Mind Your Messages: In Online Media, Content is Still King

A new blog is created every single second of every single day. That’s a whole lot of content. But many blogs are abandoned by their creators almost immediately, totally defeating their purpose. Many blogs are of no value at all. E-mail, a medium that once held so much potential, is best served as a customer retention and reactivation tool; often in the form of a high-quality content e-newsletter that entertains, educates, informs and then sells.

So where is a marketer to turn?

First and foremost, you still need to think like the customer and prospect. If you don’t know them, you can’t sell them. It’s just a fact. Always make it easy for someone to respond. As our lives become more complicated (we are exposed to northward of 3,500 media impressions daily) we crave simplicity — err on the side of more basic as opposed to more complex.

Are you talking to who you think you are, or who you know you are? Are you reaching an “influential” or just a casual user? Worse, are you reaching someone who is just looking for an opportunity to “vent” regardless of the target? You need to do your research just as you would for using any other medium. Otherwise, how do you know what you’re doing is working? If it isn’t, is there any reason for a client to keep paying you?

Keep in mind that technology, regardless of how cool the latest craze, can be your enemy. I recall a very large software client who wanted to do heavy flash e-mails with lots of graphics. We reminded them that most of their clients were using dial-up connections and we tested both options. Guess which one worked better?

In examining your potential use of emerging technologies, ask yourself some basic questions:

• Does my target audience use it?
• Am I prepared to support it on a daily basis? This is key because many of today’s “techie” users want to return and find updates regularly. If they don’t, they’re gone forever and so is your chance of doing business with them.
• What are the advantages versus disadvantages?
• What are my goals?
• How will I test effectiveness?

In other words, turn to the basics when thinking of whether or not to venture into the technological promised land. I call it “dance with the girl you came with” because the basics never let you down. New technology won’t, either, if you don’t try to use it for something other than its intended use.

Once you’ve done your homework and have settled on the proper medium to use, say an e-newsletter, be sure to make it interactive, useful and interesting. And just because you’re using something new and cool to communicate, remember that the message is king! Try to establish links to your Web site, or a micro site, to keep your readers involved in your messages. And make it easy for them to respond to you. Online users love polls, so find a way to implement them to get your users to “talk” with you and give you valuable information about themselves.

Keep coming back to thinking like your customer or prospect. Never miss a chance to ask: “Is what I’m doing really helpful to them?” If not, then what you’re doing is likely an exercise in futility.

None of this is said to make you afraid of investigating how you might use the new media. You’ll find that there are some surprising readers of blogs — like reporters, for instance — and a properly positioned blog can be extremely helpful. If you take the time to understand your audience AND your medium, you can make friends with new technology and use it to better serve your clients.

Grant Johnson is CEO of Johnson Direct, Brookfield, WI.