Blogging for Business

First let’s get one thing straight. Neither I nor your customers want to hear about what you had for breakfast. Get your social media straight. Blogging is not Facebook and neither is it Twitter although of course you might use either of those tools to promote your blog. Neither is blogging generally a diary of your day-to-day activities and teenage angst – that’s LiveJournal.

If you’ve seen the 2009 Meryl Streep film Julie and Julia you’ll know the true story of an office worker and aspiring writer who loved to cook. Julie Powell blogged about her year of cooking every recipe in Julia Child’s epic French cook book. Julie chose her subject and blogged about her passion, attracted thousands of readers and ultimately a book and film deal.

All very well for an aspiring writer but you’re a marketer - why should you blog?

20 reasons to blog (rule number one of good blog writing – blog readers love lists!)

1. To engage with your audience and collect customer feedback (blogs allow comments and 2-way dialogue).
2. Because it makes SEO sense - search engines love websites with updated, unique, keyword dense copy. They reward it with a higher page rank. Blogging works for SEO. Seemples.
3. To enable you to sell more – a first visit to your website is like a first date – are you really expecting your customer to go all the way? Woo them. It takes time to develop trust and commitment.
4. To position yourself and your company as a thought leader in your market.
5. To create a place to think, plan and reflect.
6. To make a big impact with zero budget.
7. To showcase products and images and tell behind the scenes stories. You, rather than a journalist, are in charge of your content.
8. Because its a place to be more informal and risqué.
9. Because it humanises your company – people buy from people, not websites.
10. To improve your writing – good for your job and your career.
11. To create content for newsletters (I’ll blog about this in a future post).
12. To play with technology and ideas.
13. To force you to read and research about your market in order to gather the information you need for your posts.
14. To collaborate with others – guest posts are really effective and it gives you the chance to interview others in your industry, work with other departments, talk to customers, senior staff and even the odd celebrity.
15. Because there is no need to wait for the webmaster.
16. To express yourself and create a historical record of your content – in 18 months of blogging I now have hundreds of entries, a huge archive of brilliant marketing material that we ransack on a daily basis.
17. To podcast/videocast easily.
18. Because it is enjoyable, compulsive and rewarding.
19. Because it doesn’t have to be perfect.
20. Because interruption marketing doesn’t work any more.

But I’m not a journalist

You might not be the best writer in the world but I can guarantee that you know more about your specialist subject than most other people in the world. So you work for the most boring company in the world selling boring components in a boring industry (or at least that’s what everyone else outside your marketplace thinks). But inside your marketplace is a world of people actually quite interested in those components, in how they are made, who makes them, where you sell them, who else buys them, what they then do with them and what the stories are behind the brand.

I’ll create a detailed list of blog content ideas in a future post but try sitting down for 10 minutes and thinking about all the questions your customers (or the people you meet at networking events and tradeshows) ask. You’ll have yourself a list of topics to write about in no time that will be scratching where your potential readers are itching.

How to get started

The beauty of online publishing is that it doesn’t have to be perfect but it is very easy to get going. Copy shouldn’t need to be approved from everyone from the CEO through to the office cleaner. I’d recommend using software such as Wordpress and have the content added to your website hosting (www.yoururl.com/blog) rather than being hosted somewhere else (like blogger.com). Like that you get the SEO advantage and the right corporate association from the start. Wordpress is simple to use and there is even a magazine-like idiots guide to getting started (Bloggers Handbook – How to succeed in social media and blogging. ISBN 978-1-906078-38-6).

Now that’s assuming that you are writing the official blog for your company. If you are simply an employee and the blog is unofficial then by all means use hosted software such as blogger.com. Other platforms include Joomla, Typepad, Moveable Type, Vox, Drupal, Tumble, Silverstripe, Clear Content and Squarespace.

