Clicksharp Marketing

It’s time to evolve your marketing communications, and finally start that company blog. But how do you do it without devaluing your existing company website?

I recently fielded a question which, I admit, I hadn’t considered before. My client, very encouraged by the idea of starting a company blog, asked me if it could replace the existing corporate website.

The dilemma is not all together unheard of: why invest so much time in blogging — and doing it right — and then have so much of your business tied up in an entirely different website?

Playing nice: your company website and blog team up to add value to your business.
(Photo by jpstanley)

The best way to approach this is to liken your company’s web properties to diversified investments in your overall marketing portfolio. The mission of your company website tends to be very clear: history and background, product descriptions, press, events, contact… or all of the above. This should be the official, one-stop resource for all information relevant to your business.

Your blog, on the other hand, represents an opportunity to do two new things with the online presence carved out by your company site.

1) Take that existing image, and give it a little color. If your site contains detailed product information diagrams presented in a very technical or academic tone, the blog is your chance to talk about creative solutions… success stories and case studies about how your products left customers satisfied. Here’s where you can run wild — Flickr slideshows, Youtube videos, customer testimonials, the list goes on and on.

2) Convey that image to a slightly different end user. If your site, for instance, promotes services purveyed to a B2B market in a specific industry, you might style your content in such a way as to attract more consumer attention… and sit back to see if the consumers start pressuring your clients to engage your company’s brands. Or maybe you want to venture into a parallel industry vertical — or a new one all together. This method would be a good way to test your message and it’s “stickiness” before spending millions on direct marketing.

Bottom line — your blog will likely perform best if it follows the same corporate strategy as your “proper” website, while pursuing a different, but complementary, engagement strategy.

~~~~~

Paul Burani
Clicksharp Marketing
New York, NY

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 @ 5:47 pm on the category Blogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.


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