Email Newsletters: The Granddaddy of Content Marketing

The race to jump on the bandwagon of the newest and hottest practices in marketing is like how children long for the newest toy. When we get it, older toys don’t get played with as often and may even be forgotten… at least for awhile. Then we stumble across the older toys remember our positive experiences with them, and begin enjoying some of them again. This scenario resembles what can be observed playing out in digital marketing today. In the past 5 years, social media and content marketing have been like the toys shoppers stand in line for hours to buy. They have to have them, hope they like them, but may be unsure how to get the most benefit from them. If this description sounds familiar, maybe it is time to bring out one of your old toys: Email newsletters.

Good Email Marketing is Content Marketing

Many businesses wrestle with how to incorporate content into their marketing mix. Since a day does not go by that content marketing is not being given prominent coverage by industry media, a marketer cannot help but question the benefits of a content strategy. But, you may already be doing content marketing, particularly if you have an email newsletter. Email is simply a channel, a means of distribution. Subscribers agree to receive email from you not because they want another distribution source in their inbox; they want your content. Whether it is information about products, new stores, special events, promotions, or special interest stories, people subscribe to email newsletters because they find the content to be of value to them. Keep the content compelling, and they will keep you by continuing to give their consent for you to send emails.

Why Email?

If you are skeptical about the value of email or have had less than glowing results previously with email newsletters, keep in mind these statistics about email marketing shared by Kyle Lacy of ExactTarget Marketing Cloud with my comments in parentheses:

US adult email audience was estimated to be 188.3 million in 2013 and expected to grow to 203.8 million by 2017 (large numbers of people are using the medium- meet them where they are)
95% of online consumers use email (for B2B buyers that number has to approach 100%)
93% of consumers get at least one permission email daily (they are open to receiving content)
70% of consumers say they always open email from their favorite companies (goal is to become a favorite company, no?)
Every $1 spent on email marketing yields an average of $44.25 in return (a ratio anyone could live with).

These impressive numbers do not assure email marketing success. It takes hard work to develop interesting content, determine optimal communication frequency, and build a subscriber list. But before you chase the shiny new toys of digital marketing, look in the closet and make the most of how email newsletters can connect with your existing audience as well as attract new subscribers.

This post was inspired by a recent article posted on NYTimes.com “For Email Newsletters, a Death Greatly Exaggerated.” Check it out if newsletters are a part of your content strategy or you are wondering if email is still a relevant channel.

Marketing to the ‘Easy Spot’

This post is my first in two weeks; one reason for the break was a short vacation to the Lake of the Ozarks area in Missouri. We go there every other June to attend a family reunion on my wife’s side of the family. Going to the family reunion is a tradition that we look forward to every two years. And, we have traditions within the tradition of the reunion- a stop at Lambert’s Cafe in Sikeston, Missouri, to catch some “throwed” rolls, the washers tournament, and trivia contest. Another tradition that has developed over the past three reunions is taking my youngest son fishing. I have never been a fisherman, but fortunately one of our relatives who fishes exposed Ethan to fishing and taught him some basics. Now, we are a two-man fishing team- Ethan catches them and I help get them off the hook.

Fish Where the Fish Are

We have fished the lake at the resort where we hold the reunion enough times to have a feel for where we can find fish. The boat dock in the photo is one such spot. In fact, Ethan refers to it as “the Easy Spot.” A gaze into the water in this area usually finds many fish swimming around, eager to be the next customer on Ethan’s hook. He caught several fish each day in the Easy Spot. It was so easy that Ethan spent less time fishing in other areas as he had done in the past. He knew the Easy Spot would yield catches. While it did, perhaps he missed out on chances to catch different, bigger fish had he tried fishing other areas of the lake.

Fish in Different Spots

The marketer in me could not help but see parallels between Ethan’s choices on where to cast his line and how we decide which customers or segments to target. We certainly should be looking for the Easy Spot, those customers or audiences that we are confident will be interested in the products we offer. Application of the 80/20 rule to market segmentation suggests a large majority of our business will come from a small minority of buyers. Thus, we should find those buyers and drop our marketing line where it will reach them. In a recent blog post, Seth Godin points out that most companies do not have massive ad budgets that they can use to cast a wide net and bombard audiences with brand messages. Instead, Godin advocates targeting a more concentrated audience and building a community with which you can connect and interact.

