This guest post is from Debbi Mack, who blogs at Writing 4 Hire. All views in the post are the author’s alone. If you’re interested in guest posting, please submit your sustainable marketing-related post via email.
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When it comes to sustainable marketing, nothing beats the Web. The following Web 2.0 tools are a great alternative to expensive (and wasteful) direct mail campaigns and let you “meet” people around the world without leaving your office.
1. Blogging keeps website content fresh and helps connect with clients.
Blogs are not only a great way to spread the word about your business, but they’re easy to set up and maintain. Using a free program like WordPress makes it both easy and inexpensive. While your blogging program may provide many design templates, others are available (Thesis comes highly recommended).
Blogging requires some time commitment, but not as much as you might imagine. The best posts are short and succinct. And you only have to update your blog two or three times a week. For business blogging ideas, check Business & Blogging.
A blog (or a link to one) on your website also assures that your content is kept up-to-date. The fresher your content, the higher your website will appear in search engine results.
2. Social networking sites are great marketing venues.
LinkedIn is the most popular professional online network. You sign up, create a profile—then what? First, include your blog in your profile. Then search for people you know and “connect” with them.
Join groups of peers, potential networking partners and potential clients, and post relevant blog entries, articles, case studies or white papers (especially, ones you’ve written) in group discussions. Participating in discussions and sharing your writing will show you’re a “thought leader”—someone who knows your stuff.
In addition, posting your article or white paper online lets others email it or put a link to it on their blog or website. Thus, your writing has the potential to go viral—providing far greater marketing mileage than direct mailings (which, I suspect, often go straight to the recycling bin).
3. Strategic micro-blogging on Twitter helps you “meet” people and create online presence.
By many accounts, Twitter—which lets you post short messages called “tweets”—is a powerful marketing tool. Copyblogger discusses how various people from book authors to company CEOs have used it to market their work or business. Some of Twitter’s benefits include being able to connect with people you wouldn’t otherwise meet, get a wide variety of insights when you ask a question and make your name and brand a more ubiquitous online presence.
While Twitter requires some participation, it doesn’t have to be a time suck. Sarah Milstein at the New York Times offers several good suggestions for making optimal use of Twitter.
Web 2.0 provides ample opportunities for sustainable marketing!
Debbi Mack is a lawyer-turned-freelance writer and researcher, as well as a crime fiction author. Among other things, she’s written Web content, brochures, white papers and video scripts for businesses, associations and nonprofits. Her articles have appeared, under her byline and ghostwritten for others, in Corporate Legal Times, Northern Virginia Magazine, SHRM Online, Inside Counsel and other trade and consumer publications. She currently serves on the Editorial Board for Dystonia Dialogue, published by the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation. Check out her website and blog.
