When you're "blogging for authority" you're basically establishing yourself as an expert on your chosen topic. In order to understand why you need to "blog for authority" to successfully market your business or practice, you first need to understand the two different types of sales. Once you understand WHICH type of sale your business is making, then we'll cover WHY blogging is so essential to one of those types of sale.
TWO TYPES OF SALES
Neil Rackham's book Spin Selling covers the difference between Major Sales and Minor Sales in great detail. Whether your business is making Minor or Major Sales will determine how you structure your marketing and advertising strategy.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that the techniques which work so well at moving gallons of milk off of a store's shelves don't work as well when applied to say, purchasing mutual funds or buying a home, yet Rackham appears to be breaking new ground in the area of applying these principles to sales thanks to the extensive research compiled by the Huthwaite Institute.
While Rackham's research and reports on the subject are framed to help an outside sales person perform his/her job more effectively, we will use his observations to help your marketing/advertising message work as yet another productive member of your sales force.
To determine which type of sale your business offers, consider the following:
MINOR SALES
According to Rackham, your business is making Minor Sales if:
- There is a single decision-maker
- The buyer's financial or emotional investment is low or insignificant
- The purchase does not warrant the time/energy necessary to research alternatives
- There is little interaction between you and the customer
- The consequences of making a purchasing mistake are inconsequential or insignificant.
On the other hand, your business is making Major Sales if:
- There is more than one decision-maker
- The buyer's financial and/or emotional investment is significant
- The purchase warrants significant time and research into alternatives
- There is the potential for a long-term relationship between you and/or your business and the customer
- The consequences of making a purchasing mistake are high
In general, Minor Sales have a buying cycle that is short and are often driven by "desires." On the other hand, Major Sales tend to involve more time and research on the part of the consumer. While desires drive Minor Sales, goals usually drive Major Sales. Purchasing shampoo is a Minor Sale. Purchasing real estate is a Major Sale.
However, it's important to note that Major Sales aren't always expensive. Price is but one of the qualifying criteria for the type of sale. Choosing a babysitter, while not a major expense, certainly qualifies as a Major Sale in the minds of the concerned parents.
THE TYPE OF SALE DETERMINES HOW YOU PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS
Once you've identified the type of sale your business makes, let's look at how the type of sale affects the structure of your marketing.
Just as in the Minor Sale, your advertising message for the Major Sale has to make a great impression on potential customers in ten seconds or less. You must be able to anticipate the conversation going on inside your potential customer's mind so you can join in the conversation and you must stay focused on the needs of the customer. In almost every other way, the advertising message for a Major Sale is very different.
Most of the information you'll get regarding marketing does not take the characteristics of the Major Sale into consideration. While the Minor Sale customer usually buys at the first store that carries the product, the Major Sale customer puts a lot of time and research into the buying decision. The Major Sale customer may visit dozens of different web sites over a period of weeks, or even months, before making a purchase.
By nature, the buyer in a Major Sale requires a lot of information; therefore, the advertising message for the Major Sale needs to provide as much information as possible. Don't worry about "information overload." If someone isn't interested in your product or service then s/he isn't going to bother to read or listen to your advertising message anyway. In the Major Sale, too much "information" isn't going to "scare away" an interested potential customer.
When you're making a Minor Sale, you're just trying to get people into your store; however, when you're involved in a Major Sale, the approach is different.
Every business can benefit from a web site. However, a web presence... especially a blog, is especially useful in helping to provide the information necessary to make the Major Sale. An "authority style blog" can easily convey the large amount of information necessary to begin gaining the customer's trust, which is essential to the Major Sale.
Kathy Hendershot-Hurd is an internet advertising business consultant who works with small business owners on creating effective marketing tools for their business. In 1997 she launched Virtual Impax (http://virtualimpax.com) and she's written a book, Beyond the Niche (http://beyondnichemarketing.com) to help small business owners create an effective marketing strategy for their business. |
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