Blogging for Business

Quick post:  Check out this great post from the folks at Splash Media.  What’s stopping you from blogging?  If it’s time, consider outsourcing. I have some good resources I can recommend.

It’s official. I’m a mobile blogger.

This post is being written on my Blackberry Bold using the Blackberry WordPress app as I sit under an umbrella outside Starbucks in The Domain. Pretty cool app. Easy to use. Intuitive. It has enough tools to handle a basic post, from formatting font to inserting video or images.

Why should you care?

I am often asked in my workshops how often to post on a blog. Two to three times a week is a good goal, especially when you’re starting out. After that, post whenever you have something to say. Aim for at least one a week but whatever you do, don’t ignore your blog for weeks (or even worse, months) at a time.

So a simple app like this is a nice little tool to help you post a quickie on the go in your quest to achieve “Blog Nirvana,” whatever that is for you.

Posted with WordPress for BlackBerry.

Bold new moves top the weekend edition of Marketing Stuff with Moxie, my semi-regular compilation of three compelling or noteworthy marketing tips, tools or tactics I’ve come across in the past week.  Apple, Facebook and the Huffington Post caught my eye for this edition.

Apple Planning Music Subscription Service

This interesting development reported by Rolling Stone isn’t about small business marketing, but since the Austin City Limits Music Festival is in full swing here in Austin, it seemed appropriate to post something about music today.  Check it out.

New Facebook Page Could be Big for Business

Facebook rolled out a new groups feature this week that you oughta check out.  Duct Tape Marketing’s John Jantsch posted a good overview on his blog.  What do you think?

Blog For HuffPost’s Small Business America!

Are you the next celebrity small business blogger?  The Huffington Post wants you!  I can think of a number of Moxie Marketing friends and clients who could have fun with this.

I like to think of things in threes. It seems that my brain more readily learns and retains three things at a time. Three is a mystical number that shows up in the Bible and fairy tales too, so there must be something to it! The following three-step referral process will help you grow a simply amazing business and help other businesses do the same. Note that each step has just three words. I’ll bet you’ll be able to remember them too!

1. Discover your Difference
2. Give to Get
3. Refer and Reward

Discover your Difference

Take some time to discover what truly sets your business apart and identify three things that make your business amazing. Here’s a hint: those things are not your product, service or price. Truly amazing businesses don’t compete on price or their product or service. Customers buy from truly amazing companies because they offer something else. For example, an outrageous guarantee, a unique experience (think Southwest Airlines), an outstanding process, or incredibly friendly people – you get the idea. Are you stumped at how to find that difference? Here are three steps you can take:

1. Ask three employees (it can be more, but start with three) what they think sets you apart or what they see in your industry that could help set you apart. Start with your sales team.
2. Ask three of your ideal customers what they think about doing business with you. Invite them to participate in short survey. Ask them why they hired or bought from you in the first place. Ask them why they refer business to you. Ask them what you could do better.
3. Evaluate three competitors and look for gaps that you can fill. They’re probably competing on price or product in their marketing messages. Look for ways to beat them at their own game. You’ll see some themes emerge from this process. Write them down, and build them into your business or marketing plan. Can’t find three differences? Did you find some gaps or problems? Well, that’s good. You now have some work to do to become an amazing business.

Give to Get

Now that you have three amazing differences in mind, find three other businesses that could be or are amazing. They can be businesses that have the same customer base as you. The idea is to get connected to business that you can refer and they in turn will refer you. Find amazing businesses that your customers or prospects would like, and your customers will in turn think more highly of you for the information. The key here is not to ask them to refer you, but to invite them to educate you on how can to send them referrals . Give to get. Three more steps:

1. Contact three business owners and tell them you’d like to know three amazing things about their business. Explain that you believe you have similar customers or clients that could benefit from knowing about their business.
2. Give them your three amazing differences as an example and explain how you came up with those differences.
3. Invite them to send their three amazing differences back to you so you can begin referring business to them, and encourage them to do the same for you.