At same time, a singular focus on marketing to a core audience (aka your Easy Spot) could be problematic. If you are a B2B company and you lose your largest customer that by itself accounts for 18% of revenues, how would you fill that void tomorrow? Even if you do not have to deal with the loss of a major client, balancing customer retention with customer acquisition is a must. Be willing to cast a line in areas besides the Easy Spot. It may take longer to get results, or you may not get any results at all. But, you and I know what the result will be if you do not try casting (targeting) in other areas- nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Selling or Telling: What Should Your Content Do?

Amid all of the clamor and fawning over content marketing is often an overlooked but kind of important consideration: What should it be accomplishing? Oh yeah, there probably should be a business-driven reason for investing in producing marketing content. It is not uncommon for creative and content channel considerations to overshadow the more fundamental question of what is the marketing objective that will be supported by content strategy (you do have a strategy, right?).

This question of what should your marketing content do is one that comes up in my mind regularly as I read blogs and articles on content marketing strategy. One of the most significant discussions that takes place with regard to creative strategy is whether content should focus on delivering utility by persuading the audience via rational presentation of product related information or by connecting emotionally through stories that can put a brand, its employees, and customers on a more personal, relatable, level. So when the question is asked “Should your content sell or tell?” the answer is simply “Yes.”

Three Questions to Guide Content Marketing Strategy

Marketers need not feel like they must make a choice between information-based content designed to provide utility and emotion-based content packaged in stories. Just as a brand would not design every ad message using only a rational or emotional appeal, your marketing content should exhibit variety in creative strategy. Emphasis on selling or telling for a particular content marketing campaign depends on how the following three questions are answered:

Who is the target audience? The group or groups you are trying to reach will influence type of creative used. Content aimed at existing customers may be less about convincing them of the value offered in your products (they already have been persuaded and are your customers) and more about building bonds with your brand. In contrast, if you are trying to win over competitors’ customers or other non-users of your product, content that communicates product utility would likely have greater impact in terms of influencing them to switch buying behavior to your brand.
What is the marketing objective? Once you have identified the target audience, the next consideration is where are they in terms of their relationship with you? That answer could be very broad, running the spectrum between unaware you exist and loyal customer. Chances are your target audience is narrower than that (it probably should be to make your content marketing efforts more effective). Given your target audience, what are you trying to accomplish in terms of advancing or strengthening relationships with them- Build trust? Demonstrate product capabilities? Influence their liking of your company or brand? Schedule a meeting with a sales rep? Make a purchase? Establishing what you want the target audience to do as a result of being exposed to content should guide decisions about content creation and presentation.
Where is the brand in content maturity? This issue about selling versus telling is maddening sometimes because what approach to content creative strategy should be taken is not the appropriate question to ask. The more telling question is where is our brand in terms of the evolution of our content? Lee Odden of Top Rank Online Marketing discusses a Content Marketing Maturity Model that consists of five stages:

Stasis > Production > Utility > Storytelling > Monetization

Brands grow up, or mature and progress through these stages. Let’s consider two examples to show the progression:

Blendtec – Demonstrating Utility

One of the best known uses of content marketing is done by Blendtec. Its “Will it Blend?” videos have been viewed more than 300 million times since 2006. The videos demonstrate product capability in unconventional ways, like how it performs “blending” an Apple iPhone 5s:

The videos sell using a humorous approach to one of the oldest tactics in selling, the product demonstration.

WestJet -The Power of Stories

At just under 20-years old, Canadian air carrier WestJet is a relative newcomer to the industry. The company places a premium on service, touting how much its people care. A company can make these claims all day long in mission statements and advertisements, but when it is told as a story the message can connect in a powerful way. This WestJet video describing what one WestJet customer service agent did for a stranger for Father’s Day poignantly illustrates that the people of WestJet truly care about others:

Notice what this story does not contain- An effort to sell. It is not necessary.

