The Engagement Principles

Corporations are struggling with business blogs – at least according to a recent Forrester Research report mentioned by Ken Magill in his Direct Magazine article:

Business-to-business blogging took a nosedive this year, mainly because returns on corporate blogs haven’t matched investment, according to a recent report by Forrester Research.

However, analyst Laura Ramos, the lead author of the report, recommends businesses take a second look at corporate blogs.

“Rather than cross blogging off the marketing communications list, marketers would do better to embrace one of the four strategies prominently used by bloggers to attract readers, build conversations, and engage community members in sharing their experiences with their online peers,” said Ramos’s report, “How to Derive Value From B2B Blogging.”

Still, the number of new corporate blogs has dropped sharply in the last year and a half, according to the report, with 36 companies launching them in 2006, 19 in 2007, and just three in the first quarter of 2008, according to Forrester.

In my online marketing classes, I tell small business clients that engagement marketing is the great leveler; big businesses don’t engage well, but that small businesses do.

That’s a function of several elements, but in simplest terms, small business are often more “real” with customers. Corporations? They fall victim to their inability to escape boring, meaningless “corporatespeak.”

Indeed, Forester’s report speaks to the traits required to successfully engage customers:

Successful corporate blogs “talk openly with an authentic voice,” and are “humble and honest,” two traits that run counter to many corporate egos, said Forrester’s report.

Ouch.

Too many corporations see blogs as merely another pipeline into which they shovel PR materials, or worse – as Web-based showcases for preening executives.

The ugly truth is this: customers and prospects want useful information or thought leadership. While both are available inside your average corporation, the fear of transparency is a barrier most corporations won’t overcome.

Another trap lies hidden within the language itself; many potential contributors to corporate blogs aren’t very good writers, a fact which suggests the need for an editor.

Some organizations have shown excellent returns from blogging (like Patagonia’s Cleanest Line), and the benefits of engaging with customers (binding them to the brand via shared passions and values) are significant – and will grow more so as marketing costs rise.

The fact that growth in business blogs is slowing should provide additional fuel to those who are getting it right.

Stay engaged, Tom Chandler.

UPDATE: Titleist seems to have discontinued the site, and new refers surfers to their product site, making Cleese’s NXTube.com a very, very interesting launch strategy.

Titleist plunged headlong into engagement marketing when it created the NXTube.com blog — a humorous blog spoofing its own NXT golf balls.

The site looks amateurish because it’s supposed to, but behind the effort lies the wit of John Cleese — legendary Monty Python comedian.

The blog’s concept is direct (and yes, hilarious): Cleese plays the role of uptight Scottish golfer Ian MacCallister, who contends Titleist’s NXT golf ball is so good, it’s ruining the game of golf:

Welcome to my blog. My on-line home and repository for all things anti-NXT. I must confess. It is certainly thrilling knowing that my wisdom will be transmitted across the World Wide Interweb for billions of people to see. So without further ado lets get to it.

Titleist is at it again. They’ve just introduced the new NXT Tour and the grotesquely named, NXT Extreme. Click here to view their propaganda. These new spheres of destruction are loaded with golf-wrecking technology – improved aerodynamics thanks to a “staggered wave parting line” and a little arrow printed on the side to help you line up putts. Let’s call it what it is: a cheater line!

Clearly Titleist will not be satisfied until every green is drivable and every putt is a tap-in. It’s depressing. Golf is supposed to be difficult. It’s a Scottish game for goodness sakes. There’s no place in the game for the uncoordinated masses. It was never intended for the hoi polloi.

Join my crusade against Titleist and their impure technology. You must resist the siren call of easy distance and effortless control. Watch this space for updates and to see what you can do to help. Remember, apathy is the enemy. Together we can derail the NXT Tour and NXT Extreme once and for all.

Interactive & Engaging

The public is invited to participate by submitting photos and stories detailing the “alternative” uses for NXT golf balls. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s user-generated on NXTube.com, but golf enthusiasts appear to have embraced the blog; user-submitted photos of NXT golf balls used for target practice, decorations, etc adorn the site.

NXTube.com even offers up its own “live” Webcam (it’s not, but it’s funny anyway), crank-calling videos, and slide show.

And unlike the BravoTV blogs I recently wrote about, NXTube.com is wholly interactive; reader comments evoke in-character responses like:

Go ahead, test away. But I can see it now. You drive the NXT ball 297 yards, hitting some poor elderly woman in the head while she is feeding squirrels. The woman comes after you, hitting you in the kneecap with a cane. Next thing you know, you’re answering to a judge about charges of aggravated assault and a broken cane. I’m guessing PETA would also get involved once they find out you were responsible for depriving squirrels of life-saving food.

