Harrison Dark's blog

What is Viral Marketing? And Why Does it Happen?

Date April 27, 2015

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Viral Marketing

noun

a marketing technique whereby information about a company’s goods or services is passed electronically from one Internet user to another.

The term ‘viral marketing’ was first introduced by Knight in 1996 (Phelps et al., 2004) and refers to messages or content spreading through social media like a virus. In Viral Marketing campaigns, the information spreads at an unprecedented speed in comparison to other traditional marketing medium (Botha and Reyneke, 2013). Because the Internet is the medium of transfer of messages, viral marketing messages are not bound to a geographic location and have the potential to reach consumers on a
global scale in a very short period (Van der Lans and Van Bruggen, 2011).

In modern life, sharing content online is something which happens every day. Allsop, Bassett and Hoskins (2007) outlined that 59% of people frequently share online content with others. Harris (2010) outlined that someone tweets a link to a New York Times story every four four seconds.

Sharing online content has significant impact upon consumers, and brands. It is clear that this sharing is both frequent and often (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006), however, it is not clear as to why certain pieces of information are more viral than others. Businesses who create online campaigns often try to encourage consumers to share the content, some efforts work, however, some do not (Berger and Milkman, 2011). This blog is looking to address the question of why certain pieces of online content are more viral than others, is it random as Cashmore (2009) argues, or is there a specific reasoning behind why people share certain content?

What Influences People to Share Certain Content?

According to Botha and Reyneke (2013) emotions are central to the actions of marketing managers and marketing teams. Chakrabarti and Berthon (2012) outlined that emotions regarding social emotions, are central to various exchanges on social media in today’s modern society. It was argued that the emphasis has shifted from the production of services to the production of experiences (Chakrabarti and Berthon, 2012). Dobele et al., (2007) argued that people pass on viral messages because they are connected emotionally. Dobele and his team (2007) went on to argue that the viral marketing messages must build an emotional connection between the campaign and the viewer to ensure that the message gets spread. Phelps et al., (2004) support this point, by sating that users forward emails when they experience positive emotions, such as ‘happy’, ‘brightens’, ‘excited’, ‘connected’, and ‘inspired’. Thus suggesting that positive content is more likely to be shared. However, Godes et al., (2004) suggest that people are more likely to pass along negative news.

Aside from emotions, it can be observed that another reason share content online is because it contains useful information (Berger and Milkman, 2011). Consumers may also share practically useful content for reasons to help others or for self enhancement purposes (Wojnicki and Godes, 2008).

Conclusion

On review of the literature above it is still unclear on the most significant factor which encourages a user to share content online. It is likely that each sector differs, i.e., in some markets a negative emotion inflicted in the person will have more chance of a successful viral marketing campaign, in comparison to another viral marketing campaign where a positive emotional reaction will be more successful.

References

Wojnicki, Andrea C. and Dave Godes (2008), “Word-of-Mouth as Self-Enhancement,” working paper, University of Toronto.

Godes, David and Dina Mayzlin (2004), “Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication,” Marketing Science, 23 (4), 545–60

Berger, J. and Milkman, K. (2012). What makes online content viral?. Journal of Marketing Research, 49(2), pp.192–205.

Chakrabarti R, Berthon P. 2012. Gift giving and social
emotions: experience as content. Journal of Public Affairs
12(2): 154–161.

Phelps PH, Lewis R, Mobilio L, Perry D, RamanN. 2004.Viral
marketing or electronic word-of-mouth advertising: examining
consumer responses and motivations to pass along
email. Journal of Advertising Research, 44(04): 333–348.

Allsop, Dee T., Bryce R. Bassett, and James A. Hoskins (2007), “Word-of-Mouth Research: Principles and Applications,” Journal of Advertising Research, 47 (4), 388–411.

Cashmore, Pete (2009), “YouTube: Why Do We Watch?” CNN. com, (December 17), (accessed April, 27, 2015), [available at http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/12/17/cashmore.youtube/ index.html].

Chevalier, Judith A. and Dina Mayzlin (2006), “The Effect of Word-of-Mouth on Sales: Online Book Reviews,” Journal of Marketing Research, 43 (August), 345–54.

