Niche Marketing Matters

People prefer blogs over books. While there may be many different reasons for this preference, my guess is that the most important blog characteristic is that most blogs are short — probably less than 500 words.

Shorter is better.

First, let’s examine books. According to an Associated Press Poll and The Washington Post, “One in four adults read no books at all in the past year. Of those who did read, older people (mostly women) were most avid, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices.”

Similar studies tell a story that the average American reads one book a year and only half bought a book last year. Books are in trouble. (Note to self: I may need to reconsider this book writing thing.)

Blogs are a different beast:
• 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 346,000,000 people read blogs daily (worldwide)
• 77% of active Internet users read blogs
• 81 languages are represented in the blogosphere

My theory is that shorter is better in our “Adult ADD culture” — time is just too precious to allocate it to any written material beyond 500 words. Blogs fit our pace.

Word quantity can be a significant weapon — ask any lawyer. If you want to confuse someone, just throw a lot of words at them. For instance, the current health care bill that just got through the House of Representatives was over 400,000 words long. My bet is that you did not read it and nor will you. If you did, you would only be confused anyway.

Yet, if you want to communicate, brevity is everything. For example, the Gettysburg Address was only 272 words. Most Americans have read it and many understand it (more or less). Lincoln would make a great blogger.

People prefer blogs because blogs are shorter. Long live blogs.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2009 All rights reserved.

Earlier this year blog tracker Technorati estimated that there were 112.8 million active English language blogs. They also believe that there already 75 million Chinese language blogs. Of course, this begs a few questions. Are there too many blogs? Who really needs this much information? Who is reading this stuff? Why blog?

These questions hit pretty close to home for me since I have been an active blogger for two years. My quick but qualified answer is that blogging remain a very viable way to communicate to others, yet you need to speak to a highly targeted audience or nobody will read it.

Looking first at blog readers it is clear that most people find blogs via a search engine like Yahoo! or Google with key words. Referrals remain a powerful source, too. Readers are looking to solve a problem, be entertained, or get information.

Readers are looking for very specific content. This means that the blog topic/s must be focused narrowly around a specific subject rather than miscellaneous ramblings about life or business or whatever. Of course, this is the essence of niche marketing for blogs: providing information on subjects that are overlooked or under-served.

Thus, blog content is everything. Readers want to read about themselves and their interests—and not about the blogger. Vanity may be the biggest mistake by blog authors. Keep yourself out the of the blog content. Generally speaking, nobody cares about you and your last trip to the supermarket.

Few people choose to subscribe to blogs. Most visit a blog once and seldom go back. Sometimes readers are intrigued and will choose to bookmark the URL, but most of the time it does not happen.

Blog writers need to “fact check” and publish only accurate information. The web is chock full of inaccuracies, errors, and outright lies. Google any subject and you will find conflicting information from multiple bloggers. This insults the reader and assaults the medium.

With that said, and opinion is highly valued and expected. Tell it like it is and explain how and why you feel about the subject.

Shorter blogs are better. Long blogs just don’t get read. In depth conversations have their place but not on a blog.

Finally, highly monetized blogs turn me off. These are the blogs that are plastered with advertisements, Google AdSense, and live links embedded in the blog text. Yuck. If I want to be sold something, I can watch network TV.

Are there too many blogs? Yes, there may be too many blogs, but there is a shortage of relevant blogs that give readers what they really want. For the business blogger, this requires them to target a very specific audience while providing information about what matters to the reader.

Blog on.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

First of all, there are no rules for blogging.

I have written 300 blogs over the last two years about marketing, sales, and negotiation—the truth is that I am still learning how to blog. My blog has been read by thousands of readers across the globe. This is pretty cool when you think about it. If I can do it, you can do it.

With that said, here are a few recommendations for better blogging:

1. Keep your blogs short with no more than 500 words. Less than 250 words might even be better.
2. Save the big words for the lawyers. Instead, say what you mean and stop there.
3. Educate, inform, or offer opinion. Write about topics that will be interesting to your target audience.
4. Offer links to other resources. This is helpful to your readers.
5. Encourage readers to comment by asking their opinion.
6. Don’t expect a lot of comments since people are very busy.
7. Clever headlines help get your blog read.
8. Keywords help get your blog found.
9. End the blog on an up note or with a moral or with a suggestion or an incentive.
10. Postscripts always get read.

Blog on Dude.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2008 All rights reserved.

P.S. The first person to comment back on this blog gets a free copy of my book “First, Best, or Different”.

Why do I Blog? I get asked this question a lot. Yes, it takes a lot of time and brain cells, both of which I have a very limited supply. To blog regularly requires tons of research, fact checking, writing, and editing. It is hard work.

I don’t blog for the money—my blog is free. I don’t measure my success by the number of visitors to my site, yet I have many. The answer is that I blog to help people.

And I suppose that sounds a little high-minded. But, of all things that I do, including teaching at a university, running my own company, consulting with entrepreneurs, writing books, and speaking at conferences—-blogging has the biggest impact of all.

