Welcome to my blogging duel with TEAM UK’s Matthew Parker. If you have been following along you can skip right to the post… and if you are just joining us, here is some background…
Matthew and I haven’t always seen eye to eye when it comes to Print Buying. He comes from the UK procurement world, and I come from the USA agency world. We used to argue about process, but over the years it has turned into a mutual respect. However, that doesn’t mean we now agree, or see things the same way! As a matter of fact, most of the time we don’t. So we decided to turn that into Print Buying: #UKvUSA and share information about our experiences from both sides of the pond!
At the end of my post is a link to Matthew’s post on the same subject. We don’t know each other’s response before writing our own. Maybe we will agree, maybe we wont, maybe we don’t even see the question in the same way – who knows… that’s the fun part! We have also set a 500 words or less format to keep things moving along.
Please do leave comments and if you happen to support one side over the other let us know on either blog! I am proudly representing TEAM USA, and we are using #UKvUSA on Twitter. LET THE DUEL COMMENCE!
#UKvUSA: Why Aren’t Buyers Reading Your Blog Posts?
For me, this is a one-word answer… motive – and not theirs, but yours.
Somewhere along the way the idea of content marketing got muddled into using content to sell products and services. I see so many posts that are rhetorical questions, or set up so the company has the solution to the problem being written about. Print Buyers are way savvier than that and can smell the pitch coming before you get to it. With limited time to explore the blogosphere, tactics such as those will guarantee Buyers take a one-way trip to your site, and never return.
In order to create a genuine audience, you need to be genuine first. Here are a few tips to attract readers, and keep them coming back…
GIVE BACK. Create posts that provide resources to the Buying community by sharing the sites of others. Do this monthly to create blog traffic, but don’t forget this isn’t about you. YOU are providing the information on your site… that is all.
SHARE CUSTOMER STORIES. Again, this isn’t about you. It’s obvious it’s your customer, so create content about a cool project they did, or how they increased their ROI using a new process or substrate. That has meaning to Buyers.
KEEP IT FOCUSED. Big picture industry info and relevant recaps from events that help Buyers stay topical will create loyal readers.
MAKE IT SHAREABLE. A funny video about “clients from hell” or a Top 10 list of “things buyers hear” or an infographic that speaks to something universally experienced in the Buyer world will get shared, and shared. Actually, I may do one of those now!!
KEEP IT REAL. Write from your personal experience. Share real stories. Create topics that are interesting to you. Take readers along a learning experience for a new process or press. Make it personal by sharing your thoughts on the industry, your hopes and your fears. Most important keep the focus on your readers and how they could benefit from your content, not how you can benefit from them.
Like everything in life there is a balance. Ultimately you need to create customers and I get that. However if you create content that isn’t sales related more often than not, the occasional promotion won’t turn the Buyers off completely because they will know you better through your blog, and know that isn’t ALL you are about.
What’s your blogging motive?
See Matthew’s response here: http://profitableprintrelationships.com/ukvusa-why-arent-print-buyers-reading-your-blogs/
Next month we tackle: Should Printers Talk About ROI?
