Blog for Business: Is It Right for Your Company?

If you haven't yet looked at blogging as a potential marketing tool for your business, now's the time.

Last spring, I wrote to all my customers to suggest that it was time for them to start letting at least their salespeople write blogs for their customers and prospects. It sounds radical to many managers, but there's no denying the power of authentic communication when it comes to building loyalty between people—and clearly your customers are people first.

Let's evaluate this idea using the PPC technique (Pluses, Potentials and Concerns), as described in Roger L. Firestein's Leading on the Creative Edge.

Idea: Let Your Customers Read Blogs Written By Your Salespeople

Pluses

• Customers will feel special (always a good thing). 
  
  
• Customers will learn about your company in an authentic voice from the people whose main concern is helping your company make money (so they can make money)—not a bad motivation for creating positive content. 
  
  
• Salespeople enjoy the process and feel good about being able to be in touch with customers more frequently.

Potentials

• Your customers are so in touch with you that they think of you instantly when a colleague needs a referral for your product or service. 
  
  
• Your customers feel so attached to you (through your sales reps) that they don't hesitate to share important information about developments in their own company—which means you can become proactive (perhaps way ahead of the competition) about responding to their needs. 
  
  
• Your customers become even more excited about your R&D process and are more willing to help test new products/services. 
  
  
• Your customers complain less because they really know and trust your processes and are more inclined to be understanding about any glitches in service or problems with products.

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Barbara Payne is managing principal of ReallyGoodFreelanceWriter.com <http://www.reallygoodfreelancewriter.com/> . Read her blog at http://www.reallygoodfreelancewriter.com/getmorecustomers