Blogging is my way to share with others who know me and with others who I will never speak with or meet. Some like to call this “thought leadership”— which is a very uppity term. For me, it is the best way to communicate clearly with my target audience—people who want to learn more about marketing, sales, and negotiation.

Because I blog, I have been invited to speak at conferences, quoted in the national press, and have been interviewed on MSNBC. My motivation is not fame, rather it is the desire to teach and help others.

Certainly a by-product of my success as a blogger includes book sales, paid speaking engagements, and consulting. This helps me pay the bills, which is important with two kids in college.

Seemingly every day my phone rings, or I get e-mails from people who I have never met before; they read my blog and want to share an idea or ask a question. That interchange is a thrill to me and its own reward. This is why I blog.

How about you? Can you think of a better way to connect with your target audience?

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.

You may not be a blogger yourself, but reading blogs written by your competition and your customers may prove to be a great way to conduct market research. Increasingly blogs, along with forums, are becoming honey pots for people to gather insight and information about products, companies, and industries.

Blogs and forums are creating communities for people to express themselves about their wants, needs, and desires. For example, discussion groups are common in the financial arena as investors share their insight about stocks and companies. Check out Yahoo! Finance and you will see what I mean.

Blogs are a great way to understand your competition and the messages that they send to their customers and partners. While it is common for a big company to use a Public Relations firm to assist with blog publishing, many smaller firms will freely tell the world how they feel about things.

Sun Microsystems has embraced blogging as a company and has over 4000 individual bloggers; this candid dialog makes for instant communication with their customers. The downside to Sun is that the same commentary is available to read by their competition.

Customer forums are cropping up everyday in virtually all industries from consumer products to professional services. Many of these forums are highly specialized. For example, I read a forum for Corvette enthusiasts called the Corvette Forum (http://www.corvetteforum.com/) which allows people like me to share their thoughts about buying, selling, and maintaining Corvettes with other Corvette owners. This forum has no affiliation with Chevrolet, but you can bet that the folks at GM read this forum religiously.

Consider setting up a RSS feed to search for subjects of interest to you and your business. For the average web surfer, RSS provides a way to see at a glance if your favorite blogs have updated their content. Using a simple RSS feed reading program, you can subscribe to the feeds from any supporting site to get this information and link directly to the new articles that interest you. You can set up the RSS feed to find articles or blogs by keyword.

Let the research begin.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2007 All rights reserved.

Blogging is easy. If you are frequent reader of this blog, you know that that I am a big believer in this dynamic method of communication; it is a great way to create a personal dialog with your customers and prospects (and whoever else reads it). A side benefit of a blog is that it refreshes your website with new content with every entry and this pleases the major search engines. Your reward will include a higher search ranking and your site will be found with greater frequency.

But, before you launch your own blog please consider the following things:

• Make sure that your website is up to date with lots of content. This is important since the “call to action” for most blogs is to visit the author’s website.
• Does your target audience read blogs? Certainly younger demographics do, along with the technology crowd. Grandma and Grandpa may not read blogs yet, but give them time.
• Is there a need for this type of forum in your industry? I think the answer would be yes for most industries, but there may be some commodity businesses when a discussion is not really needed. Truthfully, I am hard pressed to find an industry where a blog will not provide value.
• If your blog is public (and that is the only reason to do this anyway), will you be comfortable tackling tough issues in front of your customers, prospects, and competitors? This could earn you praise and criticism. I think a good blog calls it like it is and controversy may come with the territory.
• Make sure that you are up for the commitment of routinely writing or it will not be worth your time. A good rule of thumb is to blog three to five times a week (there are no hard and fast rules).
• Good blogs target a specific target audience and speak to the needs, issues, and problems of that audience. It is not about you and it is all about them.
• Blog software is free in most cases. I use WordPress and it works fine for me.
• I think blogs are best when written in the first person with an informal and direct style. Think 8th grade grammar and sentence structure.
• Do you like to write and are you good at it? I know that is a simple question, but if it hurts you to write, don’t start a blog.
• The secret to good writing is good editing. It goes like this: write, edit, edit again, and be sure to edit again.
• Find a blog mentor who has a blog and has learned how to do it the hard way. Maybe she or he can you save you some time.
• Be humble and expect a lot of feedback.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2007 All rights reserved.

It’s time for an “extreme makeover” of your current thinking about what makes a great marketing and public relations strategy. The traditional methods of marketing and PR are quickly becoming ineffective; if you don’t know what I mean, you soon will.

In his new book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing, and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly”, David Meerman Scott bring us up-to-date on how to get your message out to your target market using Web 2.0 technology. Actually, his book is less about technology and is more about meeting your customer where they live and work and play on the internet.

The old days of blasting the customer with repeated press releases through the business wires and relying solely on the relationships offered by PR Agencies has given way to communicating directly with the customer about what really matters to them. This blog is a good example of what Scott calls the “new rules”. A blog, if properly done, focuses its energies on the needs, problems, and issues of the customer rather than that of the blogger. Thus, the whole orientation of marketing and PR has changed.

