Note to CMO: A Case for Corporate Blogging

Dear CMO:

Let me give you a really good reason for your company to start vigorously blogging. You've clearly been waiting for this, because you haven't really done it yet. You've put it in your Power Point slides and brought it up to the assembled nabobs at the Executive Staff who raise their eyebrows in appreciation, of course, but so far, no rain. The reason is you haven't found a good reason to do it yet. Too many ways for things to "go sideways." You "take it offline." You "sidebar" it.

It's better than advertising and costs you nothing.

There. I said it. Now go to work.

As you're still probably frozen in place staring straight ahead like a boardroom deer caught in the preconception-busting headlights, let's examine the facts:

1. Traditional advertising is a push model of influence that requires that you show up where you think your market is going to show up, followed by your ambushing them between sitcoms or articles.

[We live in an age of search. If they're looking for you, they'll find you (or your competitor). If you speak to them when they come to you in a convincing and persuasive manner, you'll get their attention.]

2. Traditional advertising means you have to produce things at great cost and then place them at great cost. Most advertising fails to pay for itself, particularly in the B2C world. There's a big body of evidence on this -- Google it yourself.

[Blogging costs virtually nothing -- it takes time, creativity, a passion for storytelling, and a reason to start a dialog. A TV spot costs $300K for creative. That's before media, agency fees, and your celebrity spokesperson's catering budget.]

3. Your advertising is showing up at the communal watering hole with everybody else's advertising, and your market just wants a drink. You've got problems with clutter, breakthrough, authenticity, and creative burn-out.

[If they come to you, you have their undivided attention. If you have something to say, and say it in a compelling manner, you'll have uninterrupted time with your core users, who might talk to their friends.]

4. There are long cycle times between the wind-up and the pitch and things seem to change faster than your review cycle, for some reason.

[It takes a minute to write a post. Now imagine what happens when a dozen smart people are all writing smart things on your blog, on related blogs, and in other forums.]

5. Advertising has a limited attention span. It talks at you for 30 seconds or maybe a page. And you don't know which spot speaks to the person viewing it. You're hoping your creative hits the receptive target in mid-air and something sticks after impact. Maybe it will. Usually, it won't.

[You can tell a story in a blog post. You can tell as many stories as you want, actually. And if anyone is interested, they'll stop and read it all. If one post doesn't resonate with the reader who happens to be on the site right this very instant, maybe a different post by a different writer will.]

"Ah, but you forgot a big point -- it costs money to have all of our nabobs typing away on blog posts when they could be doing their day jobs! Aha! I've caught you at last!" you say. First, I commend you on remembering an earlier post, so thank you. But in the words of a former presidential candidate, I was against it before I was for it. Here's why:

Can you give me a better use of your time than communicating with your core customers?

Sure, we all have staff meetings, check point meetings, review meetings, and meetings to review other meetings -- and we've probably got our days booked solid, usually with the miasma of corporate life. How much of your time is spent building your brand? Communicating your core messages to people who are seeking you out? Talking in authentic, earnest tones to your core audience? You probably don't do this at all, do you? And you call yourself a marketer...

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[Now, to present the contrary view, the above -- while startlingly clear to most clever readers -- won't hold up in all cases. Let me point out a few here before they all show up in the 'comments' section and a pie fight worthy of The O'Reilly Factor breaks out:

a) Traditional advertising beats blogging if you're a low involvement product. The vast, vast majority of consumer packaged goods won't drive a lot of traffic to their stores with a blog because -- I'd venture the guess -- that we don't Google "dish washing liquid" very often. (Actually, "dishwashing liquid" was searched 555 times in January, according to Overture -- about the same as "cannoli filling." There you go. I'd call that a small number). Impulse buy marketing is best supported by channel marketing.

b) Traditional advertising beats blogging if you're in highly competitive, low entry service markets: if you're Geico, TD Waterhouse, H&R Block, Visa, or something similar, don't axe your ad budget because of what you've read here. But adding blogging to provide context, deeper understanding, and best of all -- first person accounts of how wonderful you are -- would be pretty smart.

There, that's "Fair and Balanced." I'll report -- or at least suggest -- and you decide.]

* * *

Blogging is the most cost effective, immediate way to communicate your core messages to your audience. It is authentic, when done correctly, because it comes from you. If you have a communications strategy -- if you know what you want to say and to whom you'd like to say it -- you should be blogging it. With role management, engagement, and continuity, your blog will get your message across.

Or you can spend more money. Either way.

Regards.