More and more at the retail point of sale we are asked for key bits of "targeting" information immediately prior to completing the transaction.  From your zipcode, phone number or scanning of a loyalty card, each successive transaction allows these stores to fine tune their marketing and theoretically bring about a 1:1  relationship between store and customer.  Though now an Indianapolis resident, every so often I'll supply my zipcode from living in New York State -- merely to provide an anomaly within the database. 

 Loyalty cards represent a growing form of the push toward target marketing.  While most commonly associated with your local grocer, the proliferation of loyalty cards in my personal experience has extended even to the service center of my auto dealer.  Still not sure about that one or immediately aware of why it remains on my key ring.  Benefits associated with the continued use and retention of such cards include "lower" prices and/or eligibility for special pricing or inventory availability opportunities.  Continued use and retention, of course, leads to the accumulation of knowledge by a retailer regarding individual preferences and patterns.  The savvy retailer, in turn, will translate this information into more relevant marketing.  Further, in doing so properly, cost savings through decreasing reliance on potentially spendy and wasteful full market advertising vehicles should result.   We've certainly seen a decrease in  newspaper page counts over the years as key categories, department stores for example, focus their marketing dollars on more niche and targeted opportunities. 

So here comes the part where we relate this to blogging.  In the cat-herding world of figuring out thin market audience targeting, organizational blogging for search optimization and customer conversions certainly can play a critical and sustaining role.  It stands to reason that a well placed sign at the point of engaged customer interest has the best chance of producing the desired result of gaining new customers and/or additional transactions.  Whether this sign is a church bulletin seeking volunteers for an initiative or reminder by the paint store clerk to also buy brushes, well-timed and placed messaging clearly yields desired results through best positioning.


Is your website, an always-available greeter for your product or service, a well-placed sign at the point or engagement or a needle in the proverbial haystack?   If it's the latter, and many are, blogging for a purpose provides the benefit of personalization and similar situation along with a defined method of placing your website squarely within the thin market your product or service needs to reach.  Perhaps even better, blogging effectively places your organization squarely within the thin market at exactly the moment in which your service is sought.  What a great concept and marketer's dream -- targeting in a cost-effective manner to a potentially elusive audience -- in  exact parallel with their active engagement in looking for solutions your company provides.  More often than not, this is a solid recipe for new sales and new customers.

Instead of being potentially lost in (cyber)space, is your website a bright star as a result of  organizational blogging?  Fortunately, you’re well on your way toward taking those bold first steps where many have gone before in visiting Compendium Blogware.  Now take step two…