Aaron Hoos

The Question:

Should I use a blog or a website in my financial or real estate business?

Aaron’s Answer:

Here’s the really basic difference between a website and a blog:

• A website is like a brochure. You create it once and it stays like that for a while. Sure, you might make some changes over time but in general it has the same content.
• A blog is like a diary or journal. You add new content regularly to it and people who click to your site will see your most recent post.

If you’re wondering whether you should have a blog or a website for your financial or real estate business, you need to know this: Both are good and it’s okay to have both – a blog AND a website. Don’t think of it as one or the other.

SOME PROFESSIONALS CHOOSE TO HAVE ONE OR THE OTHER

Some professionals choose to have just a website because they want to create the content once and then not worry about it, and then focus on other things in their business. And, since it’s slightly more acceptable to “sell” your services on a website, some professionals prefer that clearer call to action. (Note: They can appear on blogs, too, but generally do so to a lesser degree).

Some professionals choose to have just a blog because their potential or existing clients like reading new content, and because search engines like fresh, authoritative content. Unlike a website, a blog has some relationship-building tools built-in (such as a commenting feature) so you can build a connect with your blog visitors.

SOME PROFESSIONALS CHOOSE TO HAVE BOTH

Some professionals choose to have both – a website at one domain and a blog at another. This gives them the advantages of both.

SOME PROFESSIONALS CHOOSE A HYBRID APPROACH

Some professionals have a website with a blog on it, or they have a blog with elements of a website on it (which is what I have on my site – it’s primarily a blog but there are website-specific elements like a Portfolio page, a Services page, and more).

WHICH SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

It depends on your sales funnel.

If you have a well-established career with tons of referrals or you’re a face-to-face networking rockstar, then a website might be all you need because you’ll drive people to your site pretty infrequently. If you plan to sell downloadable products, you’ll also want to consider a website because you’ll need sales pages and hidden download pages.
If you want to grow your financial or real estate practice and you want to drive traffic to a site and build relationships with those who visit your site, a blog might be better.
But my favorite is both. You get the clear “sales-focused” calls-to-action that are more acceptable on a website plus the search-engine-loving opportunity to create fresh content and build relationships with your website visitors… and at the same time, you can also dial in other things like product sales.

Unlike many other professionals in the financial industry, private equity and venture capitalists have the unique benefit of not really needing to chase after clients – rather, they have the opposite problem of culling through a big list of potential clients to find the right ones. And in some cases, they might also have multiple audiences to consider: Prospective clients who are looking for capital, existing clients who already have capital, and joint venture investors who will be investing some of their capital.

1. How to start a business.
2. The investible business: How to build a business that VCs will WANT to invest in.
3. The perfect pitch: How to create a sales pitch without the BS.
4. Understanding corporate structures and share structures.
5. A collection of case studies of your most successful investments and how your money helped to make the business great.
6. How to evaluate companies as a VC or PE professional.
7. A collection of top tips and ideas from VCs or PE professionals for business owners who hope to get capital for their company.
8. How to work with a board of advisors.
9. You’ve got some money from your VC… now what?!?
10. How to become a private equity professional or venture capitalist.

A couple of years ago, I received a bunch of junk mail in my mailbox and just about threw some of it out when a bold headline told me that I could save money by buying a new (more efficient) furnace. Until that point, I was happy with my furnace because it heated my house adequately. But when the letter showed up in the mail, I suddenly realized that I had a problem I didn’t even know about (inefficient heating). I ended up buying a new furnace because of that letter.

As a financial or real estate professional, you offer solutions to a variety of problems. Unfortunately, your prospective clients don’t always know that they have a problem until you point it out to them. The challenging part is to point out the problem in a way that highlights the pain… not necessarily the problem itself.

If I received a letter in the mail that told me I had an inefficient furnace, I would have discarded the letter along with all of my other mail. Furnace efficiency is the problem but I didn’t care about it and I would have no way of knowing whether or not I had an efficient furnace. But the letter didn’t focus on the problem, it focused on the pain. My wallet. It told me that an inefficient furnace was costing me money and I could spend less each month by buying a new furnace. The next step was to have a salesperson come by my house and help me calculate how much I would save. I was skeptical about this step but I have to admit, the numbers were very real and quite compelling… and that’s what convinced me to buy a new furnace.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOU

First, know who your target market is. (“Everyone” is NOT your target market). Rather, your target market is a specific group of people. Use my 55 Target Market Questions to help you figure out who your target market is and what they are like. Once you know who they are, you can market to them more effectively. Note: It’s possible to have a few target markets. That’s okay… but you do need to define each one and fill out the 55 questions for each of those markets.

Second, know what problem you solve for your target market. I call it “the pickaxe factor” of your business. A few examples: Investment professionals provide the expertise to help someone build their wealth more than they could do on their own; Insurance professionals provide a way for people to preserve their wealth and minimize the impact of dramatic life events; Real estate professionals help people find the perfect home by navigating the overwhelming number of houses on the market and the complicated sale process.

Third, figure out where your target market experiences the pain of their problem. Do they notice it in their wallet? In their enjoyment of life? Do they lose sleep over it? Will their children suffer because of it? The possibilities are wide open (although for financial and real estate professionals, they tend to be focused on just a few similar factors… mostly wealth, peace of mind, opportunity, comfort-preservation… but there are others). If you have more than one target market, you need to figure out where each target market feels the pain.

Fourth, highlight that pain. In all of your marketing and communication with your target market, highlight the pain they feel in a compelling way.

[Image credit: AprilBell]