I’ve always wanted an excuse to use a fisticuffs image on my blog - I guess all of that Yahoo/MSFT drama would have been a good time, but this will suffice.
I’ve tried three times to write a good, anecdotal lead-in for this post. I’m going to have to say “to hell with it” at this point and get to the point of the matter: “are most customers too old school to be sold products or services through a blog?”
The question stems from an ongoing discussion that I’m having with a few of my peers; we were asked the following question:
If you were to start a new marketing campaign with the objective of educating small business owners, executives, and managers on the benefits of your product, whatever it is, what medium would the better delivery medium:
- Professional, polished, office documents that read like micro-brochures or
- A product weblog written in a personal, informal style that contained the same information as the brochures.
Naturally, I’m arguing for the blog, but I’m interested in hearing what all of you have to say on the subject.
Here are my thoughts on why a blog is the better of the two mechanisms:
- Blogs are easier to distribute electronically than static documents;
- Blogs are easier to update than static documents (you can’t update the documents to people who’ve already received distributions;)
- Blogs give articles give readers more opportunities to explore “your product”-centric content than static documents (more links in blogs;) and
- Blogs have built-in feedback-collection mechanisms, static documents do not.
Here are the arguments that I’ve heard in favor of static documents:
- Blogs are too sketchy for most potential customers who have the authority to buy;
- Many customers would prefer to print out a document and read it in their hands later;
- Most potential customers feel more comfortable downloading a document to their desktop and sharing it with their associates via email attachment than they do with sending links; and
- Most potential customers are more receptive to the professional, formal look-and-feel than they are to the informal style of the blog.
What are your thoughts on the subject? Please weigh in at your leisure.
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Are Most Customers too Old School to be Sold through a Blog? | Marketing Ninja
From the page: “If you were to start a new marketing campaign with the objective of educating small business owners, executives, and managers on the benefits of your product, whatever it is, will most of them turn deaf ears to a blog marketing medium …
I’ve gotta say I’ve never even considered this to be an either/or decision. Each method provides rather different, but complementary benefits.
Coming from an old school marketing background, I’d have to say I’d create static documents first and support them with a blog. It’s what most people still expect. I couldn’t imagine going into a meeting without vendor documents to pass around. I certainly wouldn’t print out a wordy blog for a meeting. On the other hand, a blog gives me more insight into a company and its products. But that’s only if I’m interested enough to read the blog (most likely because I was interested based on the static documents).
My two cents: Under most circumstances, blogs are not meant to replace static documents.
Agreed with Josh in that it is not an either/or
It seems like the way to go would be the best of both worlds - publish a blog so that the smaller developers who crawl the net in their spare time find your product, and have easily accessible “real” documents on your blog in case a very busy professional comes in who simply wants the bullet points, not the whole term paper
On the ‘blogs are to sketchy’ note, I would say the blog has to be very well designed to lend a more professional look (not ad’s on two sidebars and the footer
) and must be well written, informal enough not to be a paper, but also not a ‘im to cool to care about grammar’ post
just my thoughts - interesting question though. Ill follow the comments
Some interesting updates for you:
1. After doing some testing with some email campaigns - if you give customers a choice of Blog or Document, they overwhelmingly choose “Document.” My guess is that Blog is still a four-letter word in the vocabulary of many consumers.
2. The blog seems to do pretty well among people who prefer to do online “window shopping” before making a purchase.
Thanks for the good comments guys.
Aaron,
Both…and then some.
Use the blog to build, develop, and nurture relationships and deliver up-to-date info snippets and show your unique difference to prospects and clients.
Use the content management capabilities of a WP blog to deliver those White Papers, e-Courses, contracts, blah, blah, blah that people “expect”. They want this stuff usually for credibility. For example, I have a blog within a blog. The Marketing Caddy is my front-end “public” blog. My “Inside the Ropes” sub-domain is my back-end e-course, pdf download, prospect sort and slice machine.
Finally, mix in off-line touch points as part of your marketing systems. Integrate phone contacts, voice broadcasts, auto-mated print mail… and finally, if it’s a big ticket contract, sit down face-to-face and sell ‘em.
The business perception surrounding blogs is funny. My brother, a partner in a CPA firm, swears he’s never visited a blog. I get on-line with him, and ask him to show me sites he uses. Most are blog platforms that “look-like” static sites.
A business blog doesn’t have to look like a blog.But, don’t call it a “blog”. The perception of “blogs” in the REAL business world is it’s not serious and lacks credibility.Credibility is a key thing in BTB. People in business are scared as hell of picking the wrong product/service and making a mistake
Finally, back to your original question…
If I’m starting a new marketing campaign, I’d always begin strategically. What is the pain or desire? Who’s my target or Ideal prospect? What emotional buttons can I push to move them along the marketing and sales cycle?
Once I understand these fundamentals, then I can determine and TEST which info delivery formats convert and sell best.
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