OR… you could just hit a feathery 58 yards straight as an arrow, finish the round at a respectable 145, hurt no one and probably get a lifetime achievement award from the AARP.

Your choice, either way.

The NXTube.com blog represents a sizable investment (a former client worked with Cleese, who isn’t cheap by any means), and it’s too bad they didn’t leverage some of the video better (I could only find one video on YouTube).

In fact, they seem to have overlooked quite a few viral marketing opportunities, which is a real blot on their effort.

NXTube.com is pure fun, and Alexa rankings suggest the average visitor consumes 11 pages of content. That’s not bad at all — a testament to the engagement power of humor in an interactive setting.

Titleist may be ruining the game of golf, but they’re doing wonders for engagement marketers.

Technorati Tags: engagement marketing,marketing,viral marketing,nxtube.com,john cleese,titleist,golf ball,humor in marketing

Bravo TV has ridden the reality TV wave with a long list of “reality” TV hits, including The Queer Eye For the Straight Guy, Project Runway, Top Chef and others.

“Reality” shows engage readers by offering them compelling characters struggling with real-life situations or competitive pressures (imposed by the programs themselves).

Of course, television isn’t interactive, and in an attempt to bind fans to the shows (which often suffer several months-long breaks between the broadcast of “seasons”), Bravo has embraced engagement marketing tactics; they’ve launched a long list of blogs authored by show participants and judges.

It’s an interesting engagement marketing strategy — one marred only by the poor technology behind the site.

Blogs Everywhere

As I write this, Bravo’s blog count is at 72 blogs and rising. That’s a lot of blogs, and more are added as new shows are released and others move into new seasons.

Still, participation looks good; despite the lack of truly interactive blogs (blog authors rarely respond to reader comments), the more popular posts garner several hundred comments.

Clearly, Bravo is betting heavily on blogs — which makes their flawed implementation of them all the more confusing.

Get the Technology Right

Outside of a very, very cluttered appearance and sometimes confusing user interface, Bravo TV’s blogs have a problem.

Each blog entry is broken up across several relatively short pages, so reading a single entry can involve moving through a lot of pages — and every time the page is redrawn, all reader comments are loaded again.

That means viewers with slow connections (or gasp — dialup) could wait for several hundred comments to load in order to read only a few paragraphs of an entry.

Then they’d get to do it all over again when trying to read the next few paragraphs. It’s either a horrendous oversight, or an attempt to maximize the number of pageviews (usually for advertising purposes) — a shortsighted tactic given the value of engaged fans.

Active Engagement

An e-mail to Bravo TV’s press contact went unanswered, so I can’t speak to the traffic numbers or the network’s own perception of the strategy’s success or failure.

The fact that they’re adding new blogs — and basing so much of their site’s content around them — suggests they’re still happy with the choice of blogs as tools of engagement.

It’s an exceptional engagement marketing strategy; rather than fill their site with content generated by third parties, Bravo jams their online presence with content generated by the very stars of their shows.

Judging by the response from judges and participants, the stars are seizing the opportunity to promote their own brand.

Suddenly, generating arresting content becomes a win/win situation for both network and its emerging reality stars — not to mention the fans, who gain a measure of access they don’t enjoy anywhere else.

It’s an interesting — and compelling — example of engagement marketing on a grand scale.

You might believe engagement marketing is the province of big companies — those who can afford big-dollar social networks and viral videos produced by top-notch Hollywood talent.

Happily, nothing could be further from the truth.

Witness the industry dominance of Pyramyd Air — the retail leader in the airgun niche.

Airguns??

It’s not glamorous, but like any niche, as long as you’re in it, you might as well be in it to win.

Which is exactly what Pyramyd Air is doing.

Engaging With Customers – Affordably

I first found Pyramyd Air prior to teaching an online marketing class; they became a case study in the benefits of high-quality content marketing for my mostly small and medium-sized business owners.

Despite the fact I also trumpeted Nike’s glossy, high-tech running site, Pyramyd’s tactics became the focus of our discussions. Why?

Because Pyramyd is doing what almost any business can do.

For example, Pyramyd’s Web site is not exactly a thing of beauty, but they leverage engagement marketing techniques better than all but a handful of Fortune 1000 firms.

They engage customers with a wildly informative daily blog (written by industry expert Tom Gaylord), twice-a-month podcasts, numerous "how-to" and product review articles (in an editorial style) and even short video snippets.

