Archive for March, 2009

So here I am watching ER and there is an advert for something (doesn’t say what) which features a directive to search “who is she”

Now, I am thinking, wow what a great idea, make sure you are top of the listings for that phrase, after all we know how to do this, don’t we? So I do the search and its just a PPC campaign, no cleverness, no style, no substance. For goodness sake the top organic listing is about CRB checks and there is no mention of the product on the 1st 2 pages.

If all you were doing was getting people to use a PPC link, what was the point? You could have driven them directly to the site without using search at all. It just added an extra click for the visitor and no added value. A really dumb move.

Another of those campaigns where they just don’t get digital. Oh, someone had an idea all right, but if only they’d spent a few % of the ad budget on some proper digital expertise they could have had a much better result.

And I will not dignify the product with a mention.

You’ve been working away tirelessly at your marketing strategy and found the perfect way to communicate your new/improved product or service, show the business as a market leader and pioneer of new and innovative approaches, all the while boosting you SEO efforts and keeping up regular communications with your audience. Yes you’ll create a corporate Blog.

So who will Blog? You’ll get the head of product innovation blog about why he came up with the latest solution and the MD to blog about how the business has emerged as Market leader due to its customer centric focus. You and the rest of the marketing team will then keep the blog ticking over with timely news and updates that will be of real interest to your customer base.

So what’s the problem? The problem is the experts in the business, the ones who know your product inside and out, help shape the business and its direction tell you they simply haven’t got the time to Blog.

I would argue they can’t afford not to have the time to blog. If there is an audience out there that want to hear from you and you have the people who have something meaningful to say then find the time.

Here are my top 5 reasons for creating a corporate blog:

1. Most Blog platforms are free, so the only real expenditure is time.
2. Blogs help improve your search marketing efforts. Fact.
3. Blogging helps create a community of loyal followers a.k.a brand advocates
4. Blogs help you understand your market. Look at the comments left on your blog, are they telling you something?
5. Publishing regular, useful, engaging content to your audience strengthens your credibility in your given industry

Now there’s no need for any excuses.

A new buzzword for you. ‘Crowdsourcing’, Heard of it? No? Let me give you the definition from Jeff Howe, the man who wrote the book:

“Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.”

Let’s simplify that, getting your audience to do your work for you! Genius.

It’s a brilliant approach to marketing strategy. Ask the audience their opinion, get them to contribute and feel part of the business. Then Utilise user generated content for new product and service ideas and new approaches to marketing your business.

It’s not a new concept either. Some classic examples include the Walkers ‘Do me a flavour’ campaign, istockphoto.com (you add your images to build their library), and of course wikipedia. There’s also an example of this on the way from Pancentric, so watch this space.

Crowdsourcing: Highly successful, highly engaging, highly recommended.