I participated in my first ever B2B chat last night on Twitter. One of the questions that was discussed was whether or how to integrate a blog into your marketing campaign. My response was that a blog should and can be integrated with everything you do. This response garnered some interest, so I thought I would expand on it a bit here.
Blog as Hub
First, let’s talk about online marketing. Since blogs are online, it can seem easier to connect these dots.
Most people think of the company website as the hub through which all marketing comes and goes. The obstacle these days is that websites tend to be chock full of sales talk in addition to lots of important information. This can muddy the waters, especially if you have an aggressive Social Media campaign that avoids the sell. In order to get around this bump in the road, many experts now recommend that online and Social Media initiatives drive traffic to a blog which then in turn can refer people to the company website. You’ll notice, for example, that my Twitter account, my Facebook account, and my Disqus account all lead you here (even on that 1,000th click that you do). But I refer people to the Clayman Advertising site from this blog so that it’s easy for you to access.
There are literally millions of ways to integrate a blog with Social Media and other online initiatives. Here are a few.
This idea actually was mentioned by @KseniaCoffman, so big credit to her. If you are doing a webinar, lead people to your blog for the Q&A
Use your blog posts as content for your Facebook fan page, either via links or notes
Promote your blog via Twitter to show that there is content behind those 140 characters
Ask a question via an online ad and have the click-through take people to a blog post that answers the question in detail
Don’t forget to include your blog link in your email signature
Blog and Offline Initiatives
It might seem like it would be more tricky to integrate a blog with other offline marketing initiatives, but this is not the case, and in fact, an offline initiative integrated with a blog can greatly strengthen the impact of both tactics. Here are some ideas.
Launch an ad that includes a call to action for visiting the blog. In this case, your blog is like a white paper – free information.
Direct questions that your customer service department receives on a regular basis to blog posts that answer the question in detail
Use the blog as an inter-departmental communication tool – this will help sales, marketing, PR, and other departments stay on the same page – literally
Blog events from a trade show
Make sense?
Do these ideas give you, well, ideas? If you’d like other ideas, or if you’d like help in implementing any of these ideas, just let me know. 2011 is closer than you might think!
Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/arte_ram
Leave a Reply