I recently had a discussion with a client about the finer points of Clicksharp Marketing’s elements of a whole internet marketing campaign, citing blogs as the most marvelous of all the group media. (Sorry, Youtube and Facebook – I suppose in this day and age, words still have more power to change the world than videos and…pokes.)
His reply: “Why would you push blogging? I think of blogs as so 2006.”
Pragmatic Engineer
Ouch. Not even 2007. So I did some digging on recent statistics, and found that last November, Technorati estimated the estimate of active blogs at 15.5 million (active meaning that bloggers had posted within the last 90 days). This was published in firm Week with a hard-hitting insight: “Though group media is going strong, one single form of it, blogging, naturally might not be for everyone.”
Then last week, I came over an narrative in the Shifting Careers column of The New York Times, which deals with issues relevant to small businesses. Marci Alboher calls blogging “a low-cost, high return marketing tool” and then adds: “But while blogs may be useful to many more small businesses, even blogging experts do not advise it for the majority.”
Time to set the narrative straight. If blogging is not for everyone, then who is it for?
* whatever selling a goods whose buy can be a research arduous process. Do you sell exotic wines, sensitive condition care services, or obscure mutual funds? You’ll probably find that once you harness your passion and write confidently about what you know, customers will start looking you more and more often.
* whatever who sells an image or “cachet.” Why does an Acura cost more than a Honda? Why are you happy to pay more for a glass of Grey Goose than a glass of Smirnoff? Because with these brands comes a story-about class or pragmatism or value. But while Diageo can spend tens of millions marketing Smirnoff, chances are you need a slightly cheaper car to tell your story.
* whatever who practices association marketing. In your line of work, does selling depend heavily on humanizing yourself, your firm and/or your product? Remember that consumers have more options than ever, and tend to buy from people they trust. Your blog gives you a way to step out of the woodwork as more than an average merchant wielding a sales pitch.
Let’s all take Riva Richmond’s Wall road Journal narrative about blogging to heart: “Small businesses may benefit most: Blogs offer little-known small businesses name recognition, and the opportunity to boost traffic well beyond what they’d get if they were naturally contribution goods and services for sale.”
The playing field has leveled in 2008, thanks to all the cost-effective marketing tools ready to you. In these emerging channels, your bigger competitors can’t all the time outspend you like they have in the past. For a slight extra marketing juice, try mentioning their products alongside your own, and hire an Seo counselor to help you rank well in search engines.
What happens when they Google their own brand name, and see your site come up first? Who knows. But it won’t be your problem.
Only Three Types Of Businesses Should Bother starting A business Blog – Marketing For Small business
My Links : Galaxy HDTV LA Hiphop Jet Television