Exclusive Blog Helps ClearGauge Connect With Clients

A blog accessible only by attendees of an annual client summit helped Chicago-based ClearGauge chart the course of the event, and strengthen customer relationships.

The B-to-B interactive services company first attempted creating a blog for the general public last February, in conjunction with the firm’s participation in the 10 city/six-week Ad:Tech Impact road show, says Karen Breen Vogel, CEO.

“We thought it would be interesting to chime in from each of these cities and say what we heard that was interesting that day,” says Vogel. “But it’s a challenge for a small company to keep at it. We have a lot of opinions and content, but are also pretty consumed with day-to-day business activity. [Blogging is] a whole ritual you have to adopt.”

The company did well at posting regularly until mid-summer. “But then schedules got uneven and it got more difficult to keep it going,” she continues. “It dawned on me that a better approach might be to apply it more close to home. Our current client base has challenges and perspective as well and are always looking for input.”

ClearGauge decided to try creating a blog specifically for attendees of its annual summit, where clients come into Chicago and meet for a day and a half, discussing e-mail marketing and other online issues with their peers. Last month, 10 of the company’s 25 clients attended this year’s, including Caterpillar, DuPont, Dow, First DataBank and Healthpoint.

An e-mail was sent to attendees prior to the event, inviting them to visit and post comments to the blog, which was set up in a password protected mode. This was so attendees would feel comfortable posting their thoughts, knowing they would only be viewed by ClearGauge and other peer attendees.

On the blog, ClearGauge asked attendees to rate their business challenges and talk about what they’d like to see covered at the event. The results were used to help form the summit agenda.

“It gave us a way to understand what was on their mind, and gave them a way in advance of meeting each other in person to see what the group was like,” notes Vogel.

At the event, attendees said they’d like to see continuing perspective on topics such as how to make Web site content more valuable and interactive to users, and how to integrate Web inquiries with other sales activity. ClearGauge plans to use the password-protected blog environment to continue these discussions, posting relevant articles and commentary.

“That’s the mode we’re in now,” she says, noting that the blog may be opened up to the company’s entire customer base. “We’ll see if people keep finding the time to come back and participate.”

Some of the commentary ClearGauge created for the private blog may be used to reinvigorate the public blog, Vogel adds, noting that the public blog wasn’t really promoted in it’s initial outing.

“The last thing you want to do when you’ve got training wheels on is draw attention to yourself when you don’t really know what you’re capable of doing,” she says.

Promotion will happen gradually, when the company is confident that new posts will keep appearing regularly.

“It’s not easy. We tell clients if you want to do a blog, you need to understand what is involved,” Vogel points out. “Somebody has to have the time to always be informally in conversation with the marketplace. Or, you need to almost develop an editorial calendar and assign different people in the company time frames when it is their turn to pay attention to what is happening in the world and offer perspective.”

Vogel says her company has tried both approaches, and will likely lean more towards a scheduled structure, where senior people can offer solid opinions about the industry.

As for the ROI of the blogs, Vogel says it’s tough to judge at this point, as the only investment so far has been time. The summit blog will be a bit easier to gauge, as the company can poll the client base to see if they derived value from the venture. As for the success of the public blog, that may hinge on what type of site activity it generated and whether that lead to inquiries that ultimately could become sales.