Yesterday I did a very "girly" thing: I went to Nordstrom's and bought a new dress! Hadn't bought anything other than tennis clothes for a long time. But as the true Blog Squad-ette that I am, I got to thinking how blogs are like department stores. People come in, look, try, buy, ...or not. How do you know if your business blog is working or not?
Imagine your blog is Nordstrom's. On any given day, so many people come into the store. Some buy, some just “window shop” or want to find out what’s new, and some are there to pick up any freebies being offered.
If you only measured traffic into the store, you still don’t know if your store is working well for you or not. Here's why: Other things matter: comfort of the shoppers, overall impression as a style leader, friendliness of staff, cleanliness and order, and a thousand other details.
The same is true for your business blog.
Some say the only measure that matters is increase in sales and revenue. But that’s difficult to attribute to a blog that’s not using ads for revenue.
We use our blogs as marketing tools to promote events and products and our services. It’s indirect sales that result from our blogs because our blogs do a stellar job of reinforcing our brand, our trustworthiness, and our credibility.
The important questions you need to ask yourself for your own business blogs are these:
- “Does my blog do a good job for getting my business found online?”
- “When people find my blog online, do they stay to read and do they subscribe to come back?”
- “Will readers grow to know, like and trust me from reading my posts?”
- “Does my blog make it easy for people to interact with me and use my services?”
We’re discussing this and more of the issues of measuring and tracking
your blog success on Thursday, July 24, 2008 with Chris Baggott, author
and business blogging expert, on a free teleseminar. The event is free but you need to register here to find out how to Get the Results You Want:
How to track, measure and adjust your blog.