But I don’t know what I’m doing – I’ve barely even read a blog

Get introduced to the art of blogging by signing up for marketing guru Seth Godin’s blog. Apart from showcasing thought leadership, he’ll turn your brain inside out about marketing. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

The Marketing Profs Daily Fix is also full of bite sized marketing tips and advice http://www.mpdailyfix.com/

Stuff White People Like is a fun site which will have you forwarding links and content in no time

http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/

Innocent’s blog is a nice example of a corporate blog that nicely reflects all Innocent’s off the wall brand values

http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/

Ice Cream Journal – another corporate blog with some very nice touches http://icecreamjournal.turkeyhill.com/

Idiots Guide to Blogging – the ultimate how to guide

http://www.idiotsguidetoblogging.com/

Likewise Thoushallblog is full of ideas to get you started

http://thoushallblog.com/

http://thexfactorfromapersonwhoknows.blogspot.com/ - topical blog written by a teenage friend of mine. She wants to be a journalist so has started blogging to hone her writing craft. It’s a nice example of how easy it is to get started and create a professional looking blog

And the one I write – very much for a niche market and the most effective marketing tool we have ever used. www.musicademy.com/blog

Marie Page runs an international e-business selling instructional DVDs teaching contemporary musical instruments. She blogs at http://musicademy.com/blog

To sell or not to sell, that is the question......

I think we’re all well aware of the importance of new digital (or ‘social’) media – enabled by internet technologies and populated by millions. These digital channels of communication have developed seemingly unlimited potential for reaching new customers and identifying new markets – but are they used to their full potential?

Well, here’s a short story for you about ‘Linkedin’ – a ‘professional’ social network designed to enable ‘reconnections’, ‘power your career’ and ‘get answers’… away from the younger, less-professionally focused and, at times, frivolous social network (you know the ones I mean!).

One thing that’s really interesting about Linkedin is the opportunity to ask questions on any business topic and draw on the knowledge and experience of all of your contacts. You can also join specific interest groups (for example the eMarketing association) and you can draw on knowledge and experience of thousands worldwide by asking questions relevant to your current need.

So, what’s the point here? Well, you post a question and wait for people to offer their responses and all of a sudden you see that it’s full of people selling – not subtle, or based on recommendations, but cold, hard selling. Is this right? Should these digital channels be used in such a way? A little bit of further research and you can uncover a variety of opinions from…

‘If you are on a professional network, you are usually there to sell something to someone. Maybe it is just your resume, in case you are fired or your company “lets you go”, or it may be a product or service. You are selling something. You know it, I know it so let’s stop wasting time talking about it.’

http://blog.emarketingassociation.com/blog/emarketing-association/0/0/selling-on-social-networks

…to something more considered…

‘Get to know a network’s policies on promotion, as it applies to your plans. The last thing you want is to be labelled a spammer. Understand that these tools are more about networking, building relationships, and communicating than blatant promotion, as in marketing and sales’.

Planning Digital Activity –Don’t lose sight of the basics!

Evolving digital developments in web 2.0, user-generated content, Twitter and mobile applications are at the forefront of industry and academic debate and practice. Authors like Don Tapscott in his book Wikinomics and Andrew McAfee, from MIT Sloan School of Management, in his new book, Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for your Organization’s Toughest Challenges, explore ways in which organisation can apply web 2.0 platforms for sharing knowledge, new ideas both inside and outside the organisation to shape the way we work.

Whilst the boundaries and possibilities of web 2.0 are pushed everyday, these new frontiers can be distracting and marketers must not lose sight about the basics of the marketing planning and direct marketing that inextricably links digital campaign success to targeting the right customer at the right time! A key consideration from the outset is to set your digital marketing strategy in the context of your broader marketing strategy and organisational goals. As digital marketing has moved from a peripheral, or add-on marketing activity to the centre of most organisations customer focus, the vision for their online presence, developing its community, its acquisition and retention strategies, the online brand experiences and positioning, must be developed with clarity. The vision should be for the immediate but also 18-24 months down the line, and in the context of an integrated marketing strategy that takes a holistic approach and is informed by customer insights.

The marketer’s kit bag of SWOT, PESTEL etc should be applied to the task of regular market analysis and whilst the web with its transparency aids this scanning process, the rate of change, increased competition and technological disruption necessitates innovative and flexible planning and implementation. Established direct marketing techniques such as database marketing, testing, targeting, timing, tracking and measurability are more relevant than ever in the digital domain. For example, the Cartoon Network launched a digital campaign earlier this year to six to ten year olds for their Incredikids brand leading up to school holidays.

