Over the last decade social networks have rocketed in popularity with over 1.5 billion profiles being registered by the end of 2015 on the most popular social network in the world, Facebook (Statista 2016). With the Snapchat one of the newest social networks becoming the third most popular network in the world only behind Facebook and Instagram overtaking Twitter who lies in fourth.

What can using a social network to market achieve? 

• Increasing website traffic

• Building conversions

• Raising brand awareness

• Creating a brand identity and positive brand association

• Improving communication and interaction with key audiences

Read more here: http://www.wordstream.com/social-media-marketing

From an academic point of the view the most successful social network driven campaign achieve the perfect “Word of Mouth” campaign with users sharing information about the campaign with each other without feeling forced to do so by the brand, Cebrzynski (2004) and Gonzalez, (2012). .

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let’s look at some successful campaigns: 

Facebook:

Dove Campaign: Dove produced a video that they shared on Facebook that received over a million views and thousands of likes and shares, however throughout the video the brand Dove was not directly mentioned, a story was told about a “what beautiful means to women” with the aim of the campaign to inspire women to not settle for feeling average but aiming to feel beautiful.

The Video can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwH81q-HlGE

Dove then shared an additional post on Facebook asking the users of Facebook to tag their aunt and further family members whilst sharing a story about them in the comments section of the post creating strong word of mouth advertising, allowing users to see who has tagged each other whilst reading the stories below.

This campaign was deemed a success as:

• A large audience was reached through encouraging users to share a story and tag their family

• Word of month advertising was achieved through the campaign

• The video was exposed to over a million people

• The brand Dove was seen in a good light without forceful advertising methods.

The campaign can be viewed further here: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/dove-lets-women-give-facebook-advertising-makeover-139831

Dove’s Facebook page currently has over 25 million likes, W0W!

Despite the apparent success of Dove advertising on Facebook, the organisation doesn’t frequently upload new posts on Facebook and engagement is low on these posts therefore questions could be raised whether Dove are utilising Facebook as efficiently as they should be.

More Successful Facebook Campaigns Can Be Viewed Here: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-successful-facebook-marketing-examples/ including an Oreo campaign and Qatar Airways Campaign.

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Twitter:

According to Lambe (2016) the arrival of Starbucks Red Cups marks the start of the Christmas period. In 2015 this campaign really utilised the platform of twitter, Starbuck teamed up with twitter to produce a small emoji next the #RedCups meaning every time someone used hashtag a red cup would appear, Starbuck also paid twitter to promote the hashtag by making it trend on twitter with brand also posting supporting images and tweets along side the campaign.

Did you know it costs: 200 dollars a day to trend on twitter and each promotional tweets costs 3-4 dollars (Kafka, 2013)

This campaign was deemed a success as thousands of people around the world used the hashtag to share their Red Cups whilst enjoying their festive activities, this hashtag also proved to be popular on Instagram as thousands of photos of Red Cups were also shared on this platform.

Further successful Twitter campaigns can be viewed here: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/twitter-reveals-insights-best-social-campaigns-2015/1380415

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Snapchat: 

Snapchat is one of the newest social networks which allows brands to market within, despite this it has rapidly grown to be the 4th largest social network in the world and the Snapchat has really shown “the force” is has recently.

Sphere a toy company used snapchat to market a toy they were releasing along side the new Star Wars film, this toy was the new robot called BB8 within the film. Story was uploaded onto the promotional section of Snapchat showing the toy come to life from a piece of paper (this count be viewed here: https://vine.co/v/eTjrFvUWKaI) this video was viewed over time millions times on Snapchat and the toy sold out in stores with a matter of hours.

The image above was was placed on the story hours before the toy was released creating a “Buzz” around the release with users left guessing what could be launched on the Snapchat story at the time mentioned.

Obviously Sphere had the support of the new Star Wars film however he methods used be could be implemented by different brands for further releases of products with Snapchat allowing the ability for instant video to be viewed by millions around the world.

More information about the release can be viewed here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-snapchat-stars-helped-sell-a-new-star-wars-toy-1444384800

Snapchat has a unique benefit comparing to Facebook and Twitter, Snapchat’s layout is small and simple and can only be used on a smart phone therefore advertisements on the application are easy and simple for potential customers to see.

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In conclusion marketing on social networks can help assist a successful marketing campaign, a social network has the ability to reach millions around the world in a short space of time with low costs to the business therefore it is vital that businesses look to utilise these methods in the future if they are not already aware of the benefits available through these methods.

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Bibliography:

Cebrzynski, G. (2004). Word of mouth best way to get buzz out about business. Nation’s restaurant news. 38 (24), 90.

Cullers, R. (2012). Dove Lets Women Give Facebook Advertising a Makeover Australian app counters body-hating ads. Available: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/dove-lets-women-give-facebook-advertising-makeover-139831. Last accessed 29th April 2016.

