You are correct,I did make some assuimptions to make my point. I assumed that the product or service was in demand and that the product and service was of the highest quality. Of course this has to be the case if you are going to capture the attention and keep it. Bringing bad quality to the customer is not going to have you in business very long.

Yes I believe that through the use of search engines and the optimal way blogs are included in search results, you will be bringing the conversation about your company to them.

I completely agree with Tom’s sentiment that companies are going to look beyond direct sales from their blogs. But you mentioned:

“What companies need to focus on in their campaigns are the “egagement” of their potential customer’s attention. Once you have the attention of the customer, the ROI takes care of itself.”

I disagree. Getting attention doesn’t guarantee getting ROI. ROI can still be hard to get because it may require continual attempts at gaining your customers’ attention. And then, how do you keep them fully engaged once you have it?

Companies have to really understand there customers’ needs and expectations in this new arena.

“If everyone in the room is engaged in a discussion about your product, chances are you will have an easy sell and hence your return.”

Let’s hope so, but it is still up to the company to provide and excellent customer experience. A blog could be detrimental if the company is not.

“Now as a company how do I get them to talk about my product? My obvious answer is to bring the conversation to them and allow them to engage and discuss your product or service.”

How do you go about ‘bringing the conversation to them’? The key word there being ‘bring’. By simply having that blog in the first place?

Food for though.

Thanks for commenting on this post.

I witness a lot of the back-and-forth between agency media buyers and bloggers, blog networks and such. Many agency buyers are valuing the blogosphere in much the same way as they value their ad network buys. Meanwhile, there’s a lot more value in starting and maintaining a conversation on a blog than there is in throwing up more “buy now” ads on tier four websites that let you look up the lyrics to “Octopus’ Garden.” The thing is getting advertisers and agency buyers to see that value.

Cost Per Click and Cost Per Acquisition ads might help defray the cost of a hosting bill or pay for a six-pack every once in a while, but they’re not going to make anyone rich. (That is, unless one has traffic on par with an entire ad network or a big content site). IMHO, even the A-listers are getting ripped off, because advertisers believe only in the response value (and, to a lesser extent, the branding value).

Bring engagement (by way of conversation) into the value equation and you win. Blogs, message boards, social networking sites, email discussion lists and other online communities do conversation very well.

What will it take to get agencies and advertisers to realize this? I’m betting it’s a few success stories (something I’m working on). If you’re interested, we’re building a compelling story for one of our clients who sells life insurance right now. Every day, the conversation that happens on his blog is directly responsible for generating loyalty, good will and incremental policies. And he’s prepared to talk about it in detail.

Thanks again for your comments and for linking to the piece.