Harris, Jacob (2010), “How Often Is the Times Tweeted,” New York Times Open Blog, (April 15), [available at http://open.blogs. nytimes.com/2010/04/15/how-often-is-the-times-tweeted/]

Botha, E & Reyneke, M. (2013). To share or not to share: the role of content and emotion in viral marketing. Journal of Public Affairs. 13 (2), 160-171.

Van der Lans R, Van Bruggen G. 2011. Viral marketing:
what is it, and what are the components of viral success?
In The Connected Customer: The Changing Nature
of Consumer and Business Markets, Wuyts S, Dekimpe
MG, Gijsbrechts E, Pieters R (eds). Routledge Taylor
and Francis: NY, USA.

Dobele A, Lindgreen A, Beverland M, Vanhamme J, Van
Wijk R. 2007. Why pass on viral messages? Because
they connect emotionally. Business Horizons 50: 291–304.

How To Engage With Your Fans on Facebook

Date April 27, 2015

Posted by hd119

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Introduction

This blog is regarding the ever challenging issue of how to address your Facebook fan base. Although this blog is a guide as a general overlook on how to engage with the fans, each tip will differ depending on the market and what type of message the post wants to portray, whether it is one to drive traffic, drive sales or just to emotionally connect with the user.

Why is it such a big deal?

This section of the blog is posing the question as to why we are looking at the finer details on how to engage with Facebook users. Facebook represents a huge potential market for any business, however, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out and put the business apart from the competition.

A few Facebook statistics will provide the reader of how significant the Facebook market is, and why it is imperative for any business to market on Facebook, and to do it in the most effective and efficient way.

1. 936 million daily active users on average for March 2015

2. 798 million mobile daily active users on average for March 2015

3. 1.44 billion monthly active users as of March 31, 2015

4. 1.25 billion mobile monthly active users as of March 31, 2015

Hopefully these statistics outline the significance of Facebook, and the reason it is vital for any business to proceed with marketing the business on Facebook, and why it is so significant to build a fan base which you can engage with.

How to engage?

This section is providing a number of tips on how to engage your fans on Facebook. As previously stated these tips are not generic for every market and will differ depending on the market. However, as a business owner, or a marketing manager in a business, you as a reader will understand how to interpret each of the tips to maximise your marketing methods on Facebook.

1. Create a Balance

This is intended to give the users a different look and feel, to outline that the business page is different and more interesting from the competition. If every piece of content was the same, or in a similar context, then the user’s would get bored and will look elsewhere.

This is a screenshot of two different posts – as you can see one is a video and the other is an article, consequently, creating a balance and variation in the types of content posted. (Buzz Feed Food, 2015)

2. Express With Emoji’s

This may seem like a irrelevant tip, however, Hubspot observed that “something as simple as a smiley face emojticon in your post can increase likes by 57 percent, comments by 33 percent and shares by 33 percent over posts without them”. Posting emoji’s shows personality, and help fans relate to you.

We have circled the use of emoji’s in this post.

3. Share Timely Content

This is referring to other people’s content, the content you post does not always need to be yours. If there is a story, a current event, or any type of thing which you know your fans will be interested in then it is worth sharing with them.

The Boston Globe an American newspaper knew their readers would be interested in the Red Sox parade, subsequent to them winning the world series. Thus, they sought to provide details regarding the parade, making them a good source of information for the fans. (Social Media Examiner)

4. Use the Data Provided

To understand your market, and the type of posts your fans like, it is crucial to examine the data. Pages that post content and do not understand how their fans react to the posts are unaware of how to engage their fans, consequently, the engagement is unlikely to maximise the potential.

Facebook’s page insights is the source of the data, it provides the business with key information that will not leave them in the dark when analysing the engagement of each post.

5. Have Knowledge of When Your Fans Are Online

Businesses that post when the bulk of their fans are offline will face the consequences of a decrease in engagement. This relates to the point above, however, this point is worth raising separately as it is one of the most useful pieces of information the business will learn regarding your fans.

6. Optimise Your Tags

As a business you want the most amount of people to see your content as possible, this will happen by attempting to optimise your social media tags, which can make your posts more likely to come up in search results.

Each of the highlighted areas can be edited to maximise the likelihood of people seeing your content. You can also upload images.

7. Be Responsive

People expect customer service online, in a shop, over the phone, thus, they look to get a good response when online, consequently, they expect the same on Facebook. It was outlined that 95% of brands to not respond to comments made by Facebook users on their Facebook pages (Hubspot). By responding to comments and questions demonstrates a high level engagement by the business, and this in turn will benefit the business by creating relationships with the fans.

