I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, but Forrester (registration required) recently reported that only 1 in 6 people trust corporate blogs. But aren't blogs supposed to be how companies put on their human face and show the "real" brand?
Hearken back to the rise of email and database-driven marketing in the Nineties. Remember the big push for customers to sign up for company "newsletters"? It was supposed to be about producing "news" that built a long-term relationship. Instead, most newsletters turned out to be glorified spam with companies training their consumers to ignore a barage of special offers. No news, no real value. Email open rates and click-through rates plummeted over time as consumers learned this medium wasn't that new after all in terms of the value companies sent them.
It's happening again with blogs, at least among the over-managed, stylized corporate blogs that are little more than a thin veneer of "authenticity." By the time the corporate PR and legal team approve the CEO's post, it says next to nothing that a promotional email wouldn't have said.
Why does this happen?
For one reason, marketers focus on the medium as opposed to the purpose and nature of the communication. During the email marketing frenzy, hundreds of database analysis firms were there to help you determine how many emails you need to send in order to achieve a certain return. But who was focused on actually putting value in the email itself so that consumers were trained to look forward to the content?
Why do marketers focus more on spinning up a cool new medium, such as a blog, as opposed to focusing on what matters, which is what consumers need and want in order to build a long-term value-driven relationship with a company? Because it's easier.
Let's be honest. Everyone is busy. Few marketers truly understand their customers or their market as deeply as they should. Few spend enough time listening to customers' needs or desires enough to know what would be considered valuable. Therefore, it's easier to crank out a vanilla blog than it is to produce a meaningful, value-building conversation.
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