by Dr. Jeffrey Lant
Of course you already have a blog, right? You are, I mean, on the cutting edge of the Internet, yes?
Well, if you are still blog-less today is indeed your lucky day, because I am going to show you right here, right now how to use your blog to get not a few but a positive avalanche of the best prospect leads on earth. And the great thing is, you can start today, this very minute.
Now affirm and reaffirm this: when you’re in business, running a business blog, the objective is and always will be to generate terrific prospect leads… and follow them up to make money.
It’s easy to forget the objective when you’re publishing a blog which can all too easily be seized by the shear joy and vanity of seeing your name in print. Folks, if you need lovin’ and crave adulation get a dog. They give unqualified affection. But don’t subvert the purpose of your blog.
Nothing sells itself, absolutely nothing.
I have amongst my marketing students some of the very brightest people around… and when they make a mistake, I know the pedestrian run of mankind and marketers are making it, too, in spades.
One of the most rooted errors of these folks is the pernicious, invidious notion that their blog and its contents will sell themselves; that what they are promoting and selling in their blogs needs no introduction, nor powerful words of recommendation; it’s good enough on its lonesome.
In a word: rubbish! In two words: complete rubbish!
Dear friend, there is nothing in this world, not the policies and messages of presidents, popes, and sovereign kings; not the very finest example of the most potent of salubrious medications; not the safest swiftest modes of transportation…. absolutely nothing sells itself.
Once you have realized this essential truth of business, you enter a new, higher level of commerce and marketing… for you are now a puffer in the Great Age of Puffery…. and your daily objective is clear: to puff better, more artfully, more carefully, more successfully than any other puffers on this planet. He (or she) who puffs the most, the best, reaps the most.
Thus, say you intend tomorrow to publish a jim dandy article on some subject of note and significance. The duffer puffer, the one on the bottom of the marketing heap, merely publishes the article, with this unvoiced sentiment: “Here’s the article. Make of it what you will. I can’t be bothered to tell you why you should read it… perhaps I don’t even know.”
And some dare call this marketing.
Now, try this instead…
(puff the day before you publish the article.)
Tomorrow, you readers have an incredible gift coming. I persuaded internationally known author and commentator Dr. Jeffrey Lant to let me have, in advance of publication, his latest article. It details the truth about the relationship of Snow White with those with-it guys, the 7 Dwarfs. You won’t believe what one of the most perceptive commentators around has discovered about Snow… and those Dwarfs. Can you say ‘Happy.’ You certainly will tomorrow….”
With these fast-moving words, you are keeping your audience, your present and future customers all, on the very edge of their seats. You want them in a pother of anticipation and excitement about What Happens Next. You, cleverkins, are ascending in the crucial business of puffery; selling the sizzle, not the steak. And you’re frolicking all the way to the bank.
Remember, puffing is not something occasional or episodic. It is not merely one essential thing in marketing; it is the essential thing and it must be regarded accordingly… from this moment on. Let me make this point absolutely, crystal clear:
If you want to sell a product, you must puff it.
If you want to sell your service, you must puff it.
If you want a person to read your blog, you must puff it.
If you want that same person to read an article in that blog, you must puff it.
Get the picture?
A few more hints
Your puffs must appear prominently in your blog, at least 1 at the top of the first page.
They must be short, enticing, action oriented. They must radiate a single imperative message: Look at all you get, look how delicious it is, grab it, grab it now…’
Here’s another example.
“Wow! I’m ecstatic to tell you that I’ve snagged another one of Dr. Lant’s superb articles. Yesterday nearly 400 of you smarties emailed me with your thanks, congratulations, and sincere appreciation for his last insightful article. Now I’ve got another for you. Stay tuned… you’ll have it in just HOURS. Make sure to email me at once with your reactions and compliments… it’s another winner!!! You can reach me by email (email address here); cell phone (number here)… or land line (number here.) And I want to hear from each and EVERY one of you!”
You must get on with the essential business of puffing each and every day, without exception, that you want money.
And, I guarantee you, that as you improve in your puffery, you will improve your prospect responses, dramatically.
And your bottom line? Why that will improve, too, and dramatically so if and only if you follow up each and every response, as quickly as possible, with a special offer. In other words, thank the respondents, thank them as soon as possible… and always give them a thing (or two) which makes you money. Thus are you benefited as you benefit your fast-responding prospects.
There are many things, of course, which factor into consummate blog success. They include
* having good content, interesting, practical, timely;
* publishing according to a schedule, never missing a deadline;
* writing directly to your readers, always using “you”;
* keeping every word of text short, peppy, upbeat,
* and, always and forever, every single day, puffing.
Because if you don’t puff, if you do not encourage, recommend, admonish, excite, and motivate you are leaving the crucial act of marketing in the hands of those least able to discern for themselves what to do. That decision must be yours. You and only you must advance the necessary reasons for acting as you want them to act. That crucial aspect of marketing belongs to you… and you must do this every time you want results. Like today.
