A new chart from MarketingSherpa indicates that people and companies blog for many reasons. All blogs, however, would do well to apply MarketingSherpa’s three tips for crafting a blog for maximum impact:

1. Provide genuine, heartfelt content
2. Update regularly
3. Be focused

Here’s my take. When it comes to providing genuine, heartfelt content… leave the “corporate speak” for company brochures and annual reports. (Actually leave it out altogether). The best blogs seem to have a somewhat personal, informal tone.

Updating regularly means… regularly blogging. Now, this can certainly be a challenge for large corporates and individual marketers alike. I’m currently working with a large company to establish a weekly blog. The challenge we face is being able to select a topic, get it written, have it reviewed and approved by a gaggle of ’stakeholders’ - marketing, legal, public relations, etc - each and every week. Trust me, it’s like herding cats and I honestly don’t think it’s going to happen without everyone being absolutely dedicated and committed to the task.

For the typical Internet marketer, the challenge is finding the time to blog when there’s so much else to do. Should you spend an hour on your blog… or write some articles… or contact potential JV partners… or develop that new product?

My feeling is that unless you can update your blog at least once per week, it’s not worth doing. You’re better off focusing on other activities that you can commit yourself to doing well.

Having said that, blogging once per week is really not ideal in terms of getting frequently visited by the search engines, attracting backward links and traffic, and inspiring reader interactivity, among other things. It’s probably fine if you are already a “name”, but if you view blogging as a means to becoming a “name” you really want to be blogging several times per week. We started Kikabink News - which is both a blog and a newsletter - a few months ago and, while I’m delighted with its performance so far, we have a long, long way to go in terms of achieving our goals.

Bottom line: if you don’t have the time or interest to devote to blogging, don’t bother with it. Don’t waste time setting up a blog you never update. (Trust me, I have one of those, and it’s not doing much for our business). And, by the way, you CAN be successful without a blog. The key is to choose one or two core strategies for achieving your business aims and doing them extremely well.

Finally, when it comes to “focus”, the idea here is to stay on topic, and ideally choose a topic that others are not covering as well or in the same way as you. There are tons of blogs covering various topics… how are you going to stand out and keep - indeed, increase – your readership? Usually by having something different and interesting to say.

Source: MarketingSherpa, “New Chart: Craft Your Blog for Maximum Impact: 3 Absolutes to Make it a Must-Read”, MarketingSherpa, September 2, 2008

This week a true story… and something for you to think about.

Not too long ago, my husband and I drove 90 minutes to the northwest of Melbourne, Australia to spend a weekend of pampering in the historic country town of Daylesford.

Daylesford is nestled among hills and natural mineral spas, and is known for its many bed-and-breakfasts (B & Bs), fine restaurants and cafes, and many massage and alternative health centers, among other things.

It’s a popular weekend retreat for Melbournians and my husband and I have stayed there several times over the past few years.

Funnily enough, though, we have never stayed at the same B & B or guest house twice.

While I’d like to say this is because we always like trying new things… this isn’t really the case: we tend to gravitate back to the same restaurants, cafes and other places, that we know and trust!

The truth is that we haven’t stayed at the same B & B more than once because each time we’ve been disappointed. In each case, it hasn’t quite lived up to it’s promise.

And the interesting thing is that the “failed promise” has been the SAME in each case.

So what have all these B & B’s failed in?

Well, let’s take the place we stayed at last weekend.

We walked in and were immediately impressed by the design, layout and “newness” of the place. Everything was perfect. I especially loved the big hot tub overlooking the valley. In fact, I loved it so much that I could, in fact, see ourselves returning again. However, by the next morning, we were both adamant that we would NOT stay there again.

So what went wrong? What was the broken promise that this place had, as well as all the others, broken?

It’s the promise that ALL hotels, motels, guest houses and B & Bs make.

It’s the “benefit” they typically DON’T talk about in their sales materials… and that YOU, as the customer, often don’t even think about yourself.

In fact, this promise was not even on OUR minds when we chose this latest B & B to stay at.

We NEVER even thought about it…

Until it wasn’t fulfilled.

What was it?

It was: a good night’s sleep!

That’s right… a good night’s sleep!

And in this case, as in ALL the other cases, a cheap bed made it impossible for us to get a good night’s sleep.

Now maybe we’re a little picky… but we’re also very loyal… We’re the type of customers who WILL come back again and again if we’re happy with the product and service. (After all, every other place we visited at Daylesford we had visited numerous times before.)

The type of customers (that 20%) who account for 80% of a business’ sales and profits. The type of customers YOU would want to please and nurture in YOUR business.

So my question to you is:

What is the “unspoken promise” you make to your BEST customers?

What is the promise that your MOST LOYAL customers expect you to keep above all other things?

It may NOT be obvious. It may actually be ASSUMED by both you and your loyal customers. And it may not be the same promise that your “one off” customers expect you to keep.

For example, in our example, a “one off” customer may have cared more about “price” than a good night’s sleep.

But it’s the loyal customers who make for a ongoing, successful business. So it’s the promise you knowingly or unknowingly make to them that counts.

So how do you find out what this promise is? We’ll talk about that tomorrow!

An AOL-sponsored study by Beta Research Corporation has just confirmed what we probably all thought (based on our own habits): THERE IS NO ONE TIME that most people check their email. U.S. Internet users check their personal email throughout the day, including at work.

The June 2008 survey found that while nearly one-quarter of Internet users were most likely to check their email upon waking, more than one-third checked throughout the day, and the remainder checked at various times, including during the night. Over 70 percent of employees checked their personal email at work, and nearly one-third checked more than three times a day.

For email marketers, the implication is clear: trying to time your email delivery to the hour may be futile. Your target market is mostly likely to check their email several times per day, and while they may not see your email when you send it, they are likely to do so later on.

Source: eMarketer, “When Do You Check Your E-Mail?” eMarketer, August 8, 2008