Marcus Osborne is co-founder and Managing Director of FusionBrand, a brand consultancy headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. He’s a friendly chap that I got to know through Twitter (follow him at @brandconsultant) and in addition to providing interesting commentary on Malaysia as a Brit living in KL, he also publishes a blog on branding in Asia.
Marcus blogs pretty regularly, which indicates that blogging has been beneficial to him in some way. With Twitter exploding in Asia, could blogging still be of value to businesses? I asked him a few questions to find out how.
Please tell us about FusionBrand
FusionBrand is a brand consultancy based in KL. FusionBrand is unique in that it eschews the traditional approach of using creativity to build brands and instead looks at how the organisation can deliver economic, emotional and experiential value to clients. This benefits the company as it avoids wasting funds on one-size-fits-all communications campaigns that are generally ineffective. It also benefits the client because the company understands their needs and requirements.
What do you write about on your blog and what’s your readership like?
My blog aims to help readers build profitable brands. To do this they must understand what branding is (and what it isn’t) and what their company needs to do to build a brand. Obviously each brand is unique and there is no silver bullet but I hope that by reading my blog readers will understand what needs to be done, the pitfalls they must be aware of so that they don’t make the same mistakes other brands have made. Over the last 6 months, I’ve averaged 640 views per month or 22 views per day.
What are your main motivations for blogging? Is it a formal strategy to win clients?
The blog gives me a platform to change perceptions of branding and to communicate my knowledge to readers and I know this knowledge can benefit those readers. It is also part of a strategy to build the FusionBrand brand.
What sort of business results has the blog led to? In other words, what sort of ROI has the blog generated?
The blog has created a lot of awareness for myself and the company. I receive approximately 2 requests to speak each week. The blog itself has not specifically generated any business however I do know that it reinforces our offering.
Blogging seems like a dated medium compared to Twitter, Facebook & the fad of the day. Why do you continue blogging in spite of that?
I don’t agree that blogging is a dated medium. It is a valuable conduit to consumers. My blog gives me a unique opportunity to express my views. Consumers can then read those views and if they relate can pursue me further. It is an effective marketing tool that plays a role in the development of the relationship with the prospect and later, client. It is more accepted with conservative companies and is also inexpensive compared with developing traditional marketing collateral and obviously I can update it on a regular basis.
Marketing Takeaway
Blogging helps position yourself as an authority
The biggest lesson to be learnt here is that consistent marketing, even though it is small, can and will generate results. The key is consistency. In this case, blogging has helped Marcus position himself as an authority in branding. Prospects are also more likely to enquire the services of an expert they are already familiar with, e.g. they have seen him giving a presentation, or in this case seen his thoughts and views in his blog. This has further led to speaking and training engagements, and prospect enquiries. Just browse the comments to see.
This is also a classic example of inbound marketing, where marketers publish content that provides value to their target audience to draw them into their marketing funnel. The topics that Marcus writes about are relevant to FusionBrand’s audience which has opened doors for him. My advice to Marcus here and other bloggers would be to write a series of posts that are part of a wider topic, preferrably aimed at beginners. This will not only attract the target audience, but if the series is valuable enough they will bookmark it and return to the posts in the future or even pass it on to colleagues.
Another takeaway is that blogging provides your business a platform to connect and engage with consumers. I get the feeling many still feel blogging is ‘journaling’ or writing a personal diary. Marketers need to look beyond that and see blogging as a communications platform that allows businesses to engage directly with consumers through written, audio and even video content. In a world where content is king, blogging is an excellent platform to publish that content. As we’ve seen, the key to getting results is consistency. Today’s blogging platforms like WordPress are so user friendly that it’s really easy to publish posts and be consistent.
The final lesson here is that the Buzzmedia blog has some way to go before I catch up with Marcus 
Thanks to Marcus for sharing his insights and thanks to you for reading! Be sure to visit Marcus’ blog at http://brandconsultantasia.wordpress.com.
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