Biz Blog Profile Series: RESCUE! BugBlog
03/22/2005
Biz Blog Profile is a behind the scene look at how
corporations, non profits and higher education institutions are using blogs to
support their marketing goals.
Biz Blog Profile: RESCUE!
BugBlog
Stephanie Cates, Director
of Marketing and Communications, is the author and originator of a most unique
blog about bugs. Yup, you read it right…bugs. But for Stephanie's company, Sterling International, manufacturer of pest control products, a
bug blog made perfect sense. Posts
integrate tips about pest control and interesting bug tidbits with insights into company culture and the
right dash of Stephanie's personality.
About
Sterling International is a
privately-owned company which manufactures and markets RESCUE! Pest
Control Products, a small line of non-pesticide, environmentally responsible
traps for yellowjackets, flies and Japanese beetles. Products are sold at
major retailers such as Home Depot, Lowe's, Wal-Mart, Ace Hardware and True
Value Hardware.
Why Sterling International is Blogging
The main reason is to create a sense of community around our company and our
products.
How Blogs Fit Into Sterling International's Marketing Strategy
We have long believed in advertising directly to the end user of our product,
rather than focusing on the retail trade. Even when our products were new and
distribution was not widespread, we wanted the consumer to know us and put
pressure on the retailers by asking them to carry our product.
Blogs allow us to continue our dialogue directly with the consumer on a more personal level than advertising could ever accomplish.
Blogging also fits with our branding tagline: "Making pest control
smarter." The more information we provide to the reader that is
related to our pest control niche, the more it reinforces 'smarter'.
Selling-in to Management
My boss was not entirely up
to speed on blogs, especially blogs for business, so I first needed to explain
the concept to him. I talked about how blogs are becoming more credible as
sources of news and information, and that many bloggers and readers of blogs
are the 'early adopters' and 'influentials' that we want to
reach.
I then went through a list of some outcomes that we would seek to accomplish
from having a blog:
-Creating a sense of community
-Helping readers see us as a company of 'real' people
-Keeping our web site fresh and dynamic
-Solidifying our position as leaders in our field
-Achieving higher search engine rankings
-Staying out in front of any news about us
-Helping launch new products
Listing some possible blog topics helped him to see how it would be used. The fact
that a trusted, long-time employee (me!) would be doing the blogging definitely
helped allay fears about maintaining appropriateness in the blog and keeping
sensitive company information private.
Finally, to the question of whether to allow comments to be posted, I helped
him see that it shows that we stand behind our products.
How
We have links to the blog on our home page and all over the interior pages of
our web site. In the interest of sharing helpful information, we are linking
prolifically to web sites and other blogs. We posted our blog to Ping-o-matic. In time, we will also spend
time commenting on other blogs to increase awareness of ours.
Lessons Learned
Building traffic, and therefore gaining
tangible results from the blog, takes time. Content that comes across as
promotional, rather than consumer-oriented, is not well-received.
Future Direction
We hope to gain enough of a following on our blog to get quality customer
feedback and, when we have a new product to introduce, create 'buzz'
around it before the official launch.
Stephanie Cates on Blogs
One of the things we've learned in talking to our customers over the years is
that people are fascinated with bugs, and therefore they like to talk about
them. They have many questions, such as how the weather will affect them this
year. They usually have a personal story relating to getting stung, or discovering a nest on their property, or having a family gathering
ruined by a bug invasion, and so there is an emotional component to their
curiosity.
So it was easy to realize when considering a corporate blog that we have plenty
of content for a blog in which people would take interest, and that would not
appear too promotional. It's all about getting closer to our customers and
gaining their trust.
I'm excited to have a new tool in my marketing toolbox, and blogging is a tool
that so far I have found easy to implement and enjoyable to use. It's a great
fit for us.