Gonzalez, A. (2012). Use social media for word-of-mouth advertising. Primary Care Optometry News. 17 (10), 14.

Kafka, P. (2013). Twitter Hikes Its Promoted Trend Prices Again, to $200,000 a Day. Available: http://allthingsd.com/20130209/twitter-hikes-its-promoted-trend-prices-again-to-200000-a-day/. Last accessed 29th April 2016.

Lambe, E. (2016). Twitter reveals insights from best social campaigns of 2015  Available: http://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/twitter-reveals-insights-best-social-campaigns-2015/1380415. Last accessed 29th April 2016.

SHIELDS, M. (2015). How Snapchat Stars Helped Sell a New Star Wars Toy. Available: http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-snapchat-stars-helped-sell-a-new-star-wars-toy-1444384800. Last accessed 29th April 2016.

Vahl, A. (2014). 10 Successful Facebook Marketing Examples. Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/10-successful-facebook-marketing-examples/ . Last accessed 29th April 2016.

What is Social Commerce?

Is it just another nonsense term thrown around in the world or digital marketing?

Can it be implemented Successfully?

There are multiple different types of social commerce however within this blog the focus will be on Social Network Driven Sales, to see what the 6 other methods of social commerce click this link: http://mashable.com/2013/05/10/social-commerce-definition/#P8doVWcwPOqA

Social commerce is defined by the business dictionary (2016) as “A form of electronic commerce which uses social networks to assist in the buying of selling of products.” Therefore when a purchase is made with the assistance of social commerce some kind of social network would have been involved at one stage by the customer in the run up towards the purchase

Let’s look at a campaign that was successful using social commerce on social media 

Coca Cola’s “Share a Coke” Campaign was one of the most popular and successful social commerce campaigns in recent times.

Coca Cola produced a large scale marketing campaign which printed names on to on Coca Cola Bottles these bottles were then disturbed to shops and multiple customers would head into the shops looking to purchase their own “personalised” coca cola bottle.

A element of this campaign involved social commerce users were encourage to #ShareACoke (an image of their personalised bottle) on social media this then lead to multiple different people posting images of coca cola bottles across different social media platforms.

Ciara was so excited to get her hands on her own personal coke she shared it on Twitter!

Users can also create their own virtual coke bottle shown below on www.shareacoke.com, after the creation of the bottle the user will be encourage to share this on social media encouraging others to create their own personal coke bottle.

Customers can design their own personal coca cola online.

Some customers were even paying higher then retail price to own a personalised coca cola bottle!!!

This campaign was a huge success for coca cola as a large number of people were using #ShareACoke to share their images all around social media tempting their friends and peers to find their personal Coca Cola and share this on social media.

SUCCESS – Coca Cola Sold 3 times the amount of bottles of coke compared to their nearest rival Pepsi during the promotional period. ( Dholakiya, 2016) 

Read more about this social commerce campaign and discover more successful campaigns here: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/09/15/4-brands-cracked-social-commerce-code/

A Model For Social Commerce:

Huang, Z., & Benyoucef, M. (2012) produced a model in for social commerce this model was implemented successfully by Coca Cola and can be used in order to set up a social commerce campaign.

The model has four elements  Individual – Conversation – Community – Commerce

Individual – this is the stage when an individual person gets involved in the campaign for example within the Coca Cola  #ShareACoke campaign this would be when the photo of the personal bottle is first posted on social media.

Conversation – this is the point when a conversation would begin within social media, other users will start engaging in the original posts and asking questions. Within the #ShareACoke campaign this could be where a user asks another user a question like “How do you get your name on that coke bottle?”

Community – this is when the conversation extends further out in the community whereas before it may only be friends who saw the post now people further in the community will take notice. In the #ShareACoke this could be the stage when users start making their on custom bottles on www.shareacoke.com and sharing them further into the community.

Commerce – this is the stage when a purchase is finally made, customer could make the purchase as part of a group or make additional purchase at this stage to share the product with friends. For #ShareACoke this is when the personalised bottles are purchased whether this is through going into a shop or customers ordering their personal coke offline.

References: 

Anon. (2016). social commerce. Available: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/social-commerce.html. Last accessed 23rd Feb 2016.

Dholakiya, P. (2016). 4 Brands That Have Cracked the Social Commerce Code. Available: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/09/15/4-brands-cracked-social-commerce-code/. Last accessed 21st April 2016.

Huang, Z. & Benyoucef, M. (2012) From e-commerce to social commerce: a close look at design features. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications.

Indvik, L. (2013). The 7 Species of Social Commerce. Available: http://mashable.com/2013/05/10/social-commerce-definition/#P8doVWcwPOqA. Last accessed 21st April 2016.

