Hugh nails it… and with a cool cartoon to boot. (© Hugh Macleod). He divides your marketing into two parts, using an inner and outer circle.
1. The “internal conversation” your company is having with itself (circle A).
2. The “external conversation” your company should be having with, er, customers (circle B).
The membrane between these two areas should be porous enough that they are “aligned.” I.e. you’re listening to your customers and talking back to them about stuff they care about. In other words, you (your company) and your customers are talking about the same thing.
And… corporate blogs can enable this conversation. Tony Dowler makes a good point, however. Blogs are not the only conversations you should be having with customers. You can still use “press releases, white papers, training courses and presentations.”
Did you know you can order Hugh’s sketches for the front of your business card? I’m a huge fan of his blog cards as he calls them.