Write About What You Know

Blogs are all the rage these days. It seems like if you don’t have one you’re out of the loop, especially if you’re an online marketer.

The problem is, if everyone is doing it, it becomes harder to generate an interesting voice amongst all the clutter. It’s kind of like newsletters. They’ve become so easy to produce that everyone seemingly has one. The standard company newsletter has become predictable. People forget – no one wants to read about another company’s news; they want to read about themselves! (Or at minimum, about things relevant to themselves).

That doesn’t mean blogs and newsletters aren’t important and valuable. It does mean, however, that you can’t roll out the standard fare and expect to generate interest. You have to look very closely at what you do well as a company – at the reasons other companies do business with you – and use blogs, newsletters, and other similar forums not as a trendy offering but as another way to further communicate your company’s core value and expertise.

Two articles in today’s iMedia Connection newsletter address this subject, and got me thinking about it in the first place:

Get Started with Email Newsletters

Michael Mayor states that the key to successful email newsletters is staying focused. As an “interest starting point” for your customers, email newsletters need to stay on target and provide relevant and valuable content.

What Matters Most in Email Marketing

Tricia Robinson also acknowledges the importance of email marketing, when done correctly, and applies the traditional 40/40/20 direct marketing principle to email marketing – offering our target audience what they want, when they want it is the key to success.