There are many ways to use blogs with direct marketing. I'll focus on how you use datablogging for direct marketing. Reger.com datablogging is extended blogging. In addition to the standard title, body and datestamp of a typical blog entry, datablogging entries have extended fields. These fields could relate to anything... running... business meetings... sex... movie reviews... you name it.
You can read more about datablogging here and you can get a demo here.
Let's take the running log example. In addition to writing great descriptions of your run workouts, you also track data: how far you ran, how long it took, what shoes you wore and what surface you ran on. Here's a run I blogged last night.
Pretty cool in and of itself. But there's more. Over time you track many workouts and can begin to see trends. Reger.com datablog sites have charting and graphing capability so you create a graph to tell you how far you've been running or how long you've been working out, like I did here. These graphs are ad-hoc and don't require any coding at all. Just click and go.
By now you understand the basics of datablogging but you're wondering "where's the tie to direct marketing?" Great question. Imagine now that you're Nike. You launch datablogging for your millions of customers. They datablog their runs, tracking how far they run, what shoes they wear, what surfaces they run on, etc.
How does this help you as a direct marketer?
In the most simple sense you've gained an affinity with your market. You're engaging in blogging which is a two-way conversation. You're providing them a service. Kudos. This is standard blog fare. If you don't understand why this conversation is important, go read Cluetrain. If you still don't get it and you're a marketer, change professions.
And you're inflating your internet footprint for the search engines. Each of the hundreds of thousands of blogs you're creating and millions of blog entries they're creating has your shiny logo on it and links back to your homepage. You are internet massive.
But those two apply to all blogging systems. What about datablogging?
This is where things get interesting.
Your goal as a direct marketer is to target advertising investment. With datablogging you have a rich set of data that you can leverage. You know what type of running people are doing. Look at the "running surface" field. Use it. Create ad campaigns that are smart. If a user runs on "trails" a lot, pitch them an ad for trail running shoes. If they run on "pavement" pitch them something with support. If they run 50/50 on each, pitch them a balance.
As people collect data through datablogging you are more able to target them. And the quality of their ads increases.
It gets even more interesting as you consider promotional offers. Query those users who have over 350 miles on their current pair of shoes. Now offer them a 15% discount if they buy a new pair from your online store.
Better yet, analyze their data and tell them that based on their running history they appear suited to a certain model. Explain why this is the case.
You could write a plug-in for the system that congratulates users when they hit a certain mark. For example, when a runner logs their 500th mile. You congratulate them. That's a lot of miles.... you rock... and in honor of your achievement, here's 5% off at our store.
You could encourage blogging itself with an incentive system. The more datablogging you do (which means more data for you to work with as a marketer) the more online store discount points you get. There are some real-world difficulties regarding automated bot posters, but we can get around most of that with something called CAPTCHA... don't worry about that for now... geek stuff.
With datablogging you learn how your users use your product. In quantifiable terms. As a marketer you can use the Reger.com datablogging system to setup whatever custom log types you like. No matter what type of product you sell there are certain metrics that would be valuable to you as a marketer. Your market becomes something of a real-time focus research group. And all they're doing is going about using your product. Win/win!
You can gain competitive analysis from datablogging. Check out my shoe breakdown here. It shows how many miles I've put onto each pair of my shoes. Ok, so I only run Adidas, but if I had a few different brands you could dig into where I'm running each brand. By watching thousands of runners you may realize that your brand sucks with people who run on sand. So you read their posts and see why your brand sucks with the sand. Maybe you engage them in a conversation, using your own blog (yes, even direct marketers are allowed to have blogs). Maybe they just didn't even know you had a sand shoe. Boost sand shoe spending and get a promotion!
The key here is to provide value as a marketer. Use data to be smart. Use computers to be smart to millions of customers. Be human. Respond. React.
A word of caution: if you are using people's data to market to them, you must tell them this. Reger.com currently allows datablogging but does not target any marketing to users based on that data. The scenarios above must be accompanied by full disclosure and transparency. People don't mind being marketed to smartly... they do mind being marketed to opaquely. Respect your market. If you don't understand this, go re-read Cluetrain.
The possibilities of datablogging plus direct marketing are endless. You've probably already come up with 20 for your widget just while reading this. If you can see this vision, let's talk.
Why this post now? Jeremy Zawodny pointed out that there will be a panel called "Harnessing the Buzz Power of Blogs" at the 2005 Direct Marketing Association (DMA) Conference in Atlanta. Hey, I live in Atlanta. If you're going to attend the conference and want to talk datablogging, let's set something up.
In the interest of transparency, I'm biased towards reger.com because, well, my name is Joe Reger. I'm not only the founder... I'm also a customer.
Update: Bob Wyman of PubSub just did an entry about using blogs as market research tools, but he didn't include any microcontent or datablogging in there. Hoping he picks up on this entry via his own PubSub technology.
SoCon08