Should a Blog be part of your Marketing Program?

In 1997, when I worked at a large corporation, I remember the marketing discussions “Do we really need a website?” “We have the 800 number, why do we need a website?” “If we do, who is in charge of it? How do we do it? What are we trying to accomplish with it?”

Now I am hearing the same questions about blogs.

Is the idea of a blog as a tool in your marketing program met with a nervous laugh? Take a look at this video clip of business leaders Tom Peters (best selling author, management visionary) and Seth Godin (marketing guru), because it tells another story.

Tom Peters: My first post was in August 2004. No single thing in the last 15 years professionally has been more important to my life than blogging. It has changed my life. it has changed my perspective, it has changed my intellictualual outlook. It’s changed my emotional outlook.. (And it’s the best damn marketing tool by an order of magnitude I’ve ever had.)

Seth Godin: And it’s free.

Tom Peters: And it’s free.

Hat tip to Blog Squad’s Denise Wakeman for her post “Tom Peters says it’s the Best Damn Marketing Tool”.

Mack Collier of The Viral Garden explained it to me this way:

How can I convince a client whose only exposure to blogging is his teenager’s MySpace antics?

By telling them that it gives your company a human voice, and it helps you understand what your customers want, and it helps your customers understand what you can give them.

And add that people will buy from companies that listen to them and reach out to them, and that’s what a blog does.

Is your company still just considering a blog? Are you thinking about using a blog for your business marketing program? Or have you started to answer the questions to get this marketing tool moving and building a community?