It’s the same old story again and again… The other day a company owner who had heard about the SEO advantages of a blog contacted me because now he was keen on getting one for his company too. I told him that a blog is first of all a communication tool to start a dialogue with his clients and other people interested in his business. That a blog is offering a possibilty to communicate with him.
He replied: “Oh no, I don’t want to offer a possibility to communicate. I want to get in a top position on Google!”
That’s when this picture came to my mind:
That's not communication!
Yes, I know Germany is known for its bad service, but would this company owner treat someone offline in the same way?
Imagine a client coming to his shop asking for advice and he’d stand there, keeping his eyes closed and covering his ears shouting “BUY! BUY!” to the client instead. That doesn’t only sound like “Bye Bye”, it would most definitely have the same effect!
(EDIT) Or as Todd Defren put it today: “You can’t make someone feel respected if you can’t hear their voice in the first place.”
When will they ever learn?
Drawing: Annette Schwindt
I couldn’t agree more with the above said.
But as an expatriate German, I feel I need to set the record straight on one thing. Germans have an unduly negative self-image – when I am back home, I invariably find myself in the middle of heated debates, trying to defend my countrymen and -women from self-launched attacks.
My point is: Maybe the idea of customer service still leaves a lot to be desired in Germany, but you should come to France for a while, that would change your perspective, I believe. Although even here, things are in the process of changing for the better, basically they still can’t be arsed.
In almost 20 years of being away from Germany, I have noticed quite a dramatic change. In my opinion, the big difference between French and Germans is that basically, they both believe they know it all – but the Germans do tend to listen when criticized. With the French, it tends to take a little longer
Best regards, Frauke Watson
Well, he is not completely wrong. Before you can offer your customers a way to communicate, you must guarantee that your customers are able find your offers on the web. To offer a way to communicate with customers through your blog or website is in many cases still plain useless if your website is not found in the top rankings of major search engines, especially Google and special product search engines. It’s like standing in a lonely forest, shouting “Communicate with me! Communicate with me!” while nobody can hear you. It is a fact that SEO is still the most important factor for companies to sell their products over the web. That’s why a top ranking is an absolute must for a business site. For blogs, the Online-Marketing-Trends 2009 study even found a retrogressive trend. In 2007, 60% of the companies wanted to blog, in 2009, only 48%. The study comes to the conclusion: “Blogs did not fulfill hopes”.(s. Online-Marketing-Trends 2009 at http://www.absolit.de/trends.htm)
On the other hand, you are right, too. To have a top ranking in a search engine without offering a way to communicate is plain useless as well. Customers want to have more information about products.
As a conclusion, in my opinion, you need both, a good search engine ranking and a proper way to communicate with your customers. And a blog offers both, so why not take advantage of the combination? But the effect of blogs on the number of sales should not be overestimated as the Online-Marketing-Trends 2009 shows.
Yes, AND both top ranking and offer to communicate are useless if you don’t offer good content!
Thanks for the stats and links!