Merlin Edge Inc. Strategic Marketing Corporate Communications

Merlin Launches New Website and Blog

3...2...1...LIFTOFF! Right now corks are popping and champagne is flowing at Merlin HQ as our new website streaks into cyberspace. Our programming team's mouths are agape in stupefied awe. Your writer's eyes are glinting with pride. The lump in our web designer's throat has rendered him speechless. It's a beautiful sight.

Well...actually we're much too busy with client work to celebrate our website's launch with the fanfare I described – but we're glad you're here to see the results! Have a look around. Everything you might want to know about our values, our key people and our services is available. Enjoy!

But right now you're on Merlin's new blog, so let's talk about blogging. Merlin's blog will feature discussions on marketing and investor relations trends, industry insight, news on the latest breakthroughs in online communications and big events at Merlin. We're planning to blog about twice per month.

The growing popularity of corporate blogs is a major online trend.

Here are five reasons why your business should consider committing the time, effort and resources to launch a blog:

Help your customers

After-sales service cements customer relationships. You want your customers and clients to get the most from your products. Providing user tips on how to maximize the reliability or longevity of your products will help to ensure your customers are satisfied with their purchase and continue to do business with you.

This can become a really useful tool. You can inform customers about upgrades or warranty issues, share other customers' experiences on optimization and application, and inform customers about accessories or maintenance and care products and services. This can cover anything from hardcore physical iron out in the field to intangibles like HR software.

Establish your people as experts

You want customers to rely on your business for advice in all of its areas of expertise. Blogs give your business the space to introduce and promote people who are experts in various aspects of your business. As an added benefit, getting different people to contribute to your blog will help to keep its content fresh, and minimize the disruption to any single employee's work.

Introduce new products or services

When you want to tell the world about your latest offering, start with your blog. It's a very inexpensive way to promote your products to a highly targeted audience. Your blog provides you with a communication vehicle to convey the features and benefits of your new product or service without the space limitations of print advertisements. You also have the option of incorporating multi-media features, such as animations or videos of your products in action.

Start a dialogue with your customers

One of the great benefits of using blogs and other online media is the instant feedback. You can ask your customers to rate your posting or leave comments, and it's really easy for them to do so. You may find that your customers are more likely to provide candid feedback on your blog than they are to do so in person. Knowing what's on the minds of your customers helps you to better meet their needs.

While allowing comments may raise some concerns about privacy, defamation or other legal issues, comments can be vetted/moderated, or people can be required to provide their real names and e-mail addresses as a condition of signing in, which encourages people to remain polite and within the bounds of good taste.

Engage your employees

Private employee blogs, usually as part of an employee intranet,  are a great forum for your people to communicate with one another. It's important for your employees to know what's happening at your company beyond their own areas of responsibilities. Blogging about your company's big wins, for example, will remind your employees that they're on a winning team.

We hope you enjoyed our first blog entry. Don't forget to subscribe to our RSS feed, so every time Merlin's blog is updated you'll be among the first to know.