What is clear is that more and more customers expect a two-way interaction or dialogue with organisations that can benefit both parties. For example, direct banking specialist, First Direct (FD) has unveiled a new website that aggregates ‘live’ comments, even uncensored negative ones, about FD by online customers in an attempt to be more transparent and understand. Innovations like this can be a risk but both customer and organisational expectations online have changed considerably and like Web 2.0, such advances must be incorporated both in terms of marketing philosophy and function in the digital world.

Shall I learn web analytics or marketing research?

In the last decade web analytics has grown into a self-contained industry but there has been a limited amount of collaboration with the traditional marketing research industry. Perhaps that is changing now.

Traditional marketing research uses the well known questionnaire or focus groups to arrive at some decision that is used in marketing. It is a well established industry and over US$28,000 million are spent each year on marketing research. Suppliers are present throughout the world. Familiar names include Nielsen, Taylor Nelson Sofres, IMS, Kantar, GFK, Ipsos, Synovate and Arbitron. Full-service agencies provide all research facilities to a client. Smaller entities provide specific services such as consultancy, fieldwork, telephone call centres and computer analysis. Many advertising agencies offer market research. Professional associations represent the interests of suppliers, users and other communities; these include ESOMAR, the MRS, and many more.

On the other hand, the Web Analytics industry has grown from the 1990s when web counters were easily available and visible on web pages. In 1995 log file analysis programmes created, mainly to ensure web pages functioned properly. By 2000 Key vendors based on log file analysis were firmly established: these included Accrue, WebTrends, WestSideStory and Coremetrics. However problems with Log Files were becoming clear... JavaScript Tags emerged as a new standard for collecting data from websites. With tagging a few lines of code are added to each page, when a page loads, these tags cause data to be sent to a data collection server. So work shifted from the IT dept. to a web analysis software vendor and the number of services on offer expanded. Google even gave their services away free of charge.

All companies have web pages, so all companies have a need for web traffic analysis. This means the Web Analytics Industry has grown. It even has a trade and professional body called the Web Analytics Association. http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/

Has traditional research embraced Web Analytics? Well the answer is no, there is a love-hate relationship. Market Researchers are the masters of human relationships and consumer behaviour. Conversely Web Analytics people are masters of the manipulation of massive data sets, they are techie, they work best alone. For the CAM student it is wise to embrace both, because Web Analytics are still hiring, and there are signs that the two industries are coming closer together. To survive in the future you need to understand both traditional market research and web analytics.

Internet Advertising

For the first half of 2009 (January – June) spending on internet advertising grew a further 4.6% to £1.75 billion which overtook TV ad spending for the first time in history.

In a joint research project, conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, it was identified that whilst the market place for advertising was hit hard by market conditions, with advertising spending reduced by £1.5 billion overall in the same period of time, internet advertising continued to grow.

OK, that’s all well and good, but what does it mean? Well, Internet Advertising as a medium for communications is finally ‘coming of age’. Organisations and their marketing teams are finally beginning to understand the medium, how it can be used effectively and the benefits it can deliver.

Is it fair to compare online ad spend with TV ad spend? They’re two completely different media, with differing levels of reach, interaction and content... but, as a benchmark, it is easy to compare the shift in spend on the two to demonstrate how important online advertising has become.

As a component of the advertising industry, online advertising has matured as a medium and can offer organisations different features and benefits over and above those of the more traditional advertising media such as...

• Online Advertising Networks that bring together those who want to host and those who want to advertise
• Direct response mechanisms to better measure responses and performance
• A variety of online vehicles and display formats
• Improved targeting through semantic analysis

...and all of this is occurring via a platform that is seeing an increasing numbers of internet users with faster broadband connections across the globe.

Now, I’m not saying forget everything else – internet is best – but internet advertising needs to be a considered part of any integrated communications mix. It is different to other media, but is similar in its role and tasks and as such can be used to achieve a variety of tasks (remember DRIP?) and synergise with other communications tools, media and vehicles. However, it should not be used in the same ways as other, more traditional, advertising media... unless you want to confuse, a more synergistic approach is needed.