8. Ask Questions

By asking questions encourages the fans to engage with the business, this will create a higher engagement rate. However, the types of questions will depend on the business, and the data should be analysed to understand what questions work, and what questions do not get a high engagement rate.

9. Discuss Current Events

Social media is where people share their lives with the world, when people discuss current events it gives the business a chance to engage with the users. For example, when Valentines is round the corner a number of pages will post content regarding the widely celebrated date. Another example is something big happening in the news, after a natural disaster, the brand can post its condolences, consequently, will humanise the business (Singh, Veron-Jackson and Cullinane, 2008).

This is a screenshot of The Independent’s Facebook page, discussing the current event of Nepal’s tragic earthquake.

10. Know and Understand Your Audience

To be able to engage effectively and efficiently with your audience you need to know your audience well, thus you can tailor the content to what they like. You can do this by using all of the tips previously stated, and continuing to analyse the data.

References

Facebook. (2015). Stats. Available: http://newsroom.fb.com/company-info/. Last accessed 27th April 2015

Hubspot. (2015). How to engage fans on Facebook. Available: http://cdn1.hubspot.com/hub/53/How-to-Engage-Fans-on-Facebook-04.pdf. Last accessed 27th April 2015.

Hemley, D. (2013). 26 Ways To Engage Your Fans on Facebook.Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-facebook-fan-engagement-tips/. Last accessed 27th April 2015.

Singh, T, Veron-Jackson, L and Cullinane, J. (2008) Blogging: A new play in your marketing game plan. Business Horizons. Vol. 51, Issue 4. Pages 281-292

Email Marketing – Why and How?

Date April 25, 2015

Posted by hd119

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Introduction

It is worth stating what email marketing is, this type of marketing directly markets a commercial message to a group of people using email. Email marketing usually consists of companies sending adverts, requesting business, gain donations or anything else with a commercial gain for the company transmitting the email.

This blog is going to be discussing email marketing as a marketing channel, proceeding to the discussion of the literature, the blog is going to give some tips on how to perform a successful email marketing campaign. It can be observed that

Email Marketing

This section of the blog intends to reflect upon the academic research and commentary which has been enacted regarding email marketing.

According to Cho and Khang (2006), permission-based emails sent to customers is a form of marketing that is on the increase. Pavlov, Melville and Plice (2008) outlined that email marketing campaigns can produce twice the return on investment in comparison to other forms of digital marketing. McCloskey (2006) outlined that email marketing is has significant importance in the marketing mix, particularly, when the business intends to create and maintain a relationship with the customer.

It can be observed that the use of emailing as a marketing channel has a number of advantages, Moustakas, Ranganathan and Duquenoy (2006) outlined this, by stating that it has a low setup and distribution costs, you can target easily, and it is affordable for small to medium size businesses. Sharma and Seth (2004) illustrated that email marketing can be used to expand a companies customer reach, and target specific communities and interact customers in a highly customisable manner. Merisavo and Raulas (2004) outlined that email marketing has the ability to cultivate brand loyalty.

Above is a review of the literature which is relevant to this blog, it outlines a number of the benefits of permission based email marketing.

Tips on how to create a successful email marketing campaign

1. The email should have obvious links

One of the key reasons for email marketing is to drive traffic to your landing page, website or a product. Thus, without obvious links, the reader may not feel the need to click on the links, and will defeat the point of the email marketing.

2. Keep your text short and easy to scan

When one receives an email which is for marketing purposes, one does not read the whole text of the email. The readers generally scan the email for key pieces of information which may be of relevance to the reader. Too much text will get your email deleted quickly, and this defeats the point of email marketing, and will increase the risk of triggering spam filters.

3. Do a trial run, before sending it to the main list

One of the last things any business wants to do is waste money by all of the emails going into the junk folder, or that the email layout broke in Hotmail’s email viewer or Outlook’s preview plan. Consequently, it is worth sending a test version to a test account using each of the big email providers to see if it works fine.

4. Include social media share buttons

This tip is crucial, this is an opportunity to increase your reach with no cost at all, and combine the social media marketing channels with your email marketing channel.

