You’re a business trying to reach out to your customers…what do you do? One thing to consider is setting up a blog, but not just any blog- a useful blog. This blog should add value to your site, not just facts about your company.

While listening to Susie Gardner (Blogging for Dummies, 2nd edition) during Izeafest, she spoke of content improvement.

Here are some things that she lists as being good content, and things you can bring to your company blog: informative content, surprises, interaction, engaging information, inspiring information, or conveying important information.

Let’s take inspiring information as an example. Is there a charity that you’re a sponsor for, or participate in? Share a story of your company reaching out to help others, or becoming involved. Humanize your company and make a difference.

Maybe you’d like to have more interaction with your clients and customers. Ask them questions in your blog that might help direct areas that have been overlooked.

When looking at the goal of your site, you need to decide what you want to get out of it. Do you want better communication with your customers, or do you want to help your clients with projects. Maybe you’re a floor company, maybe you could offer tips on keeping your floors in good condition with useful information that’s not common knowledge.

Who exactly is your audience? When you know who you are speaking to, you can create content that is geared towards their needs. How often do people respond, and how often do you want to post to your company blog. Like a newsletter, you can have a monthly update, though I’d encourage weekly updates and information.

“Do the work that others won’t”, Jeremy “Shoemoney” Shoemaker said.

I got the chance to listen to “Shoemoney” speak at Izeafest. While he was talking blogging, I’m taking the information and sharing it with you in a business context.

When you’re looking at success, you have to look at not only what good can come out of it, but what else might happen. Being prepared is key. When you’re a success, you not only look at what’s working now, but you look at how to expand on something.

When it comes to businesses who are getting into the blogging end of things, to get more in touch with their customers, the most important thing to remember is to write for your customers. Be relevant, offer useful information your clients can use, and they’ll return in kind, and become more loyal customers.

When it comes to standing out and being different, you need to offer something that others don’t. If you offer the same thing, you need to find a new way to “package” that, so you have a unique spin on things. What’s your specialty, and when you know, let everyone else know too!

When it comes down to it, having the work ethic, and putting the time in will make a difference. Doing it in a unique manner, and offering something useful to your clients will keep you in business for a long time. Don’t be afraid to try new things, and see how they work. Do some split testing, and find out if you can improve on something. Don’t settle until you’re happy with how your business is working.

While at Izeafest, one of the speaker panels that I had a lot of interest in was the “Growing Traffic” panel. I knew as soon as Dr. Tony Hung, the moderator, got up to speak, this was going to be a good panel. I was right, and as soon as the first person started talking I was hooked. That first person was Lea Alcantara, and what she talked about was branding. It was something I needed to hear more about. I’m going to share some of the things she shared with us. It’s easy to tell others how to do something, but sometimes we overlook what we need to do. This is one area, I need to get better with.

Lea wrote a series of articles called the Art of Self Branding.

How she starts is by asking people she knows to give her 3 adjectives that describe her. After asking enough people, she starts to see a common thread. It then helps her shape her branding. I did this first step when I first got home asking friends and family for words to describe me. This is the list that I’ve got so far:

Kindhearted, passionate, emotional, compassionate, intelligent, beautiful personality, upbeat, knowledgeable, sensitive, smart, caring, empathetic, intuitive, thinking, generous, fun, tender, giving, positive, determined, and generous came up a second time.

The common threads I see are:

1. kind, compassionate, tender, empathetic
2. intelligent, smart, thinking, determined
3. generous, giving

Okay, now what?

Now you look at these words, and let them help decide who you are and what direction you should go in. I guess I’m a nice person. How that can help brand me, I’m still sitting on. It’s giving me a look at how others see me though, and allows me to see myself in another way.

Know who you are, what appeals to you, and who your audience is.

One thing I really liked that Lea Alcantara said during her time on the panel is to know that you can’t be everything to everyone. Pick that segment that you want to speak to, and speak with them. My voice, along with what I write is part of my branding. As you know here, I use a very personal voice on my blog, and talk about life experiences and how they relate to business. I prefer to use a non-technical voice, and talk with my readers (meaning YOU!), not AT my readers. My segment is also for the beginners in small business. I don’t have all the answers for big corporate America, but I can help you with direction if you’re just starting out.

So my advice to you today is that if you’re looking at personal branding, get yourself over to Lea’s articles on the “Art of Self Branding” and learn a little more today.

One of the things that meant a lot to me after hearing her speak was that I was INSPIRED! That’s the sign of a good speaker. I’m inspired to take what I’ve learned and carry it with me.

Ted Murphy is one of a kind. He’s an incredible entrepreneur and plows ahead regardless of the obstacles. It’s really great to know this guy, because he’s shown me that good things happen if you keep working hard. It’s been an interesting ride to watch Izea grown out of PayPerPost. I was really excited when I saw everyone that would be speaking, as well as the topics they covered.

