Best Practices - Blogging vs Email Marketing

When it comes to measuring time spent, analyzing dollars budgeted, and calculating successful marketing strategies, it seems that their impact, value and effectiveness are often up for debate, regardless of the method or medium.

For example, email marketing came along a decade ago or so with a whirlwind of activity and applause, and the percieved value depended on numbers sent, numbers clicked and easy-to-measure statistics newly available. As email marketing matured, the lines were drawn regarding privacy, overload and qualified senders. And measure of success these days is often put in terms of how it compares.

Email marketing is beyond comparison, however, as the most targeted, widely used one-to-one "push" marketing strategy with results that are measurable. Professionals agree, email marketing is the backbone of most cross-marketing and social media strategies.

Recently the web site Mashable.com posted an article comparing blogging with email marketing. Read their article here:
http://mashable.com/2010/12/16/generations-internet-infographic/# and read the whole thing, it's great stuff.

Blogs are useful, but more in the same way web sites are, as storage areas for resources and information – they are the libraries, service centers and storefronts.

Blogs are NOT push medium, and they don't pull very well either, but they are handy if you have advice to give and don't want to repeat yourself each time a question is asked. That's how I use my blog, anyway. Every time I answer a question via email, I save post the explanation to my blog. That way next time I can just send a link!

Great email marketers send the right message to the right people at the right time. That is an art form, and it is appreciated by those who have asked to be sent those permission-based emails. No other marketing medium is based on being asked, what a fantasticly welcome idea!

Great bloggers write when they have something worthwhile to say. They integrate the blog information into their next Tweet or Facebook post and point fans to their blog for details. They understand how all these content areas are used for search marketing. For tips on optimizing your blog post for web search, visit Typepad's reference area and read:
http://www.typepad.com/tips/blog-seo-tips.html.

For best practices in email marketing, visit WinBlogger.com.