3.1 The Marketing Funnel

Welcome back to this course on Blogging for Business.

Hopefully, by now you’re starting to get an idea of what to expect with the world of blogging. The last chapter was all about giving you some context. You might have been familiar with some or most of what was covered but odds are, you definitely learned something new. 

This chapter onwards, we’re going to work on getting you closer to that dream of professional freelance blogging. That’s our ultimate goal here: to equip you with everything you need to take on paid blogging projects and absolutely nail it. 

So, where do you begin? Let’s assume you’ve landed this dream job that pays serious money. You’re obviously already chalking out how you’re going to use the money. What phone you’re gonna buy, that new wardrobe or that workation in Bali. 

That’s okay. We get it. We’ve all been there.

But, how do you start servicing a blogging client? 

Always begin by understanding the business. 

When you start freelancing for a business as a blogger, there are a few things you need to understand about them before you can begin. Without fully grasping these key details, you’re probably gonna be shooting in the dark.  

Factor 1 : The Nature of the Business -

In order for you to write about a business, you need to understand how the business works, what the industry is like and what your competition is up to. 

It doesn’t matter how simple or technical the business is, do your frikkin homework.

Take the time to talk to the founders about how the business started, how the industry works. Do your research about the space, key players in it, what has worked and what has failed. 

Now, part from giving you much needed information, this also sets you apart as a professional in the eyes of your client. 

Factor 2: Audience -

We've already begun talking a little bit about audiences, but we really can't stress enough how important it is for you to understand the audience of a business. 

Everything you do will be based around the audience. You want to know who they are, how old they are, where they are located, what specific needs of theirs the business is solving, where they spend their time, and what they search for online. 

Want to go the extra mile? List down a few people you know who fall into the audience category and ask them a few of these questions. Take the time to really understand them and their needs, because this will go a long way. 

Factor 3: Sales -

We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again –in the end, it’s always about the money. It doesn’t matter how great your blog is, or how many thousands of people are reading it: if it doesn’t help grow the business over time, it’s not doing its job. 

To be able to do this, you need to understand a very simple thing. How does this business make money?

Does it sell directly to customers or to other businesses? Does it sell online or do you need to go to the physical store?

How long does it take for a potential customer to make a purchase? 

What does it take to convince them to buy? 

What sales tactic or messaging has worked best so far? 

Asking the right questions is half the job done when it comes to understanding a business. 

Factor 4: Expectations

Finally, you want to get a very clear understanding of what the business expects from your blogging efforts. 

You don’t want the business expecting you to grow the company 10x in 4 weeks, do you? Unless you can pull this off, in which case, come work for us.

But yes, setting mutual, realistic expectations is very important for projects like these. A good portion of blogging projects end poorly because the freelancer and the business didn’t align on what they wanted to achieve from the exercise. 

It’s like trying to telepathically communicate your order to the waiter and then being surprised when they bring out something else. 

So, ask the business what success looks like for them. 

The obvious answer is going to be website traffic and ultimately sales but you need to go deeper than that. 

What is this blogging traffic meant to eventually lead to? Does the business want to build an email list? Are online sales the end goal? Does the blog need to generate leads?

By asking this, you will know what the client really needs and more importantly, you can avoid unrealistic expectations. 

Let's take some time to understand blogging expectations in a bit more detail cause trust me, you’ll need to know this. 

There are a few key outcomes that businesses expect from their blog.

The first one is online sales -

This is the most obvious one, which is why we start with this. If the business you are working for sells its goods online, there is a direct connection between website traffic and sales. The blog drives people to the website who will go ahead and buy products right there.

Here’s an example we touched upon that drives the point home.  https://www.aulitfinelinens.com/

Lead Gen -

Both online and offline businesses understand that lead generation is important. Generating leads that can be nurtured over time is a tactic employed by most of the business world. 

Blogs are a great way to do this because as you add value to a business, they are more likely to give you their contact information.

Most blogs either get users to subscribe to receive the blog articles over email or they give them some freebie like a discount, a free tool, or a resource in exchange for their email address or phone number. 

SEO - 

Blogs improve the overall SEO of a website. That means, the business’ website begins showing up more on relevant searches which leads to more website traffic and more sales. 

This is another huge reason why businesses invest in blogging. It has more of a long term effect than a short-term one. 

Social Media Presence -

Blogs are a huge part of a business’ social media strategy. They give them the ammunition required to build a brand on social media and play an essential role in helping the brand build a following.

Now, these are just some of the more popular reasons why anyone would want a blog and why a business will probably hire you to run theirs so it’s good to have this at the top of your head. 

This should help you set reasonable expectations with a client and start off on the right foot. 

In the next episode, we’re going to talk about how to create a blogging calendar - an extremely important part of the blogging process so I’ll see you there.