Blog post 4 – April

For the final aspect of the project we must complete a Pecha Kucha, based on the initiatives which we have already researched and put forth in our proposal. The main initiative I am going to focus on is trying to lower the bounce rate of Boohoo. I also started research into another field, with incorporating paid searches, however it is difficult to gather data as it is hard to say how large the effect of paying for searches will be on their website traffic, without being given insider information.
This leaves me with the lowering of bounce rate, which is something most websites will be striving to achieve, as it essentially means more business for them.
The “bounce rate” from the webpage back to Google—that is, for a given search query, the percentage of searchers who return from a “clicked-through” webpage back to Google’s SERP to try some other webpage. A webpage’s bounce rate has the reverse effect of its CTR: a high bounce rate indicates to Google that searchers entering that query are disappointed with that webpage (Killoran, 2013).
If this is believed to be the case, there will be moves by firms to ‘encourage a higher CTR while discouraging a correspondingly higher bounce rate’ (IBID).
So how is it that firms are able to get their bounce rate up? It is things like endorsements from celebrities, having their page advertised on popular websites/forums and getting a strong social media platform, as to advertise to the widest number of people, at the lowest cost.
One possible explanation for the effectiveness of celebrity endorsers is that consumers tend to believe that major stars are motivated by genuine affection for the product rather than by endorsement fees (Atkin and Block, 1983).
There are many celebrities who have ‘die hard’ fans who will follow what they do, as that is somebody they look up to and potentially aspire to be. Seeing one of their inspirations sporting a certain brand of clothes will push towards them at the minimum thinking about where the said celebrity’s clothes are from, and possibly going a step further to finding the website or actually purchasing the clothes. This is a tactic which plays on people’s devotion to certain public figures, as like Atkin & Block said, an explanation for celebrity endorsements is because the public think the celebrities actually like the clothes, rather than having a monetary gain. This is one tactic brands may use to try and push their product and brand image forward. However, this is not the only way they can do this.

 

 

 

 

The emergence of social media has brought about a new route to take when firms are looking into their marketing side. It allows a message to be broadcast to people from all across the world, and compared with TV and radio campaigns, will be very cost efficient. ‘Whereas marketing with traditional media like newspapers, television and news websites was about delivering a message, marketing with social media is about building a relationship and conversation with your audience’ (Drury, 2008).
There is one thing which is just having your advertisement up on a billboard, or to see on a banner of a popular website, but this does not induce people into actually visiting your website or making a purchase from it. The way this is done is with interactions, getting the people involved and then when they feel like they are a part of it, they are likely to make more purchases or at the least, not ‘bounce’ away after clicking onto the homepage. They can do this through things like social media campaigns, competitions for customers to take part in and being active in the community, listening to peoples’ feedback, answering their queries and taking steps to make it a better experience for everybody. If these are followed, the word will spread that Boohoo are doing all of these positive things for the community, and these coupled with things like celebrity endorsements, could be the key to unlocking that lower bounce rate, and making it a more successful website, more able to compete with the likes of ASOS.

Overall, I feel that Boohoo already have a solid customer base, and have been successful in their previous ventures. This does not however by a long stretch mean that they are perfect and without fault. I feel their social media aspect is not bad, but could do with more actual interactions with people, as that is what they will remember, not as much what the website looks like. Also, showing support and partaking in fair practices could put them in the public eye for good reasons, adding to their potential customer base. With a few small incremental changes and some time to let the changes take effect, Boohoo could be reaching further, and grasping an even larger audience, and bringing success to themselves.

 

 

 

 

References:
Atkin, C. and Block, M. (1983), “Effectiveness of celebrity endorsers”, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 57‐61. [Google Scholar] [ISI] [Infotrieve]
Drury, G. (2008). Opinion piece: Social media: Should marketers engage and how can it be done effectively?. [online]. Available at:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/palgrave.dddmp.4350096 [Accessed 5 Apr. 2018].
Killoran, J. (2013). How to Use Search Engine Optimization Techniques to Increase Website Visibility – IEEE Journals & Magazine. [online] Ieeexplore.ieee.org. Available at: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6463486/#full-text-section [Accessed 19 Mar. 2018].