Take a little time to reflect on your own online advertising, are you using this digital media in the same way you use (or have used) the more traditional media and, if so, is that the most effective approach?

Giving the customer more control

Integrated marketing is reaching new dimensions through the convergence of media. An example of this is the marketing campaign used by Gap to market its launch of its new 1969 Premium Jeans that were “Born to Fit”. They developed a software called StyleMixer for the iPhone (in the USA). This allows prospective buyers to mix and match clothes and to find inspiration and advice through friends from Facebook and the StyleMixer community. The application lets users swipe, slide and tap to design new outfits in the fitting room. These can then be shown to friends on Facebook. They can also flip through different outfits. At the same time users can see what stock may be available at the store they wish to visit. This is an interesting example of a brand can use an integrated approach to marketing, where the consumer has relative control of the product he/she wishes to purchase. At the same time the use of Facebook allows Gap to reach a wider audience where the consumer actually does the marketing and relationship building for them. As mobile applications get more sophisticated this type of an integrated approach to brand building will become prevalent for many global brands.

How realistic is it for your organisation to give the customer more control over the product they want to buy?

Mobile Vision

For Digital Marketers, Mobile is now the most game changing development in the market place. Mobile internet browsing has now become fast, accessible and the user experience is accelerating to a point where it is replacing the use of your standard hardware devices like laptops. There are now many good marketing examples of the use of SMS to build up customer relationships, for example, some banks now notify their customers by text when they are overdrawn, when their salary clears etc

The question is where is this going next? Augmented reality...

Augmented reality, a concept once confined to the Sci-Fi world and previously labelled virtual reality, is now becoming very real as software developers are creating next generation applications. This concept is the most exciting development in mobile to date as it goes way beyond avatars and made up VR worlds and actually maps onto real life. Surprisingly, it is also proving very helpful in day to day activities.

The new applications on Apple's iPhone work by using the mobile phone’s camera, GPS, motion sensor and the internal compass. Pointing your phones camera at your surroundings allows your phone to locate exactly where you are. Small boxes containing information appear on screen which can tell you where the nearest place to eat is or where the nearest tube station is located. Additional layers of detail also appear on screen such as distances. If you then point your camera towards the ground, arrows will appear directing you towards the location of your choice.

Play the video on the link below to see this in action!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8193951.stm

By allowing us to map previously internet confined information on to real life situations, it’s safe to say augmented reality applications are here to stay and are going to play a big part in the way we use our mobile phones in the future.

What do you think? Is there are potential application of this hardware/software for your products/services? How do you think this will impact on your future marketing plans?

Click to comment below.

Is Facebook useful to my business?

Facebook has over 300 million active users! This doesn't make it useful to your business automatically, but many brands are now setting up pages within Facebook and attracting and engaging with 'fans' on this basis.

Have a look at http://tinyurl.com/c82zq7 for an example (you don't need a Facebook account to look at this but you will if you want to 'connect' with Innocent.)

Facebook also allows advertising (it didn't at the start) and this can be paid for on a pay per click basis. Look at http://tinyurl.com/d8s4h6 to read about where ads can be displayed on Facebook pages and how social ads tie in to actions that Facebook users take.

Have any of you had experience of using Facebook within your digital marketing campaign? Share a comment with other readers so we know your views.

Empowering Marketers in the Digital Arena

The digital era took the marketing industry by storm. Suddenly everyone is using the digital buzz words and talking about SEO and Analytics. Marketers today have to keep on top of emerging trends in digital communication and know how to successfully manage their campaigns using the latest tools. It is not always easy however to get the knowledge on what these tools are and how to use them or even a basic understanding of the digital concepts. It is a new arena and information is limited and not always accurate. Knowing what the terms mean and understanding how they can be implemented empowers marketers with confidence and specialist knowledge that may result in more successful digital media campaigns.

We had the dynamic marketer of today in mind when we developed the Diploma in Digital Marketing and the Diploma in Managing Digital Media. Over the last few weeks, as numbers on the qualifications grow, we are reassured that the marketing industry refuses to stay in the dark on digital marketing!

Having said that, do marketers affect emerging trends in digital technology?