Ask, Then Create

The takeaway from this discussion is to ask before creating. Ask questions about who you want to reach, what you want to accomplish by reaching them, and where your brand is in content maturity. Answers will make it easier to decide on the mix of selling and telling content to create.

To Change Your Performance, Change Your Perspective

Running is one of my interests and favorite forms of exercise. It also enables me to pursue one of my other interests: Eating. I am a small-time runner, averaging 10-12 miles per week. I find running to be an opportunity to learn and think as I have a collection of podcasts loaded on my iPod that accompany me on morning runs. My run last Saturday morning was a learning moment in another way. The 3.5 mile route I planned to take in my neighborhood was one that I had run more than 100 times in the past five years. Perhaps the frequency of running this particular route was one reason I was not all that excited about running it that morning.

A Change of Perspective

Then, the idea hit me to run the route in reverse (not running backwards but running the route backwards). The routine of the run called for going a prescribed route, but on this morning rather than turning right off my street, I turned left and had a new experience on an old route. I caught myself more than once during the run with a smile on my face, marveling at the different view I was enjoying merely by running in a different direction on the same roads that I always run. It reminded me of a suggestion made by an executive at Tom’s Foods during my time in the direct sales delivery business. He said that during his days driving a route truck he would occasionally run his daily route in reverse order. Doing so would be a way of dealing with monotony and gave him a different perspective on his route and customer accounts.

How You Can Change Direction

What can I share with you about my decision to turn left instead of right and change my running route? It gave me a new perspective on my surroundings even though I felt like I knew them already. As marketers, we can take a similar approach and “cross the street” to take a look at our business from the other side. Here are two ways to change your perspective:

Act like a customer– When is the last time you stood in your customers’ shoes and looked at what it is like to do business with your company from their standpoint? If your organization is large enough, perhaps you can actually be a “mystery shopper” and put yourself in buying situations. Similarly, take on the perspective of a customer and attempt to shop your website. What is the experience like? I did this recently, taking on the perspective of a graduate student evaluating MBA programs. In addition to looking at websites of other universities, I went to the website at my university that houses information on the MBA program. I was dismayed by the poor organization of information and overall lousy user experience. Although design of the website is beyond my authority, I had a conversation with the administrator who is responsible for it. He agreed that it made for a bad user experience, and being new to the position he was making it a priority to make navigation of the site more user-friendly.
Act like an employee– I enjoy watching the TV show “Undercover Boss.” In each episode, the company executive that goes undercover as a front-line employee is amazed and often dismayed by observations made about company culture, policies, and procedures. The revelations come about not because of what the boss sees is new; they come about because their perspective changed. In addition to spending time gaining perspective from the trenches, consider how prospective employees perceive your company. Is it an open, inviting environment? Or, would a candidate get a vibe your company is more like a club or clique into which one is granted admission by other employees?

Embrace the View from the Other Side

Crossing the street and looking at your business from a different perspective entails some risk- you may not like what you see once you get there. But, if you aspire for improvement and growth (and I don’t know of any business that has the mindset “we are fine just as we are”), one way to make it happen is to change your perspective occasionally. Zig Ziglar said “If you keep doing what you’ve been doing, you will keep getting what you’ve been getting.” If you are a leader, commit to changing your perspective by looking at your organization from the perspective of others. As for my running routes, I plan to practice what I am preaching here and change my perspective more frequently from now on.

Photo credit: rgbstock.com

Engagement: Not as Easy as You Think

If you have been involved with marketing in any capacity in the last 3-5 years, you have likely heard the term “customer engagement” uttered many times. It has become the holy grail of marketing, in some respects more elusive than making sales. After all, transaction marketing can occur in the absence of buyers forming a significant bond or relationship with the seller. However, establishing relationships with customers cannot be achieved without meaningful engagement taking place.

