I like companies like W&R Studios.
They seem like a small operation with a really good product and things seem to be going really well.
I really like how they focus on a specific client. They’re not trying to be everything to everyone out there when it comes to software.
They’ve identified a target customer and they’re looking at providing the best product for that one target customer. I really like it.
W&R is focusing on real estate agents. I think they both have to do with giving agents the ability to present information to clients better.
You can check out their site (which links to each software site) for more on that, but we’re going to do what we do and that is analyze their blogging strategy.
1. Multiple Websites, Company Blogs
One thing I didn’t realize at first was the fact that W&R has multiple sites for their company and two software products:
This is always something that comes up with businesses that have multiple products. And I don’t know if I have the right answer. It’s always an argument of having a site for each product or if you should keep it all under one roof.
If I had to do it I think I would almost always go with one site for everything. The main thing that would make it happen would be the target customer. If the target customer is the same then I think one site is the way to do it.
From an SEO perspective it’s easier to build authority for one site than for multiple.
But that’s nitpicking.
W&R also has two blogs. They have one on the main site and one on the Cloud CMA. One quick note, I don’t know what CMA stands for, but I’m not the target customer.
They keep up with both blogs pretty good too, but when you have two it’s always tough.
2. Back To Basics: Answering Key Questions
Let’s stick with the main blog for a bit.
The first thing I notice is the latest post on the blog, which is from September.
The title is great: What are the differences between Cloud CMA and Touch CMA
Now…I got faked out. This post on the main blog links to the Cloud CMA blog. Maybe that shows a little bit of the challenge with handling multiple sites and blogs.
But anyway, back to the post.
The post starts out with:
Recently a few of our clients have asked us…
Anytime you see yourself thinking that, writing that or whatever…you have a blog post.
The basics of blogging always comes back to answering questions that your target customers have. It’s just like in real life. When you help people with questions they trust you. They see that you’re a friend and that they should latch on to you.
We start every blogging strategy with looking at the target customer and doing our best to identify the questions they are asking in relation to the industry.
Some are specific like this one and others are more industry-related. A good mix of both is good.
3. Welcome To…
There are a few posts on the Cloud CMA blog recently that are welcoming new team members to the staff.
I love these types of posts.
These are great posts too from W&R. I think they’re well done. You don’t need to go over the top with this type of post, but W&R has a great balance.
We get asked about posts like this that include some personality and a little get-to-know-us. We’re all for it and the reason is that if you’re a B2B, go to your website stats and check out your about page views.
Chances are really good that visitors are frequenting this page and the reason is because they want to know who you are. They want to get to know you a little bit.
That’s how business works in real life and it works exactly the same online. We want to get to know the people we do business with.
And these posts help to do that.
4. Important Updates
One thing, one very important thing, with software is security.
It’s hard for smart people to know how software really works.
For people like me, we just want it to help us with something. We really don’t need to see how it works in the backend, but we do want to know that we’re safe when we’re using it.
About a year ago there was a big issue with security in the online world.
When things like this happen it’s always good for companies related to the tech world or software world to address the issue in a positive way.
W&R did this with a post on the heartbleed bug. It’s something people are reading about and worrying about and a company blog is a great place to come out and say what’s going on. Whatever the truth is that is what should go in the official post.
5. Calls-To-Action
Let’s end with a quick discussion on blog calls-to-action. I think W&R does it really well on the sidebar of their Cloud CMA Blog.
The target reader or client for the software is real estate agents.
And the call-to-action is a guide or white paper or report on how to create better real estate presentations. So when you’re selling property to clients you need a good presentation. It’s a competitive field.
W&R is getting to a real problem, perhaps the most common problem, for their target audience and offering some great content.
They’re not jumping ahead to their product and service. They’re answering questions and solving problems.
Your target audience is not always ready to buy what you sell. I think I read something at one point that said 97% of your target audience is not thinking about what you sell. Or that 97% of the the time they’re not thinking about what you sell. Something like that.
That’s obviously a huge amount.
The point is that a business blog is aimed at that 97% while your other website pages are aimed at the 3%.
You keep people engaged and provide value on what they’re doing with 97% of the time with a blog. It might not convert well, but you still want to engage the 97%.
Then when the time comes for the 3% you’re there with your website to convert them.
Conclusion
We have another blog here, actually two blogs, that do some great things. The company is finding key questions that the target audience is asking and they’re providing good answers. Anytime your blogging strategy has that element you’re going to be doing well.
And W&R seems really sincere with the personality they have in the blog too. There’s a lot of good going on and I hope they keep it up with their blogging efforts.