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When
someone has a problem, one of the first
things that they do is go to a search engine
like Google and look for relevant information
about the issue.
Studies
show that people trust an article that is
written to provide information as a resource,
more than they trust information that strictly
talks about your products and services.
With
an informational article, there's less of
a perceived bias. A page that focuses solely
on your product or service seems like it's
more about your organization vs. helping
them find answers.
Google
also likes to index articles that are informational
(i.e. helpful), instead of a page that contains
50 words of marketing fluff that hype your
products or services.
The
goal is to present information that's free
and helpful, without trying to sell something.
 The
example I'm writing about today came from
something that was very annoying to me.
And if you bring your laptop anywhere and
have a corporate mail server, you've probably
been frustrated by this same issues as well
(although you may not know what it is called).
As
I travel and use my laptop on a Wi-Fi connection,
many of the connections block me from sending
email through our corporate mail server
(they do what's called a Port 25 block).
In
very technical terms, when your computer
goes to send a message, it usually connects
to a mail server on a specific port. Port
80 is for websites, port 110 is for incoming
POP email accounts, and Port 25 is usually
the one used for sending outbound email.
Why do people block Port 25? This is done
to prevent people from sending spam through
their connection, but for a legitimate user,
it's very annoying. Especially when you
think that really important email you just
sent to someone doesn't actually send and
is stuck in the outbox.
Comcast
(the Internet Service Provider) has also
been increasingly putting in a Port 25 block
in place for many home users, too (although
their tech support people don't know this
and they don't always tell people how to
fix it).
 We
did a tremendous amount of research and
work to figure out how to easily create
an alternative sending port on our servers,
so that we (and our clients) wouldn't be
burdened with this problem. The
answer is to create a virtual map and set
up a computer to use a different port (other
than Port 25) for sending email. We boiled
the whole thing down to one line that someone
can type into a server and fix the problem.
Why
did we give away the answer for free?
We
could have kept this information to ourselves.
But instead, we created a quick technical
how-to article and posted it on the Customer
Paradigm website to help others in the same
situation.
If
you search for "Port
25 Block Server" in Google, for
example, our article comes up first. (Visit
here for an example.)
 We
give this information out freely to people
for two reasons:
1.
It took us a while to figure this out, and
we altruistically want to share the knowledge
and help others.
2.
Some people might not want to do this themselves,
and would want to hire us instead (and we
make it clear that we're here to help if
they should want to do this).
In
doing this, we create goodwill and a sense
that we're here to help people. This creates
trust and confidence in our company. It
also positions us as experts in helping
people with their servers, too.
What
type of article might make sense for your
website?
Find
a topic that people in your industry are
frequently searching for. Something that
is frustrating for many users, and you have
the answer. It might be a topic that people
new to the industry need to know, but there
aren't other great resources available.
For best results, it should tie into the
product and service offerings for your organization.
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