In a dynamic presentation yesterday at Inbound 2012 in Boston, Marcus Sheridan talked about how to inspire blogging buy-in from upper management, as well as every member of your team.
His first piece of advice was: “Don’t say ‘Inbound Marketing.'”
He began with the importance of dialing down the Geek Speak and spelling out not only the What and How, but the Why. He goes on to note that most people don’t know “what” the correct description is for a blog. After a few examples from the audience, Marcus’ answer—a blog is simply formatted information.
So “how” do you get content out of your team members—all of them? Marcus goes on to explain: “Everyone is a teacher. They have a voice. They have skills. Just get them to write a few paragraphs in a Word document and turn it in. Crazy things will happen.”
By crazy things, he means traffic and leads—hence, the “why." After a few examples of remarkable improvement in results, he explained how it is our job to inform, educate and convince; that collective knowledge is the job of the team as a whole—it’s just a matter of getting them to write.
Think about all of the questions your customers have asked you over the years. Think about the questions they’ve asked you this week. Did you respond to an email or return a call to answer any questions? Sure, probably hundreds of them over the years in your career. Simply take those questions and answers—and write a blog for each one. So, you’ll have valuable content to share with other customers, and a blog post; two birds, one stone.
How to encourage non-self-starters: Ask them a question. Ask a team member or your CEO a question, and have them answer in under 20 minutes. It shouldn’t take any longer. They can type the answer into a Word doc and then simply hand it off to the content editor. Don’t make them worry about editing, grammar, optimizing, choosing an image, etc. Just get the meat; you can add the potatoes.
Marcus started a swimming pool company, River Pools and Spas, in 2001, which soon became one of the largest pool companies of its kind in the world through Inbound Marketing efforts, including a very popular blog. After sharing his success stories with other pool companies and educating them about Inbound Marketing, Marcus is now a full-time web coach for businesses, specializing in HubSpot. Check out his FREE, 230-Page Copy of Inbound and Content Marketing Made Easy.
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Blog optimization, search engine optimization and social media optimization will maximize traffic, conversions and leads.
