It used to be that a consumer would turn to the yellow book orpay attention to a radio or television ad when it came to apurchase decision. Today's consumers are different, especially inthe early stages of their purchasing decisions. These prospectshave lots of questions and are hungry for answers. So where do theyturn? They turn to Google.

For instance, a consumer looking for answers about pest controlmight begin their quest for a service provider by asking, “Isorganic pest control effective?” This question is typicallyfollowed by more questions that help with the decision processlike, “Is organic pest control effective against cockroaches?” andfinally, “Who provides organic cockroach control in my area?” Mostcorporate websites answer that question, but few will answer any ofthese early questions.

This is where a blog comes into play.

Unlike the rest of your website, your blog should be continuallychanging and updated with new information. This creates anopportunity for you to demonstrate your expertise, educatepotential customers and ultimately answer objections encounteredduring the sales process.Unfortunately, people get so lost in theprocess and the mumbo-jumbo of the online marketing gurus that theysimply give up. The good news is that you can do this, and youdon't need to be a “tech guy” to be successful. If you commit toyour blog, your business will grow.

To start, your website should have its own domain (the stuffthat comes after www), and at minimum answer the basic questions ofwho you are, what you do and where you're located. Your websiteshould also make it easy for prospective customers to contact you.Every page should have your phone number and a contact form onit.

Finally, you need a blog.

Many people think a blog needs to be something written. Guesswhat? No one ever said you had to write a blog. There areplenty of other ways of delivering your ideas to your audience.

One of the most popular blogs on the web is Gary Vaynerchuk's now-discontinuedWine Library TV. Vaynerchuk uses short videos to review wines.This video blog was one of the key reasons his family's winecompany grew from a neighborhood wine store grossing $3 million ayear to a national wine seller with more than $45 million in salesless than 10 years later.

Regardless of what medium you use to publish your blog, you needto figure out what to talk about. While many bloggers begin withthe greatest of intentions, running out of things to talk about iswhere they fail. Fortunately, there is an easy answer to this.Think about the questions.

Pull out a sheet of paper, open up an Excel spreadsheet andstart typing all the questions that your customers have ever askedyou during the sales process. These could be about specificinsurance terms, or why something is a certain way. Try to get to26.

Follow this with the negative or comparative questions aboutyour product or service. Is X better than Y? Common complaintsabout Z? Try to identify another 26.

With those two lists of questions you have the titles for 52blog posts. Your job is to answer each of these questions. Atone blog post per week, you have your first year covered.

Now that you know what you are going to do, there's an issueabout style. In today's Internet age, where anything abouteverything is freely available from a variety of sources, consumershave come to expect a couple things when it comes to content. Thefirst of these is a bit of personality. You can see from GaryVaynerchuk's video blog that he's a bit eccentric; even if youaren't a wine aficionado, you'll remember his videos. Although youdon't need to be as idiosyncratic as Vaynerchuck, you should giveyour readers a sense of who you are. You might weave in anecdotesabout your family, a shared experience or the like. Don't be afraidto buck the industry and be different! Ultimately, avoid writing aterm paper or coming off like Ben Stein in “Ferris Bueller's DayOff.”

The second demand, and the one where most people struggle, istransparency and honesty. As salespeople, your first inclinationmight be to sell right out of the gate. Wrong. You should use yourblog to satisfy the presales questions and win trust. Look atyourself through the eyes of your potential readers and customers.What are they looking for? Create the content tosatisfy those needs and you'll earn the trust of those viewers andwin the sale.

One of the beauties of the strategy outlined above is that ifyou've truly been listening to your customers and their questions,they will come to your site. Unfortunately, this strategy alsotakes a bit of time as you build the content. Just be patient andkeep going. They'll come.

Besides patience, the other promotional strategy is to integrateyour blog into your sales process. As you've written responses tofrequently asked questions, there's a good chance future leads willask the same questions over and over again. Imagine the impact on aprospective customer who, after he fills out a lead form, gets apersonalized email from you saying you will be contacting themshortly, but in the meantime, they should read the followingarticles about the product they are interested in. Assuming thelead reads the articles, this first interaction neutralizes many ofthe pre-sales questions and objections and puts you closer toclosing the sale.