Blogs and Marketing

• By Victoria Carrington, M.D.

Marketing and advertising experts are well aware of the cynicism and distrust most Americans have towards all forms of traditional advertising. Intrusive, unwanted, in-your-face marketing is increasingly ineffective in reaching consumers of all ages. The rise of "relationship marketing," based on building ties of loyalty with potential customers or clients, is seen as leading to the demise of other forms of marketing. As use of the Internet has become nearly ubiquitous, marketers have had to grapple with how to expand the influence of relationship marketing to the users of the Web. First, e-mail newsletters bridged the gap between businesses and their potential market. However, the rise of S*P*A*M* filters and readers' general distrust of e-mail newsletters, as well as a tendency to increasingly ignore them over time, has thwarted many e-newsletter publishers. So what is next? Blogs have come on the Internet scene and are fast becoming considered important marketing tools. How can blogs help your marketing efforts?

What are some examples of ways that blogs are being used for marketing purposes?

• Blogs represent a way to reach large numbers of individuals online that may not have been reached by traditional media, either online or offline. By allowing individuals to come to your site versus getting a newsletter to them, the ground is set for building non-intrusive relationships with your market. What are some advantages of using a blog for marketing?
   
• Blogs get highly ranked quicker by major search engines.
   
• Blogs are built on exactly what search engines crave: fresh content, updated frequently and lots of links. Because adding content and links is so easy with blogs, they can be maintained in a fraction of the time and effort required to maintain a static website.
   
• Blogs are easy to start. With either free or low-cost tools available to build a blog, blogs are within the reach of every business or individual entrepreneur. Blogs are also easy to maintain, update and change, a very important point in an online world that craves freshness. If you are not much of a writer, audio, video or photoblogs could be for you.
   
• Blogs represent a terrific way to use the power of grassroots/word-of-mouth marketing. Bloggers tend to form communities around a particular topic, idea, person or product. Individuals in these communities interact through comments and by following the links on a blog so that most members will be reading and commenting on the same blog. If you post a good article or offer a useful product on your blog, many people can find about your post within minutes as word spreads to other blogs in the community.
   
• Readers can subscribe without needing to check their e-mail. Blogs allow RSS technology to notify subscribers whenever your blog is updated. RSS feeds are a powerful marketing technique.
   
• Blogs capture the attention of a population that wants to know NOW and does not want to wait for information or feedback. No more writing a burning "letter to the editor" and having it either not published at all or published several weeks later in your local newspaper. In blogs, regular people can be heard immediately and this draws people back to a blog again and again.
   
• Blogs give a personal touch to marketing. As a nation hooked on reality shows and confessions on television talk shows, we want to know what is really going on behind the scenes of our favorite businesses. What are the personalities of the owners? What are their thoughts on various topics? Blogs allow the person of the business owner, or the image of the corporation, to become cemented firmly in the reader’s mind.
   
• Exposure, exposure, exposure. Because of the qualities of blogs that draw readers back on a regular basis, potential clients or customers are likely to re-visit a well-written and interesting blog often. Features such as blogrolling and RSS feeds make keeping up with favorite blogs very easy. The more readers are exposed to your company or product, the more likely they are to trust their needs to you.
   
• Blogs are rich sources of sought-after information. Internet users are information hounds, tracking down the latest and greatest information on millions of topics. Blogs, because of their quick updating features, can provide readers with the best and most timely information available. The ability to add many links within posts, as well as on the blog site, add value to the reader looking for specific information. Readers will return to a good source of data over and over again and will be more likely to purchase goods or services from you if you have proven to be a reliable source of good information.
   
• Blogs make it easier to get to know your customers. What do your customers or clients want to know more about? What additional products would they like you to offer? What feedback do they have about your current products? Instead of paying high fees for the dubious value of general focus groups, blogs allow data from your readers to be easily aggregated from your comments.
   
• Blogs help you build your brand. Your blog can be a very effective tool to promote and publicize your brand. By making your blog visible, you also make your brand visible and build trust in your products and services throughout your target market. Branding is especially important if you are providing multiple services or products, such as apparel and books, that can cross-fertilize each other.
   
  • Become a recognized expert in your field through blogging. Providing useful information can help establish your platform as an expert. Your blog and you can become the "go-to" sources for information on your topic.
     
  • Differentiate yourself from your competitors with your company blog. Your market will be interested in checking out your blog. If your business has a blog and other similar businesses do not, your blog can be a selling point for customers.
     
• Blogs get the attention of the media. Journalists are increasingly looking to blogs for information on various topics. Media professionals regularly check well-written blogs for interesting stories as well. Getting media attention is not only free, but it is very effective as well.
   
• Blogs allow you to easily target a niche. Blogs allow you to target very small communities of like-minded individuals. Some of these niche markets may not be worthwhile pursuing if you have to spend a fortune to have a website made to cater to them. But with the ease and relatively low expense of setting up a blog, almost any niche market is worth the effort of trying to reach.

Okay. So now you are convinced that you need a blog for your business. How can you make your blog a very effective marketing tool?

• Keep it fresh.
  Update as often as you can. From several times a week to several times a day, the very best blogs have content added to them on a regular basis. If for some reason you are unable to maintain your blog due to personal circumstances, arrange to have a guest blogger post for you at least a few times in your absence. Nothing will make your reader statistics drop faster than failure to regularly update your blog.
   
• Keep it relevant.
  Find something of substance to say in each post. Even if your commentary is relatively short, add links or an interesting quote worth reading. Of course, what your readers are looking for may differ from what readers of another blog are seeking. Give readers enough to make them think, laugh or get angry depending on what your blog goals are.
   
• Keep it simple.
  Blogs are most effective if the layout is clean and relatively simple. Readers should be able to quickly and easily find your "About Me" information, links and archives.
   
• Keep it personal.
  Even if your blog is primarily concerned with reporting news, always give your personal point of view on the topic. If you are linking to another site, let readers know why you are linking to the site. These commentaries can be very brief, but one of the advantages of a blog is the personal perspective that it offers your target market.
   
• Provide readers with a way to syndicate or subscribe to your blog.
  It is very important to allow a way for readers to automatically receive updates every time you add a new post to your blog. In this way, you make it easy for your target market to keep up with all the latest that your blog has to offer. Syndication is one of the key advantages of blogs over static websites. RSS feeds are free and easy to set up.
   
• Use proper grammar and spelling.
  Most blog creation tools have a spell check included. Use it! If there is no spell check available, you may need to write your post in a word processing program with a spell check and then cut and paste into your blog. Credibility is enhanced with a grammatically correct, error-free blog post.

Blogs are excellent marketing tools that every business should pay attention to and utilize. From a small business entrepreneur to a major corporation, blogs are quickly becoming recognized as very important components to your marketing strategy.
 

• About the author:

Victoria Carrington, M.D. is a former psychiatrist and now a homeschooling mom and freelance writer. She leads a prayer group, The Homeschool Prayer League and enjoys writing prayers and devotionals for moms. Mrs. Carrington lives in Ohio with her husband and two little blessings.
Visit her blog at: VictoriaCarrington.