New England Direct Marketing Association Dishes on Blogging

Here’s an opportunity for anyone who will be hungry for a catered dinner and blogging insight on the night of January 19th 2006. Some leading Boston area marketing and communications experts ( Moderated by Bob Cargill, Founder of A New Marketing Commentator, Panelists: Julie Woods, Executive Vice President of Product Strategy, Cymfony, Ted Demopoulos, Principal, Demopoulos Associates, Steve Ustaris, Associate Media Director, Media Services, Carat Fusion) and I will be participating in an interactive discussion with an auidence of Boston area direct marketers about the pros and cons of blogging.

Bob Cargill, the Moderator has developed a great set of questions for us panelists to answer. The interesting part about this whole thing is that we’re speaking with direct marketers. I would bet that many a direct marketer and advertising exec are trying to figure out how blogs can be used to directly market their customer’s products. In this session, we, the courageous group of panelists will attempt to answer Bob’s provocative questions.

What skill set does an organization need to have in-house in order to publish a blog?

What are the biggest reasons to – or not to – blog?

Why do you think more direct marketers aren’t blogging yet?

How can blogs be used as a marketing research tool?

How can an agency provide blogging services to its clients?

How can a blog be used to sell products and services?

How can a blog help an organization with its search engine optimization strategy?

How will blogs be used in the future?

The reason I say they are provocative is because I think that the majority of bloggers and people who read blogs would agree that blogs should be free of commercialism, with the exception of clearly defied ad insertions down the side of the page or in-between content.

So where does that leave direct marketers. You could apply that question to any Marketing service; Search Engine Marketing companies, Advertising agencies, PR firms. That’s the interesting question here.

I have the answer. Of course you're all welcome to disagree. But I think that the best way to use a blog for advertising, direct marketing, PR or SEO is not to do it with any of these tactics as the primary objective. The primary focus should be on creating a great resource for the audience with which you want to communicate.

I know that some say a blog should not be preachy but if that's how you write then don't try and sound like someone else. Your blog needs to be coming from the right place. No offence to any practitioners of the aforementioned marketing tactics (which I am also one of) but I don’t think a company blog will work if it’s JUST a marketing strategy. Sure keep your SEO keywords close by, and keep your target audience in mind as you write your post and think about how you will directly communicate with your audience once you've established one but don't let these notions keep you from maintaining a blog that keeps your auidence coming back for more.

Now some of you may be saying yea but Steve, you’ve been telling us that corporate blogs are great for search engine rankings, thought leadership and product development and so much more. How are you supposed to do that if you’re not doing it for those results? What I’m saying to you is that if you want to get all the great benefits of blogging you need to be a great blogger. And being a great blogger is not about great SEO or PR or DM or Advertising. It’s about being a great conversationalist within your corner of the blogosphere.

Anyway. I think the night is going to be fun and I’m sure there will be more than a few ruffled feathers before the night is through. That alone will be worth the ticket.

Here’s a link to the blogging event home page at NEDMA.org