Blogs As A Marketing Solution

I've said it before, and I'll say it over and over again. People want relevant content. It's a simple concept.

Think about customer service for a second. How annoying is it to listen to that recorded voice run down a list of 14 options and prompts that are not relevant to you? In an ideal world, you would have a specific number to call for each separate problem or question you have, and you'd speak to a person after the first ring.

This same concept applies to the Web 2.0 world. I was reading Seth Godin's blog today, and he made a great point about high traffic vs. focused, relevant content:

"This is a truth of the Internet: When traffic comes to your site without focused intent, it bounces... 75% of all unfocused visitors leave within three seconds."

He sums up his point in one profound statement:

"Smart retailers work hard to get focused people to walk in the door and to keep the riff raff walking on down the sidewalk."

I love that statement, but I'll take it one step further. How about "smart retailers work smart to get focused people..." When someone types a specific need/want/interest into Google (especially if there's local intent or a longer tailed search), that is a "focused person" who wants answers. With a focused, topic-driven blog, your business is serving up relevant content, pleasing your potential customer. And instead of working hard to accomplish that feat, why not just empower your employees to blog?

High traffic is great for sitting around and discussing how many hits your site got this week, but I'm interested in results. A well-executed blogging solution not only allows you to cut that 75% bounce rate, but you do it by empowering your employees.

Now that's working smart.