Reaching Customers in the Offline World
As I put together the SOBCon materials for Models and Masterminds course, I’m thinking about the folks we call visitors and whether they’re really customers.
When I first started my writing blog, I had one reader, a friend who likes to read. Then I joined a “click traffic group” and as long as I clicked other blogs I got a related number of pageviews. Those clickers became the first visitors to my blog. I’m fairly sure few actually read anything.
At day 21, a comment appeared. Shortly after that a few folks started coming back. I had regular readers. Then I had 10 subscribers. I even knew who some of them were. When page views reached 1000/day and comments were plenty and regular, I put up some ads. I thought I’d make some holiday money.
I was confused.
I hadn’t really been looking at who was visiting my blog.
Traffic, Readers, Colleagues — Are They Customers?
When you look at the people who visit your blog, what do they do and how long do they stay?
- Traffic – If they come in swarms following a link or bookmark and leave in a few seconds flat, it’s traffic. If someone stumbles a page and thousands come only to go away, isn’t that the same as people visiting a store because they were downtown to watch a parade? Traffic is noise unless convert it to readers or customers.
- Readers – If each visitor reads 1.5 pages or more, you’re building a community of readers. If an audience is your goal, you’ll well on your way. If selling is what you’re about, you’ll need to convert readers into customers. Readers ignore ad that sit in the sidebar. To sell to readers, talk about what they want. Be helpful in solving their problems with products and services that naturally draw from the content you discuss.
- Colleagues – Being helpful and solving problems can convert readers into customers. But look closely at your audience. Are they potential customers? If you run a “trade” blog — one that discusses the ideas, trends, and people in your industry — your discussions might be with an audience of colleagues not potential customers. Colleagues are unlikely to buy your products and services, at least not long enough for your business to thrive.
We can build a thriving blog that knocks everyone’s socks off, but it can be an investment of love and time that has no customers.
In a world where mostly bloggers read blogs, it’s a good habit to watch our audience. Unless we’re selling specifically to bloggers, our businesses will grow faster if we connect to customers outside the blogosphere.
How would you help a new blogging business connect to customers in the offline world?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
Models and Masterminds begins with offline connections to customers.
Our studio focuses on small- to mid-size businesses. We often send emails to potential clients about our services, but always include a link to our collaborative blog (micropreneur.wordpress.com). The blog addresses issues for microbiz owners and helps them leverage the web as a learning tool and educational resource. There is no selling on the blog. Just an open community sharing ideas, techniques and support. I’ve developed customers from the readers because they feel we go the extra mile to provide a helpful, free service.
Hi Liz
Our own business blog – my FAQ & News on wooden flooring blog – might be a good example for business bloggers selling ‘real stuff’.
Allowing your visitors, readers to ask questions in the comment box and replying to those question as soon as possible with free advice, help and links to other pages, products on your site has the ability to turn them into clients.
It is an investment in time for the blog/site owner but it is IMHO the simplest form of converting visitors into reader, readers into clients.
Our blog is daily proof of it 😉 and I teach my blog-students to do the same: the more you give, the more you ‘get (be it converted visitors or buying readers).
Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)
Isn’t the rule to “go where the customers are?”
Find online forums on your subject outside the blog world and jump in.
Talk to local groups and organizations associated with your niche and get a blurb in their online or hard copy newsletter. Be a guest speaker for one of their meetings.
Write or email top non-blogging experts (authors, professors, business leaders) in your niche area and interview them. They will tell everyone where to find the interview.
Write a press release to get coverage in your local paper, either about your blog or blogging. Tell your local press that blogging is a “lifestyle,” and they will perk up their ears.
Make a YouTube video about yourself, your blog, or your product. Make it fun, funny, or interesting. I know of a company that sells equipment for autopsying lab rats for scientific study, and even it has “how-to videos.” (No, I did not watch them.)
Have I done any of this myself? No. I am working with my husband to set up a WordPress.org site so I can advertise, but these ideas seem to make sense to me.
I don’t know about that 1.5 PV/V figure. I like to see it well above 2, and am happier when it approaches or passes 4. I’m very unhappy when it drifts down to 1.5
HOWEVER: it depends on the blog. A blog that gets most of its traffic from regular subscribers (high repeat visitors) is going to show a smaller number of average page views per visit – they’ve visited regularly, have already read the other pages, why would they read them again? A blog like mine, primarily driven by search engine results, should have a higher PV/visit count BUT (and it’s a big but) that depends on the specific page, too. If a page reached by search is a complete answer to a specific problem, people may immediately leave because they are off to apply the fix!