Pyramyd’s site isn’t pretty, but to search engines and airgun junkies, it’s pure art.

The Blog Leads the Way

Tom Gaylord’s daily blog clearly taps into the passions of his airgun readers; most blog posts generate more than 100 comments, and the comment count on popular posts exceeds 300.

Those are startling numbers given the size of the airgun market (as a niche, it’s not exactly in the same league as celebrity gossip or technology).

The blog itself is conversational in tone, and though I don’t recommend this to my clients, it’s even hosted on a free Google Blogger account. (Really – don’t do this.)

Pyramyd offers a page of helpful articles and another filled with monthly podcasts.

Gaylord’s blog posts are crammed with information, and slaughter some of blogging’s sacred cows. They’re long (by blogging standards), and though he breaks up the text with frequent subheads, his subheads (and copy) lack hype or strong benefits.

It’s an excellent illustration of engagement writing; he’s not talking to an audience as much as sharing with them, and avoids withering his credibility with excessively amped copy. In fact, he recently wrote a blog entry largely condemning a new air pistol with: "As the Typhoon stands today, it has very little to recommend it."

His readers crave information and a demonstrated passion for the sport, and he provides both in spades.

In short, Pyramyd Air isn’t selling airguns or pellets; the product here is rampant, authentic passion for airgunning — which then translates directly into airgun and pellet sales.

Does it drive revenues? Consider this: despite taking over several nearby spaces, Pyramyd has outgrown its building and is moving to a newer, bigger building.

That, my readers, is a problem any business would embrace.

Stay engaged, Tom Chandler.

In this month’s installment of my series of business blogging articles for Chief Marketer, I look at the new Britannica Blog — a blog from a knowledge-based brand that’s been around since 1768 — but one that’s plenty capable of learning the latest blogging tricks.

In this case, Brittanica’s wide-ranging blog includes some posts clearly designed to provoke engagement — challenging their readers with intellectually charged posts on controversial topics.

Some deride it as “linkbaiting” — the practice of deliberately baiting readers with controversial posts — but the term carries a negative connotation that doesn’t apply, at least not in this instance. Still, the UK Guardian had this to say:

And as Britannica standard-bearer bloggers proceeded to press every hot button of internet culture – Google, Wikipedia, copyright, even hoary complaints about the youth of today – it turned into an impressive demonstration of the contradictions of putting a style in the service of a contrary cause. Like fighting for peace, this was flaming for scholarliness.

True or not, you can’t deny the effectiveness of a traffic-building strategy that generates mentions in other leading online media, especially if you can avoid the negative aspects of controversial posts.

Avoiding the Downside of Linkbaiting

One downside of linkbaiting is that conversations often spiral downward into a morass of petty name-calling, but Britannica’s blog short-circuits that tendency with blog guidelines that prohibit personal attacks, testy language, etc.

It’s a good example of putting blog editorial standards in place before discovering you need them — an excellent idea for any business blog. Spelling out the limits of behavior in any business-related forum is an often-overlooked step, though a critical one, and Britannica sets out their mission right in the sidebar:

Britannica Blog is a place for smart, lively conversations about a broad range of topics. Art, science, history, current events – it’s all grist for the mill. We’ve given our writers encouragement and a lot of freedom, so the opinions here are theirs, not the company’s. Please jump in and add your own thoughts.

Off and Running

The Britannica Blog boasts an extremely wide range of topics (everything from pop culture to quantum physics — and pretty much everything in between) and a blue-ribbon list of intellectual heavy hitters.

The range of this blog is enormous, which could prove both a benefit and a hindrance, especially given the proliferation of narrow-focus blogs.

In the final analysis, there’s nothing wrong with challenging content, and Britannica clearly isn’t trying to simply irritate readers into responding via obnoxious posts. What they have accomplished is simple; they’ve drawn attention to themselves, done so in a way guaranteed to attract visitors, yet avoided the traditional downsides of the strategy.

(You can read my Chief Marketer article here (it’s longer and significantly differently from this post)).

Technorati Tags: britannica blog, linkbaiting, britannica, blog, blogging

Moleskine notebooks are expensive, luxurious… and rather craftily marketed. Proclaimed the notebook used by Hemingway and Van Gogh, they’re the kind of product that attracts a cult following.

In an earlier post, I outlined the ways they brilliantly leveraged the power of engagement marketing, connecting with their readers’ values and passions.

The Moleskinerie Blog; stunning artwork, all working for the brand.

