One of the often overlooked aspects of blogs is the ability to find customers. This is especially powerful with specialized topics. Remember blogging is not always about writing! It's about listening.
I have a friend that sells support materials for women who have suffered a miscarriage. She was advertising via Google AdWords on the keyword miscarriage. Now she can do a blog search for miscarriage and find thousands of women talking about the subject. That's her target market. She can directly engage potential clients via their blogs. Yes, she must approach carefully, but leaving comments offering some basic suggestions and support is the start.
In many cases when I am speaking to organizations about blogs I show them how tools like Technorati, PubSub, Feedster and IceRocket can identify potential customers/partners.
At a recent lunch-n-learn a company executive said, "I don't see how we'd use a blog for any marketing purpose." Before he could finish his sentence I did a search for a keyword within his industry and identified a few hundred bloggers. I then asked how they currently market their product. They were using traditional advertising in a number of publications. How much was the advertising costing? and what were the sales returns? I didn't really matter, becasue in 30 seconds and at a cost of $0.00 I identified 160+ leads. What other method can match that?
Visitor Comments
I am one of Robert French's new students learning how to blog and why, and as a newcomer to this enormous "blogosphere" I honestly was wondering why are we doing this. Its very overwhelming to me stepping in blindly to hundreds of thousands of sites blogging about PR. However, after reading this entry, you've calmed my nerves and made me excited about it. Saying we must "listen" much more than we should type is great guidance for us beginners.
At the moment I'm searching for internships/jobs in the PR field, and realizing the ease of finding customers at little to no cost gives me hope that upon learning all about blogging I will be able to bring something new and important to the table at a company I may interview with.
Thanks for your information.
Posted by: Donora | August 24, 2005 2:58 PM
I wonder if your friend who markets support materials for miscarriage via Google Ad words is the woman who I blogged about on my Babyfruit miscarriage blog in March that creeped me out. If so, you should really help her change her site. The format and especially the content makes it seem frightening somehow, like she is advertising a product like the Ronco Pocket Fisherman. It is great to use Google Ad words and blog search engines to market and find customers, but whatever you are marketing needs to be presented in a professional, accessible manner to come off with a modicum of credibility. If you can't help her, I'd be happy to try. Here was my rant: http://babyfruit.typepad.com/baby/2005/03/google_mad.html
Posted by: aliza at babyfruit | August 24, 2005 3:51 PM
Aliza:
Why does it seem that all e-book web sites are extremely long text-based infomercials? I guess they work since they're all designed that way for a reason.
Posted by: Josh Hallett | August 24, 2005 4:04 PM