Founder and General Manager Greg Gloor really wants to know.  We had a marketing meeting this week about the goals for this blog, and Greg was brutally honest with me, the freelancer who writes most of the posts these days.

My services cost about a quarter of what it costs them to place their regular ads in The Washington Post.  Will the blog then show a quarter of the sales results?  Does increased traffic to the blog mean increased sales?

None of us can really tell at this point. (ouch)

So we set our sights on content, and what has been effective in the past.  Of the times Hardwood Artisans has been featured in The Washington Post, Greg said, the stories that have produced customers weren’t those that touted the pretty furniture – the fluffy stuff, in other words.  The stories that “bit” – that brought people through the door – were the ones that were printed in the business section.

This article that talked about Greg’s money management was particularly revealing.  Needless to say, he doesn’t spend a nickel without being ruthlessly sure that it will help his company.

Will pictures of pretty furniture do it?  Or tales from behind the scenes?

“What are the incompetencies?”  Greg asks.  “What are our vulnerabilities, strengths, and idiosyncrasies?  This is the way it is for most companies – it’s a little big gnarly,” he adds, noting that no business is the shiny, tidy, perfect picture you see in the ads. “It is what it is.” 

Then he starts talking about Metallica.  The metal band’s documentary, “Some Kind of Monster,” struck of chord with Greg – who is not exactly a huge fan of the music.  He loved seeing the real people in the business and creative meetings offstage, and their though process behind the music.

Metallica

Same thing with Michael Jackson’s “This Is It.”  We meet the man and the creative minds behind the tour that never was, rather than the tabloid version of him.

Michael Jackson's, "This is it."

So, Greg, do you see yourself as a James Hetfield, Metallica’s lead singer, or the King of Pop?  Maybe not, but perhaps we can get insights out of you that most casual Hardwood Artisans customers might not know about.