Sure, everyone tests their online campaigns right before launch. You make sure there's no typos in your copy. You make sure the lead form is working as it should. Your call to action is strong.

But what about after the campaign launches?

Online is the only marketing medium that you can make up and change as you go along. Are you taking full advantage of that?

By giving yourself some time to walk away from your campaign, you can look at it again in a week or two with a fresh set of eyes. Look at it as if you are one of your customers and you're seeing the page (or pages) for the first time.

Maybe your call to action can be a little stronger. Maybe the breadcrumb trail your audience is supposed follow doesn't seem so intuitive now that you can't remember exactly how to behave. Maybe the lead form asks too many questions after all.

The thing is, you never know until you look. As marketers, we often move on to the next project and never stop to take a look back at where we came from. If you know you're going to let the campaign run for some period of time, it's worth the few minutes it takes to check up on your investment. You might be surprised what you learn.

There was a time when you were really excited about your corporate blog. You were going to fire off blog posts three or four times a week - maybe more! You made a list of five or six really good ideas that you were sure were going to drive sales and started writing like crazy.

Time went by and you noticed your blog wasn't getting as much traffic as you hoped. Your sales haven't been effected. Your other projects were piling up. Maybe you've had layoffs, so you're working even harder just to keep up. Now it's been a month since your last blog post and that one wasn't even very good. Time to admit your blog is on life support. What do you do now?

The 12 Steps:

1. Admit that you are powerless to your sense of urgency and your blog has become unmanageable.
2. There is a power greater than your own task list and you are the only one that can restore your sanity.
3. Make a decision to turn around the power you hold and make your blog work as you intended it to.
4. Make an inventory of everything you need to do to make your corporate blog successful. Understand what you want out of your blog and what it will take to get there.
   
5. Admit to your boss the exact reasons why you've let the blogging slide and what you are ready to do about it.
6. Be ready for your boss to shift priorities or responsibilities away from you so you can either a) focus more on writing the blog, or b) find someone who can.
7. Humbly ask your boss to help you remove obstacles that are keeping you from blogging.
8. Make a list of all the social media sites you want to be on and what you're willing to do on those sites. What is the purpose of a Facebook page? What can you get out of Twitter? What other social media tools can you use to get closer to your customers? How much time do you need to spend on each?
   
9. Make a direct effort to use those social media sites to support and build your blog following. Make it a priority to get it done just like everything else you have scheduled.
10. Continue to write down ideas for blog topics. Take 10 minutes a day to think of a few and keep good notes whenever possible.
11. Seek input from others in your company - especially those who have impact on customer experience but don't work directly with customers (like engineers or developers, for example). You can also get other great ideas by reading other blogs.
12. Measure ROI as a result of these steps and carry this message of open dialogue with your customers to other executives in your company. Practice listening to those that matter to you in all of your affairs.

OK, I admit it. I've been lax with my blog lately. I've done everything that every one who gives advice about writing a blog tells you NOT to do. I let my blog go for almost a month with no updates. Bad Marie. No cookies for you.

I've been distracted. I've started writing a book. I'm taking care of a toddler and preschooler full-time and I'm looking for a job. I know. I know. We're all busy. But it's my excuse and I'm sticking too it.

I'll also admit to doing a fair amount of pouting. Pouting that the economy stinks and I had to get laid off and no one wants to hire even though they have plenty of work they need to hire someone to complete. Pouting when people jerk my chain by offering me a job then telling me they don't actually have a job for me and thinking it's still professional to tell me to have a nice life. Pouting when the only people I have to talk to all day are both in time out at the same time because they can't get along. Pouting when people tell me annoying things like, "Don't worry! Your dream job is just around the corner!" Greaaat. Can you tell me what corner so I can go there, turn it, and all this will be over?

So, I'm not going to pout anymore. No one likes a Debbie Downer and it doesn't really help improve my situation anyway. I promise to be nice to people when they try to cheer me up, even if I want to ring their necks to being so unrealistically optimistic. I promise to enjoy the time I have with my children now because they're little, they'll never be this age again, and they love being with me as much as I love them. I promise to keep networking and working toward what I really want to be when I grow up. And most of all, I promise to keep blogging.

So that brings me to my Creative Friday message. Many of you know that I'm very passionate about writing. What some of you may not know is I am also very passionate about music. I even sing in a choir. So I've been drawing some inspiration from music lately. Songs about self reliance and overcoming fear - because isn't that what job seeking is all about?

I hope you find as much joy from this song as I have lately. Listen to your inner voice. It is never wrong.

I'm a big fan of education. A few years ago, I went back to school for a master's degree in Technical Communications Management. It taught me valuable skills in budgeting, management, and aligning tactics with business goals. One could argue that I could have saved myself a lot of money and just learned all that on the job. True, I know I could have learned most of these skills through working, but it would have taken me a lot longer to learn them. I think I was able to move forward in my career faster because of the skills I picked up in graduate school.

I went to school during the last recession. As the economy started picking up again, applications started dropping. Not surprisingly, colleges are seeing a rise in continuing education enrollment as the economy is cooling off again.

Sometimes you can learn what you need to know just from additional training. For example, next week I'll attend the Online Marketing Summit in Denver. I don't want a degree in it because by the time I finish school, everything I learned about online marketing will change.

Here are some questions to consider when thinking about continuing education:

1. Is your field emerging? As with online marketing, certain in-demand fields are changing almost daily. The problem with grad school is that courses and class content are established months, even up to a year, in advance. If you need flexibility then you probably don't need grad school. Consider taking an online course or obtaining a certification if you need it.
2. Do you work for a big company? If so, and you're planning to stay there, you might want to consider an MBA. As the economy gets tighter and tighter, I've met a lot of people lately (myself included) that are starting to think that working for a corporate machine wouldn't be so bad. At least you won't have to worry about VC funding not coming through. Of course, there's no guarantee that you'll never be laid off, but at least you know you'll get a decent severance package. With all that appeal, an MBA can put your resume at the top of the pile, and it can help you get promoted faster.
3. Does your boss have an MBA? This speaks to the culture of the organization. If no one above you, including your CEO, has an MBA, then chances are they won't appreciate you having one. This is another time you might want to consider just taking a course or two to get what you need to know to either get promoted or find a new job.
4. Where do you live? Certain parts of the country, where the job market is more competitive, means that you're almost expected to have an MBA or some form of higher education to get ahead. Look at statistics for your area. If you live in a part of the country that's saturated with MBAs, then you need to consider getting one yourself in order to stay competitive.
5. Are you scared? Don't go to grad school just because you lost your job and you're looking for a place to hide to ride out the recession. Take it from someone who's been there: graduate school is a lot of work. It completely eats up every second of free time you have and pushes you past limits you thought you couldn't reach. If you do it, it should be because you love what you're studying and you want to know more about it. Don't do it because your scared. It's a lousy waste of money.

In any case, you need to carefully consider what you really want from continuing education. You may be able to find the skills you need with a few courses in additional training, or from hiring a coach. There's a great personal and emotional payoff to finishing graduate school, but it takes a lot of investment to get there. Choose wisely.