Are blogs marketing tools?

Jim Meskauskas of Media Posts believes that corporate blogs will die a very fast death. I personally think he is right and wrong.

As he points out, corporations who blog are really just marketing in another way; and if that is the extent of what they are doing, then they will die very quickly. Corporations however who stop blogging and position themselves and their direct marketing in front of the bloggers who write about their category, stand to gain a lot.

The reason blogs have become such a phenomenon is that people are desperately in search of real information in an age of spin, disinformation and hype. Blogs have the feeling of being able to get an honest look at what someone else thinks and with the number of blogs, an honest look at what a lot of people think.

Consumers are looking for reassurance and research many times results in that reassurance. When bloggers write about their experience and their feelings, buyers tend to give that information more weight than an ad or even a testimonial. Testimonials are part of the influence cycle and in the consumer’s mind, blogs are not . . .at least not to date.

If you are a corporation and you want to use a blog you should, but the best way to use it is to set up a place that you publicize where people can openly talk about your products. If you are a great organization, give your employees free reign to write too. The real problem with corporate blogs really only arises when they are scrutinized, managed, spun and polished. When there is a free and interactive exchange of information, the system continues to work.

For all of you hoping to increase your customer base using blogs, the very best way is simply to contact those bloggers who write about products or issues like yours or, survey your clients and as if they are blogging. In either case, ask them to write about their experience, don’t ask them to write nice things, just that they write about you.

If you are wondering what people really think about you, you should be reading blogs daily, searching for references to your company, they are there. And, it gives you a great opportunity to polish a perfect experience or fix a broken one.

Blogs will be around a long time to come, it is up to you to continue to figure out how to use them appropriately. Stay tuned and we at Bold Approach will do our part to help you navigate the ever changing world of new marketing methodologies.

Comments

[bob berentz]

has anyone used blog to market their products ?

[Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate]

I use blogs almost exclusively to market my web usability analysis, web content writing, and direct marketing services.

My blogs are fully integrated with my online publishing in ezines on usability, my own direct marketing campaigns, my seminars, and my other promotions.

But blogs are the primary way I market myself. Even though I don't get hardly any comments on my posts. I don't care. I'd like my blogs to be interactive via commenting, but the main purposes for my blogs are:

1. online business card
2. online portfolio of writing samples, showcase
3. online archive of marketing articles
4. online capture of land addresses, to which to land mail my Client Education Reports.

My marketing strategy is Benevolent Flooding: when someone asks for a form or article I wrote, I email them 6 articles on the specific topic they're interested in. They reply, "Thanks for the wealth of information."

I supply fans with hard-to-find information, like how to construct task assigments and link strategy surveys for live user observation web site testing programs. Things other web usability specialists will not give to the public for fear of being "imitated" I guess.

Freely I have received, freely I give, as a great spiritual genius once recommended. Blogs are one way of disseminating ideas freely, abundantly, without charge.