The term engagement is thrown around a lot in marketing circles, so I ask students early on to tell me what they think engagement means. Examples of answers I have heard include “extensive interaction,” “two-way communication,” “committed relationship,” and “ongoing interaction.” Like the concept of engagement applied to personal relationships, customer engagement reflects a situation in which two parties feel they benefit from their interaction/communication/relationship with each other.

Two Types of Engagement

Engagement is not only a hot topic in terms of the quest to achieve it; marketers are also challenged to figure out how to make engagement happen as well as how to measure it. A recent blog post by Tracey Parsons of SME: Digital about social media engagement made an interesting observation: Engagement is not a single-dimension construct. Rather than thinking about engagement, we should consider what type of engagement we want and are achieving. Parsons identifies two types of engagement: 1) passive and 2) active. Passive engagement refers to behaviors such as Likes on Facebook or following on Twitter. It is a metric many brands used to evaluate the impact of their social media efforts. Active engagement reflects a deeper interaction between audience and brand- sharing and commenting being two ways in which active engagement occurs.

Engagement is not Easy

The call to break out engagement into differing levels of interaction is spot on. And, marketers must be careful not to limit their concept of engagement to passive metrics. Passive engagement could also be called easy engagement. Why? It is relatively easy to achieve. But, are we after easy or after creating impact? Here are three concerns related to a focus on easy engagement:

Easy Engagement ≠ Meaningful Engagement – Passive engagement metrics such as audience reach (followers/likes) and likes are of interest to many businesses because they are easy to understand, interpret, and even get. Think about it- How much effort is required for someone to like a business or brand on Facebook? One click will do it.
Easy Engagement ≠ Earned Engagement – Some of the audience reach you build comes with minimal buy in from your community. Heck, you can get “engagement” if we inadvertently click a Like button while going through our feed. That is not engagement; that is an accident! Similarly, engagement can be bought for the price of redeeming a coupon or other offered given in exchange for engaging via a like or follow.
Easy Engagement ≠ Ongoing Engagement – When customer engagement efforts are reduced to transactions (you like me and I will give you something) or outright begging (please like us on Facebook- only 10 away from 1,000), they are short-term tactics that will not achieve long-term goals. Pursuing engagement via easy engagement is like the insecure guy who buys a round of drinks for patrons at a bar. He wins over friends, at least until they get to the bottom of the glass. Then what? The “friendship” is likely over.

Engagement will continue to be a topic for which marketers will have differing views of what it means, how to achieve it, and how to measure it. I am not dismissing the need to achieve easy engagement- you have to start somewhere in relationship building. But, just as becoming aware of a brand after viewing a TV commercial usually does not translate into making sales, achieving passive or easy engagement with your audience will not lead them to remain engaged with you.

Marketing Lessons from ‘Reading Rainbow’

Unless you own a time machine, one of the best ways to reconnect with the past is through feelings of nostalgia. The people, events, and culture of days gone by can be relived to conjure positive emotions of “the good old days.” The power of nostalgia was evidenced last week in the overwhelming response to a Kickstarter campaign. The crowdfunding website is known for helping entrepreneurs fund new ideas, but a vision to resurrect a brand whose roots can be traced back 30 years: The PBS program Reading Rainbow. The children’s show featured actor LeVar Burton and enjoyed an amazing 23-year run. Now, Burton wants to bring back Reading Rainbow as a multi-platform venture that can be used in schools to turn on young people to reading.

The goal of the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign was to raise $1 million, an ambitious goal in a competitive space for entrepreneurial fundraising. In less than a week, the campaign has garnered more than $3.2 million in pledges from over 72,000 backers. A revised goal of $5 million has been set, and with 30 more days left in the Kickstarter campaign it seems to be a safe bet to say the goal will be reached. As I have watched the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter campaign unfold, two things have happened:

I cannot get the Reading Rainbow theme song out of my head- “Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high…” I hope that does not last 30 more days!
Useful marketing lessons have been taught and reviewed. I share three of the most poignant lessons from my observations.

