A couple of weeks ago, Paul Chaney of the Radiant Marketing Group blog, asked me for my “take on Bob Bly‘s argument that there is no ROI potential in blogging, at least none that he sees.”
He wanted to know how I, as a direct marketer, saw blogs fitting the mold.
My reply to him (verbatim) was this:
“With a blog, you may not get an immediate and demonstrable ROI, but like a good PR initiative, blogging certainly can lead to new business.
“As I wrote in my own blog recently, if you use press releases, newsletters and bylined articles to promote your products and people, a blog is the next better thing – now.
“As a veteran direct marketing copywriter and creative director, I’m not here to tell you that a blog can or will ever replace a good, old-fashioned direct mail letter as a sales tool. But I will say that anyone in advertising or marketing who isn’t able to at least see the potential of blogging – or any other online communications platform for that matter – is either misinformed or just plain obstinate. A blog is the perfect feedback magnet. It’s a quick and easy way to interlock a circle of like-minded people – customers, prospects, colleagues, peers, whomever. What to do with them after that only time will tell. After all, it seems that most bloggers are more technologists than marketers. Just wait till more of the latter join the blogosphere!”
Ten minutes later, I sent Paul the following addendum:
“By the way, check out this definition of direct marketing:
“Direct marketing is an interactive system of marketing that uses one or more advertising media to effect a measurable response and/or transaction at any location, with this activity stored on a database.
“H-m-m-m, given this definition, I would think that it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch at all to say that a blog really is, in effect, a direct marketing tool – assuming you are using it as an advertising medium.”
All that was said before the earth moved so violently on December 26, 2004.
In the ten days since that devastating earthquake and tsunami walloped southern Asia, countless blogs have been used to help raise funds for those victimized by this mother of all disasters. Each of these blogs, like A Fine Kettle of Fish, has been used to redirect loyal readers to Web sites owned and operated by World Vision, the American Red Cross, Oxfam America, CARE, UNICEF and other nonprofit organizations that are accepting donations on behalf of hundreds of thousands of innocent victims. Each of these blogs has been used as an incredibly effective direct marketing tool, demonstrating not just a quick ROI, but also that the blogosphere, like the world in which we live, has a compassionate face.
Google+
Follow
