Tips for Starting a Marketing Blog

Successfully Enter the Blogosphere

Jan 13, 2009 Patricia Faulhaber

Looking for good ideas and tips to get the company blog started? Tips for integrating the 4Ps of blogging into the new experience are detailed below.

Is your marketing department planning to enter the blogosphere with a new company blog? A few quick and easily implemented tips will help make the venture more successful.

Marketers have long known the 4Ps of marketing (product, place, pricing, promotion); working with the 4Ps of blogging (people, purpose, plan, posts) will help implement a company blog.

Blogging Tips – 2 Tips for the People Side of Blogging

  1. Start the blog by listening to the people involved with your company - people such as customers, vendors, and employees. Listen to what they want your company to communicate through the blog.
  2. Be honest with the blog readers. When posting information or opinions about topics or questions, be honest and don’t put a spin on the writing.

More Blogging Tips – 2 Tips for Purpose of the Blog

  1. Determine the goal or goals for the blog. Does the company want to provide conversational support? Does the company want to provide vendor information faster?
  2. Make the link to the company web site when determining the purpose of the blog. Where does the blog go in the site design? The answer will help determine the purpose. For example, if the link to the blog is placed on the product information page, the purpose of the blog must be to discuss product news, issues, etc.

Two Blogging Tips on Planning the Blog

  1. Make a plan for the blog itself and include items such as the purpose, the people, the posts and start dates, and how to measure the effects of the blog.
  2. Also make a marketing plan that details how the company will promote the blog. Will the company use press releases to announce the blog? Will the blog go on business cards or other printed materials?

Three Tips for Blog Posts

  1. Develop an editorial calendar and an editorial process. Setting up an initial editorial plan for the blog will help get the bloggers in the company thinking about what to post. As the blog progresses, blog topics will present themselves. The editorial process involves asking if and who needs to review the posts before publishing.
  2. Writing blog posts should be conversational but about business. Personal information is not appropriate on business-related blogs.
  3. All good writers, including blog writers, know that good, informative writing begins with a lot of reading. Company bloggers will need time to read other related blogs so that their posts are relative and relevant. Monitoring other industry related blogs is also a good way to keep up on the competition.

Start Blogging

With the tips detailed above, start blogging. The best way to understand and use the blogosphere is to get involved and just start posting blogs. Have fun with it and enjoy the time spent writing the posts and reading the comments and feedback.

The copyright of the article Tips for Starting a Marketing Blog in Marketing/PR is owned by Patricia Faulhaber. Permission to republish Tips for Starting a Marketing Blog in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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