One Man and His Blog
A Guest blog article from Matt Spivey at Neva Consultants
Matt Spivey's background is corporate telecoms sales for T-Mobile and Vodafone, and IT sales previous to that. Following redundancy, he decided to change sector and moved into vehicle leasing in 2015 with Neva Consultants. He now provides finance for vans and cars to individuals, sole traders, partnerships and limited companies but particularly specialises in helping new businesses trading for less than 2 years. And writes blogs on the subject!
For more about Matt, check out his LinkedIn profile.
One Man and His Blog - How Blogging Can Help Your Business
Everyone says we should blog but, as you know, it takes time we don't have and we worry that we've nothing to say, no one will see it and those that do won't want to read it. That's what I thought. I was wrong.
In 2015 I made a sideways move into a new industry - vehicle leasing. My main industry background was IT and Telecoms but after redundancy I moved into business finance and then specifically vehicle finance. Suddenly I was the new kid on the block with no customer base, no experience, no reputation and not a lot of knowledge. And I needed to stand out in a competitive profession.
"Have you tried blogging?" said a marketing friend. Well, how could I blog? Five minutes in the industry - what do I know? I'm no expert compared to my competitors. But I knew I had to do something.
And then it struck me. You don't need to be an expert to start blogging. I could write about something I had learned that week. No need to play the expert; just be me and write about it. Plus my competitors weren't blogging anyway. And that's how it started.
For example, I frequently get into conversations with people about whether it's best to lease new vehicles or buy used and there are pros and cons to each. I knew the leasing costs for new but had no statistics for second hand. So I researched it, found a report by the AA on average running costs for used and wrote a LinkedIn article on the subject.
And it went on from there. Every time I noticed something interesting or unusual whilst quoting or speaking to customers I made a note and wrote a blog, covering subjects like Is A Pick Up Right For You? after being asked that very question and another after test driving a Tesla Model S in Autopilot mode.
Since then I've written about 40 articles. Some are just things that interest me but related to vehicles, others informative and educational which help readers make good decisions about vehicle choice and a few that touch on what I'm really good at such as managing to get prime van or car finance approved for start-up and new businesses.
How have I Benefitted?
First, and I didn't anticipate this, I know all the subjects I've written about in detail and can reel off the pertinent points when in conversation with someone and one of those subjects comes up, and many of them do, such as what's going to happen to diesel powered vehicles. That helps me to be authoritative and hopefully others then perceive me as such. Even if no one ever reads the articles, they are still helping me. Now I am the bona fide expert.
Second, I get enquiries for vans and cars in response to the blogs from people wanting to do business with me especially relating to what I've written about. For example, owners of start up businesses often contact me because I've written about how I've helped others in their situation.
Third, having a library of articles allows me to respond to social media threads of the "I need a car. Who can help?" variety by doing something different to all the other (100+ at times) respondents who post something like "Buy from me. I'm the best/cheapest" etc. I post a link to an article like "How many vehicle leasing quotes should you get?" or "How do you pick the right vehicle leasing supplier or broker?" Usually the original poster is too swamped with offers of deals to read it but I frequently get observers of the thread contacting me because of what they've read and they engage directly with me rather than posting for quotes from every man and his dog.
A Few Tips From Me
Don't write for SEO. Write something that people want to read and then send it to them by social media and email. Google likes natural text anyway. By all means review the article after with a view to ensuring the right terms are in there but this is secondary.
Don't write a boring list of all the things you've done that week. No one wants to read a blog written for the sake of it.
Do let your activities inspire the subjects you write about. If you learn something interesting and informative get typing. Have confidence that others will find it interesting and informative too.
Don't be overly salesy. Instead show people why you are brilliant to do business with. Tell stories about how your business has helped people and the difference it has made to them.
And, finally, as the famous sportswear company says, Just Do It!
Written by Matt Spivey, Guest Blogger from Neva Consultants. 21-08-17