Is Your Blog Converting Your Consumers?

There are so many signs that I’m a content marketer (thanks for the great list of signs Brooke!). I catch myself wishing I could edit my husband’s texts for grammar, sorry sweetie!; I look at every trade show flyer, TV commercial and digital signage ad and wonder, “Could I have done better?”; and I get ridiculously excited when my number of Twitter followers grows.

I even prefer staying in resorts/hotels/getaways that rely on a robust content marketing strategy. In other words, I’m that person.

So when I first met with my travel agent six months ago to start planning my belated honeymoon, it’s probably not all that surprising that I immediately got excited when some of the hotels she suggested featured blogs on their websites. Yup, I am looking at you Hotel Le Littre in Paris!

Content marketer or not, I am still a consumer, meaning I want as much insight into every purchasing decision before I make it. Blogging is a great first step brands can take to reel in customers. Let’s explore this further…

My travel agent did a wonderful job selling Hotel Le Littre all on her own. She eloquently described the hotel’s Parisian charm; the delightful concierge who could plan all our honeymoon delights and the lovely rooms with gorgeous views. But the blog helped her close the deal.

The Le Littre blog is extremely effective. It lets me know the delectable local restaurants to visit (including those that will give me a complimentary welcome drink as a guest of Le Littre!); it informs me of the best things to do in Paris during the fall; and it elucidates on other must-see attractions from museums to retail stores. All in all, it gives me a firsthand look into all I can experience in Paris. In minutes, I was sold on having Le Littre be the one to stroll with me down the streets of the Left Bank.

Blogging works. It shows consumers that your brand is modern, communicative, transparent and, above all else, customer-centric.

So as you take a good hard look at your blog this next month, ask yourself a few questions:

• Does your blog open a door to your industry? For instance, if you are in retail does it scream of imagination, ingenuity and color? If you are in technology, does it have just the right balance of jargon and value-add?
• Are you customer-centric? In other words, are you writing the stories your customers want to read, rather than the stories your band wants to tell. While it would be ideal if those two stories were on in the same, be sure before your start posting.
• Is your blog rich with multimedia? It is near impossible to sell a watch without the use of visuals. It is exceedingly challenging to urge someone to stay at your vacation restore without providing pictures of sun-kissed beaches and palm trees. So take a look at every blog entry and consider how you can enrich it with the use of video, pictures and graphs.

Perhaps you’ve just started your blogging venture—or maybe you are knee-deep in it like Le Littre. But no matter how seasoned you are, your blog can always use a little nip and tuck. So set aside some time this month, do a deep dive into your platform and ask yourself those gut check questions you’ve been pushing to the side. As for me? The content marketer in me can’t wait to spend part of my October with Le Littre. À plus tard!

 

Dubbed a “Chatty Cathy” from the time she uttered her first word, Content Boost’s Director of Content Marketing Carrie Majewski (née Schmelkin) is nothing short of verbal. Her love of talking matured into love of writing which inevitably transformed into a love of marketing. Carrie is responsible for overseeing the cutting-edge content marketing beast that is Content Boost—managing brand and editorial strategy, fostering client relationships, identifying new revenue opportunities and striking strategic partnerships. Carrie has worked with a variety of high profile clients on branding and copy creation from Sprint to Panasonic to AT&T to Emerson Network Power. When she’s not busy wordsmithing and debating content marketing versus traditional marketing, you can find her working on her swag in a hip-hop dance class, clogging her DVR with “Friends” reruns and trying desperately to make it up past 9:30 pm on the weekends with her hubby. #OldSoul.