Extra, Extra, Read All About it - Blogs and Email Coexist!

In a recent blog by Promotion World writer Nick Roy talks about the who should be blogging, what to blog about and why blog. For the most part a pretty informative piece. But what is troublesome is that he suggests that blogs are going to put the hurt on companies like VerticalResponse.

He writes: "By using a blog to publish a newsletter, the small business owner can save this money. The money saved can then be allocated to investing in the training and development of their employees, another critical aspect of running a business."

OK, but, VR is blogging...AND emailing. Could the two possibly complement each other?

Let me ask you this question: Did email put the hurt on direct mail? Most of our printer friends are as busy as ever and VerticalResponse is actively selling printed and mailed postcards.  Did the web kill printed catalogs? Have you checked your mailbox lately?

A popular blogger Dave Pell, Davenetics, gets it. He's been blogging AND emailing for a long time and got his wife Gina Pell, CEO of Splendora into it. They're a customer of ours, an "email marketing" customer who sends email about their blog, all blogs need traffic.

You know what? Blogging IS a perfect complement to email marketing it's not going to simply take it's place because it exists.  The point that Nick isn't seeing is that not everyone likes to blog nor do they subscribe to RSS, and not everyone likes to email. And there are those freaks (like us) that like to do both. It's all about marketing vehicles complementing each other. So go ahead and add blogs, we did and it's working.

Are you blogging AND emailing to drive traffic? Give us a comment!

Comments

[john hingley]

Regarding Bob's question about how well it works to have links back to his website from different blogs?

Although Google, et al frequently change their ranking algorithms (meaning that the importance of Inbound Links to SE rankings can increase or decrease), it will almost always benefit you in multiple ways to have links from blogs.

First - links from blogs are just as important as links from mainstream sites. The relevance of the site or blog linking to you is the key!

Second, active blogs get spidered more frequently than most websites, so a new link will be picked up faster.

Third, inbound links from blogs, just like mainstream websites, count as 'votes' of popularity for your site.

Fourth, PageRank, as complicated as the calculation is, is based on the number, and relevance of, links back to your site...whether from a blog or mainstream site. And I doubt PageRank is going away as a key indicator of blog/site importance.

Last but not least - blogs can drive significant, targeted incremental traffic to your website!

[Bob Bandy]

I've been reading a lot about blogs as search engine link building tools. How well does it work to have links back to my website from different blogs?

Bob Bandy
Denver Real Estate
http://www.bandyhomes.com

[Erlend Førsund]

Email and blogging does indeed coexist, and very happily so. Email is the best tool to drive traffic to your website or blog.

[Janine Popick]

Blogs are EASY to set up, especially if you use a hosted service rather than buy and manage software.

We use Typepad, you can get this hosted service for $4.95/month which allows for one author and one blog or have up to 3 weblogs for $8.95/month. Check them out at www.typepad.com.

You can also check out blogger.com which is a free service provided by Google.

[Peter Draper]

Is a web blog expensive to set up, and are there any service providers, resources that can help to set one up? Thanks.

[Howard at Tea Country]

From both a marketing and technical perspective, it's probably not in the best interest of my company to rely on blogging over e-mailing. First of all, having recently retired from a large organization with responsibility for emerging technology strategy, I know there is a considerable acceptance period and to some extent learning curve for new technology. Although blogging isn't that new, depending on which circles you travel in, most people either don't know what it is, don't care, or don't have time to find out. Thus, pushing information via e-mail will be around for quite a while. I personally like the idea of a good mix for marketing; thus blogging and e-mailing will be a part of Tea Country's strategy going forward.

[Hershey Wier]

Email has a leg up over blogs because emails come right to your mail box.

Blogs can supplement a marketing campaign, but I (and my clients) are not about to go looking for blogs on a regular basis. Perhaps some people are addicted to the Internet and do get addicted to blogs, but these are not the people who purchase my services.