I spend a certain amount of time traversing the web. I often visit sites of those who leave comments. I look at competitor sites and of course sites that I have helped in the past. One thing that has struck me lately has been the almost reverse blog marketing by many businesses.
By reverse blog marketing I refer to the trend of businesses hiding their blog from view. Generally speaking, its not totally hidden. The link to their blog is just tucked away in amongst some of the links in the footer.
Once I access their blog I start to wonder why. The contents are often good; either entertaining or informative and there is plenty of content available. The blogs are certainly SEO friendly. So why are they tucked away out of site? Is the business ashamed of having a blog. This reverse blog marketing seems a little strange – or is it?
Perhaps these sites want all the SEO benefits of having a blog without having to run a public blog. Sounds reasonable. Blogs can provide a lot benefits to the parent site when it comes to search engine rankings. Blog marketing can occur elsewhere and not on the parent page.
Blogs can be great marketing tools and if your blog is ranking well and attracting customers then it can only benefit your site in the long run if you promote it. Blog marketing starts at home, on your main page. If your blog is going to benefit customers or potential customers then capitalize on it and promote if to the world, don’t hide it.
In some ways I can understand why some business owners would not want their blog to be viewed by the average customer. Blogs and ‘blogging’ are becoming more popular and are getting a lot of attention in the media. Sometimes that attention isn’t always good. I’ve heard many people share a somewhat negative view of bloggers as either unemployed or unprofessional, non-conformists who have nothing better to do with their time then write about junk on the internet. Maybe they fear appearing unprofessional to their customers.
I think many business are starting to realize that they can post a useful, professional blog to add to or help build their presence on the web. I believe it’s a great way for businesses to share additional information on their services and products. Many people I know are tired of the “big box” corporate world where it’s hard to get ‘real service from a real person’. I think blogs are a great way for medium and large business’ to overcome this by sharing background on the company and company’s founders, the company’s mission and standards and information about any charities the company works with. It’s also great for small and home-based business to bring their ‘real service from real people’ approach to a larger, wider market.
I recently started a blog on my site. I’m finding that this is going to be an amazing way to use my blog to share more information about my products and services in a casual way. I see this to be a amazing soft sell opportunity. I’m looking forward to reading more of this blog to find new ways to bring more readers to my blog and site. Thank you for sharing.
Sincerely,
Christina Lucido
Thanks for a great post and comments. I’ve been contemplating the same thing: is it worth it to take the time to comment on people’s blogs, build relationships and then hope you’ll get some sales out of it eventually?
I realise the potential but I’m not totally convinced that the time spent doing social marketing could not be implemented somewhere else like writing articles or running an ad campaign and getting some definite results.
Just my 2 cents
Ina
You present some interesting points (I gave a thumbs up on StumbleUpon.) I have a menu item on my website that points to my new blog — never considered highlighting it on the homepage! Actually, I may not be ready to publicize it too much since the blog is only recently providing general posts that clients might be interested in. Like many new to blogging, I got caught in the trap of talking more about technical issues rather than business marketing. My current clients don’t want to build their own blogs, so they may not want to be a part of social networks. However, new clients might be interested. It’s a fine line to walk. Anyway, I’m learning…
I don’t discourage businesses from integrating a blog or having it as a separate site. Sometimes as a separate site allows you to create a strategic separation between your company and your blog. An example may be that your blog is there to build authority in the industry rather than trying to directly sell a product or service.
This can open up speaking and writing opportunities that will ultimately propel your company further. To remain authentic, you may not want to overtly market your blog on your website.
What I really love to see, though, is for companies to publish their feed in a sidebar of their site with excerpts from the blog. This brings attention to the blog but doesn’t necessarily provide so much overlap that visitors won’t read it.
It’s a worthy discussion!