So PV/V is actually a very complicated subject.. I’d guess most of your visitors are repeats, so your figure probably should be low.
I’ll also point out that colleagues can be a good source of customers. I pass work that I can’t handle or don’t want to colleagues and they in turn pass work to me.
Obviously you engage customers by proving your value. Exactly how you do that is going to vary, but that’s the base concept, right?
I do think you can drive yourself a little nuts trying to tune your blog to a specific note. Play the notes you play well, and let whoever responds to those respond. What will be, will be 🙂
Look at this! I leave my blog for a second and all of these wonderful words show up!
Harry,
That sounds like a great way to blend direct contact with a blog. I’d love to talk to you more about how well it’s working.
Hi Karin!
These days, FAQs help me faster than I ever imagined they could. I’m in praise of any company that gets them right. Great FAQs save everyone time.
Speaking of time, I really think that the time we spend blogging is time that we would be spending marketing other ways, don’t you? I think as we blog more the time investment becomes more efficient as well.
Hi Sage!
Great advice, I think you should copy it all and write it up as a guest post for my blog. I can only add “look to the customers standing right beside you.”
Hi Anthony,
I too, look for an average pv of up to 4/visitor, but I have a well-established blog like yours. For a blog getting on it’s way, I think 1.5 says that folks are reading not sitting around.
I’ll take your advice about colleagues one further and say to teach customers how to refer you as well.
In the end, though we need to learn to speak to the folks who don’t know what blogs are about. That’s the point I want to make here. They’re missing something we’ve got, and we’re missing them as potential customers. 🙂
No, Liz – 1.5 might be perfectly fine. And if you are trying to sell something, trying to drive people to a closing page, high page views might indicate confusion or bad navigation – you’d want to see low figures for that kind of site.
PV/V is really dependent on a lot of factors as I said above. You can only compare to sites that are very similar to your own in terms of size, content and visitor source. 1.5, 2, 4, 8 – it depends.
Who has the highest PV/V? Porn sites. Let’s not compare our sites to theirs 🙂
Hi Anthony,
I get your point. Gadget and product blogs don’t look for reading ratios at all, I wouldn’t suppose.
Porn sites. Great point. On the other hand I don’t suppose folks are actually reading . . . 🙂
“I don’t suppose folks are actually reading”
No, I guess not. But it’s a bit humbling to think that some of the crappiest and least important porn sites probably still get visitor counts we’d sell our family for..
Sometimes I wish I were less principled 🙂
Liz — will do! Thanks!
Yeah, Anthony.
I hear ya about the “readership” at porn sites — proof that numbers aren’t everything. 🙂
I think this topic extends not only to blogs, but to advertising and content.
It comes down to what do people remember, people can talk about you offline in the most amazing places!
Hi David,
It’s certainly a need to bridge the gap and get folks talking the same language again. First we have to meet folks where they are, not expect them to come to us. 🙂
Hey, Liz,
What a wonderful dialogue that’s developed here. When I decided to take up blogging, I did so mostly because it gave me the opportunity to publish my work at will. But like you, I decided that after I had built up a sizable audience, I tried a few ads to see what might happen. In the last three years, I’ve made about $40 with Ad Sense. Not exactly what I had envisioned. Selling or hocking wares has never been my strong suit. As writers, we want readers, an audience committed to finding satisfaction in what we write. In regular print medium, the poem, essay, feature article, is the product, and the selling is usually done by the sales department of the newspaper or magazine by making ad space available for businesses to purchase. But trying to duplicate that process with a blog doesn’t seem to work as well. It would be nice if it were simply a matter of developing an audience for your blog that would be convincing enough for an advertiser to purchase a spot on your blog, but it doesn’t quite work that way.
Scot
Hi Scot!
Yeah, we land here with hearts and words wide open, but not ready for the concept of “free.” We’re learning that the Internet is about information, not creative writing — at least right now.
It’s all about how will your experience, your narrative, help ME!!
The wonder of the written word has become the content of clear communication. It’s a conversational venue. We’re back in the country store you first described to me.
very encouraging words…
That’s a very good question – I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately.
It’s been a question I’ve been pondering a lot lately. Are the people who visit my blog customers or bloggers looking for inspiration?
