The FuzzyBlog!
Marketing 101. Consulting 101. PHP Consulting. Random geeky stuff. I Blog Therefore I Am.

Marketing 101: Blogging and Marketing or Why do I Blog so Much?

I've gotten a bunch of questions as to why I have such a high blog output.  Here are some of the reasons:

1. I like it.  Never underestimate the power of this.
   
   
2. It's easy.  Even more important. 
   
   But, seriously, here are the three main reasons:
   
3. It's an Operator's Manual.  Bear in mind that I am running a business (actually three discrete businesses, but who can really keep track?  Even I have troubles lately.  *grins*).  I look at my blog entries as an operator's manual for how I want my companies to run.  It just happens to be (mostly) public.  Blogging is a superb knowledge capture tool, far better than the previous Knowledge Management system I designed.  I use my blog to capture my marketing ideas because if we are to grow, others need to know this.  The interaction I get from sharing them with the world only improves them.  
   
   
4. It's Marketing People, Marketing!  I look at blogging as a new form of marketing.  Call it "Knowledge Based Marketing" or KBM.  Here are some thoughts:
   • The interesting thing here is that what matters, for the first time ever -- at least to my  knowledge, is actually the content.  This is just plain bizarre.  It's always been about presentation and then about content.  I mean think about the template permutations that you've seen on this blog, the errors on the template, etc.  It doesn't seem to have kept anyone away.  (Note: I do know I have errors here and I need to get them fixed.  It's just more useful for everybody that I blog first and UI later so that's what I do). 
   • And, if you are running a business, marketing is important.  It's also traditionally *damn* expensive.  Except that now it isn't.  This is both very strange and unprecedented. 
   • The impact on marketing services firms like ad agencies and such will be interesting to observe. 
     
     
5. I Allocate Blogging Time like Others Allocate Dollars.  Traditionally companies spend a substantial portion of their revenues on marketing.  I look it as I'd rather blog for marketing then buy advertisements.  Or other silly marketing stuff (and I've seen it all).  So I look at this as if my personal work week is, say, 80 hours then 20 % of that is 16 hours.  And that's about what I spend over the course of a week.  It varies, some weeks more, some weeks less.  I'm analyzing financial breakdows across functional areas to see what the %age should be.  Example: Intel in Q1 1997 spent 11% of Net Revenue on Marketing, G&A (general and administrative).  But Intel is a mature company in a mature (but growing) industry and they have great brand recognition.  A startup (and anyone just getting going is a startup) needs to spend more until they build brand recognition so my spending 20% is probably low.  Cross Reference.

So, as I blog, you are being marketed too -- but it's in such a non-offensive, subtle way that no one has complained yet.  That's very cool since so much marketing is either offensive or just plain wasteful.  This seems to be working at least based on page views, interest and google metrics.