In the era of electronic and social media, company newsletters take on different forms. Seldom are newsletters printed on paper and mailed to current &/or prospective clients. More often, they are emailed to clients with reference to a website for additional information on how their products and services can solve the recipients’ problems in the form of product details or FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions.) The Greater Newburyport Chamber of Commerce held an educational seminar presented by iMarc on Inn Street on how to add another arrow to your marketing ammunitions to assist in driving traffic to a company website, the Web Log, or most commonly known as the blog. A formal definition provided during the presentation is this:
Blog /blôg/
Noun: A website on which an individual or group of users record opinions, information, etc. on a regular basis.
Verb: Add new material or regularly update a blog.
Nils Menten, president of iMarc, began the seminar with an overview of different types of social media, and defined a blog as essentially a diary that you hope all of your current and prospective clients will want to read, again, piquing their interest by journaling about issues that concern them that your company’s products can address. Nils also helped explain the blog concept by explaining that both Twitter and Facebook are essentially “microblogs” – that is, blogs with a prescribed limit for content.
So what are the components of a blog? Especially a blog used to drive sales, specifically, to drive eyeballs to your website? The typical primary components are:
- Sharing capabilities
- RSS Feeds (subscription service)
- Recent Blog Posts
- Comments
- Author’s Bios
- Related Blogs
- Archive
One goal of your blog is to get readers to share your post with others. To make this easy for readers, have SHARE buttons that enable quick execution of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube posts as well as an email option.
A
n RSS (real simple syndication) enables readers to “subscribe” so they get a notification whenever you have new posts on your blog. Providing this button for readers to sign up to learn automatically when content has been updated entices readers to come back.
An Archive link makes all of your past posts available. A common tactic is to build a blog posting referring to previous posting to entice and engage readers to review information provided earlier.
Recent Blog Posts let readers know about other topics you have recently addressed.
A bit about your company, products and especially about the writer can attract readers as well as add credibility. An Author’s Bio or a statement About the Site helps readers know what to expect. Linking to other blogs that have related, supporting or similar discussions also add to reader value.
The Comments section provides a venue for readers to not only interact with you, the author, but with each other. The opportunity to provide a comment or view other readers’ comments is most often at the end of a post as shown below.
The primary motives for blogging are to act as an additional marketing tactic to establish thought-leader status, exemplify product value, and essentially, drive readers to your website as a call-to-action or next step in the purchasing process. But why bother with a blog? As Nils shared in the session, “78% of Internet users conduct product research online.” (source: Kagan, Marta. “12 Mind-Blowing Statistics Every Marketer Should Know.” Hubspot Blog. 1 April 2011.) By providing relevant and engaging content to your audience, you highlight your expertise and industry knowledge. In doing this, your blog supports building traffic on your website. Again, shared by Nils, “Of 236 businesses surveyed, 87.4% successfully increased measurable SEO (search engine optimization) objectives as a direct result of blogging.” (source: Odden, Lee. “Survey Results: Impact of Blogging on Search Engine Optimization.” TopRank. 2010.)
But putting up a blog is not a one-shot deal. What makes a blog successful? Timely content is key. A dynamic blog will drive your Search Engine Optimization and become an important marketing tactic for your company. A stagnant blog will not get shared or stimulate fresh comments or readers. You must be committed to sustained effort to refresh content on a regular basis as well as moderate comments to keep discussions on the right track. Develop an editorial calendar and create ownership deadlines for several people to keep posts timely. “If each time the consumer goes to your site, there is a blog entry dated within the last day or so, they will be more likely to trust the content of the entire site as being updated and valid.” (source: Angus, George. “Top Ten Reasons to Blog Your Business Site.” George Angus. 21 May 2010.) Katie Desmond, iMarc’s Director of New Business, gave an example of a blog with an entry regarding their new business address as of 1 November 2006, instantly labeling the entire site as stale material.
The other important factor for success is the value of the content to your target audience. Blog topics should represent an intersection of the organization’s needs and your customer’s needs thus your postings should provide user-centric content that can provide them with the answers they are looking for.
Finally, Nils covered the different ways to set up a blog and the pros and cons of each. This will be covered in Part II of this article next week!
To see iMarc’s own blog posting reviewing this event, please click here. The Chamber thanks the Institution for Savings for their generous sponsorship that made this seminar possible.