As you know, my primary occupation is inspirational speaking and life coaching. At the moment, I make it well known on my blog that I am an inspirational speaker. But to my knowledge, none of the people who have hired me have found me through my blog. Isn’t that interesting?
Now, the primary people I need to reach are meeting planners. They are the ones who have the budget to hire speakers so I think I need to draw them to my blog. That’s how I think I need to find off-line customers.
Hi Barry!
Thanks for stopping by. Glad you found encouragment in this.
Hi Stephen,
It’s an important question and an easy one to overlook. When we get a positive response to what we do, we often don’t want to consider that the folks who are applauding might not be the audience we want or the audience we need to support our work.
You’re looking in the right direction. 🙂
Liz:
Thanks. This is a topic of great interest to me and it makes me very curious. It took a long time for me to build the community that I have and interestingly enough, according to the stats, visitors tend to stay around for a while as evidenced by the number of page views a day.
But who are they? That’s the key. That’s the question. The longer I stay in blogging, the more I think these people are mostly bloggers reading other blogs and not necessarily your customers. The only thing I can think of that would covert readers into customers is if you have blogging services to offer – that seems to be making money for some people. Like Darren Rouse at Problogger or people of that niche.
Very, very interesting subject. Fascinating, really. Thanks again.
We sell wooden flooring, our readers buy our products after visiting our blog – maybe we’re just a one-off different type of bloggers?
Still think, am convinced other ‘retailers’ can do the same.
Karin H.
Hi Stephen,
You’re reaching the same conclusions that I’ve come to . . . if we want customers for nonblogging services we have to find nonblogging readers. Seems obvious once we say it, but getting to that thought that mostly bloggers read blogs is a huge leap.
Hi Karin!
I think it’s possible too. I bet your blog is highly findable for “wooden flooring.” Your blog and your blog posts write for your customers with helpful advice . . . that brings the right people — who tell their friends about you.
Hi Liz
It goes even further than that – my readers ‘interact’ with us through our blog: using the comment box for Q and A 😉
Why restrict the possibilities a ‘dynamic website’ like blogs can give you, comments or questions, what’s in a name?
Karin H.
Liz:
It’s definitely a HUGE leap to make the realization that most of our readers are bloggers like ourselves reading other blogs for the enjoyment or inspiration but not necessarily to buy products or services. Thanks for adding this thought to my consciousness.
From now on, I’m going to be more conscious of reaching outside the blogging circle and see how I can attract the customers I need to attract.
What’s interesting also, Liz, is that of all the speaking engagements I’ve had, almost all of them found me on the Internet but they were drawn to my speaking website, not necessarily my blog. Now, of course, it’s possible they found my blog first and then went over to the speaking website but I have no way of knowing unless I ask them about it.
I’m loving this conversation. Makes me ponder deeply. GREAT JOB. Thanks.
@Stephen
You CAN tell whether visitors to your speaking site came from your blog.
Probably the easiest way to do that is to sign up for Google Analytics – you’ll get a lot more info than just visitor source, too.
However, if all you want is basic stats, your hosting provider probably has a log stat page where you can get this info. If not, you can download your log file and look at it with any number of freely available tools or even just look at it as text – the info you want is all there.
Liz:
Thanks – I actually have Google Analytics and you just reminded me to take a closer look at it since it does have that info.
🙂
Hi Liz – Stephen
Can I suggest you also have a look at Ed Rivis’ new home-study program on website statistics?
He calls it Stat Faceslap – because of the truth that is hidden in the stats most of us are not really truly aware off and how to use stats to your benefits.
Karin H.
On the subject of stats, Avinash Kaushik has a website http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/ and a book (I reviewed that at
http://aplawrence.com/Books/web-analytics.html )
Both are excellent. I do NOT like his survey tool (it’s a stupid popup) but everything else is on the money.
Wow. Late to the party here, but what a really good discussion. This topic has been on my mind for over a week. I have to say thank you to Tony right off the bat for Occam’s Razor. Truly. And to all the others for such good contributions. (I made a few notes, so thanks)
I think this is one huge topic to bring up. And one that bears continued focus. It is easy to get caught up in positive responses, and shared interests. Liz, love the way you categorized the types of visitors we get. Large red arrow needs to go right over the last one. Concentrate here. If it could flash too that would be great. I would love to see follow up posts on combinations of online and offline bases to tag. Or effective ways like dear Kiss’s flooring business where combinations are found that are effective and fun. Excellent discussion.