The Moleskinerie blog displays the art work created by Moleskine fanatics — a compelling visual treat that unites the faithful behind the brand. It’s engagement marketing at its best; Moleskine essentially says “we love our notebooks as much as you do.”

Not content to sit still, the Moleskinerie blog is now moving into Social Networks territory; they just unveiled their new Facebook community.

Why a Facebook community? The Moleskinerie blog is an excellent showcase for the brand and engages readers, but a social network site allows the brand to leverage user-generated content far more effectively.

If the Moleskinerie blog had a weakness, it was reader participation; displaying brilliant artwork doesn’t always invite commentary from those with less artistic talent. By contrast, a Facebook community gives a voice to those users who wouldn’t ever make the pages of the blog, but love their Moleskine notebooks anyway.

Some clients ask me about blogs vs social networks. In some cases, combining the two is far more powerful than living with one or the other.

Technorati Tags: moleskine, moleskinerie, facebook, blog, blogging, facebook

Blogging for engagement is a powerful technique. But what about engaging with other bloggers?

Engaging readers via passions and values is valuable — whether you’re aiming directly at customers or at influencers.

It’s why Nikon just launched an outreach program aimed directly at bloggers; for six months, they loan a Nikon D80 digital single lens reflex camera to 50 bloggers.

At the end of the period, the blogger can extend the test another six months, buy the camera at a discount rate, or send it back.

While there’s been some criticism of the program (one wag called it “blogola”), it’s clear that Nikon has already recouped a significant amount of online PR. (A Google search suggests a lot of traffic on the subject.)

Last year, Nikon loaned D80 cameras to a handful of Flick’r shooters, and that program was clearly successful. (If not, why would they do it again?)

What’s Your Outreach Program?

One of the strengths of blogging for engagement is that other bloggers can broadcast your “values and passions” message to their readers.

It’s one way the blogosphere and social media worlds amplify your message — provided your content is compelling.

In this case, Nikon’s clearly nurturing an image placing them squarely among the ranks of connected digital users.

What are you doing to reach online influencers? Loaning cameras to bloggers might be a bit extreme, but what can you do to put your product in the hands of connected users?

And more importantly — and I speak for all my readers here too — Nikon, where’s my camera??

Keep engaging, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: nikon, d80, blog, blogging, marketing

Is the Home Page dead? Are businesses wasting their time building (and optimizing) them? And are engagement marketing media like blogs about to become the center of the corporate Web site?

That’s the question posed by Matt Ambrose of the Copywriter’s Crucible, which led to my asking a similar question on my Copywriter Underground writer’s blog, which in turn led to an interesting discussion.

The idea is simple; every page on the Internet is now potentially a landing page — especially search-engine friendly blog pages.

That idea is starting to generate some heavy, Russian-novel-level brooding in the marketing world, and it’s certainly fueled an explosion in landing-page specialty firms.

What’s causing this angst? Simple.

Search Engines Love Blogs

Blogs are suddenly outranking the home pages of the very Web sites they’re supposedly subservient to. Instead of a nice, neat flow of prospects — a flow that starts at the home page and ends up in the sales department’s bonus checks — prospects are making first contact with a company via individual blog entries.

That’s not a problem. But yes, it’s a problem.

After all, blog entries aren’t always in total alignment with a company’s marketing message, and face it; blogs are powerful engagement marketing tools, but now they’re being asked to do a lot of heavy sales lifting — a job often at odds with engagement marketing.

How should a company with a successful business blog avoid the problem — and capitalize on the SEO benefits of their blog? Fortunately, we’ve got choices.

Blog Centric Sites

Blog-centric sites are a viable concept (and offer advantages like easy access to content for any user with a Web browser), but they have their limitations, especially in the face of huge, established corporate sites. However, at the professional/small business level, they offer a lot of promise.

A blog-centric site contains all the elements of a standard corporate Web site, but focuses on the blog and home pages as the main points of entry. Each blog page must be configured to not only generate traffic and engage with readers, but to also move prospects to the appropriate static pages.

This involves a certain re-thinking of the “traditional” business blogging concept, but it’s hardly beyond the reach of a savvy online marketer, especially those with landing page experience. What’s critical is to avoid hype and corporatespeak — the sworn enemies of engagement marketing.

Blog For Authority, And Shuttle Users to a Static Site

Instead of rebuilding a site around a blog, consider blogging as much for “authority” (I call these “thought leadership” blogs) as engagement, and imprinting blog pages with “authority” response mechanisms (white paper offers, presentations, essays, articles, etc).

These inducements build credibility, and gather e-mail addresses and other contact information for ongoing marketing efforts.

