You are not objective when it comes to your marketing. It’s not your fault. I’m not objective when it comes to my marketing either. It’s impossible to be objective when you’re the one who creates something.
- Is your latest blog post one that will engage your readers and get them to act?
- Is your website’s layout clean and easy to navigate for your visitors?
- Are you losing leads, because your opt-in form is hard to find?
As marketers…as business owners, we are not qualified to answer these and many other important questions on our own behalf. It is our customers who decide, so it is our job to listen and learn. It is not our job to cram marketing down their throat and then simply sit back, waiting for the orders to come in. Good marketing is…and always has been…a conversation.
This is why blogging is such a powerful marketing tool…because it is first and foremost NOT a marketing tool. It is a communication tool. Good marketers are good communicators. Perhaps the best book ever written on how to be an effective web marketer is How to Win Friends and Influence People…a book written decades before the internet even existed. Why? Because it teaches you solid principles on how to, well, win friends and influence people. This is exactly what marketing is always about, and blogging hasn’t changed that.
What HAS changed is that now we have the choice to bring the conversation front and center. What HAS changed is that we now have technology which allows us to interact with thousands, even millions, of people in a way that is very time-effective. This is the highest value of blogging to business owners…effective, personal communication in a way that leverages our time.
If your message is convoluted or obscured…you’ll know soon enough. Your readers will tell you by either complaining, not ordering from you, not signing up for your list or talking about you with others. Silence is also feedback. Most new bloggers seem to fear this kind of feedback, and that’s understandable. Feedback is not always fun. It is, however, an essential part of marketing, and without it your marketing will never be more than guesswork or a crap shoot. Feedback rocks. It can be tough, but at least it sets you on the right path…if you listen to it.
If you want to get some professional feedback on your blog or website, check out this page. I’m happy to do an entire site critique for you.