Yesterday, I spoke to a potential client on the phone. I may seem old fashioned using the phone but being able to hear someones voice and have an instant conversation is much easier for me. A discussion that would take 30 minutes minimum via email can be done in about 4 minutes on the phone so having business phone solutions suits me well. We had already met in person, exchanged emails, and talked in detail about the work he’s considering paying me to do. His main question yesterday: What’s the difference in a blog and a newsletter?
It was an interesting conversation for lots of reasons. On the surface, the answer to his question seems pretty simple. But his real question, the one he didn’t know how to ask, was different. What he really wanted to know was how to use his blog posts and he email list differently for marketing. He couldn’t quite grasp the difference between subscribing to a blog so that you get an email when there is a new post, and a newsletter. I’m not sure he understood it any better when we hung up.
We have more marketing tools than ever before. Most are easy to access, and many are either free or very low-cost. How do you choose which ones to use? What is going to make the biggest impact in the least amount of
Which of the blooms is the best?
time? (Note: I didn’t say for the least amount of money. These days an investment of time is often more costly than an investment of dollars.)
“It depends” is generally not what business people trained during a different era and comfortable with a different set of rules want to hear. They want me to sell them something. They want me to list all the reasons they should use email marketing, or social media, or whatever they are thinking about doing, and make them feel good about it the way someone selling ad space might have done at a different time.
But blog posts are not ads and email newsletters are not direct mail, and social media is not the same as Chamber of Commerce networking events – and ad space is still relevant. The digital marketing tools at your disposal can be used successfully in lots of different ways. Even some different strategies, like following this Pay Per Click Management guide can help you to implement the numerous ideas that digital marketing can offer to help your business to grow and be successful. But your personality, or your brand depending on the size of your organization, plays a huge role in how you should approach marketing. If you operate in quite a niche industry – say marijuana, for example – you may want to approach marketing experts in your specific field. Take a look at this cannabusiness marketing guide so you can begin to see what I mean – a generalist approach doesn’t always work as effectively as more tailored ones might. If you prefer a suit and tie, you are probably going to be more comfortable using LinkedIn than Twitter. That’s a broad generalization, but sometimes those are useful.
The individuals who are most successful in digital marketing are not afraid to be who they are, warts and all. If who you are is buttoned-up, perfectly coifed, and pulled together all of the time, then you should choose a niche that celebrates rigidity and formality. Everyone else will most likely find you a little boring. Sorry to be brutal, but it’s true. Humans who make mistakes, laugh, cry, and succeed despite struggles are interesting. They have stories to tell and people like stories.
Ultimately, when combined with innovative digital marketing strategies such as Link Scholars Keyword Ranking SEO Plans, it is important that the personality and message of your brand comes through. Once a potential customer has clicked a link and ended up at your website, they should get a feel for not only your products, but the story behind your company.
I’m still struggling with how to explain clearly, simply, and accurately why my potential client should generate different content for his blog and his newsletter because what he really needs to do is share his story – with an audience likely to find it interesting.