Blogs as marketing tools for dummies

Blogging, by nature, is any libertarian idealist's dream come true! It's completely free. Any individual with a computer, Internet connection and an opinion can start up a blog in 5 minutes. Step1: Go to blog publishing site like www.blogger.com, www.rediffblogs.com or www.blogs.sify.com.

Step 2: Register username and password and create an account.

Step 3: Select a "template" from a range of colours and font styles. If you know HTML, you can create your own template.

Step 4: Go to "Create New Post" and type in anything you want… your views, opinions, articles, anything.

Step 5: Just click "Publish Post" and …voila… your new blog is live!

Blog marketing is all about creating a buzz around any product, be it a celebrity, banking, a movie, or an electronic product. If linked to a 'total online solution' including banner ads, site-captures, information sites it is extremely effective. A survey done by Backbone Media in 2005 showed that corporate blogs are giving both large established corporations, as well as obscure brands the ability to connect with their audiences on a completely personal, one-on-one level; collect valuable feed-back; build trust and create bonds; while at the same time, proving to be 100 per cent tangible to the sales and marketing sides of business.

Take, for example, the blogging success of 'Mangal Pandey — The Rising'. Apart from the online contests, the producers hosted a blog, which fans could go onto and actually post their comments and views about the up-coming film. The star of the film, Aamir Khan, also made an appearance on the blog every so often, and aired out his views on what the fans said, as well an answered a few questions. As a result of this, 'Mangal Pandey' gives you nearly a hundred thousand hits on Google; more than seventy per cent of which take you to something related to the film. And the film hasn't even released yet. Another fine example of a marketing success through blogging was when international gaming giant, SEGA, launched its new game: ‘First Person Football’. They didn't spend a penny on advertising, but instead hosted a blog, through which they put forth a 'conspiracy theory' like scenario, wherein they had various bloggers holding forth a discussion about how they blacked out during gaming; and came to only to find bruises all over themselves. As a result, the brand was painted as a 'bad boy'; and this, in itself, was enough to create media frenzy, which in the final stakes, worked very well to make the launch a huge success.

Like a lot of smaller companies, the new Annie's Homegrown blog can be described as a 'character blog' — where the company's products are showcased and customer feedback is asked for. The consumers, too, can meet and discuss the products with each other within this space itself. Yes, it does sound familiar; these were called 'message boards' in the old days.

iUpload is a small software company in the United States, which has a blog for every employee in the company. One of the bloggers posted his customers ideas, and another one picked a 'customer of the month' to be profiled. Both strategies received very welcome responses from the blog's audience.

When a Microsoft customer couldn't get through to a programmer to come fix a problem, he blogged about the issue on his own blog; Microsoft bloggers picked up the issue and responded to the bug in his software immediately. Microsoft is currently in the process of developing strategies for dealing with complaints and issues discussed on blogs; and on the web in general. Several departments and individuals at Microsoft are already monitoring the web for other such complaints, but these are efforts by individuals undertaken under their own recognisance. Blogs are helping Microsoft converse directly with its customers, as well as move to 'customer focus' from 'goal focus'. With blogs communicating the response so quickly and effectively, customers are delighted to know that Microsoft is listening to and responding so proactively.

In essence, blogs are learning tools for companies as to how they could improve or develop new products by communicating more effectively with their customers. Any company should encourage customer ideas, reward them, and learn from their customer's example. After all, if you helped build a product as a customer, you are much more likely to buy the product, as well as tell your peers about it. And herein lies the perfect Public Relations (PR) opportunity for corporate bloggers. One of the best ways to market a product is through good PR and customer referrals; building a community of online bloggers increases the likelihood of online PR being generated on your audience's blogs.

To read the entire story, grab your copy of Impact Advertising and Weekly magazine issue dated August 8-14, 2005