Attracting New Prospects:
Go Beyond The Blog
Written by Alice Seba
If you’re like many online business owners, you might put your content marketing focus on your company blog.
Perhaps you also submit to article directories, YouTube and even guest blog elsewhere, but when it comes to publishing content on one’s own virtual real estate, most online business owners rely heavily on their handy-dandy blog.
It seems to make sense as it’s your central content hub.
And it’s what everyone else seems to be doing.
While a blog is a very powerful tool, in many cases a blog will serve you best with people who are already familiar with your work or who were referred by someone else. These are people who have come to expect or have been told they can expect stellar content and a unique reader experience from your blog.
But what about brand-spankin’ new prospects? Let’s follow the path of the visitor that has never heard of you before…
While they may be looking for stellar and unique, most times the new prospect is simply looking for answers. They type in keywords and hope Google will point them in the right direction. Sometimes that direction will be to the fantabulous blog content you pour your heart into and other sometimes it’s not.
Taking that into consideration, there are a couple of major problems with relying on a company blog to attract and retain plenty of brand new prospects:
1. You’ll bore your regulars to death if you focus on keyword content
If you’ve done your research with Market Samurai or another favorite keyword tool, you’ll see a ton of phrases that would be great to target, but don’t really make sense for a central blog or for your regular readers.
Let’s say you sell accessories for small dogs and you’ve been working on your most awesome blog. You have posts about your products, along with great ideas for training your dog and other useful things that your readers would love. When someone visits your blog, it just makes sense for someone to scroll through and see your latest posts. They get a nice snapshot of the remarkable content you have created. It’s that stellar and unique experience we talked about.
But from your keyword research, you discover you could be creating TONS of articles on different dog breeds, product specifications, product comparisons and other relevant and detailed content. It’s the kind of stuff people will search specifically for…not necessarily something they want to wade through on a blog. The want to come to a page and get the info they want…and then they plan to leave.
But of course, if you set your content up right, you’ll get them to follow your call-to-action instead of leaving right away. That’s why you should consider that…
2. A company blog is often designed with plenty of distractions.
Look at your blog, it’s probably got plenty of navigation, links to a bunch of categories, maybe some ads and all kinds of other stuff that isn’t specifically relevant to each single post. That’s the kiss of death with a brand new prospect. You want your brand new prospect focused and shown a direct path to a relevant call-to-action.
The Solution
It’s simple…publish plenty of content, but don’t put all your self-published content on your blog.
For your blog, focus on content that makes sense for your current readers. Use it for more timely pieces and ones that really show your unique perspective. For example, if you have an opinion on a controversial dog training technique that is growing in popularity, that’s perfect for your blog. But an article talking about the characteristics of a Schnauzer or common skin problems of a Westie…maybe not so much.
Create a “New Prospect Content” Section of Your Website
Create a separate section of your website – or even a separate website – for your more generic and keyword-based content. That doesn’t mean post crap – not at all. It simply means that you provide the content that your potential new prospects are actively looking for. Not all useful content has to be mind-blowing and innovative. It just needs to serve a purpose for your reader and ultimately, a purpose for your business.
Call it a “How To’s” section, a “FAQ” or whatever describes the type of content you’re creating. Only call it a “New Prospect Content” section in the privacy of your home or office. 
Have a Simple, Distraction-Free Design
While you can certainly use WordPress or some other blog platform for your New Prospect Content, keep it completely separate from your blog. That means a separate RSS feed and definitely a simple design. New prospects have an even shorter attention span than a regular reader…don’t take chances.
Tips:
- Minimize the distraction of navbars, categories, ads, etc. Have only the bare minimum links needed and place them at the bottom of the page if possible.
- Include strong and focused calls-to-action. Offer them a subscription to your mailing list or even a link to a product, but make sure there is a strong and relevant offer.
When in doubt, always put yourself in the mind of your visitor. Think of how they got there, what they are looking for and how you can deliver exactly that.
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Laurie Neumann says:
Great post, Alice. You have given me some food for thought. I know I can kind of think of everyone (current readers and newbies) as a whole, and it’s true, they are not always looking for the same information.
I like the idea of an FAQ section.
Thanks!
Alice Seba says:
Exactly and I think people limit the amount of content they create because they focus on the blog visitor. So many more options when you expand your thoughts and research beyond that.
Sally says:
Wow! Great article. So true. Love the solution. Thank you!
Alice Seba says:
You’re welcome…now go create that solution.
Marya says:
So simple yet so brilliant. One of those concepts where you end up going, “Duh, of COURSE – why didn’t I think of it that way?”
Thanks for demystifying yet another facet of internet marketing.
Alice Seba says:
What’s funny is this is how we in the Internet marketer’s space used to make content when we readily relied on static HTML sites. Somehow it got lost along the way.
Build a Better Mousetrap : Contentrix – Content Marketing says:
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