Chris Baggott's Guide to Blogging

Social Media marketing is in a similar place to where we were as email marketers back in the turn of the Century. We were doing newsletters! Simple information sharing. No real measurement or ROI expectations....just old fashioned off-line activity put online. Blast out my ‘news’ once a month....

Here at the end of the decade and we are using data, measuring ROI, driving relevant messages to the right people at the right time and selling our products and services to a mostly receptive and appreciative audience.

And think about the email newsletter haters back then.   “Isn’t all commercial email SPAM?” “Junk email” “Evil” “Businesses have no right to email” How many conversations did we have at Cocktail parties that didn’t end in “oh...your a spammer”. (usually followed by a loud guffaw)

Sounds familiar to the conversation we have today about the role of business in Social Media doesn’t it?

So how should business be thinking about Blog Marketing?    First of all, we need to think about the goal, ultimately the people who want to talk to you are searching. Doesn't this make perfect sense?

The vast amount of traffic coming to a corporate blog is driven by first time visitors. These are not 'readers' or 'subscribers' these are people who are looking for specific information in an attempt to solve a problem.

This is what search marketing is all about and what makes it perhaps the greatest marketing tool of all time.   What could be more human than providing content that helps another person solve a problem?   Should this be a concern that perhaps that solution might cost money?   Please read Seth Godin's post from this weekend where he says:

"When two people trade, both win. No one buys a bar a soap unless the money they’re spending for the soap is worth less to them than the soap itself."

The exchange of goods and services is what makes the world function. And Marketing is a significant part of what makes the engine work. As Seth says however:

"Yes, I will give my attention to an ad, but only if it's anticipated, personal and relevant. We still give permission to marketers that earn it, but so few marketers do."

Search is permission marketing as long as we deliver relevance. Blog Marketing is good when the content is organized to be relevant, it's not good when it doesn't help anyone.

How do you know if your Business' Blog Content is helpful? Look at your data. What are your bounce rates? What are your read times? What is your click through rate?

Low bounce rates and high click throughs are the the primary metrics that tell you if your business blogging is providing any value.

Just like old fashioned newsletters, we saw high bounce rates, low opens and pitiful clicks....because what we were sending provided so little value. When we started providing data (intelligence) guess what? Exactly; people responded a lot more positively. Same thing for Corporate Blogging.