Using Blogs as a Marketing Tool

Blogs were viewed as a marginal technology reserved for insiders up until only a few years (and even only months) ago. But today, blogs are spreading like wildfire across Web sites operated by media and organizations of all types. The popularity of blogs is due in large part to their ability to be used as a powerful marketing tool. Whether it is for building visitors’ loyalty, promoting an event or even as an intelligence and research marketing tool, blogs have demonstrated that they can help fulfil an array of business objectives.

A tool for building customer loyalty

Blog users are best placed to confirm that blogs are a strong loyalty-building tool. The interactive aspect of blogs stimulates exchange and incites Internet users to return regularly to follow the discussion and even participate. Online media has come to understand the power of blogs very well. By offering their readers blogs, media groups have found an easy way to increase traffic to their sites and, at the same time, add original content. Upon writing this article, the newspaper La Presse had six blogs offering readers the chance to chat with their favourite journalists posted overseas or to read ski conditions and comments written by an expert in the matter. As for the journal Le Devoir, though it does not exploit the journalist-reader relationship to the same degree, it offers a multitude of blogs on themes discussed in the paper’s articles.
Along this same line of thinking, many well-known athletes and adventurers have created their own blogs to communicate with their loyal fans and with members of their sports community. At the same time, these blogs provide welcome visibility for their sponsors.

A tool for promoting events or ad campaigns

The ease with which blogs are published and distributed on the Internet makes it possible to rapidly start a blog for a specific event, thereby guaranteeing that it will receive wide notice in very little time. In this manner, an organization can stimulate interest in an event and even offer publicity opportunities for partners. During the recent 77 th Academy Awards ceremony, the producer shared his comments on a daily blog for two weeks prior to the event to incite people to visit to the Oscars’ Web site regularly.
The same principal applies to publicity campaigns. In 2003, Nike launched the first major campaign using a blog . For twenty days prior to the official launch of a new ad campaign, Nike invited Internet users to share their opinions about the works of 15 young filmmakers exploring the theme of “the art of speed.” This concept is also used for album and movie launches, or to encourage discussion following a trade show.

A tool for competitive intelligence and research marketing

Due to the freedom of expression that the blog format encourages, blogs are an important source for gathering competitive intelligence and marketing information. By researching blogs specific to your industry you can learn much about the services offered by your competitors and you can also discover a surprising amount about your own firm. There are many tools available for gathering intelligence automatically from RSS blog feeds, such as the Quebecois Lektora software and many others. These tools search for chosen words from defined information sources, allowing for automatic intelligence collection on topics of your interest.
If you have a product under development, you can create a blog and use its participants as a control group, allowing beta-testers to freely express their opinions and help correct bugs found in a video game, for example.
To summarize, blogs offer numerous opportunities thanks to the fact that they are easy to publish, permit two-way communication and can be rapidly distributed on the Web. One word of warning, do not underestimate the time needed for maintaining and publishing quality content. Otherwise, it’s your turn to start tasting the benefits of blogs!