Sales and Marketing with Blogs
This is a very interesting article I came across from the Daily Yomiuri in Japan. Alhough it initially appeared that not many Japanese businesses are adopting blogging strategies from some recent survey data I came across, it does appear that they are being used for sales and marketing efforts.
They site a bunch of real life examples of how blogs are being used to sell and market products and services from cars to books to Public Relations, so this is definitely worth a read. Two things piqued my interest that I thought I would share.
According to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, blog-related business generated 3.4 billion yen in fiscal 2004 and is expected to expand to 137.7 billion yen in fiscal 2006.
That is over 1.26 Billion US in Japan alone, which is a significant figure.
Also, I read an amazing example of how one company is giving the public free blogs in exchange for the promotion of their products and services.
Anyone who registers with Rakuten can set up a blog on the company's network and receive benefit from the program. Bloggers must advertise products available on the main Web site and post a link to purchasing pages. If somebody purchases the product after jumping to the page from a blog, Rakuten will give the blogger reward points, which can be used to purchase products via the main Web site.
Absolutely brilliant. I have consulted with many customers on setting up viral marketing strategies for community blogging applications, but this takes it one step further by incenting bloggers with “rewards points” which the customer can redeem for discounts on additional purchases through the provider. This is a great strategy that alot of companies should seriously consider with any large blog service roll out.
