Brent Pohlman
People ask me why I write a marketing blog. I tell them because it is who I am and where I want to focus. If there was no pay off in blogging, I simply would not do it.
My Background
Every day, I am driven to make a difference. I have a strong need to see results and continue to see our company moving forward.
Every company goes through tough times for one reason or another. The key is to not stay there and to find a way to breakthrough. Blogging actually helps me focus on where I want to go and not spend so much time at where I have been. It helps me really focus on ideas that I can easily implement and continue to work on.
The one thing I have noticed is that working with a sense of urgency produces results and it has to happen everyday. As a result, I try to write content at least four to five days a week to help support this self of urgency mindet.
It Is About Creating Fresh Content
Each week brings new direction and more incentive. There isn’t a week that goes by that I say, “Wow that week went by fast.”
I have found that people who are always learning and sharing new ideas are the most successful. For me, that means researching information on marketing and trying to find ideas for writing and executing new marketing initiaties. Every day, I learn something new about our clients that I did not know before. By maintaining a blog site, I am able to record these thoughts that are shared by others and I can relate them to my own experience.
Where Do I See Results?
I have scaled back my time on social networks like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. I still share content on these sites, but I do not spend a ton of time there because these sites are becoming more like news and broadcast sites. That is really fine with me. I am really okay with this trend.
I used to try and engage, but I like to talk about one topic, that being a blog site or my company blog site. What I am seeing from these sites is more “recognition.” People are recognizing our company name and my name associated with the business. Again, this is really the key. This recognition can be measured in the number of phone calls received at work, the number of new contacts I make in person at trade shows and conferences. The major takeaway here is that blog content is the starting place to sharing great content on social media sites. Many people have found success on social media without a blog site, but having a blog validates your work and always gives people a place to learn more about you and learn more about you. Many people shy away from ever doing this and as a result, they have to spend much more time on social media sites to validate their existence.
In addition, I get to be connected with some great executives in other industries. Today, people are mesasured by their connections with others and who they do business with. If you really work at your personal, professional brand online, you will find that you really can build your influence online and people will take notice. People are taking note that I am having success with different marketing techniques and as a result our company is also experiencing success. Getting connected and keeping people informed about yourself and your company are extremely important and blogging allows you to keep connected and keep your message online for a longer period of time than just a simple tweet, or status update.
People connect with people. Think of sports teams. Even teams like the Kansas CityRoyals have hometown heroes that people like to relate to. People relate to people. As a result, I want to show that my marketing efforts are a result of a great company that I work for. Blogging streches me and makes me work harder to continue to work that much harder to show suceess. It is a part of my planning, execution, and validation of my work.
Summary
Everyone has a different take on this topic and some of you might be looking for more metrics to back up my claims. I do look at metrics everyday and I will leave you with the metrics that most matter to me. Since I started blogging in 2009, I have seen these results:
- Increased revenue from sales
- Average of new accounts each day: 7-12
- More sales in niche areas
- Increased phone call volumes
- Increased client service support: Additional employees
- More recognition online on social media sites and Google searches
- More people linking and picking up data from blog sites each day
It does come down to people connecting people. Do people know who you are and the company you work for? If that is all they know then you are like a lot of people. If you maintain a company blog site and a professional blog site, then people know much more about you and you can expect to see more results because you are more transparent than a majority of your peers and professionals. It can be a real difference maker.
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