5. Make sure it is mobile friendly

A lot of people access their emails on the go, therefore, if the email was not displayed on a phone in a smart and effective way the receiver will delete the email straight away.

6. Analyse results

Any marketing campaigns results should be analysed with strict scrutiny, this is because, the business wants to make sure the marketing campaign is as efficient as possible and is maximising its potential. With regards to email marketing, the business should analyse the metrics like open rate and click-through rate.

7.Give the option to subscribe

If the reader was forwarded the email by someone other than the business then there is a chance they are not subscribed to the mailing list. This is a chance to gain a bigger mailing list and give people another chance to subscribe.

8. Be Personal

One of the key benefits previously mentioned was engagement, thus, the business should use the data they have on the reader to their advantage and be personal. A personal example from my own inbox was an email from a hotel which I previously booked with. – Unfortunately I no longer have the email.

Conclusion

It is clear that there is a range of benefits for using email as a marketing channel. After reading this blog, we would hope that any business feels encouraged to create an email marketing campaign and to keep the top tips in mind when doing so.

References

Cho, C.H. & Khang, H.K. (2006) “The State of Internet-Related Research in Communications, Marketing, and Advertising: 1994-2003”, Journal of Advertising , 35 (3) ,pp.143 – 163

Pavlov, O.V., Melville, N. and Plice, R.K. (2008) “Toward a sustainable e-mail marketing infrastructure” Journal of Business Research, 61 (11), pp. 1191-1199.

McCloskey, W. (2006) E-mail Data Source, Retail White Paper, New York.

Moustakas, E Ranganathan, C. & Duquenoy, P. (2006) “E-mail marketing at the crossroads: A stakeholder analysis of unsolicited commercial e-mail (spam)”, Internet Research; 16 (1), pp. 38-52.

Sharma, A. and Sheth, J.N.W. (2004), “Web-based marketing: the coming revolution in marketing thought and strategy”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 57 No. 7, pp. 696-703.

Merisavo, M. and Raulas, M. (2004), “The impact of e-mail marketing on brand loyalty”, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Vol. 13 No. 7, pp. 498-506.

Collis, M. (2014). 11 Remarkable Email Marketing Tips You Need to Implement Right Away. Available: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-collis/11-remarkable-email-marke_1_b_5710091.html. Last accessed 25th April 2015.

Gao, K. (2014). Email Marketing Tips Checklist: Email Marketing Tips Top 10. Available: http://emailmarketing.comm100.com/email-marketing-tutorial/email-marketing-tips.aspx. Last accessed 25th April 2015

Davis, B. (2012). 10 things you can do to make me love your emails.Available: https://econsultancy.com/blog/11109-10-things-you-can-do-to-make-me-love-your-emails. Last accessed 25th April 2015.

Instagram as a Marketing Channel

Date April 25, 2015

Posted by hd119

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Introduction

Visual content is becoming more and more popular on Social Media, thus businesses need to address this shift in emphasis. Businesses, big and small, should be using every channel possible to communicate visually with their fans, customers, potential customers and so on. Instagram is one of the most used-photo sharing applications.

A few statistics which illustrate how many people are using Instagram, which emphasise why your business should be marketing on Instagram:

300 Million Monthly Active Users (as of 12/10/14 – probably more now) (Smith, 2015)

More than 75 million daily Instagram users (as of 12/12/13) (Smith, 2015)

There has been over 20 billion photos shared on the platform (as of 2/01/2015) (Ahmed, 2015)

This blog is going to be assessing how businesses can use Instagram effectively as part of the marketing mix. Within this blog we aim to explain the benefits of marketing on Instagram, then we aim to provide the reader with ways to improve their businesses (of all sizes) Instagram marketing, and exceed the potential it holds.

What are the benefits of using Instagram for marketing purposes?

Within this section of the blog we aim to outline how you can benefit from using Instagram for marketing purposes using examples of what we think are excellent illustrations of how to maximise the benefit. There are two key benefits to using Instagram as a marketing channel.

1. Market your products and services in a unique way

Instagram is a photo sharing platform, thus the way you share your photos can be creative and unique to the businesses brand. This in turn can benefit the business as it will put the business apart from the competition. A few examples will exemplify how this is done successfully.