Passion Trumps Product

One of the most striking aspects of the Reading Rainbow Kickstarter project is the passion that LeVar Burton exhibits about the importance of getting young people excited about reading. This venture is not about being a money making venture; it is about transforming lives. His passion has attracted pledges, no doubt. Some critics contend the methodology behind Reading Rainbow is not ideal for teaching reading. That point can be debated by other people in other spaces. The takeaway is even if the product has flaws or imperfections, the passion behind it entices people to accept a product that may be less than perfect.

People Act on Affinity

The overwhelming response to this particular Kickstarter campaign illustrates the benefits of building a brand that is trusted in the marketplace. An analogy used to describe brands is that they can become like a trusted friend- dependable, consistent, there for us. And like a good friend, people like to take action on feelings that they hold for brands- telling others about their experiences, participating in brand communities, and of course, being a loyal brand user. Reading Rainbow fans happily acted on their affinity for the program by pledging financial support to the next generation version.

Brands Matter

Reading Rainbow may not be the most effective platform for developing reading skills, but many people are convinced that it offers value. That belief is cemented in the minds of millions of parents and children exposed to the program during its 23-year run. Those beliefs did not end when the show ended; the equity accrued in the Reading Rainbow brand continues to pay dividends today. Marketers should never lose sight of the fact that their brand is a powerful asset, one that should be nurtured so that it can reap benefits like those currently being experienced by Reading Rainbow.

Time will tell if the re-launch of Reading Rainbow delivers on the vision that LeVar Burton has for the brand. I like the chances of success because of the passion behind the brand, the affinity held by brand stakeholders, and the strength of the brand as a marketable asset.

Content Marketing is Product Marketing

One of the benefits of a marketing career that is closing in on 30 years long is the opportunity to observe trends unfold before my very eyes. Technology has accelerated changes in marketing, so the last 15 years have been quite a fun ride. Three significant shifts in marketing have occurred during that time:

The dawn of the commercial Internet
The rise of social media
The explosion of content marketing

These three trends have similarity not only in the magnitude of impact they had on marketing practice, but I have observed another similarity among them: Many marketers had no clue how to harness the potential of these game changers as they emerged onto the scene. And, one flaw in managing these facets of a marketing program leaves some marketers still clueless about how to get optimal impact from them.

The Accordion in the Closet

Although challenges exist today in executing all three of these channels, the focus of this discussion is on content marketing given its status as the “newest” tool in the marketer’s toolkit (it can be debated just how new content marketing is, but I will leave that for other people to hash out in other forums). I see what is going on with content marketing (and before it with social media and Internet marketing) being much like the accordion that sits in my oldest son’s closet. He is 25 now, but about 12 years ago he had an interest in getting an accordion (his favorite music artist at the time was Weird Al Yankovic, thus the interest in the accordion). We found a used accordion at a music store, brought it home, and it has been a resident of his closet pretty much ever since. The problem? My son did not know how to get benefit from the accordion. He knew what it was capable of doing, but he never developed a plan for tapping the potential of the instrument.

Content Marketing Is Product, Too

How can you avoid content marketing becoming the accordion in your closet? Perhaps the most effective solution is to think of content not as content, but as a product. You would not bring a product to market without carefully considering the needs of the target market, benefits provided by the product, engineering and design, and packaging. Similarly, you should not create any form of content (video, blog, white paper, etc.) without applying a product management mindset. The same considerations apply:

Who am I trying to serve/benefit through content?
What features are needed to deliver benefits sought (statistics, demonstration, entertainment, etc.)?
What support is needed for users to get maximum benefit from the content?

Content marketing, like your products, represents a touch point that people have with your brand. A bad experience with content- irrelevant, boring, or out of touch with the audience’s needs- can unintentionally have an effect that is opposite of what was desired. You obsess over product and service quality to ensure a positive customer experience. The same vigilance is needed when publishing content.

Limited Time Offer: The Ultimate Tease?

Marketers have long used “limited time offer” as a tactic to create scarcity and build a sense of urgency to take action. I fondly remember seeing TV commercials as a youngster that used the call to action of “order before midnight tonight” to get the cassette or 8-track (it has been a while since I was a kid) at the low, low price. At the time, it baffled me why that particular call was used, especially since it was used every time I saw the commercial! In hindsight, I get the attempt to create urgency to order before the deal is no longer available.

