Here are the notes from the second session.
Promoting/Marketing your blog Agenda:
- Introdcution
- Overview
- Online marketing-blog specific
- Online marketing-general
- Offline marketing
1. Introduction
Now we’ve started the Business Blogs we need to start publicising them.If you expect that people will now arrive in their hundreds you will be disappointed. To make it successful, you must spend time in promoting and marketing your blogs.The good thing is that this does not have to be very difficult and time consuming. Many of the aspects are already covered within the blog software (WordPress) automatically.
2. Overview?
As a start point consider a standard integrated marketing approach when looking at website/blog promotion and general business development by mixing online e-marketing with traditional offline marketing methods. Not all of these tools and techniques will be applicable to every Blog. It is therefore important to assess which are going to be most effective for your blog.
3. Online Marketing-blog specific
Content is King. You will only attract visitors and get people to come back if you have content they want to read. Good content will attract people who will want to link to your site. The essence of the Blogosphere is its power of communication, much of which is achieved through linking. This is done much more readily than elsewhere on the net but is based on merit and quality. People will reference your site and comment on what you have written if it warrants it – this will create a ‘buzz’ around your blog and acts in a viral marketing way.Maintain the focus in your blog. Then you will continue to attract your target audience and, by continuing to supply information which meets their needs or addresses business issues that they have, they will read your posts, come back on a regular basis and recommend your blog to others.You are then in a position to turn to the other marketing and promotional methods that are open to you for your Blog.
a) RSS Feeds
The blogs have an RSS feed.
b) RSS Feed Directories
There are also web directories where you can submit your RSS feed and where the content from the RSS can be searched on both for general subject area and in terms of the content of individual posts as well. Some feed directories that you can start with are:·
Feedminer (www.feedminer.com) ·
RSS Locator (www.rss-locator.com) ·
Desk Feeds (www.deskfeeds.com)·
2 RSS (www.2rss.com)
Blog Wessex will act as a RSS directory in the near future.
c) Blog Directories
There are an increasing number of directories which are dedicated to blogs and which can offer a good way to get your blog referenced and linked to. Most are general directories with sub categories which function in the same way as the main web directories, though there are already some which are focused on certain particular market areas.Being found in these directories will help not only encourage visitors to your Business blog but also help with the Page Rank element of Google. Some directories to get you started are:·
LS Blogs (www.lsblogs.com) ·
Blogarama (www.blogarama) ·
BlogWise (www.blogwise.com) ·
BritBlog (www.britblog.com).
d) Blog Search Engines:
Technorati (www.technorati.com): you need to ping the Technorati server and ideally also sign up and “claim” your blog – it’s free and recommended as one of the first things that you should do when promoting your Business Blog;
Google’s Blog Search (http://blogsearch.google.com): picks up from various sources so it will pick up your content if you do a general ping.
e) Pinging
Pinging, in terms of blogs, is where you send a short automatic notification to the blog servers (such as Search Engines) to tell them that you have posted new information on your Business Blog and that they should come to index it! Simple – just remember to post and ping!
f) Blog Tags
These are tags or phrases which are added to a post by its author to indicate the main elements of its content and so should give an accurate reflection of what areas the post is talking about. For blogs, the most commonly used are tags for Technorati – the Search Engine then allows you to search not only in a general fashion but also by individual tags. Other sites which were the pioneers of this type of “social tagging” are Flickr and del.icio.usIncluding tags in a post will allow you to attract people who are searching on specific areas with tags rather than through general search methods, and used correctly can be very effective for both author and reader.
g) Post Comments on other Blogs
Ideally, once you have your own blog up and running then you should not only be reading other blogs but also commenting on them. It’s a way of getting your name out into the blogosphere as well as encouraging people back to your own blog.When you post a comment, most blogs request your name and your website address – then when you submit your comment, it appears with your name which forms a link back to your site. Try to avoid comments which just say “Great Post” or something similar; although it will create a link back to your site, it really doesn’t encourage people to use it.However, if you add value to the post in your comment, then there is a greater likelihood that people will want to follow the link from your comment back to your own blog to read more of what you have to say.
h) Trackbacks
When you write articles which reference other blogs, then you should always credit the original source and place a link to it within the text of your post. Wherever possible, you should also use a trackback. A trackback will automatically inform the author that you have referenced their post in your blog and are continuing the themes from their article in your own post. At the same time, it will also create a link in the comments section of the original post which people can follow back to your blog. Once again, the quality of the post that you write will then determine whether people consider it worthwhile to have followed the trackback and visited your blog so try to ensure that you are adding something to the original or taking it in another direction.
