Groupon and Corporate Blogs – Examining the Pros and Cons

Indianapolis blog writers, particularly those providing content for SEO marketing blogs, need to read what Tim Altom has to say in the Indianapolis Business Journal on the subject of Groupon deals.

“Want hordes of new customers battering down your doors and filling your lobby?” he asks.  “Groupon says it can get you there.” “ Even Groupon’s proponents sing its praises only warily, and its critics can be scathing in their condemnation,” Altom adds, going on to describe the way a Groupon deal is structured and to share some of the best and worst results clients have been reporting..

As a professional ghost blogger who offers business blogging help to various corporations, I have to say there are best and worst results to report about corporate blogging for business, too.

At least a part of the motivation for companies hiring freelance blog writers is the same as the motivation for offering Groupon deals – wanting those hordes of new customers to batter down the doors.  And, in theory, corporate blogging is one way to get you there. ”Blogs are very powerful in terms of search engine optimization, explains webbequity.com, describing several reasons that’s true:

• Blog content demonstrates thought leadership more than vendor websites, and therefore search engines give more authority to blogs.
• Blog content is updated much more frequently than commercial website content, providing an advantage in real-time search results.
• Due to the informational rather than promotional nature of the content, blog posts are more likely to draw links from news stories and articles. I advise blog writers to “prime the pump” by writing guest posts on other people’s blogs and to invite others to write guest posts on theirs.

So what are the negatives, I’m often asked in corporate blogging training sessions? and why do results vary so much for both Groupon and in writing for business?
“Groupon can pull them in,” explains Tim Altom, “but you have to close the rest of the retention deal yourself.” 

Similarly, searchers looking for information, help, products, and services are drawn to your SEO marketing blog, but there are several things that need to be put into place – smooth navigation to and around your website, capturing of email addresses, and a system of follow-up to convert some of those searchers into customers.
 
“Savvy merchants are adopting Groupon as only part of a bigger strategy for catching new business and encouraging returns,” concludes Altom.

Blogging for business works exactly the same way!