Baja Blast in a Bottle: Don’t Get Used To It

Memories of those TV commercials from my youth were triggered when reading about Mtn Dew’s plans for the introduction of its wildly popular Baja Blast product. Yes, Mtn Dew Baja Blast is both wildly popular and new. The popularity of the Baja Blast product has been cultivated at Taco Bell restaurants, where the flavor has been sold exclusively until now. In fact, Mtn Dew Baja Blast is number two in sales for Taco Bell, trailing only Pepsi. This month, Pepsi introduced Baja Blast in bottles and cans… but only while supplies last. Expectations are that the popularity of the product will lead to selling through of the inventory by the end of summer. So if you are a Baja Blast lover you should do two things: 1) stock up on your beverage and 2) don’t get used to having it in cans and bottles because when it is gone, it is gone.

That’s not Nice

Before we accuse Pepsi of teasing customers or suggesting it is not playing nice by dangling Baja Blast in front of consumers for only a brief period, there is a strategy behind the product’s timing. Two statistics make a compelling argument for the Baja Blast summer promotion:

75% of Baja Blast fans say its availability is the number one reason they visit Taco Bell
Only 40% of Mtn Dew consumers are aware of the Baja Blast flavor

These stats taken together suggest a huge opportunity exists for Pepsi and even greater one for Taco Bell if more exposure is created for Baja Blast among the 60% of Mtn Dew customers that do not know about it. Building awareness and interest in Baja Blast through retail channels during the limited time offer could transfer to Taco Bell visits later in order to meet demand for the flavor. So, instead of calling out Pepsi as a tease for stirring excitement for Mtn Dew Baja Blast only to take it away, a tip of the hat may be in order for the creative means used to build interest for the brand as well as for its partner, Taco Bell.

A Limited Time Offer Like No Other

A final distinction between the introduction of Mtn Dew Baja Blast in bottles and cans compared to the typical limited time offer is the marketing resources being committed to it. A typical limited time offer for CPGs often relies mainly on point-of-purchase materials and in-store promotions. Mtn Dew produced a video featuring product endorsers Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Danny Davis, and Paul Rodriguez. Such efforts are usually reserved for product launches that are needed to survive long term. Not only is long term success not needed for the Baja Blast retail introduction, it is not even desired. This situation is different- Pepsi protected the exclusivity of Baja Blast for Taco Bell while at the same time potentially boosting excitement for the Mtn Dew brand… even if only for the summer.

Source: Ad Age- Mtn Dew Breaks Baja Blast Out of Taco Bell

Do Brands Really Want to Play ‘Ask Me Anything?’

One of the most admirable traits of a brand is transparency- what you see is what you get. And, a transparent brand is one that acknowledges its flaws. Rather than pursuing an impossible quest to project perfection (e.g., the dramatic collapse of the personal brands of Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods), transparent brands own up to mistakes, accept responsibility for them, and commit to doing better. These behaviors build trust and confidence in the brands that exhibit them.

Given the benefits of transparency, the concept of brands engaging the public in social channels for Q&A sessions would seem to be a valuable engagement tactic. Give people a forum for sharing what is on their mind, and deliver candid responses- nothing can go wrong, right? Of course it can, and it has. Twitter’s Q&A format gives a brand access to people who care about the brand… as well as those who have had bad experiences or hold negative views. However, recent Q&A sessions held by the NFL, NCAA, and NYPD did not go exactly as planned as participants called out questionable practices of these brands. But at least their Q&A sessions got off the ground before crashing; JP Morgan cancelled a Q&A session last fall when an invitation to submit questions and comments ahead of the session led to a deluge of responses that pointed to disaster if JP Morgan went through with the Q&A.

Don’t Play Unless You Have Thick Skin

Holding a Twitter Q&A, a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA), or some other interactive exchange with customers and other stakeholders represents a huge gamble for many big brands. Why? In these settings, a brand must cede control of the conversation to the audience it wishes to engage. This fact is difficult for many brands to embrace because they obsess over maintaining control over the tone and content of communication (I can’t even call it conversation as most brand-initiated communication is one-way broadcasting to a target audience). The prospect of looking bad or out of touch with the very audience targeted for engagement is a risk that many brands are unwilling to take.

