Most can agree that traditional marketing campaigns are falling by the wayside as the cost for television and print ads has increased exponentially over the past 5 years, while the efficacy has dropped due to new technologies (DVR/TiVo) and a general societal feelings of untrust and detest for mass advertising. All of this has combined to create this new wave of conversational marketing --- no more of the "Let's tell you how great our product is with a catchy jingle" (to watch my personal retro McD's favorite click here).
Done right, conversational marketing can be a great theory that not only allows for 2 way communication and honest feedback; but can do wonders for customer retention, loyalty and getting those Citizen Marketers (interesting read by the way) selling your product by word of mouth (oh, did I mention that WOM is free and effective?!) Done wrong, conversational marketing can become 'corp speak' and forced --- creating even more dissent among your target audience.
So let's say we agree that Conversational Marketing works, and companies are taking note - check out this Small Biz Labs Post which discusses how spending on Conversational Marketing is expected to surpass traditional media by 2012 (uhm, that's only 5 years away). I am not saying that where money is spent is always the indicator as the 'right way to go'; but this does show that many companies are taking note of the impact of conversational marketing and thus attempting to dive into the world of organizational blogging and social networking.
Blogging is a great way to start these conversations with your customers -- it allows first for the customer to come and read what you are talking about (oh...and some blogging tips are coming soon on ways to be more 'personal' with your customers). After the customers are listening --- the goal is to have them talk back, which is the whole point of the comments section in a blog. So...how about starting the conversation with some easy-to-use blogging software?
