Caro Consulting

Blog Mama and Blog Daddy

My blog mama - Toby Bloomberg from The Diva Marketing Blog - has a great post about blog family trees. Who influenced you to create a blog? Who helped you work through all the kinks and promoted it to all your cousins?

Well, I am happy to announce, I am officially a blog mama myself. Carol Kirshner from Promedica Research Center just recently launched her own blog. It's still a young blog and she is looking for feedback from the blog professionals out there -- who are most likely blog grandparents and great-grandparents by now!

Congratulations Carol.

Email Service Provider Launches RSS Product

SilverPOP, an email service provider, launched its RSS product today - RSSDirect. How timely as I was just talking about the pros and cons of enewsletters vs. blog posts!

Did you see Amy Gahran's comment on my last post?

"The issue is not really "Should you publish a blog or an e-mail newsletter," but rather that you should publish your content to the web (preferably using a blogging tool) and then figure out how to promote it. A feed should always be part of that strategy, but an e-mail alert can and probably should be part of that strategy too."

Fabulous advice from a blog pro. It will be interesting to watch how SilverPOP's new product offering helps with this effort. Any thoughts from the peanut gallery?

Big Canoe Update

It's been quite some time since I last posted about my adventures with this Big Canoe Rental. So, here is a quick update.

• September is wedding, golf tournament, and house-buying season - it was a great month
• October is leaf peeping season - another start to a great month, although it is tapering off a bit - A shame since the leaves will be at their best this weekend
• People go to the mountains for Thanksgiving - our house has been reserved for months now and I was just on Craig's list and noticed a "need a cabin for Thanksgiving" post... interesting
• Net News Magazine did not work for us - Question is, was it the ad or the publication?

So my vacation rental lessons for today - the Internet still has the greatest reach for the least amount of money. Real estate agents are your greatest assets.

Side Note: Looks like Nigeria is taking some action against Nigerian Scam - 419 Fraud. Read this News24 article, Nigeria acts to stamp out spam.

Why a blog and an e-newsletter?

Just last week, I presented to Storehouse Furniture what I do best, an Internet Marketing Plan Strategy. In it I recommended they provide content to their customers and prospects three ways: website, newsletters, and a blog.

"Where website content and FAQs are more factual and educational, blogs can be more personal and of the moment. A blog is an extension of your brand - it enables you to create a relationship with your audience."

Why? Because we all know by now that people want to consume information (and purchase products) in different ways - and you need to make sure you are fulfilling those varied wants. Some will search your website, some will sign up for your newsletter, and some have added RSS feeds to their reading stack.

And what is a Caro post without a top 10 list to answer a question? This one comes from "Top Ten Reasons to Publish an Ezine AND a Blog" by Patsi Krakoff and Denise Wakeman.

Blogs allow you to...

1. Be spontaneous.
2. Show your informal, friendly side.
3. Circumvent those nasty spam blockers and filters.
4. Enhance your search engine optimization efforts.
5. Give your ezine article eternal life - and keep them organized too.
6. Establish yourself as a good resource.
7. Include ads, products, and affiliate programs in the blog side columns (side note: some of those in the blogosphere would debate this).
8. Create two-way communication with your readers, prospects, and customers.
9. Post your ezine articles online without needing to bug your tech guy.
10. Attract more visitors to your website - and hopefully convert them into customers.

Why do I do both? Because it's easier to post my thoughts over time and then send them out every few months to my distribution list... many of those on this list do not follow blogs at this point.

Do you do both? Why?

Addition 10/19/05 - Paul Chaney and Amy Gahran share their perspectives on why they are not using or are no longer using email newsletters.

Email Marketing Statistics

It has been such a busy week, but I am finally succumbing to "blog guilt" and posting at least one interesting tidbit before yet another week passes me by.

I spent my Saturday morning catching up on my email newsletters and blog feeds and found a few interesting email marketing statistics. Please feel free to add your own below.

DMA's Email Marketing Council 2005 Email Benchmarking Survey

• Acquisition Emails - Business-to-consumer acquisition click-through rates dipped from 8% in the second quarter to 6%, and business-to-business click-through rates dipped from 8% to 4%
• Retention Emails - Business-to-consumer retention click-through rates climbed from 9% to 12%, and business-to-business click-through rates climbed from 11% to 13%

SilverPOP 2005 Broken Link Study

• 29% of 360 companies listed in D&B's top rankings don't offer an email opt-in form anywhere on their Web sites
• Fewer than 5% of those who opt in to an email will "white list" it by adding the email address to their inbox.

Blog Tool Recommendations

In my last post - Ten Things to Consider Before You Blog - Carol posted a comment and asked,

"What should a person look for in a blog provider? Are there any disadvantages to starting with a 100% free provider? Are there distinct advantages to starting with a provider that charges?"

An excellent question and one best left to the experts to answer. Paul provided the "Ten Things To Consider," so let's let my blog mentor Toby Bloomberg and my new blogging friend Josh Hallett take a crack at this one.

Because she is a smart marketer, Toby reinforces marketing fundamentals,

"The question is not necessarily free or paid - especially with a business blog - but is the functionality needed. As with any smart marketing tactic/strategy you need to start with your goals and objectives and then use the blog to support those.

Ask yourself, do you want trackbacks? Do you want the ability to add multiple pages off the blog? Do you want an "About Us" page? If so, the free Blogger may not be the right platform.

How much control of the software does your IT department want? Will the IT people have time to administer and support it? Should you go with software that is hosted on your server or do you want an ASP like Typepad?"

In addition, Toby has also heard it is difficult to export content from free Blogger. So consider long-term consequences.

Toby also provided a great comparison chart of the major blog platforms.

Josh said he could go on and on,

"I just don't let me friends use bad blogging tools."

And then proceeded to write an information packed post on his site to answer my question. To sum it up:

• An installed solution is his preferred method, but you or someone you know needs some technical know-how to get it off the ground.
• A blog provider is more like the services Toby listed below (more appropriate for a techno-phobe like myself).
• Consider the following when choosing a good blog provider - cost (you get what you pay for... or don't pay for), options, lock-in, and customization. Read more...

Thanks Paul for starting off this conversation and Toby and Josh for providing additional information.

Keep the great questions coming.