Annabel please tell my audience about yourself. Give us a background. What made you want to start successfulblogging.com?
Thank you for inviting me here Shane. I’m a freelance writer and web designer. I have an MA in Design for Interactive Media from Middlesex University in London and I’ve been writing and designing for the Internet since 1995.
I started a travel blog called Get In the Hot Spot after moving to Australia in 2009 to share my writing and travel stories. Then I discovered that my blog was a great marketing tool for my web design services and also brought me heaps of other new opportunities.
I soon got hooked on blogging and wrote Successful Blogging in 12 Simple Steps to help other small business owners and writers tap into the power of blogging. Later I set up Successful Blogging.com to share more blogging tips and give other business owners, freelancers, consultants and writers on-going support and motivation.
Please tell my audience about your ebook called “Successful Blogging in 12 Easy Steps”
The aim of the book is to demystify blogging because when I started I noticed that most of the advice about blogging was geared towards the make money online brigade or to people who were quite techie. I wanted blogging to be accessible to people who weren’t that technical, especially creatives who I knew would benefit from blogging to help sell more of their services or products. The book is a combined course and workbook so that people can plan their blog before they set it up or hire a web designer and also come up with a clear strategy for what to write and how to promote their blog. It’s available on Amazon in print and (very soon) Kindle.
In this new marketing environment do you believe small and medium sized businesses are taking advantage of social media branding/advertising and blogging?
Well I hear that many small business owners don’t even have a website so anyone who does has a big advantage over their competitors What I’ve always liked about web design is that I can help people market their business very cheaply online because once a decent site is set up it should keep doing its job for years.
The difference with blogging and social media is that business owners have to invest time or money on the marketing on an on-going basis so that puts a lot of people off. But for those people who are prepared to invest in blogging and social media will reap the rewards.
As social media and content marketing continues to grow do you see traditional advertising avenues becoming obsolete. For example, tv, radio, print, classifieds etc ….
Not obsolete no but I believe those things are a poor investment for small business owners. You’re much better investing in your own website. TV, radio and print ads air a few times then people forget about them. If your website is set up well it should attract and convert customers soon after set up and if the search engine optimisation is done right then it should attract more customers in the long term. Social media is a great way to get customers to your website fast.
What are some cost effective strategies a new or used car dealer can employ to help improve the look and feel of their website?
Think like your customer. Remember they are looking for specific information and they want to get it fast. If they can’t do that on your website they’ll give up and try somewhere else.
Every site will be different – some may have a searchable database of cars, others just an overview and a contact phone number. Think about what actions you want those site visitors to take and design your site around that.
Clean and simple designs are best – they load fast and do their job well. People often pay more for flashy animated sites which really don’t add any value to the clients and slow download times.
If a new or used car dealer is on a tight advertising budget, what specific steps would you recommend that business take when promoting their brand online?
Don’t use your logo for your Twitter or Facebook avatar, use a photo of yourself smiling. Be friendly and approachable, not pushy and try to offer useful, relevant advice to people who might be looking to buy a car.
If a car dealer has a bad online reputation what are some ways you could suggest to repair it?
Make sure people find your site or social media outposts first and that everything they see there is consistent and builds trust. Testimonials, photos of yourself and personal stories work well.
How often should a car dealer or local business blog?
As often as they have time to write a useful post. I tell people to pick a schedule and stick to it to begin with so they get in the habit. Once a week is ideal and realistic but if you can only manage once a month that’s better than nothing.
What are some problems you see car dealers having with blogging and social media.What do you think they should do to improve their social media presence?
As someone who doesn’t know that much about cars I’d love to see simpler sites. I think car sale sites are too complicated when people have a big budget or, if they have a small budget, they often look amateur which will put buyers off. If you’ve got photos of real people instead of logos that goes a long way as does being responsive to people who are confused, worried or have questions about the car buying process.
I’d be looking for ways to reward customers for recommending me to other people via social media. It doesn’t have to be big, even offering car wash vouchers as a giveaway to people who send their friends or family to you is a small way of saying thank you and showing you appreciate the recommendation.
The big thing with social media is to remember that the longer you do it the better you’ll do so stick with it, even though it may not appear to work to begin with you should start seeing benefits in six to twelve months and they should increase the longer you do it.
Annabel Candy
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This is our second interview in our “1000 Interview Challenge” If your interested in an interview, please contact me.
This interview was conducted by Shane McC. Shane currently is attending RISD studying computer programming. He enjoys traveling and plays hockey. He played for the Boston Junior Bruins of the EJHL during the 01-02 season. You can follow him on Google+