Irene De Muur
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31st August 2023

Happy World Blog Day, Spuerkeess

31 August marks World Blog Day, which was celebrated for the first time in 2005. The celebration hasn't been a big hit with the blogosphere, but we'd like to take this opportunity to tell you more about it and to explain why a bank like Spuerkeess needs a blog. To do this, we interviewed Luc Sinner, Deputy Head of Business Unit of the Spuerkeess Marketing Department and the initiator of the blog.

Blog/Blogging: what’s it all about?

The first sites to be considered blogs were like online diaries or personal pages. Initially with highly technical content, as they were written by programmers, they soon became journalistic in nature, with authors sharing their private lives.

  • When did we first hear the term “blog”?

In 1997, Jorn Barger used the term “weblog” for the first time, but it was only two years later that Peter Merholz used the short version, “blog”.

  • What is the “blogosphere”?

The blogosphere is considered to be the world of blogs, encompassing all web logs and blogs.

  • Why is World Blog Day celebrated on 31 August?

The date wasn’t chosen at random. If we convert the numbers 3108 into letters, we get the word BLOG.

  • What is the tradition on World Blog Day?

On this day, bloggers recommend five blogs they consider interesting, adding a short description and a link to the blog in question.

The Spuerkeess Blog

1. Luc, why did the bank decide to use this new channel?

At Spuerkeess, we have always been particularly proud of the quality of our advice. We believe that a healthy and stable financial situation is a key factor in a happy life, and that it is our responsibility to help ensure that our customers are well informed and advised in this area, so that they can make the right choices for themselves.

Our blog fits perfectly into this view. It's the ideal way of raising our customers' awareness of financial issues in a fun, easy-to-read yet convincing way.

2. The Spuerkeess Blog has already been around for six years. Do you see Spuerkeess as a pioneer in the Luxembourg banking market?

Always 😉 ! Joking aside, we certainly weren't the first bank to publish blog posts, but from the moment we chose to be present, we placed a great deal of importance in it and decided to remain innovative in this channel too.

On the Spuerkeess Blog, the banker does the talking. No outsourcing, no ghost-writing, it comes straight from the source.

From the outset, our aim has been to serve all our audiences. Our "Sophie & Marc" format, for example, is based on storytelling and provides a simpler, more enjoyable approach to financial issues. Meanwhile, “Experts’ Corner” provides more in-depth analysis and direct access to the know-how of our various experts.

3. After six years of blogging, do you consider the Spuerkeess Blog to be a success?

Very clearly, yes! Today, we have almost 10,000 monthly visitors to our blog, and if we look at the time spent per visitor on a post, we can clearly see that most of them are genuinely interested.

But it's not just the volume that counts. We also find that our visitors go on to find out more about a solution after reading a post, and every day we receive direct contacts from our various posts.

From a marketing perspective, the blog is now a key part of our digital strategy. It's important for our SEO, fits in perfectly with our social media strategy and is part of our outbound marketing via the S-Net News Centre.

4. How is this channel managed within the bank?

As I said, we believe that a post can only be authentic and credible if it's really Spuerkeess doing the talking. The editorial calendar is drawn up internally and follows the bank’s financial news and innovation cycle.

Our two copywriters, Irène and Angèle, are in constant contact with our advisors, product managers and in-house specialists, to identify the best topics to cover.

The illustrations on the blog are designed by Kaiwa, a freelance illustrator with whom we've been working since the beginning of the blog. And finally, regarding the technology behind our blog, it is part of our web infrastructure, designed and developed by the agency “Apart”.

5. On this World Blog Day, which five posts from our blog would you recommend?

For young parents like me, don't let your child's savings rot for 18 years in a savings account !: 

For anyone who hasn't experienced high interest rates since they started working life:

For those who have three payment cards in their wallets but don’t know why:

And for more fun reading in the run-up to the holidays:

Innovation

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