An article in today’s Wall Street Journal looks at blogs as an ideal tool to not only drive customers to your online presence but also give them good reasons to keep coming back.
The Journal’s story is filled with case studies of successes, a great reference if you’re looking for hard evidence that blogs are worthwhile from the business point of view. All are in the US, but that’s far from the point – they could all be in Australia, Mexico or Poland.
Just three examples from the report:
- Online DVD-rental company GreenCine‘s blog, GreenCine Daily, […] sparked a 20-fold rise in hits on the GreenCine Web site to about one million a month. Even better, films critiqued by the blog’s two writers are often snapped up by renters. Despite little marketing, membership numbers and revenue have doubled in the past year.
- Tom Wark, owner of wine-industry PR firm Wark Communications […] has a blog in which he comments on a wide variety of wine-related subjects. Mr. Wark says since he started his blog in November, its traffic has grown steadily to between 200 and 300 visitors a day, and traffic to his standard Web site has doubled. Though he can’t measure the financial benefit, he gets a lot of e-mail from readers in the trade and serious wine enthusiasts and says he has pitched more potential clients in the past three months than he has in the past year and a half.
- Online magazine and dating service Nerve.com […] has gone so far as to turn the blogging over to its customers. The New York company began an uncensored reality-TV-style writing competition in May with six daters. In bustling feedback sections, Nerve daters ruminate on subjects such as the imminent “death of online dating” or rendezvous arranged through competing dating sites. But tales of real joys and disasters en route to love have boosted site traffic and helped lift revenue 50% since the blog began in May, says Chief Executive Rufus Griscom.
(I wonder why there’s no link to Wark’s blog from their website. Great blog, though, about the wine business.)
You don’t need to only be a Microsoft, a Sun or a GM to gain benefits from business blogging.
Wall Street Journal | Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back (paid subscription required)
It’s always great to me one paper will publish a “businesses are adopting blogs” article – this time, WSJ – while another paper publishes a few days earlier pretty much the opposite. The Pioneer Press had an article that more or less said that businesses are slow to adopting blogs because of the legal implications.
The truth is somewhere in the middle. Every company will likely launch a blog – just like every company launched a Website a few years back – and then half of them will die from non-use.
Yes, I plan on writing about the issue, but will likely just use the Pioneer Press article, because it seems to be more in tune with the reality of local businesses.
You’re right, Jeremy, one paper says this, another one says that. Must be a little confusing for a business who reads both.
In the case of this WSJ article, what I liked about it is that these are real examples, real companies doing some very interesting things with blogs that have real benefits.
I can’t imagine that the article you mention is at all in tune with the reality of local businesses. I haven’t read it, though. Yet I’d say a blog could be a great business development tool for a local business.
But do write about this issue. I’d love to comment on your post!
PR Misc – March 02, 2005
There’s loads of excellent content and opinions across all the PR blogs.
WSJ: “Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back”
Nice article in the Wall Street Journal (and at least as of today it’s still not behind a pay wall). The salient quotes: “…blogs with character are seen as more effective than some more traditional online-marketing strategies, such as static,
WSJ: “Blogs Keep Internet Customers Coming Back”
Nice article in the Wall Street Journal (and at least as of today it’s still not behind a pay wall). The salient quotes: “…blogs with character are seen as more effective than some more traditional online-marketing strategies, such as static,