Blogging In Your Marketing Plan
The social media age has brought about a new wave of lingo into the marketing world, and with it, a new way to reach your target market. Between tweeting, pinning, liking, and blogging, social media’s new language is here and here to stay. Today, we’re looking at blogging. Folks blog about all sorts of things and for many reasons. According to Technorati Media’s reports, blogging is the top social media venue that influences consumer purchases. If blogs have that much pull, it’s important to understand what they are, how marketers can use them, and how to integrate that with your brand!
Blogs are essentially a “log” of journal entries. There are a number of great platforms through which anyone can create a blog for free, including blogger and WordPress Blogging started, just as most social medias did, as a means through which individuals could express their thoughts, opinions, and life stories. Anyone can blog about anything. However, blogging is just as important for the follower/reader as it is for the blogger himself. Typically, you can follow a blog, subscribe to a blog, or subscribe to it on an RSS feed. As blogs have risen in popularity and number of viewers, advertising buttons, links, and spotlights have become more popular. Many people consider blogging their profession because they can make so much in advertising spots to support themselves! The key to blogs is that a real person is behind the article. If you read a blog post about green cleaning products and know that a real mom who advertises her profile is behind the post and actually uses that cleaning product, the word of mouth reputation is invaluable!
Since blogs have so much pull, this is a major opportunity for advertising campaigns. Blogs offer the opportunity to have an ad along the margin of the blog itself with a direct link to your website. Blogs often offer giveaways or sponsored posts where the blogger will give a review of your product or service. You can offer to reference the reviewer’s blog or article on your social media or ads. Since most bloggers are intimately involved in their projects, they value when others interact with their articles and their blog. Reciprocating is a big part of social media, and bloggers are known for their team efforts!
While I was on staff full-time at The Harmon Group in Nashville, I had the privilege of working on Team Barry for our client Old Time Pottery and setting up a strategy to include blogging as a marketing strategy. (I still get involved from time to time still!) Team Barry has fully embraced the impact that blogs can have for Old Time Pottery. As a home decor store, blogs are a perfect fit. Team Barry started out by suggesting mentioning other bloggers’ ideas on social medias like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Direct links back to the blog itself are effective because Old Time Pottery customers get great ideas of how to use the merchandise and then easy tutorials and tips on how to use them! Team Barry also advised Old Time Pottery to support some strategic blogs by placing ads on the blog itself. During wedding season, they helped dramatically increase traffic to Old Time Pottery’s website with ad buttons on DIY wedding blogs! A final push for Old Time Pottery includes launching its own blog. The newly released blog has helped drive traffic back to Old Time Pottery’s website from their own social medias, and the guest bloggers’ sites. By creating content, Old Time Pottery has now established itself as an expert in home decor on a budget, which is their main client target.
Blogs have great potential to increase brand awareness, establish expert reputations, and drive traffic to your website. Blogs have grown up over the past years, just as many social medias have. They have made one impression though: they are here to stay. If you feel you need to get in on blogging, but don’t know how, contact us. I would love to talk about how we can get you started!
-Valerie
Resource for stats: http://technoratimedia.com/