Jeremy “ShoeMoney” Shoemaker was there, and honestly, it was the “back story” of his life that really held my interest. It reminded me that we’re all the same, just people out here doing our thing, and when we push and work hard, good things can happen. Sitting on our laurels isn’t going to get us there.

I must confess, one of the other reasons I came down to the conference was for a chance to hang out with a couple of my friends that I talk with pretty regularly. It was a blast. Great combination when you can combine fun with learning.

Merlin Mann was the keynote on Saturday morning, and he gets right to the meat of it- Get better! Seriously, if you get a chance to hear him speak, he was motivating, and really gets you thinking. I knew as he spoke, I needed to make changes, and not just little ones. The thing is, I do want to get better. I don’t want to just settle for doing what I’ve been doing on some of my other blogs. That’s the cool thing about listening to a good speaker, they make you WANT TO TAKE ACTION!

John Chow, Loren Feldman, Neal Patel, and the list goes on. In our world of online blogging and websites, these are people that can really speak our language. People were open with information, helpful, and open for questions. I really enjoyed the give and take that was going on. It wasn’t a one up kind of thing, it was a “let me share what helps me” kind of event.

I can’t say it was all fabulous and perfect. While 90% of the sessions I got something out of, I was a little disappointed in the “Social Networking” panel. This isn’t personal, but if you don’t care about social networking or aren’t a fan of it, why discuss it on a panel? Also, it seemed like it got off track, losing focus, and just centered on twitter. Bring something new, tell us something we may not know about, or show us ways to use networking, that we may not be aware of. Don’t rehash the stuff that 99% of the people sitting in the room all ready know.

My favorite speaker on Friday was Lea of LeaLea.net. She touched on branding, and it was something that really hit home with me. I’ll be expanding on this in a separate post, when I have a moment to sit down with my notes. I’m sitting at the hotel this morning, and getting ready to catch a flight in a bit. Loved Lea!

I loved that the conference combined fun and knowledge. Learning new things is how we grow. You can’t just go on thinking we know “everything” like my 14 year old does, because with growth comes maturity. In my time as a blogger, a little over 2 years now, I’ve beend developing in different ways. I’m learning I want a different audience at times, and that I want to be better. I realized I’m lazy at times, and that’s not fair to the people who take the time to read me. I realized quite a bit, and it’s got my brain firing all over the place!

What I learned more than anything is that I want to be here again next year.

One last thought- we beat John Chow at the Scavenger Hunt, and that alone is fun to shout out! Thanks to John for getting in a picture with our team. We had fun taking the picture, and thanks to John for being a good sport as we “trash talked” him with big smiles. He’s a nice guy, and it was nice to meet him in person. He may not be found easily in Google, but we found him in Florida this weekend!

Thanks to Alli from AlwaysAlli.com for the Izeafest pics she took, and allowing me to share them. She’s a really great girl and someone I’m glad to call a friend.

Some people are natural minglers; I am not that person. Once I’m talking to someone to someone I’m open and friendly, but that first reaching out is hard for me. I decided today to reach out and meet a couple extra people, since networking is so important. In the process, I ended up meeting some really nice people.

As a business blogger, one of the people I was pleased to meet was Elsom Eldrige. He’s “The Consultant’s Consultant”. He’s written a book, and I’m going to have the opportunity to review it for you when I return home. I’m excited to share more information on Mr Eldridge’s book so you can be introduced to him and learn more!

I’m sitting in Orlando this evening, which is a nice diversion from my usual New Jersey. I had the opportunity to come down to Izeafest and listen to speakers on blogging, advertising, marketing, and growth.

One of the things that I really like is that it’s great for brainstorming. When I listen to new people speak, it gives me new ideas about growth that I can than work on in my own areas. Fresh perspective is something that we often overlook. When things are going well, it’s easy to sit on our haunches and say, “Yippee, going good.” The problem is without continued growth, there comes a point where you get stagnant. Stagnant is not a place I want to be.

I’m looking forward to another full day of speakers and learning some new things. What have you learned recently that you can take back to your own business to spark new ideas and growth?

How much money are you losing with no shows?

Do you have a system in place to call people to remind them of appointments? Do you have a fee that you charge if people don’t show up?

I had a circumstance where I was the no show client, and I felt horrible. It was truly an oversite, but in the mean time, thinking in terms of business, I realized that I had just cost them money. That time that was booked for me, could have gone to another. Trust me, I all ready feel badly enough.

What it got me thinking about is all of those businesses who take appointments: hair, accounting, day spas, dentists and doctors- you get the picture.

How much are no shows costing you each day? Month? Year?

A simple phone call from the company was all I needed. In fact, a second appointment I ALMOST missed was saved due to a phone call reminding me. My brain is distracted right now, since I’ll be traveling shortly, and I’m launching a few new websites. That little 1 minute phone call got my dog to the vet, and I didn’t waste their time. If the other company had called, it would have been resolved.

What plan do you have in place? If you don’t have one, maybe it’s time you start thinking about one. Make sure to give client’s notice that you’re policy is changing, if it involves a fee for a “no show” now.