“OPEN ME FOR GREAT DISCOUNT”

“10% OFF EXCLUSIVELY FOR YOU”

“HURRY OFFER ENDS MONDAY”

These are only a few of the popular taglines you could see within your mailbox when targeted through email marketing.

Email Marketing is rapidly becoming one of the most popular digital marketing technics around, with the vast majority of e-commerce websites having email marketing as a key element of their business model. (Reimers, Chih-Wei Chao & Gorman, 2016)

Remember: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile – 47% of emails are opened on a mobile device (Lee, 2013) therefore it is key that organizations make their emails compatible with these devices.

So Why Do businesses choose to use Email Marketing?

• It’s simple and easy for a business to do

 

• It has global reach meaning anyone around the globe can be contacted.

 

• Email Marketing is cheap

 

• Easy to reach a large number of people with one solo communication

 

• Email marketing is easy to track and measure

 

• Easy to target different types of customers through making communications personal.

These points can be viewed further here:

http://shoutitoutdesign.com/top-10-advantages-of-email-marketing/

How do you sign up for email marketing?

(Jack Will, 2016)

Recognize the box above??

If you enter your email address into the box above you would have given permission to the owners of the website to send you emails to market their products. Almost every e-commerce website will have box like the one shown above however the way in which they choose to utilize emailing marketing will vary depending on the company.

Effective Email Marketing:

Tag lines:

 The tagline or subject line is the first thing the user will view when they enter their mail box therefore it is key that this is exciting and interesting ensuring that the customer wants to look further into the email.

Personalization:

A customer needs the emails that they receive to be relevant to their interests therefore it is key that the business does some research into the customer behavior and interests before targeting them with email marketing. Also when addressing a user by their first name the business needs to ensure this name is correct and not some made up user name like “Azzaboy 43” as this becomes unprofessional and careless and reflects negatively on the business.

Time of sending the email

The two diagrams show that sending an email to market between 8pm and 12pm is the best time for viewership and that sending an email on the weekend would be the day of the week that utilizes this method.

Free stuff – Everyone loves free stuff therefore offering customers “free” stuff within an email could help utilize this platform.

Read more here:

https://blog.bufferapp.com/8-effective-email-strategies-backed-by-research

Let’s Look At An Example: 

The email shown above is from B&Q is the only email the organisation sends a week, the email address was collected by signing up to a club card in store or online.

The email has a strong subject line showing a half price deal that is available this weekend in stores and online which could entice the user to look further around the website or visit a store. 

The rest of the email shows other products to put an idea into the head of the customer showing then what else the company does and products that could be of interest to the customer.

The final element of the email is the customers personal Club card details giving the email a personal touch and allowing the user to have a barcode of their club card details which the user can present in store when they make a purchase, this barcode *could* tell B&Q whether a purchase has been made through viewership of the email. 

Overall this email is a strong example of email marketing however could do with slightly more personalisation through the inclusions of products that may be of interest to the customer by using information gained from purchases made before from the club card user. 

Rating 8/10

Limitations of Email Marketing:

Melville and Pilce (2008) wrote that email marketing is in danger of being over run by spam therefore any new initiative needs to try and stand out and eliminate the noise within potential customers mail boxes.

My Mailbox shown below shows that within an hour during the normal evening “peak” times I received 5 different emails trying to market different products.

Interesting tag lines and attempted personalization has been used during these emails however none really stand out to me apart from the River Island email that poses a question and I feel curious to look further into the email.

Despite this after viewing the email I did not make a direct purchase from the site, I believe an effective use of email marketing could only be achieved if I was looking out for the email from a certain brand and the type of email that I was looking to receive was expected therefore I would go into my mail box expecting the email.

Therefore my recommendations for a successful email marketing campaign would be:

Timely: a customer would like to know when the email would be received therefore they can enter the mailbox at a certain time looking for that email.

Creative: whether this is through the tagline, Humor could grab attention or a shock factor could tempt the customer to look further into the email

Personalized: An email needs to be personal and something of interest to the user who is viewing it therefore it is key not to take the one size fits all approach to ensure every type of customer is accommodated for.

 

References: 

Anon. (2016). TOP 10 ADVANTAGES OF EMAIL MARKETING. Available: http://shoutitoutdesign.com/top-10-advantages-of-email-marketing/. Last accessed 13th April 2016.

Jack Wills. (2016). Available: http://www.jackwills.com. Last accessed 16th April 2016.

Lee, K. (2013). 8 Effective Email Marketing Strategies. Available: https://blog.bufferapp.com/8-effective-email-strategies-backed-by-research. Last accessed 13th April 2016.

Pavlov, Melville and Pilce . (2008). Toward a sustainable email marketing infrastructure. Journal of Business Research. 61 (11), 1191–1199.

Reimers, Chih-Wei Chao & Gorman, 2016″Permission email marketing and its influence on online shopping”, Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, Vol. 28 Iss: 2, pp.308 – 322