Refer and Reward

Follow-up is essential in this process. Now that you know three amazing differences about other businesses, actively refer them. Your final three steps:

1. Think of three current customers or prospects that might be a good match for your three referral partners and actively refer them. Important: this isn’t something you should do passively. Don’t simply write a company’s name down on a scrap of paper and tell your customer or prospect to call them. Introduce them – via email, at lunch, or at an event where everyone is in attendance. Make it personal and communicate your referral partner’s amazing differences.
2. Set up some kind of reward system when your referral partners send business your way. You can offer a cash incentive, a gift certificate, or maybe free services or products from your business. However a reward doesn’t have to be money or free services. An acknowledgement via a hand-written note can go a long way to help your referring partner feel appreciated when they send you a prospect who becomes a customer.
3. Repeat the process. This isn’t something you do once and forget. Always be on the lookout for more referral partners. Ask your new customers what businesses they think are amazing and approach those businesses to be your referral partners. Create a plan. You don’t have to refer everyone all the time (after all, you have to grow and run your business, right?). Do it over three months, and find three ways to introduce them. Feature a “referral partner” once a month on your website, put information about them in a newsletter, or keep their business card handy to share with others you meet in a networking session, and tell them you’ll follow up with a personal introduction.

So put the power of three to work to make your business amazing. I’d love to hear your comments and suggestions – I’ll take at least three!

[Blogger's note: This post first appeared as my submission to the HP SugarTone contest: “Making your business amazing”, sponsored by Hewlett Packard]

VOTE for this post HERE and also Leave a Comment to win great prizes!

The Marketing with Moxie Blog has moved to a new hosted space using WordPress, so you may notice that my previous posts are formatted a little funny and the original images are missing. That’s what happens when you import content from one blog hosting service to another – the images won’t migrate, but the text does.  Drat!

I’ve been writing this blog using Squarespace since I started it, and it has been great to be here, but Moxie Marketing now has a brand new web site built in a premium WordPress theme (check it out at getmoxiemarketing.com) so I prefer to manage all my content using the same system.

If you’re thinking about starting your own blog for your business, do your homework.  There are lots of great blogging tools out there but it can be confusing. It’s best not to migrate your stuff like I’m doing, so choose a platform that will grow with your business.

Here’s a quick overview and some tips.

Free stuff

You can get started writing a blog free with built-in, customizable templates at dozens of places, but my favorites are TypePad Micro, Blogger, or WordPress.com. These sites offer a free place to post your blog, but you’ll have their names in your blog’s web address, and there are ads inserted in your blog page. This is probably best for a personal blog or just seeing if you even like blogging.  Your blog “lives” on their website, not your company or personal web hosting company (like GoDaddy, HostGator, etc.)

Better stuff

TypePad Pro, Squarespace and WordPress.com Premium.  Plunk down a little cash (as low as eight bucks a month) and you get more stuff, no ads, and you can customize the domain name (you’ll have to buy that separately). There are more customizable template options available for these services. Squarespace is unique in that you can adapt any of their templates and make your blog truly customized, with colors, font and column sizes and more, and you don’t need to know HTML code, and they offer built-in analysis.

Pro stuff

I have to go here with just one recommendation. WordPress.org.  It is different than WordPress.com above. To use this service, you upload the WordPress application to your host server (most of them have a quick tool to do this). The WordPress app is free, but you have to pay for a hosting service. You also need to pick a theme (basically a design template) and there are thousands of free themes you can upload to make your blog more than a blog – but a web site. You can also pay for premium themes, and get better quality and more choices. WordPress.org is more complicated, but very powerful and flexible: It’s possible to do it yourself if you find a simple theme (you have to upload those too), but I recommend that unless you’ve got some design skills, you seek professional help from a graphic artist. Ready to learn more?  Check out WordPress 101 for some great training videos and tools.