Bloggin Ads

The use of the third media or the World Wide Web has brought about a new popular method of marketing which is blogging. What began as just a method of self expression of day to day experiences, points of views, and reactions to everyday events is now deemed as a prime component that corporations and businesses should include in their marketing mix.

Though one may doubt the capabilities of blogging, it is important to note that such method holds the basic characteristics of an effective mass medium. Foremost of the reasons is the fact that as long as the blog is published as public information in the internet, many people can access it. Thus, it is capable of reaching a mass audience.

Other than that, blogging is an unrestricted form of relaying a message. Unlike other mass media tools which suffer from restrictions of media board licensing bodies, most blogs can contain whatever message a person wants to convey.

They can also be about everything or anything under the sun. As such, blogs can be used to market any kind of product or service. Therefore, blogs are capable of freely and effectively communicating an advertising message.

Also, blogs are highly versatile forms of communication. You can combine the use of visual tools, texts, and even audio-visuals in constructing a blog. There are actually no limits in blog making. With blogging around, you can utilize all forms of media tools to create a highly interesting blog. Thus, blogs are capable of attracting the attention of a wide variety and number of online readers.

Based on the reasons above, it is apparent that blogs can then be considered as an effective marketing tool. However, to provide a more concrete proof that blogs are perfect for any kind of business, below are some specific ways on how you can fully make use of blogging:

Promote Your Brand Name

Some people avoid reading or paying attention to advertisements. With blogging around, you can eventually create articles that do not appear as obvious advertising materials, but still promote your brand name. For as long as the blog talks about your brand name along with frequent mentions of your products and services, you can essentially say that the blog acts as an advertising tool.

A particular example of such site is that of Adobe. If you visit the company’s blog, you will not find any direct and obvious product promotions. Instead, the site contains a wide variety of blogs from Adobe’s employees. The employee blogs basically contain tutorials and advices on how to use Adobe products. Thus, Adobe still gets to promote its products discreetly, but effectively in terms of blogging.

Heighten Interest on Your Field or Product

Another way to use blogging as a marketing tool is by providing articles that may entice the reader’s interest on your types of services and products. Take the case of BBC. If you visit their blog site, you will not find articles that promote the credibility of their news stories and their reporting style. However, they provide blogs that contain the behind-the-scene narratives on how they acquired and actually constructed their news coverage. These blogs attract attention to the field of journalism, as many people would like to know what happens behind the camera. As more people are becoming more and more interested with journalism, they will also eventually develop interest in news agencies- particularly BBC

Communicate With Your Customers

Maintaining effective communication with the clients is vital in any type of business. Such will help you determine the customer’s needs, along with their feedbacks regarding your present set of services and products. With this idea in mind, CEO Bill Marriot of Marriot International constructed the official blog of their company.

Instead of bragging about what types of high quality services that his hotel offers, Marriot talks about facts and opinions about being a hotelier. In his online discussions, he is able to communicate with his customers. Based on how the customers respond to his posts, Marriot is then able to determine how to modify or improve his company’s services in order to meet the changing demands of the clients.

Discuss Why Your Products Matter

Blogs provide you with a way to justify the existence of your products. Moreover, a blog gives you the opportunity to justify why your products matter more than that of the competitors’. A particular example is FiveRuns that works on Ruby on Rails. Instead of flashing banner ads and pop-ups that promote their services, they just devised a blog site which provides tips on how to make use of Rails. They also provide tutorials and how-to-do articles. As such, they are essentially promoting their services by discussing how customers can actually utilize their products for daily living purposes.

Establish Good Employee-Employer Communication

Aside from maintaining good rapport with your prospect customers, any business should also ensure that an excellent employee-employer communication is maintained. Blogging can make this happen since it can provide an interactive venue for employee-employer discussions. A particular company which actually practices this blog utilization is Sun Microsystems. The blog site contains articles published by its employees. The topics vary widely and they often include articles about their work and the company

Establish Credibility And Expertise

Credibility and expertise matter in the World Wide Web. No customer will go for your offered services and products if they think that you are not a reliable service provider. Blogs can help you ascertain your credibility not by making claims that you are reliable and trustworthy. Rather, blogging provides you with subtle ways that establish your brand name or your company as an expert in your field.

A particular example is the blog site of 37signals. Instead of putting up articles that promote their products, they provide advice and insights about topics that are related to their services. This includes design, business, editorial, and other topics.

As such, when clients view their blog pages, they are provided with the general impression that the company is really knowledgeable on how they should conduct their services. They are then deemed as experts in their product sector.