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For the sake of simplicity, let's divide the blogging universe into two camps: there are those that see themselves as the First Amendment personified, delivering unfiltered news and opinion straight to the masses; and there are corporate bloggers who are communicating a carefully crafted message to start a dialogue around their brand.

Marqui, which develops and sells a hosted content management suite specifically for marketers, is no stranger to corporate blogging; and clearly understands the difference between the two camps.

In December of last year, the company launched its Payblogger program, which saw Marqui pay 20 bloggers $800 per month to write about the company. The bloggers had to write about the company once a week, and were paid for three months whether their comments were positive or negative.

Many bloggers took exception to the idea. Marqui was called "pond scum" and "shills." But the people at Marqui are marketers, after all, and there's no such thing as bad publicity. Stephen J. King, Marqui's president and CEO, said the campaign created more buzz for his company than it could ever create on its own, and he holds the 452,000 Google hits for its name up as an example.

Given its familiarity with blogging, then, it's no surprise that the latest addition to Marqui's hosted suite of products is a blog module. Armed with the knowledge that corporate blogging requires some functionality that many existing blog software vendors don't provide, Marqui built its own.

"It's aimed at the challenges as we see them in the corporate blogging arena," King told Intranet Journal. But blogging isn't the only challenge for marketers these days. The world of marketing is moving from a paper-based world with things you can touch to a digital world.

"That's not only creating a complexity challenge for marketers," King said, "but the stakes for getting it right are also higher."

The management screen for Marqui's new blog module allows users to easily enable or disable comments and trackbacks, as well as add new categories.

Marqui's CMS allows marketers to take any piece of information (the marketing message) and put it into output templates. The message then becomes a Word document, HTML for a Web page, XML, or an Adobe file for a display ad. Basically, Marqui can output whatever format you need to get the message out, including press releases and e-mail campaigns. The company targets mid-sized organization with 95 to 1,000 employees, and customers can usually get started for around $10,000.

Marqui added 20 new customers last quarter, and also announced partnerships with viaLanguage to synchronize multilingual efforts and with MarketingForce to incorporate marketing materials into print.

Although Marqui's suite previously outputted content as XML that could be used in blogs, the addition of a blog module now gives the CMS software designed specifically for corporate bloggers.

"Our belief is that a corporate blog needs to be managed as part of the overall marketing mix," King said. This means, among other things, that Marqui's blogging module includes workflow support so messages can be reviewed — whether by the legal department, PR, or anyone else — before they are posted.

Bloggers both inside and outside the corporate world might argue that approving messages defeats the purpose, but King said ever since a BusinessWeek article in May headlined "Blogs Will Change Your Business" was published, there's been an increase in businesses who see blogs as marketing tools to start a conversation with customers and employees.

Marqui's blog module, he said, will let marketers take advantage of the benefits of blogging while minimizing the risk and reducing the strain on staff and resources. It automatically archives old posts and can be customized completely to take on a customer's brand. Marqui does not charge by the blogger, but rather by the post.

In addition to workflow functionality, the module will let bloggers drag and drop images from a gallery that was pre-approved, furthering control over the content. Pages can also be tuned for search engine optimization or Technorati tags, since your blog won't help you if potential customers can't find it.

The blog module can be added to Marqui's suite for $2,500.

The blog post screen for Marqui's new blog module allows for easy editing of blog content.

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