Freelance writing for business blogs 6
November 9th 2010 06:35
Blogging is amongst the fastest-growing areas of the interactive digital world, and the business world is embracing this powerful promotional tool quickly. New corporate blogs are appearing every day, and as a result Craig's List, freelancer.com and other web hangouts for writers are teeming with opportunities.
To win business blogging contracts, however, writers must be able to show that they understand the corporate blogging environment. You must show a potential client not only what you can write for them, but why and how that will benefit them.
In this, our sixth post on the world of corporate blogging, we pose a question that any client will identify with, and give an answer which explains much about the power of corporate blogs.
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If there is one question that we feel cuts through to the core of the corporate blog as a promotional tool, it is this: what can a blog offer that a business does not already get with PR and advertising?
Public relations and advertising are powerful marketing tools, especially with the development of sophisticated branding strategies. Promotional campaigns can be planned according to the three targets: market, message and budget. Timing and carrying media can be optimised.
The problem is that, once it is all over, one sits back, counts the cost, and wonders whether it was worth it. Success can be measured in sales figure blips and perhaps telephone enquiries and web page views, but how to measure empirically?
A department store display counter is an appropriate analogy. People walking past look at the wares on display. Some aren't interested and some stop for a closer look. The sales person can now engage them in conversation, answering any queries and, hopefully, confirming and extending the interest.
Potential customers viewing an advertisement or reading a press release have no sales person on hand. They can, of course, make a phone call or visit a store, but how many people are disinclined, or too busy, to take this extra step?
A corporate blog is as much a shop counter as the real thing because any interested visitor can engage in dialogue with a mouse click and a few typed words. This is no imposition for someone already sitting before a keyboard. Questions can be framed carefully, the dialogue can take as long as needed, and it can be undertaken as and when convenient.
It's ideal for catching the people who are busy or disinclined to take an extra step — the people that public relations and advertising have trouble grabbing.
Interaction. That is the answer to the question.
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