4. Online marketing-general
Blogs are websites with special characteristics which set them apart and make them very useful. This does mean that they can therefore be promoted in the same way as a normal website using the online methods available to us.
a) Search Engines
Business Blogs are great for this because they have excellent structure, contain focused content, and are regularly updated. Additionally, contrary to popular belief, you do not need to submit your site to the main Search Engines – Google will pick you up through links that are created either from general websites, other blogs or directories and in any case will transfer information across from its blogsearch engine. Likewise, both Yahoo and MSN will do the same although as extra impetus, you should consider creating a My Yahoo page and then adding your RSS feed as a content source. Tests have indicated that it helps to get your blog spidered by Yahoo’s Search Engine.
b) Generic Directories
Submit your blog to the main web directories such as the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) and any other relevant general web directories. You should be aware that many web directories will only accept the home URL of a site and so these would only be applicable if you have set your Blog up on a different domain name rather than when you have integrated it into your company site.
c) Search Advertising
Search Advertising, or Pay Per Click advertising, is just as applicable to Business Blogs as it is to websites. However, since you should not be aiming to sell directly in your blog, it is likely that you will need to take a more medium to long-term view to any promotional campaign that you run. Pay Per Click campaigns, however, do also raise general brand awareness as well as company profile, in addition to delivering targeted customers.Calculating ROI on any advertising done would be highly sensible, but it should be remembered that since a good blog is generally “sticky” (that is to say, it is better able to retain the visitors that it attracts), there is a greater likelihood of recommendations and return visits, so these should be factored into the calculations for a truer picture.
d) Write Articles
Posting articles to online article sites is a good way to both raise your profile and create additional inbound links to your Blog.You can use the subject matter in your posts to develop several articles which can then be submitted to these article sites which store and display the articles by category – they can then be downloaded and used by others. Importantly, they also permit a “signature” which is a short block at the end of your article containing details about you as the author and where you can include a link to your blog. This signature has to be published together with your article if used by others.When submitting an article in this way, it is better not to simply use the original post from the blog but rather modify it for two main reasons:
a) what is written as a blog post is designed for that purpose; if you are going to submit an article then it would be better to re-write elements of it and be able to submit something that it is designed as article;
b) Search Engines can get difficult about things that they consider to be duplicate content – it is believed that two pages containing over 75% similar content may fall into that category, so rewording elements of it will avoid any chance of this.
e) Online Forums
Participate in online forums which are relevant to your business – business forums are good because they are divided into subject areas and so you are able to discuss elements with other people who are also interested in the subject matter. You can therefore reference articles within your blog during these discussions and well as develop a reputation which can be built upon in the Blog.In addition, most forums allow a “signature” area at the bottom of your comments where you can link back to your Business Blog – good for Search Engines but also very good to help direct people interested in the form’s subject matter back to your Blog as well.
f) E-mail Signatures
Not strictly online as such, but you should always make sure that the signature that you have on your email contains your Blog address in the same way that you include other details such as your website address and other contact details.
g) Online profiles such as ecademy or Business Scene.
These online networking sites allow you to list blogs and other outside web content. They will even pull in content via RSS.
5. Offline marketing
Offline marketing techniques are equally effective for promoting your blog. You should therefore consider integrating the e-marketing methods outlined above with the traditional offline methods that you already employ to market your company website.
a) Personal and Company Stationery
Make sure that your Business Blog address appears on your personal and company stationery such as business cards, letter heads and compliments slips. Even if it is a part of your company website, if it is important enough to set up and develop then it is important enough to highlight as a separate section in the stationery.
b) Business brochures and collateral
Likewise in your brochures, flyers and leaflets, you should take the opportunity to give the recipients a direct link to further information on the subject.
c) Presentations and Seminars
You will normally have a section regarding you and / or your company so include here the address of your blog and the type of content that they will find there – focus in on what would be of interest to them there. Remember there is no issue in having more than one blog! If your company has disparate areas of activity then remember that a blog needs to be focused and so you would be better advised to set up one related to each.
d) Conferences and Exhibitions
On your stand, on the flyers that you distribute and in any presentations that you give, you will have the chance to focus people’s attention on your blog.
e) Direct Mailings
Whether this is done in conjunction with an email marketing campaign or not, a blog is often an excellent place to direct people for passionate views on the product or for a centralised information source for a conference you are running, for example.
f) Press Release
You could also issue a Press Release outlining the fact that you have decided to create and develop a Blog and giving the reasons behind it and the benefits that your customers can expect to gain from it.
g) Word of Mouth
Don’t forget the age old method of simply telling people about it! When you post a new article e-mail people you know that it will be of interest to. Ask them to forward it to others they think might be interestedTell people it when networking or on business meetings and so on.
What’s next?
We now have a Business Blog which should be being marketed and promoted to all of the relevant target audience that you identified when we planned the blog and hopefully even further afield.It is therefore an appropriate moment to look back and check that some of the key areas that you intended to put in place have not been overlooked. Please feel free to contact us or each other for reminders, advice or further help. We will publish all this information and further resources, as we find them, on the Saratoga blog:
www.saratoga.blogwessex.com
Wayne Harris
wayneh@saratogauk.com
