Blogging is Not a Weather Condition & Other Marketing Lessons
Posted on Tue, Jun 29, 2010 @ 01:30 PM
One year ago, MCPc ventured into what many thought was a “small website redesign” project. (Just between us, this thought never crossed my mind.) Before we could put the old site to rest, there were many unanswered questions that were critical to MCPc presenting who we are, the expertise we hold and what value we provide to our customers.
Though we are a technology solutions provider with more than 40 years of experience, we were new to several emerging online technologies ourselves. The journey thus far has been interesting, challenging and rewarding, and today I wanted to share a few lessons I’ve learned in the process.
Lesson #1: A website redesign must start with defining or redefining your company’s unique value from the eyes of all stakeholders.
After dozens of questionnaires littered with hundreds of questions, we determined our messaging and proceeded to website design and content development. Six months later, on January 11, 2010, we publicly launched our new site (98 brand new pages just to start). It was the greatest example of collaboration I’ve experienced in my career thus far, as every member of the MCPc management team was involved. We could not have accomplished this without their guidance, and I would like to shout out a big thank you (you know who you are) for their hard work.
Lesson #2: Get started in social media & thank those who help you get there.
In addition to all of the new content developed for MCPc.com, our new site launch was also MCPc’s inauguration into this strange new world of social media — starting with the MCPc blog. Without knowing what to really expect, I had six staff members willingly agree to “be a blogger.” What this meant…well, we were all about to find out.
A special thanks goes out to Lance, Ira, Jeff, Jason D., Beth, Perry and Jason T., who endured many hours of writing, tweaking and even more tweaking to deliver relevant, informative and thought-provoking commentaries to our online community. Together, they have contributed 32 new pages of fresh new content on our site.
I would also be remiss if I did not thank my “significant others” at PR 20/20 for their exceptional knowledge and direction. These are a team of people who care very much about the success of MCPc and our goals and objectives. This partnership has resulted in unprecedented growth and effectiveness of our website in its first six months.
But the number-one reason for investing in our blog is you — our customers, readers and future customers. If your inbox is anything like mine, about every two minutes you sigh at the dozens of new, unread emails. Though some may truly provide quality information, I know that if I read them all the quality of my own work would suffer.
We understand your time constraints and pressures. Truly, we live it here too. Your readership tells us that we are delivering a product of value, which is our one and only goal. Thank you.
Lesson #3: Evaluate your successes so far, and adapt moving forward.
The Internet provides a venue for people to seek out new information and resources. That being said, understanding what kinds of content our readers are most interested in is the key to being able to consistently provide valuable information. The most-read posts from our blog’s first six months include:
On the horizon are innovative and thought-provoking articles on a wide range of topics that we hope will provide you, the leaders in today’s complex IT world, some excellent food for thought:
- Economical and Effective Redundancy Solutions (by Frank Marro, a new addition to our blogging team)
- Technology Assessments: What, Why and How
- Key Reasons to Consider Email Archiving
- Top Ten Tips on Saving Money in Your Printing and Imaging Area
- You Can’t Hire Attitude
- When is Virtualization Right for Your Business?
Months ago, when I told my mom about our blog, she thought it was a weather condition. Although we are not where my mom is, we are still learning.
What we do know is that our employees get to hear from some of the brightest minds in our organization on a regular basis. Our bloggers get to share their years of expertise, hours of training and extensive engagements with customers across all industries, and in businesses of all sizes, with the very people knee-deep in the plethora of changing technology.
Lesson #4: Communicate, communicate, communicate: Keep people informed, ask for feedback and act on it.
So now it’s time to hear from you. What have you gained from our blog? What topics or questions would you like to see covered in the next six months? We’re listening and are ready to provide you with the information you seek.
Thanks for reading; stay tuned for new things to come. Oh, and Happy Independence Day! We have much to celebrate.
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Anne Browning is Marketing Manager for MCPc and is responsible for the development and execution of corporate marketing strategies that enable us to better communicate with, reach and serve IT professionals. Connect with Anne on LinkedIn.
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