Blogging ROI For A Small Business, Like My Small Business

I'm frequently asked what the ROI is of my blogging efforts. Year-to-date, 30% of my project work is sourced from folks who subscribe to my blog, or found the blog via a search.

If you're a small business, and you're willing to give your audience something tangible, something they can actually use, you should be able to realize a positive ROI for your efforts.

More On The Neiman Marcus Blog

This entry showed up in Google Reader this morning.

Obviously, I'm not the "target market" for this item.

But the look and feel of this blog post reads like it was created by a person with a background in cataloging. It certainly isn't a cold, sterile, template-based e-mail marketing campaign.

It's a shame Neiman Marcus doesn't allow loyal customers to leave comments. Good or bad, imagine what the corporate merchandise buyer might learn from the feedback she obtains from a conversation with her customers?

For the rest of us, this blog represents a starting point. How does this format, this medium, this style of selling, apply to the businesses we manage? Catalogers, how do you apply your craft to this medium?

MineThatData Traffic Analysis

Click on the image to enlarge it.

You're probably wondering how many folks read this blog, right?

Or, maybe the topic is only of interest to me.

Either way, you get to learn all about blog audience dynamics today.

According to my statistics, I have about 3,900 visitors per month (via Google Analytics) and an average of 450 daily subscribers (via Feedburner).

The image illustrates how we get to subscribers, and the true amount of monthly traffic generated by the blog.

During an average month, 1,873 visitors arrive via search (almost all via Google). 976 visitors arrive from other websites, about eighty percent from blogs referring folks to MineThatData (thank you all!). 200 visitors type in the URL.

Of these visits (3,049), about two percent (60) become what I call "Loyalists", folks who frequently visit the URL, or subscribe by RSS or E-Mail.

I estimate that each month, I add 60 subscribers, and lose 30 subscribers, yielding a net increase of 30 subscribers. To date, about 450 of you subscribe via RSS, E-Mail, or type in the URL frequently. You are my "Loyalists". Thank you!!!!

The 450 "Loyalists" drive the relative popularity of this site, visiting about 13,650 times a month. There are 854 actual site visits, 5,460 readings in Google Reader, 1,092 via E-Mail, and 7,098 readings in other RSS Readers.

In total, this yields 14,504 actual readings from my "Loyalists", and 3,019 visits from folks who weren't impressed with the site, or got what they needed from one visit and moved on.

In total, this yields 17,523 real "visits" each month.

There are flaws with the analysis --- there are probably many more "Loyalists" than measured by Feedburner --- BlogJuice suggests I have twice as many Bloglines subscribers as Feedburner suggests I have. So there might be as many as 1,000 actual "Loyalists", each visiting half as often as I have estimated.

Still, the number of real "visits" is a reasonably accurate reflection of what happens each month ... yielding about 210,000 annual visits.

Virtual CEO: Marketing Strategy

You are sitting in your Monday morning Executive meeting at a Multichannel Retailer. You review the numbers from the past weekend, and talk about the week ahead. At each meeting, you discuss one strategic issue.

This morning, your strategic issue is the development of a corporate blog. Your executive team has many points of view.

The Marketing Executive wants to use a blog as a way to improve the communication between customers and the leadership team. Maybe more important, the Marketing Executive knows that a key competitor just launched a blog that gives customers an opportunity to evangelize merchandise.

The Merchandising Executive wants to use a blog as a way to communicate new and exciting merchandise to loyal customers, and that communication can only happen if a merchandiser or a copywriter is writing the copy.

The Inventory Executive doesn't want to communicate new and exciting merchandise, because if customers love the new merchandise, the product will sell-out quickly, and customers will be disappointed. The Inventory Executive wants to use the blog to feature merchandise that is not selling well.

The Information Technology Executive will manage and maintain a blog if one additional staff member is hired --- there are simply too many projects to manage with existing staff.

The Operations Executive wants the folks who answer customer questions over the telephone to maintain the blog, because these folks are closest to the customer.

The Finance Executive is opposed to a blog, because confidential corporate information could be released to the public, and suggests bringing legal representation into the room to discuss all of the bad things that could happen.

The Human Resources Executive believes that a blog is a great way for some of the most talented copywriters to get increased exposure, especially in a year when the average employee will only get a 3% cost of living increase.

The Database Marketing Executive loves anything that can potentially be measured.

The Online Marketing Executive doesn't necessarily care about the content of the blog, but thinks the blog should be maintained by the Online Marketing department. These folks thoroughly understand the important link between search results and blogging frequency.

The Catalog Marketing Executive wants to use customer feedback from the blog in upcoming catalogs as ways to market the benefits of the brand.

The Public Relations Director is one-hundred percent opposed to any forum that allows customers the opportunity to bash the brand, and will side with the Finance leader in getting legal involved.

Virtual CEO: How would you navigate these differing points of view? Given the information offered here, what would you decide --- blog, or no blog? If you decided to have a blog, which Executive would you support, and why?

The Neiman Marcus Fashion Week Blog

Once you start writing daily blog posts, and earn the right to have an audience, you wonder why companies are SOOOO SLOOOOOW to adopt this form of communication.

So when a reputable company launches a blog, you open your eyes and your mind.

Neiman Marcus is hosting something that resembles a blog, discussing the events transpiring at Fashion Week.

There isn't a social aspect to what is being written. Readers cannot offer their comments. But Neiman Marcus Fashion Director Ken Downing gives his customers a glimpse into an event they can never hope to attend. His writing brings fashion and commerce to life.

Neiman Marcus customers are buying the fusion of the story and the fashion.

Finally, somebody in e-commerce is communicating a story. Somebody is finally romancing the customer.

Downing is channeling Fashion Week to loyal customers, who will spend more than a thousand dollars in a heartbeat based on Ken's writing.

To heck with the ROI of blogging, the IT infrastructure needed to do this, the public relations nightmares that can occur. In fact, to heck with blogging. Why not simply romance your customers for once?

Stop cross-selling and up-selling. Stop trying to avoid shopping cart abandonment. Stop the boring e-mail campaigns. Stop the generic discussion about why your denim jeans are better than twelve thousand other brands.

Start giving your customers something they can't get anywhere else.

Ken Downing is giving his customers insight into an event they cannot hope to attend. He's giving them a reason to purchase something. And that's why we all work for businesses ... we are trying to sell our customers something. Instead of trying to interrupt the customer, give the customer something, SELL them something. Use words, communicate, share your emotion and passion.

Thumbs-up to Neiman Marcus for at least trying something interesting.

The Lands' End Santa Blog

You know the world is changing when Lands' End hosts the Santa Blog, complete with an RSS feed. Lands' End pioneered numerous innovations during the twentieth century, and was one of the first catalogers to move into the online channel. Now this. A year from now, this type of customer interactivity will be commonplace.