Organise and develop your content before you start
It’s no good having a blog with no content. In fact, there’s no such thing as a blog with no content. Sit down with the team or part of you business that’s going to be responsible for the blog. In this instance, the more people who get involved, the better. Have a brainstorming session where each person can suggest ideas for postings – including photos, videos and podcasts as well as writing. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. Blogs are less formal, more about personality. Is someone doing a charity run? That’s worth mentioning. Is there a new team, or someone who’s just started the development of a new product. Does someone have a great suggestion for a contest? Get all you ideas in a list.
Assigning the work
Ideally, your blog isn’t created by one person, but by a team of people. The goal is to interact with people, not lecture or badger. This is definitely easier if there’s more than one person creating content. At the next meeting or through an email round robin, start assigning ideas and deadlines. And don’t forget to use the keywords connected with your site or service areas. Remind everyone that posts shouldn’t be full of jargon. You’re talking to customers after all. Assign someone the task of proofreading everything, and make sure you’ve developed a sign off procedure. Is there a camera in the business? Can you borrow one? Pictures make a difference.
Thinking agency
For many businesses, it’s more practical and effective to hire an external agency to manage and develop a blog. And it’s easy to see why. Blogs need to be regularly updated and the need time from the development perspective, too. So sit down with your team and decide on a wish list. What do you want your blog to achieve? How is it part of your wider marketing strategy? What do you think is most important about connecting with your customers right now? How far does the blog have to reach? UK customers? International?
If you need help with a blog, or developing the strategy that will help you get started in social media, get in touch with us at Marketing Zone. We’re always interested in new conversations.
A simple question. Marketing agencies like ours often assume that clients need and want blogs. We forget that they might not be comfortable creating content and might not even be sure they have content they want to share. So, when we have a client that stops and asks us a simple question like, “why should my business have a blog?” it’s a good time to stop and get back to some basics.
For starters, blogs are not another way to get your carefully crafted messages out to unsuspecting customers. That’s what ads, brochures and a lot of other communications materials can and should be doing for you. People want to see sales messages where they expect to be presented with them. And that seems only fair.
Blogs are where you can start conversations with your customers and your customers can start conversations with you. It’s a less formal and often less rigidly branded or business-like setting. For example, you could put up a picture and a short paragraph talking about a recent event you went to, and the things you learned about your industry at that event. Your colleagues, customers and competitors can join in by talking about what happened to them at the same event or even ask why you weren’t at a different better event. Or, you could talk about an innovation that’s changing one of your products. You might include graphs, photos or links to another site that’s working with your business. At least once a week you should post content. You could even, with his or her permission, post a letter, comments or a review from a customer. Whatever your business does, it has an audience that’s interested in it and that’s who your blog should aim to talk to.
Blogs can give your business some personality and they’re a great way of getting other members of your team or people from other parts of the business involved in something new – something that different groups and department can all use.
Blogs are evolving and many businesses are using them to support their Search Engine Optimisation efforts. They can also be linked to twitter and a range of other social sites. Over the next weeks, Marketing Zone will be offering regular tips on business blogs. Our goal will be to share some of our experiences, and find out what you think.
We love it when a plan comes together – especially when it involves one of our clients. We’ve just launched a new website for DMG Delta. They’re experts in building services maintenance. And for those of us who don’t know what that means, their engineers keep boilers, air conditioning, electrical systems and other technical aspects of buildings up and running.
They’ve already had feedback from their clients – who especially like how easy-to-use the new site is. There’s also lots of information about their services and their people. Have a look and let us know what you think.
Marketing Zone is a busy agency. There’s always another website to develop, a proposal to finish or some freshly designed logos ready to present to a client. But we don’t spend our days in business as usual mode. We like to do that little bit extra. A good way to meet people, talk about what we do and get feedback is to hold an event at The Chartered Institute of Marketing. Mark, our Managing Director, and Dee, our Communications Director, are Chartered Marketers and active members of The Institute. Not only is The Chartered Institute of Marketing a source of qualifications and training in marketing, it offers opportunities for marketers to exchange ideas and develop professionally. They also offer guidance on selecting and briefing an agency.
Our event was called How to brief an agency – the story of Polaroid Eyewear and Marketing Zone. Our goal was to develop a presentation that was interesting, interactive and inspiring. Briefing an agency can be a huge challenge and marketers need to adapt quickly to changing priorities. For us, effective communications and strong relationships are key starting points. They’re the foundation for the strategies behind successful integrated campaigns, and good communications in general. Polaroid Eyewear is a great example of a brand that started from nothing – and with the right integrated campaign, quickly gained momentum among trade partners and consumers.
