Keeping with the scary week theme in this blog, we take a look at the recent comments regarding the death of blogs and try to avoid the marketing budget slashers.

Are Blogs dead?

That was a recent headline.  According to some reports blogs have been dead since 2004.  Guess that would make them a zombie them.  The argument is that blogs have become rampant with a marketing and advertising virus.  There are so many blogs in fact, they have become irrelevant.

It is true that blogs multiply like mutant rabbits, but the strange case of the death of blogs is entirely  overrated.  I see three reasons why blogs are still very relevant as part of the marketing mix:

1. We still read them.  Can’t be dead if they are still in use.  In fact, I don’t see even a decline.  Blogs are still turned to for education and information.  Blogs break news quickly, are easy to read, and sometimes the only place to turn for non-filtered news.

2. The cream rises to the top.  Yes, there are a ton of blogs.  Yes, some are straight out marketing campaigns in disguise.  However, blogs began out of a desire to share thoughts, and those with a passion for a subject will continue to have success in blogging.

3. The B to B segment is really just getting started blogging.  It is easy for a writer to say blogs are dead when you sit in a tech tower.  On the B-B side, it is the second place people turn after search engines for information.  More and more of these companies are adopting blogs as an educational tool.

Don’t carve that tombstone quite yet.

This week’s chart from our buddies at Marketing Sherpa:

If you can avoid the dreaded slasher, a downturn is an excellent time to gain position on your competition.  Use this time to build brand, gain trust, and grab market share.  Next week, we will share some opinions from other in shifting to online marketing tools.

Tomorrow, we continue with scary themes and raise a project from the dead.