In addition, blog pages would function as landing pages, so unnecessary elements would be eliminated from the pages in favor of conversion-oriented content. Marketing for engagement and fostering authority-driven response are no mutually exclusive goals, though heavy-handed marketing attempts will spoil engagement potential.

Build an e-Mail List

In an age of blogs, RSS feeds and e-mail redirection of blog posts, an e-mail/e-newsletter list seems like an anachronism. Yet they’re still marvelously effective, and despite what appears to be a duplication of blog functions, they still fill an important role.

For example, a blog could focus on building engagement while the accompanying e-mail list could serve a more direct marketing purpose — and do so without interfering with the engagement occurring on the blog.

It’s an interesting (and effective) one-two punch.

More to Come

Keep in mind I’m somewhat overstating the differences between choice here; online marketing is one vast gray area, and there are as many different online marketing solutions as there are companies.

What’s key is not to settle into a fixed perspective and wrong assumptions: home pages are always the point of first contact; blogs are for engagement only; marketing for conversion and marketing for engagement are mutually exclusive.

You get the point. Keep engaging, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: marketing, home page, business blog, web site, e-mail marketing

Live blogging is far from the center of the business blogging world, but it’s an emerging trend among traditional media — who are looking for ways to join the conversation.

(photo via stock.xchng)

Sadly, it appears the NCAA believes that live blogging falls within its “no live representations of NCAA games” guidelines, and asked a report for the Louisville Courier-Journal to leave an NCAA baseball game:

A sportswriter for The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky. had his press pass revoked and was ordered to leave a press box during a NCAA baseball tournament Sunday because he was providing online updates, the paper reported today. Brian Bennett allegedly violated a NCAA policy prohibiting such updates from its championship games, the paper said.

“Gene McArtor, a representative of the NCAA baseball committee, approached [Bennett] at the University of Louisville’s Jim Patterson Stadium in the bottom of the fifth inning in the U of L-Oklahoma State game,” the paper reported, adding that McArtor informed Bennett that blogging from such a championship event “is against NCAA policies. We’re revoking the credential and need to ask you to leave the stadium.”

Courier-Journal executive editor Bennie L. Ivory claimed the NCAA action was inappropriate and said the newspaper would likely respond.

“It’s clearly a First Amendment issue,” Ivory said in the paper. “This is part of the evolution of how we present the news to our readers. It’s what we did during the Orange Bowl. It’s what we did during the NCAA basketball tournament. It’s what we do.”

While the NCAA has broadcast rights to protect, restricting live blogging seems more than a little odd; are they going to start seizing cell phones to prevent reporters/spectators from reporting halftime scores or sending cell-phone pictures of a game?

A trend? Hardly.

It’s a mistake — the real-life portrayal of which would look like the NCAA spitting into the wind. Trying to stem the tide of instant communication is a losing battle, and the message to newspapers is an interesting one:

“We’re happy to have you report on our tournaments, provided you do so using a media channel that’s fading fast instead of something new.” Wonder how that’s going to play?

Keep engaging, Tom Chandler.

Technorati Tags: blogging, blog, ncaa, marketing, engagement marketing

With WordPress the current open-source champion among blogging platforms, it’s easy to overlook Movable Type — the “commercial” product (single use licenses are free) that powers well-known blogs like Huffington Post, GM, etc. (I recommend against Google Blogger for business blogs.)

Thought it’s hardly a secret, Movable Type 4 Beta is available for testing, and includes a handful of new features that make sense for business use, especially in the context of group blogs and “blog clusters” — areas that are going to see significant growth in blogging. (More on this trend in an upcoming post.)

Beyond the usual cheerleading, the press release offers us one intriguing glimpse:

MT4 saves users time by allowing management of many blogs and many users in a central interface. Users can install, manage and publish thousands of blogs with one installation. The Movable Type aggregator pulls multiple blogs into a single blog, while customizable roles and groups enable more effective user management. Look for more information later in the beta period about an optional functionality pack with enterprise capabilities for Movable Type.

I use WordPress; when I started playing with blogs, it was free, easy to install, and there were loads of themes and plugins available.

It still balances ease of use and power beautifully, though plenty of holes remain to be plugged.

To build an easy-to-manage cluster, I’m looking hard at WordPress MultiUser (MU), but admit to a bit of blog envy when looking at Movable Type demos.

Blogging platforms are still largely in their infancy; they handle the basics wonderfully, but there’s plenty of room for improvement, and we’re going to see a lot of that improvement over the next twelve months. Look forward to it.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, wordpress, movable type, blog cluster