What Is Your Small Business Marketing Blog Worth? | mgboyd.com

What Is Your Small Business Marketing Blog Worth?

I am currently preparing a website analytics report analyzing a small business marketing blog that I write for a client. But will they be interested in measuring their small business blogging and and can we calculate what blogging for business is worth to them?

The blog brief

Industry: Any.

Take home:I think i need to walk with my clients down the path of using website analytics in their businesses. It has to be a combination of gently supporting them to incorporate this area of business intelligence without it seeming overwhelming, academic or complicated to administer.

Getting started with website analytics

• Start with one website analytics goal, eg. measuring the value of your small business blogging
• Map the process involved with blogging to identify what data will help improve your business intelligence processes

Sometimes, producing good quality content makes it harder to go deeper into what is really effective and what isn?t. With one client, there is such a level of trust in the content that i prepare, that when i send through drafts to discuss something, it gets uploaded and published while i still want to talk about how to really hone its value! With another client, a mix of busy schedules, their willingness to invest in a freelance blog writer (in any case), and trust in the content i produce, means there isn?t a process i am involved in regarding website analytics. Of course, that isn?t unusual. Most small business? that i have talked to, or worked with, don?t do any real analytics on a regular basis and don?t have any processes for using data as business intelligence for decision making.

I want to help my clients turn that around in a few ways:

• By introducing them to a way of regularly looking at web data results na dthem knowing what to analyze
• By using this process as a way to demonstrate the value of my blog consulting work
• To help introduce a business intelligence methodology that any small business can use to calculate the value of their small business marketing 2.0 content
• To encourage clients to use data to improve business effectiveness and outcomes.

How a ?thought leadership?-style blog creates value

• Well researched and SEO-optimized quality content can drive readers to a business? blog
• Regular blog readers can become loyal business customers

The following diagram (drawn using my favorite diagram web app, creately) seeks to explain how a small business? thought leadership blog is expected to add value to the business and to help generate profits through increasing customer sales.

How a small business marketing blog creates value (click to enlarge)

?Thought leadership? is a blog genre that aims to draw in readers who have an interest in a business? wider industry by blogging about current trends and sectoral influences and providing analysis, insight and education. When a small business? target customers find the blog, the idea is that they will continue to visit the site and will relate to a sense of connection and trust for the business, eventually making individual contact when they are ready to purchase goods or services.

Website analytics to calculate the value of small business blogging

• Calculating my value as a freelance writer for hire will strengthen my relationship with my small business blogging clients
• When introducing website analytics into a small business, have one goal in mind about what to measure and how to analyze the data, and master that process first

The diagram makes it easy to identify what website analytics are useful to measure when monitoring effectiveness at each stage of the process. It also exposes what data the business doesn?t collect and can help introduce business intelligence processes to collect new information for future use.

As I have learnt from many website references about blogging for business, it?s also ideal to stick with 5 or less metrics when introducing analysis.

Once data is collected regularly, it can be used to calculate the value a small business marketing blog contributes. I believe that if my work isn?t actually helping a business? bottom line then let?s shake hands and say goodbye. There are plenty of opportunities where I can add to a business? impact and success, and if my work isn?t bringing any additional value, then I don?t want to suggest my clients should keeping paying for it. But conversely, I also don?t want my work undervalued or to be limited in accessing key client stakeholders who can help with quotes to use in content, or to help understand the target market better, or who can offer advice about how to widen the reach of the content I produce.

Resources

Free resources for mgboydcom subscribers

• A practical analytics resource pack will be available on 1 September from this site
• Subscribe now to automatically receive a copy of the resource pack when it is released

This site ? for my freelance writer for hire Barcelona business ? will be fully operational by 23 September, along with a few of my other business sites also currently in development. As part of being fully operational, I plan to release a new resource every month for small business.
To kick things off for September, I will be releasing a resource pack that will include:

• A report template that helps introduce the idea of website analytics to your business? team
• A report template to help you collect and display data for your small business marketing blog
• A set of online tools that will enable you to monitor the impact and response to your website content in realtime
• A process improvement checklist to assist you refine your data collection so you can more accurately calculate the value of blogging for business.

Subscribe to mgboyd.com now to be automatically sent this resource pack, and to receive similar small business blogging resources every month.

Tagged business blogging, calculating return on investment, freelance writer for hire, Internet marketing strategies, sales leads from blogging

Source: http://mgboyd.com/2011/08/28/what-is-your-small-business-marketing-blog-worth/

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