But who make your blog much popular. Traffic gets you more traffic. Its a chain reaction, because of serch engines.
And about readers, they are the one for whom blog is for.
Good post.
“And about readers, they are the one for whom blog is for”
Maybe. Maybe not. 90% of my traffic is from Search. So is the site “for” the 10% of regular readers or the 90% who come from search?
I could say that I’m writing for the “regulars”, but my income definitely comes from the seekers – both in terms of consulting and advertising.
So who is it “for”?
Great conversation on the ways we could be making better use of our stats. Sometimes, I think, we’re just not curious enough . . . (Well, you are, Tony.)
Janice,
Like you, this thought has been on my mind for a long while — over a year — but it’s really reared its head since the whole “social media” conversation started.
So much focus is being placed on who has influence and who is part of which circle, that we seem to forget that our circles aren’t even blips on the circles that exist outside the Internet. Internet famous is NOT Oprah famous. We have to remember that.
Hi Srinivas!
Welcome!
Readers are whom we write for. Customers are the folks we sell. They CAN be the same, but most often they’re not.
I agree with what you say about traffic. That can happen. It can also be just a bookmark blip.
Hey Anthony!
I like your terms “regulars” and “seekers.” But I’d still keep “readers” and “colleague readers” on my list as a subset of “regulars.”
As near as I can tell, I have about 900 “regulars” – RSS readers and others who visit regularly. As I said, that’s around 10% of total visitors. Counting them is NOT easy; see http://aplawrence.com/Web/how_many_rss.html
In terms of direct income, these folks are of low value – they don’t click on ads and few of them are customers. I know that from actual analysis – it’s not a guess.
However, some of these – less than a hundred – are those who contribute regularly. They make comments, send me ideas in email, sometimes contribute articles. Those people are VERY important to me in spite of representing only about 1% of visitors..
Digging into the reality of your visitors can be difficult, but it is rewarding.
Since we’re talking in terms of web analytics, I’d say that casual readers of your blogs are indeed customers. They have a loose emotional relationship with your work. They consume and they move on.
However, if you really dive into the stats, you’ll find there is a core group of readers who have a deep connection and return more frequently. These are not customers, they are regulars and they mean far more to the “business” of your blog even if you’re not selling anything on your site.
The readership knows your work better than you do. They see the daily ups and downs. They notice the lull in posting. They cheer the excitement in your voice when you put up a truly inspiring post.
I wish to respond to Jerry Grove’s comment.
EXCELLENT. I know exactly what you mean about the core group of readers who communicate with me regularly. They definitely know more about you then the rest of them. You’re right on the nose about how they cheer you on, encourage you, frequently comment, etc. They are your BIGGEST FANS.
I felt like you were talking directly to me b/c I don’t “sell” anything on my blog other than the fact that I’m an inspirational speaker and life coach. My blog is sort of like a soft selling mechanism. Many people see it but I have no way of knowing if they are my customers or not b/c none of the clients that have booked me said, “I saw your blog and hired you b/c of it.” They might have indirectly been influenced by it but I have no way of knowing.
The other thing is sometimes these fans become sneezers for you. They tell others who tell others and so on. Very hard to measure this but I would be willing to bet that my future clients might come about as a result of the blog in an indirect sort of way.
Fascinating topic! FASCINATING.
Let’s see…we have:
traffic
readers
colleagues
core readers
seekers
sneezers
Hmm. Need flow chart on these, one that leads straight to the target.
Then let’s see we need some representation of where those sets connect with offline pools and clients.
And something about amplification…
Oh now my brain just hurts. And it looks like I will be learning some more analytics.
But I like Tony’s seekers. Harry Potter aside, we are looking to be found by those. Huge amounts of potential clients barely understand what a blog is or can be. NYT ran a cover feature in this Sunday’s magazine about a Gawker blogger, but it was heavy on the gossip angle.
Excellent question, excellent post.
I see online presence as a way to extend reach of in-person consulting work with individuals and teams. I know what current and past customers have said about our work together, and I’d like to bring the same types of benefits to more – in different ways – in addition to continuing in-person work.
I’m still experimenting with online work and presence. Learning and change are sometimes fast, sometimes slow, but all is working to a refined approach that will include online and in-person work.
Experiments have, so far, helped me learn the “rhythms” of online flow which is leading to, soon, an updated website, a second purely-business blog, addition of service products, and more.
Thanks for your good work and writing…and for this question, at the moment.