Don’t get me wrong, PR agencies do a great service. As a third party, PR firms can be very effective in helping the entrepreneur craft the right message to take to the market; this is hard work and most entrepreneurs are lousy at this. Additionally, a PR firm can save the entrepreneur time by getting the message to the gurus, the press, and the analysts. But, relying on the PR agency to be the brute force of your marketing plan is flat out wrong.

Customers have increasingly grown cynical of traditional PR and all the spin that comes with it. Instead, customers respond to authentic messages about their problems. And, they rely heavily on the advice and experience of other customers who share these same problems. This is why wikis and forums have taken the web by storm. Blogs, too.

Remember, it is all about them (i.e the customer) and not about you. David Meerman Scott gets it. Read his book now.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.
My new book “First, Best, or Different” is now available at www.firstbestordifferent.com!
Please buy my book!

As you know, I am a big fan of blogging. Blogging is a terrific way to build your personal and corporate brand as a knowledge broker, which is my term for someone who writes or speaks on the interests, needs, or problems of a customer segment. Key to a successful blog is authenticity. This brings us to the subject of “flogs”.

A flog is a fake blog. In effect, a flog is a joke or more likely a staged or paid for advertisement disguised as a blog. Flogs are sponsored by companies to create interest for their offerings, while positioning the interests of the audience as an after thought.

An infamous example is described by Wikipedia: “Walmarting Across America was written by two Wal-Mart “fans” who decided to travel across America in a RV and blog about the experience as they visited Wal-Mart’s along the way. While the two people actually did travel across America for the purpose of this blog, it was revealed to be paid for by Wal-Mart.” This flog actually backfired for Wal-Mart with readers becoming angry at the ruse. They protested openly on the web and it turned into a public relations disaster for Wal-Mart.

A credible blog must be authentic. I recommend that they be written in the first person, in plain English, and must address topics that the readers care about. The blog’s purpose is to help, inform, or entertain the reader; admittedly, the blogger hopes to build a constituency with the readers, but that is the blogger’s reward rather than the purpose of the blog itself.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.
My new book “First, Best, or Different” is now available at www.firstbestordifferent.com!
Please buy my book!

A Couple More Things about Blogging

Based on my last article about blogging, it is obvious that I am a big believer in this exciting new method of communication; it is a great way to create a unique dialog with your customers and prospects (and whoever else reads it). The branding benefits can be extraordinary and a blog can dramatically impact on your website traffic.

But, before you launch your own blog please consider the following things:

1. Make sure that you have all the website essentials already completed. This would include all aspects of optimizing your website including keywords, Meta tags, linking with other sites, etc.
2. Pay-per-click advertising is also a great way to target your customer; it gives immediate access and feedback without breaking the bank.
3. Does your target audience read blogs? Certainly younger demographics do, along with the technology crowd. Grandma and Grandpa? I am not sure if they blog yet.
4. Is there a need for this type of forum in your industry? I think the answer would be yes for most industries, but there may be some commodity businesses when a discussion is not really needed.
5. If your blog is public (and really, that is the only reason to do this anyway), will you be comfortable airing issues with your customers? This could include praise and criticism. Blogs comments can be edited or deleted, by the way.
6. Make sure that you are up for the commitment of routinely writing or it will not be worth your time. Blogs must be refreshed frequently to be useful.

Blog on dude.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.
My new book “First, Best, or Different” is now available at www.firstbestordifferent.com!
Please buy my book!

When I wrote my book, First, Best, or Different, I included a chapter on the importance of blogging. Little did I know at the time that blogging would become the core of own book marketing effort. Indulge me as I tell you about my own blogging story.

Back in August of 2006 I wrote my first blog at the suggestion of my web designer Greg. He encouraged me by saying that it could help my website’s page ranking and that blogs were becoming very popular. So, I gave it try. I carefully proofread my first article and hit the “publish now” key. Off it went and nothing happened. I wrote a second blog and then a third. Same results. I told all my friends that I was now a blogger. They said, “That’s great,” and then they changed the subject. I encouraged them to read and subscribe to my blog. Almost no one did. I couldn’t get my own family to read it.

Call me stubborn, but I kept on writing and blogging. I wrote on topics that I thought my book readers would like and I made sure that I was blogging five times a week. It felt like putting a message in a bottle and throwing it out to sea. I wasn’t sure if anyone would ever read them.

In a few weeks (maybe five or six actually), I did a Google search for my website firstbestordifferent.com and I found it on the first page of the search results! Before the blog, my website was no where to be found since I had done no search engine optimization. I then did a search for John Bradley Jackson (I know this must sound vain) and I found myself! Hey, Mom, your son is an internet celebrity, or almost.

This was all the positive reinforcement that I needed. I kept on blogging. Now it is eight months later and the results are incredible. My little blog is now read by thousands of readers around the world and many are subscribers. I have created a brand for my book and for myself as a thought leader on the subjects of marketing, sales, and negotiation. My website, my name, and my articles are linked to hundreds of other websites. I have been asked to speak at numerous corporate events and my book’s first printing looks like a sell out. All this because I blogged.

Maybe you should consider a blog, too.

John Bradley Jackson
© Copyright 2006 All rights reserved.
My new book “First, Best, or Different” is now available at www.firstbestordifferent.com!
Please buy my book!