The Communications Vault

In the first two posts in this series, I talked about developing your corporate blog strategy and defined the different types of corporate blogs. I’ll conclude this series with some tips on marketing your blog and some helpful notes before you start blogging.

Marketing Your Corporate Blog

So, you have defined your target audience. You know everything about your demo - what they like to read, watch, and eat. You have developed a strategy for your blog. Now it’s time to get your blog out to the masses. Remember that your blog is an extension of your brand and you should market this tool as you would your website. Some quick marketing tips:

• Email your customer base and inform them about the blog.
• Post a banner or link on your current site to the blog.
• Send a postcard or do an offline campaign promoting your blog.
• Submit your blog to the blog search engines and social networks such as Digg or Technorati.
• Plug your blog at presentation and trade shows.
• Encourage your employees to be enthusiasts and advocates of your blog.
• Add your blog link to your email signature.

There are some great articles on the web about marketing your blog. I recommend Googling the topic and reading some of these articles.

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People read blogs for multiple reasons. A recent survey by Vizu Answers and Advertising Age revealed that 65.7 % of the respondents read blogs for entertainment; 42.5 % read blogs to learn more about their personal interests/hobbies; 32.5 % for education; 13.1 % because they have a relationship with the author; and 12.3 % read them for work or business needs.

There are many different types of blogs. We can group blogs by media delivery, such as a text blog, a video blog (vlog), a mobile blog, or a photo blog. We can group blogs by subject matter or genre, such as industry, political, travel, etc. And we can group blogs as “personal” or “corporate.” In this post, I’d like to discuss the different types of corporate blogs.

Corporate Blogs

According to Wikipedia, 40 (or 8%) of the Fortune 500 companies are blogging today. JupiterResearch estimates that nearly 70% of all large companies use blogs in some way. There are three main types of corporate blogs: internal communication, external company insight and external subject matter experts. (more…)

Lately, I’ve been receiving a lot of inquiries about blogs. These questions are justified as blogs become more and more popular. Blogs are the place where people are getting their news, expressing their views and releasing “behind the scenes” info. But the real questions are, “Is a blog right for you and your company?” and “How do you use a blog to advance your corporate brand?”

I’m going to make an assumption that if you are reading this post you are familiar with blogs. If not, Wikipedia offers a great definition. I like to define “blogging” as:

• An e-Marketing tactic that should be used as a part of your overall e-Marketing and web site strategy in conjunction with other tactics such as SEO, PPC, e-mail, etc.
• A tactic that should be aligned to complement your traditional media program in timing and in content.
• A PR tool that serves as a voice for a subject-matter expert.
• A form of CGM (consumer-generated media) and Web 2.0.
• A viral marketing technique.
• Finally and most importantly, an extension of your corporate brand.

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Just as the iPod revolutionized the way we listen to music, Apple is hoping their new iPhone will do the same for how we use our mobile device. As a marketer and a lover of new technology, I, for one, am extremely excited about the possibilities.

With only one day left before the Apple iPhone goes on sale, the Apple and AT&T stores are preparing for one of the biggest product launches since the Playstation 2. Since the announcement of the iPhone, Apple’s stock has increased over 40%. It’s nearly impossible to go to a blog or PR site without seeing an article about the new phone. The news about the phone has been unprecedented.

To see an example, just take a look at the keyword term “iPhone” in Google. There are over 80 million pages that mention the term. Hitwise notes that the searches for “iPhone” have increased 583% over the past four weeks and it has become one of the most search upon terms in the search engines. This is also reflected in Google Trends. Visits to Apple’s iPhone page have increased 185% and even with mixed reviews, iPhone blogs, videos and websites (even sites that make suggestions on how to use your old phone) have been springing up all over the Internet. (more…)

Listen to this special podcast featuring an interview with Matt Daly, JPL’s Director of Client Strategy, and Joe Tertel, JPL e-Marketing Consultant, to learn how you can increase business with the right website, promotion and e-Marketing campaign.

 

 Using e-Marketing & On-Line Promotions: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It has been said that the term “google” has become the fastest word to convert from noun to verb in history. Come on, let’s face it: you’ve googled your competitors; you’ve googled your company; you’ve googled yourself; you’ve even googled your ex. We are googling more every day, clicking on the first results we see. But what does it mean to be that first result when someone is googling your products or services?

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