Daily Archives: October 23, 2008

Guide To Business Blogging

Posted on October 23, 2008 | Comments Off

Few executives would turn down a free crash-course in business blogging 101 … or 202, for that matter.  No matter their level experience or their natural digital prowess, so many insecurities and questions pop up when a blog moves from personal to professional content.  Luckily, there are dozens of people out there ready to placate the fear or concern, among them, Peter Flaschner. A blog designer with the consultancy Blog Studio, he released version two of his “Guide to Business Blogging.” It’s a valuable resource all around, but here are a few highlights to keep you going when the going gets tough.

Step by Step …
Step 1: Identify general business goals – how much weight should you give to what blogging can do for you?
Step 2: Resource Analysis – which is more valuable, time or money?
Step 3: Establish Blogging Goals – in terms of reach, stickiness and number of comments, subscribers, downloads and references.
Step 4: Develop a Time/Cost Estimate – how much investment will it require to achieve your blogging goals?

Daily Planner … The different plans needed to ensure effectiveness
1: Content Plan: What are you going to say?  How often will you be saying it?
2. Info Plan: What types of info, other than posts, will you have on the site (internal links, content, etc.)
3. Technology Plan: Host, software management, integration into existing site, support, html, etc.
4. Design: Design the blog to be a branding tool and a communication tool; consider layout and who (inhouse or out-of-house) will design it; choose a domain name, etc.

Strategies that work (or, that worked for Flaschner)…
Offline promotion
Contributions
Collaborations
Guest writing
Existing site promotions
Comments
Forums
E-mail promotions
CEO
Links
Joining other networks
Submitting stories to social bookmarking sites
Quality content

Courtesy of PRNEWSonline.com

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Posted in Marketing

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Google Study Shows The Rich Shop On-Line Too

Posted on October 23, 2008 | 1 Comment

The rich are different from you and me, but not too different. Advertising Age reports on a new study from Google that says online shopping is the preferred retail channel of the very rich.

This could be news for marketers who see in-person luxury retail environments as the best way to reach people who still have money to spend – or marketers who see the Internet as a digital bargain basement.

“All the people we’re talking about have far more money than time. The internet provides that time efficiency,” said Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing, and a researcher on the Google study.

“Customer experience, by definition, doesn’t mean in-store experience. It means how people want to be served. … Sometimes it’s so much more convenient to sit down at a computer and not have to set foot in the store.”

Google surveyed the shopping habits of 263 millionaires (shoppers 25 to 64 with an income of more than $1 million) and 730 ultra-affluents (net worth of $1 million, household incomes of $250,000 or more for married couples).

Key findings:

  • Millionaires like bargains, “with 91 percent saying they always or often look at reviews before buying luxury goods,” according to Ad Age.
  • They agreed almost unanimously (94 percent) that “making a high-end or luxury brand available online doesn’t cheapen their opinion of the product or brand.”
  • Rich people work for their money, and the richer they are, the more likely they are to work: 89 percent of millionaires work full time.
  • Respondents who shopped online spent more: $114,632 a year vs. $22,813 per year for those who shop in stores.

A Denver-based business writer, Lisa Everitt is a veteran of daily and weekly newspapers and trade magazines, including The Natural Foods Merchandiser, Rocky Mountain News, Inter@ctive Week, San Francisco Business Times, and the Peninsula Times Tribune.

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Posted in Retail Trends, Uncategorized

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