Blogging for individuals and small businesses: Part 3 – Who

I've decided it's time to continue a little bit on this series. If you haven't read them yet, here are part one and two, where I wrote about Why you should be blogging and What you should be blogging about.

Now it's time to talk about the Who. Depending on the mission and objectives (see part one) for your blog, you will want to write so that you can capture the readers that can help you get there. Your intended audience, that is. Think about existing and potential clients, investors, partners, suppliers, employees, etc.

As I've mentioned in part two, you should consider dividing your blog into different categories, each of them grouping articles that talk about the same main topic. One of the basic Marketing techniques is segmentation and orientation. Your categories help you do exactly this. Each category could very well represent a segment of your market and help you orientate your message to them.

A few targeted messages to each of your segments will be more efficient that only one message sent out to everybody. Tell the story that goes well with every segment. Even better, try to connect at the individual level (e-mail, comments, etc). Warning: telling different stories is tempting and is the right thing to do, but thy must have a common kernel among them, or otherwise you wont be building a consistent message (always respect your brand global message, your values and, once again, your mission).

For instance, if you are a Realtor (TM), you may have, for example, the following categories: Houses and Downtown Condos. Let's suppose Downtown Condos are very expensive and exclusive. Only very successful, wealthy individuals and families can afford them. Then you will want to tweak your message so that it is most appropriate for the wealthy readers interested on this market. This will allow you to create a better connection with them. For the Houses category, you may want to write having a family mother or father in mind. These are just examples, but you get the point.

Don't just limit yourself to think about the different content you will use for articles orientated to each segment. Think about the best way to connect with them. Be creative. Think about slightly tweaking your writing style. Include links or information regarding services, products, brands, referrals, free online tools, e-books, manifestos, lenses, books, movies, advise and other content your target audience is likely to be interested in. Remember to be human. Connect brands they already like with your own brand (e.g. review an Apple stylish product in your design category).

In other words: don't clog your blog with selfish content promoting your products or services. Offer your readers more than that, and they will come back often.

Once things start to work, care about Who is reading, and Who is reading each category. Use a good web statistics system to learn about them and how they use your website (I use, for example, phpOpenTracker). Also, keep reviewing and adapting your segmentation and orientation as needed. Flexibility and speed are some of your big advantages for being small, so profit from them! Warning: do not change your message too often, or you will end up confusing your readers and consumers. They need some time to digest your material. Be patient.

On the next part, I will talk about some clever and inexpensive ways to promote your blog by leveraging readily available technology and on-line services.

I hope you've enjoyed this part. This is just a collection of small ideas. Please help me improving them with your comments