She was first licensed in California in 1983 and has received numerous awards. She is a guest presenter on Virtual Real Estate Bar Camp and a contributing writer for the Active Rain Guide. She also teaches Realbird tutorials for Realbird. Katerin's passion lies in coaching agents to reach their full potential through developing their brand as well as niche markets with blogging, SEO, PR, social networking and good ol' direct mail campaigns to expired listings. Nestor and Katerin are the authors of, " Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Short Sales". Katerina developed a 9 week webinar course,' SEO To The Top'. Agents rave about their results from attending this course. Katerin works one on one in private coaching sessions and has customized specific to market expired listing marketing letters, branding, SEO and social media management for her clients.


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