The takeaway from the missteps of brands that have failed with live engagement on social media is perhaps best summed up by digital strategist and blogger B.L. Ochman when she said “If you don’t want to get trashed in social media, don’t treat people like trash in the real world.” Brands need to be transparent and authentic, not just for an hour during an online Q&A, but in their everyday dealings with customers and communication with stakeholders. If not, no need to waste time pretending you care about what is the mind of others by hosting a Q&A. Being transparent does not mean you will be immune from criticism or negative feedback, but you will be better prepared to deal with negative communication, appropriately respond to it, and build trust with your audience.

Comments on Blog Comments

A topic generating a great deal of conversation in the blogosphere lately is whether shutting off a blog’s comments feature is a prudent decision. The issue came to the forefront in March when Copblogger, a digital and content marketing company offering software and training services, pulled the plug on comments for its blog. The move raised eyebrows given Copyblogger’s position as a leading authority on the business of blogging. My initial reaction was one of incredulity- What do you mean you are eliminating comments? Isn’t reader comments a unique and powerful characteristic of blogging that sets it apart from other communication channels? My take was that someone had gotten “too big for their britches” as we would say growing up in Mississippi, that Copyblogger had marginalized the very people that made them relevant- their fans and followers.

Recently, I have heard and read thoughts from experts in the field including Chris Brogan, Mitch Joel, Mark Schaefer, and Michael Stelzner weigh the pros and cons of silencing blog comments. The more I learned and evaluated the question of whether to eliminate blog comments, I realized that there is no one-size-fits-all answer. In some situations, the decision to eliminate comments may be a course of action that can be justified. Specifically, three issues should be weighed by a brand (product or personal) weighing the benefits and costs of comments.

Exposure or Engagement

The first consideration pertains to why you are using a blog as a communication channel. Is its primary benefit that it offers wide reach to communicate in a cost effective manner, or is the reason for blogging to get feedback from your followers or customers? Blogs can evolve to become more of a pure content play, and the blog is the publication outlet for distributing thoughts or viewpoints. If having your audience participate in discussions or share their viewpoints is useful to your organization for learning and customer service, then allowing (and encouraging) comments is a no brainer.

Platform or Community

A second consideration also is related to blogging objectives- Is your blog a platform for promoting thought leadership, expertise, and products or a gathering place to nurture a community of people with similar interests? If your blog is a selling tool to build brand credibility, one-way flow of communication may adequately achieve your objective. The absence of side conversations or other distractions that could arise out of reader comments gives the blogger control over the topics and tone of conversations. But, if your blog creates value for you and readers because the power of community fosters learning among community members and by you, then shutting off blog comments would negate one of the main attractions of the blog to your audience.

Commerce or Conversation

Finally, the end goal of your blog impacts the significance of reader comments to blogging strategy. Consistent with using blogging as a channel for increasing brand exposure and as a platform to communicate brand authority and capability, turning off comments is practical when the aim of a blog is to drive prospects further into the sales funnel. If you are wanting to ultimately convert blog visitors, focus will turn to other tools to further the relationship. If the aim of blogging is to build trust and strengthen relationships among the community of readers, enabling comments is essential to creating the desired dialogue .

It Comes Down to Economics

The decision of whether or not to allow reader comments on a blog has compelling arguments on both sides. Rather than a clear cut yes/no response, the answer to this question truly is “it depends.” It depends on the three issues raised in this post as well as other considerations. Perhaps the most astute observation I have heard with regard to the issue of what to do about reader comments came from Mark Schaefer. He said the answer comes down to economics. If the cost to moderate and manage audience feedback via comments becomes too great relative to benefits received in terms of human resource and opportunity costs, then it may be time to eliminate reader comments. Until then, Schaefer sees the interactivity of the community worth the effort to moderate comments and actively respond to feedback from the community.