Blogcasting: the future of customer communications

Consumption is a curious concept. Consumers, even more so.

The fickle, unique nature of each customer means you cannot rely on your message being digested using one medium other another.

It’s not enough to be all about words and pictures. And it’s easy to prognosticate more diverse demands.

Is your business talking the customer’s language, in as many ways as possible?

Take results of the most recent TravelHorizons survey, a quarterly pulse check on consumer attitudes by the American Travel Association (the research itself is conducted by my very good friend Peter Yesawich and his team at the Y Partnership).

In 2008, most people relied on the thousands of words at tripadvisor to help decide the paths their leisure journeys should take. It was easy, relevant and quick.

One year on, the favourite source for travel inspiration is… YouTube.

You could accredit this to scepticism over the veracity of travel reviews. You could say that a greater selection, faster internet connectivity and more prevalent use of the camcorder has nudged people to the world’s biggest video site.

I think the crusade for authenticity is a driver. I don’t think you can get an accurate impression of a holiday experience by reading a story.

But I also think people are sick of reading screens. It’s not quick enough. It’s not easy to recall what you read when you discuss the subject with others.

Set that against audio or video (or at best, both) stimulations. The effect is far more emotional; more powerful; more likely to help you draw a meaningful conclusion.

I just picked up a Sanyo Xacti from Play.com. It cost me £99. You slide an SD card in, record High Definition video. £99 to make a video you could spread far and wide, for no extra cost on Viddler, Vimeo, YouTube or whichever video distribution platform you choose to use.

Podcasts are even easier to pull together. It takes a guest with passion, it takes you to research your subject (has it really been any easier to get what you want than today?) and it takes a certain knowledge of who you want to target with your program, and what results you want to achieve.

Skype to patch yourselves together
Pamela to record it
A couple of high-quality headsets costing no more than £20 each
A copy of the free and easy-to-use Audacity audio mixer and recorder to cut and trim your final piece…
And you’re all set.

Of course, it takes imagination, a certain desire to think outside the box, to make your efforts stand out.

To be really successful, you need the words and the sonic sensations. You need what is best described as a Blogcasting strategy.

And you probably want some real-world examples of how blogging and podcasting is making a difference to companies.

So I tapped the collective intelligence of seven people I know well, who each benefit from the mighty blog and/or podcast as businesses or customers.

Enough of me. Let the people tell their stories:

We are using a business blog for years now and really enjoy the interaction it enables us with our prospects/clients by opening up the comment box to questions. Double whammy really: the wording used in the questions add to the keywords (some of which we would not have thought of otherwise) and sometimes a question and our answer turns into a completely new post.
I live in a small village in England. In my village there are two shops that sell newspapers and sweeties for the children. I use Gordon’s shop. Why? Because when I go there he chats with us, he tells us what’s happening in his shop, his life and the village. He doesn’t push products or sell to us. He just makes us feel welcome and keeps us in touch. The other shop waits until I’ve made my choice of purchase, then takes my money and thanks me politely. That’s how business blogging helps a business. Engagement. Making your customers feeling a part of your enterprise. It isn’t to get people to buy more, that’ll be seen through as marketing. It is to ensure that when people buy, they do it from you, not your competitor.
Podcasts help create a closer emotional connection to your prospects. Having someone’s voice come directly to your earbuds is a very intimate connection. You start to feel like you know them, and therefore you start to trust them. Also, podcasts are portable in a way that blogs are not: you can listen while doing other things. So if you’re trying to reach a mobile workforce, a podcast may be better than a blog, or an important supplement to it. Ideally, the two complement one another, and in any case most podcasts are published through blogging platforms, and should have fairly detailed show notes both to assist people in finding them (direct audio search is still pretty iffy) and to help people decide whether to listen and which parts to listen to if the show is long and their time is limited. For me, blogging is both a way to demonstrate expertise (since I’m in a service business) and to demonstrate writing skills (since I’m a writer). I release recordings of presentations I’ve given as podcasts, as well as producing occasional purpose-made shows (I’d make a poor podcasting consultant if I couldn’t produce a show for myself). And don’t forget the value of *reading* blogs and *listening* to podcasts for your business. You can get quite an education in marketing and make a lot of connections that help your business that way. WAM: I gotta say the idea of blogging and podcasting on intranets and for employees is inspirational. More on this soon.
It makes sense to include video or audio podcasts as often as possible to add compelling content to back up an opinion or demonstrate an example. That’s why I’m immediately drawn to podcasts in blogs, especially if they’re from trusted sources. I ignore the daily drivel on YouTube, but the blog format allows me to monitor my RSS feeds, again from trusted sources, and get the best video/audio blogs as they are published. I don’t think the written word will ever go away entirely, but a combination of video/audio plus text is certainly gaining ground in the blogverse, and for good reason.
I highly encourage the use of blog articles, podcasts and online video both as resources that are free and to provide additional streams of revenue for premium content. In particular if you publish content that not only indicates the ‘what’ but also ideas about the ‘how’ of what you teach or the products and services you offer this can help you establish trust with your customer/potential customer. My experience is that if your content is congruent with you and your companies expertise, it can also help the customer make a decision of whether to work with you. And providing additional content perhaps in a members/customers only part of your website can help you continue that relationship adding value to them over time and they may even become a strong advocate for you and your company and a great source of referrals.
Five years ago a static website with all your information was a great virtual business card for your business. Today, that won’t cut it. The bare minimum is a blog along with the business website where people can get a better feel for your business.
We publish new content everyday. We create articles that are helpful to our best customers that they may be specifically looking for on the web. For example, we write about marketing tips, social media for business, lead generation, etc. As part of our blogging strategy, we create a live video podcast and post the episodes on our blog. By offering helpful and searchable content, people find us on their own through search engines and social media. On every blog post, we include a call-to-action with targeted content. This brings the person to a form on a landing page. If the person decides to fill out the form (and they’re a good fit for our software), they become a lead. It’s self selection and completely organic! WAM: Good point. Blogs aren’t just self-sustaining – they can generate sales via enewsletter sign-up forms, or other CTA elements that feel soft-sell but do the same job as, but better than, a direct mail campaign.