Attention ERP Consultant: 3 Reasons Why You Must Blog: Part I

As a very busy ERP consultant, you may be asking yourself lately; "Who has time to blog?" and "Why should I bother?" This week we are launching a series of blogs addressing the WHY's and HOW's of blogs specifically as it pertains to our ERP software industry. This blog will address a few reasons WHY you should consider blogging as a worthwhile effort and an important part of your marketing strategy.

While on this blogging theme this week, we will be co-hosting a webinar with Dan Kraus from Leading Results this Thursday, March 13, 2014 at 10 AM Pacific / 1 PM Eastern time. CLICK HERE to register for this webinar entitled "ERP Software Blog: 5 Publishing Qualities to Achieve Greatness." This webinar will cover the following blogging tips.

1. Does the blog solve a problem that the reader can take away?
2. Is the blog relevant?
3. Is the blog simple:  Keep it simple by using bullets and pictures for readers to understand your idea quickly.
4. Is the blog entertaining?
5. Does the blog read like it is written by a definitive expert?

So WHY is a blogging effort so important these days? More and more people are searching on the internet for answers to their questions. Blogs are like bread crumbs for people to find you.  Wouldn't be nice to receive a good qualified inbound lead from someone who really needs your help? We hope this begins to address WHY every ERP consultant firm should have blogging strategy in place today. Here are some questions and comments I frequently hear:

• Why should I blog anyways? 
• Who has time for blogging? 
• I can't bill for my time when I blog.
• I have more important things to do. Blogging just seems to be a waste of time. 
• I don't understand WHY I should blog or HOW.

3 Reasons WHY Every ERP Consultant MUST (or really should) Blog:

1. SEO...SEO...SEO: Before you even think of writing any blogs, you first need a keyword strategy. Write your blogs related to topics that are in line with the keywords that you want to rank for in SEO. We will go into the HOW's and best practices of blogging in future blogs. When you write a blog with a keyword focus, that blog acts similar to creating a page on your website. The power of the blog is that it doesn't sit on your website waiting to be found, it moves! Social media allows you to share your blog through several social circles like Twitter, LinkedIn contacts, LinkedIn Groups, ERP forums, FaceBook and more. Your blog acts like a very busy person passing out business cards to dozens, hundreds and even thousands of people at trade show. The difference is that your blog leaves a bigger impression on the receiver that you have something interesting to say and that you should be followed or even contacted to learn more. For SEO purposes, your blog also leaves a stamp every time your blog is liked, shared or posted which is picked up and helps boosts your ranking in search engines.
   
2. Share your expertise: Blogs help establish you and your firm as the experts in a variety of ways. As an ERP consultant, you have so much knowledge in your head and in your certifications and training and years of experience. You probably had a few questions today from clients that might make an interesting blog. Chances are that there are others with the same question. Is there a particular topic you can come up with for something that's your specialty? Do you love working with Payroll or Food and Beverage clients? If so, the more you write about the kind of clients you want to attract, the more chances your future ideal clients will find you. Blogs are effective when they are informative, interesting, and easy to read. If you think your writing skills are a little rusty, don't stop writing blogs! Write out a rough draft of a blog and have someone review it for you.
3. Get new customers: Blogging effectively has been a proven way for ERP consultants to get new customers. We have seen many examples where new customers find an ERP consultant's blog when they are searching online for a particular issue. When you are clearly the expert on the topic as presented in your blog, it increases the likelihood that someone will reach out to you to see if you can help them with their similar issue. You will see tons of blogs online on the topic of "outgrowing QuickBooks," for instance. These blogs are trying to attract the thousands of QuickBooks customers who think they may be or are outgrowing QuickBooks. Ask yourself, "what kind of business do I want to attract?" and there you have your next blog topic. 

This blog is Part I of a series of blogs we will post later this week. There are many more reason WHY you should consider blogging as an important part of helping to grow your ERP business. Stay tuned for more blogs on the blogging topic and please feel free to like, share and follow. We do not certainly have all the blogging answers or think that blogging is the silver bullet to solve all your marketing challenges, however we know a thing or two. We hear a lot of questions around the topic "WHY blog?" and hope this gets the blogging juices flowing.

Don't forget to join our webinar co-hosted by ERPVAR (that's us) and Dan Kraus with Leading Results this Thursday, March 13, 2014 at 10 AM Pacific / 1 PM Eastern time for more information on the blogging subject. You can register for this Thursday's session HERE.

At ERPVAR, we have a goal to blog everyday. Most of our blogs come from other ERP consultants who are experts like you. Some ERP consultants are fortunate enough to have a marketing person to do most of the heaving blog lifting...many do not and find the time to blog. We are happy to discuss with you WHY blogging might make sense for you in further detail.  Please feel free to contact us online or give us a call:  888-253-6705.

by Kathy Graham at ERPVAR