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Will Write For Sales
By: Tama Swan, Associate Editor
Issue: 2009may
Three industry companies discuss how they’re using online publishing sites to grow and improve their companies.
Have you read a blog lately? Unless you’ve been in a remote jungle with no broadband access, chances are you have read blog posts or otherwise taken part in the blogosphere. Seventy-five percent of all internet users blog or participate in them, either by commenting, rating, ranking, sharing or networking, according to www.technoratimedia.com, which monitors blog activity on the web.
Technorati claims to search 1.5 million blog posts in real time, so information and entertainment seekers can find blog entries on specific topics whenever they want. A search for promotional products on Technorati returned 1,290 posts, a small sum compared to the 198,073 results returned when advertising is the keyword, but some industry players are working to change that. The three industry businesses below have been using blogs and online publishing websites (one for nearly four years and another for just a few months) to grow their business, boost creativity and connect with customers.
ePromos Promotional Products Inc.
Marketing Director Mark Yokoyama of New York, New York-based distributor ePromos Promotional Products Inc. (UPIC: EPROMOS) has maintained this creativity-focused blog since July 2005. Daily posts center on promotional products and campaigns that Yokoyama spots in the world at large, peppered with a bit of Yokoyama’s wit and healthy skepticism that comes with experience in promotional products campaigns. “I don’t talk about what company is buying another company or who is offering three-day service,” says Yokoyama. “It’s geared toward the consumer or the person interested in branding, advertising and promotional products.”
Those people, Yokoyama says, are ePromos’ ideal customers. “They are engaged, have goals and understand what we’re trying to accomplish with promotional products, as opposed to someone who says, ‘Someone told me I need to buy pens for the tradeshow.’”
Often filed under labels such as headvertising and bagvertising, Yokoyama’s posts feature innovative campaigns promoting anything from blockbuster movies and celebrity perfumes to fine china emblazoned with KISS and Metallica logos. All this serves to show others mired in the daily goings-on of promotional products what they may be missing. “We do a lot of orders that are just a pen with someone’s company name on it—plain vanilla orders. I think everyone does,” Yokoyama says. “But the fact that we’re always showing off cool new things and a different way of thinking about it keeps you in touch, and you don’t forget how cool some of this stuff can be.”
Yokoyama also oversees another blog for ePromos called The Promo Know-How Zone, which focuses on case studies and campaigns produced in-house. Yokoyama says this blog probably has more of an impact on sales because it’s actually for people working on promotions, and it showcases ePromos's work. However, he says, both blogs refer a lot of people to the company’s main website. “Those people are more likely to be buyers than just the average person on the internet.”
Everybody Loves Free Stuff: http://blog.epromos.com
The Promo Know-How Zone: http://ideas.epromos.com
Proforma Simonetta Freelance
About a year ago, John Simonetta, owner of Dallas, Texas-based distributor Proforma Simonetta Freelance (UPIC: PROFORMA), which specializes in eco-friendly promotions, began writing to different websites and news aggregators requesting an opportunity to contribute articles about green promotional products. The goal was to establish himself as an expert within the industry. “One of the things we always tell our clients to do is set themselves up as a knowledge source so that people will turn to them for information on their industry,” he says.
Simonetta says he considers himself lucky that Green Options Media, a network of professionally edited blogs dedicated to sustainability across multiple industries, thought he was a good fit for its Ecopreneurist section. This is an area of the online publication dedicated to entrepreneurs who are working to either green their businesses or to get green businesses off the ground. Beginning in July 2008, Simonetta regularly posts articles about green products and materials as well as case studies and green promotional ideas.
Why not go it alone and forego the stress of deadlines and the occasional request for a rewrite from his editor? Simonetta says it’s because he could never generate as much web traffic—2.4 million visitors in September 2008 alone—that Green Options Media can.
This amount of exposure has also made networking less of a chore for Simonetta. “Normally we sales guys will do two or three networking events a week—luncheons and what have you. I don’t need to do that,” he says. “I get two or three e-mails a week from people looking for specific products. Some of them turn into sales, some don’t, but they’re already very warm leads.”
Ecopreneurist: www.ecopreneurist.com
Charles River Apparel
Two new blogs at Medford, Massachusetts-based supplier Charles River Apparel (UPIC: CRA) are still in their infancy, but the company expects each will help connect with customers and open lines of communication. The two blogs, one for end users and the other for distributor clients of Charles River, feature posts from company leaders that range from news about Charles River and the industry to general interest topics and, sometimes, a mix of both. For instance, did you know that the first family’s new dog is the same breed as the Charles River mascot, a Portuguese water dog?
For the end-user blog, Vanessa Keefe, director of marketing for Charles River, says the aim is to connect with those actually using the products in a way they have never been able to before. “We wanted a place for them to voice their opinions because we don’t really hear from the end users a lot, unless it’s anecdotally from the distributor and they tell us about the experience,” Keefe says. “For us to be able to get feedback from the consumers themselves—like sizing and color options—is really great for us to hear, straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.”
The distributor site, however, will hopefully help streamline communications that are already taking place via phone and e-mail. “We wanted to keep up the communication with our distributors in a real-time atmosphere,” Keefe says. “A lot of times e-mail gets lost or deleted. A blog is a more permanent way for us to post so that people know what’s going on.” She emphasizes, though, that a blog does not replace official company information.
Charles River Apparel for end users: www.charlesriverapparel.typepad.com
Charles River Apparel for distributors: www.charlesriverapparel.com
How to make a company blog work for you, not against you
Find a way to make your blog genuinely interesting to readers. Don’t automatically assume that people care about your business’s press releases or what products you’re selling.
Keep it current. An outdated blog is unimpressive and can promote negative ideas about the condition of your organization.
Manage your time wisely. Writing posts for a blog shouldn’t take more than an hour per day.
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