This is Cocowhite – a company which provide a product which whitens your teeth. They post photos of celebrities using their products to pictures of cute dogs and travelling photos. This is a unique way in comparison to other teeth whitening products on Instagram, and will put them apart from the competition

ASOS – a fashion company which posts photos which are very creative and will engage the users.

Red Bull are known for their social media marketing – here they have celebrated a cause by using the recycling logo with some of their major brand ambassadors

2. Engage with your followers

By engaging with your followers you are building trust and personality, thus, humanising a faceless business (Singh, Veron-Jackson and Cullinane, 2008). The business and the followers on Instagram can build a relationship, and connect with the users on an emotional level, this can be exemplified with the huge Coffee brand, Starbucks.

Starbucks – they attempt to connect with the user by using captions which will connect with a wide range of people.

A study was also done which outlined that users interact more on Instagram in comparison to Facebook and Twitter (Elliot, 2015). This can be outline by a comparison in Redbull’s Facebook and Instagram posts.

Above, is two screenshots of the same video uploaded by Redbull. On the top is the one posted on Instagram, there is 86,645 likes, in comparison to the Facebook post with only 19,200 likes. For Facebook that equals a 0.044% likes-per-fan rate, in comparison to Instagram which is a 3.46% likes-per-fan rate. Therefore, emphasising the level of engagement on Instagram, and outlining it is a fantastic tool for a business to engage with its customers, fans and the like.

How to use Instagram as a marketing channel?

The tips on how to use Instagram as a marketing channel will link back to the two key benefits of Instagram, they will be mainly involving how to engage with the user. This is because it is difficult to give generic advice on how to post images, which reflect your brand in a creative way, due to different markets reacting differently from different posts. However, the first one is regarding the first benefit

1. Be Creative – Balance pictures from your business with other images

This is similar to what Cocowhite does, they post photos of celebrities using their products, and photos of famous cities, and cute dogs. These, fun and non-business related posts will gain followers, subsequently, will lead in more engagement.

2. Post Often – but not too often

Posting photos regularly grabs the attention of new and existing followers, however, they should not be too regular. The businesses should post only quality images – “quality over quantity” – thus, only post images the business thinks they are going to get a good amount of engagement.

3. Deliver value to your posts

This value can be delivered in an array of ways, for example a personal trainer showing a progress photo of a client, an artist showing a start and finish piece of work. This can be outlined in the screenshot below, where a transformation of a client of a personal trainer is attempting to inspire the other followers to join the programme.

4. Add Hashtags

Hashtags can be very a very effective way to engage with the followers, however, they should be relevant hashtags on the posts. This will help increase your reach, and mainly give the user a method of engaging. This can be exemplified in this example; a photographer was giving away a GoPro camera, the way the users engage with the competition and enter is using the hashtag #hero4adventurecontest.

Conclusion

Using Instagram as a marketing channel will help you stand out from the competition, especially since businesses are still not maximising its potential as a marketing channel. Because Instagram does not let you post active links into posts, a lot of businesses do not understand how it can be used to its full potential as a marketing tool.

However, using the tips above an posting creative content that is different from the businesses other social media campaigns, such as Facebook, and Twitter, will engage with the followers effectively. Subsequent to engaging with the followers, the business will grow the brand awareness.

References

Ahmad, I. (2015). Fascinating social media stats 2015: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+. Available: http://www.digitalinformationworld.com/2015/02/fascinating-social-networking-stats-2015.html. Last accessed 24th April 2015.

Smith, C. (2015). By the Numbers@ 130+ Interesting Instagram Statistics . Available: http://expandedramblings.com/index.php/important-instagram-stats/. Last accessed 24th April 2015.

Sing, T, Veron-Jackson, L and Cullinane, J. (2008) Blogging: A new play in your marketing game plan. Business Horizons. Vol. 51, Issue 4. Pages 281-292

Elliot, N. (2014). Instagram is the king of social engagement. Available: http://blogs.forrester.com/nate_elliott/14-04-29-instagram_is_the_king_of_social_engagement. Last accessed 25th April 2015.

The Motivational Factors and Effect of Electronic word-of-mouth marketing

Date April 24, 2015

Posted by hd119

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“If you have an unhappy customer on the internet, he doesn’t tell his 6 friends, he tells his 6,000 friends”

Jeff Bezos, President of Amazon. (Baldacci, 2013)

What Is Electronic word-of-mouth eWOM marketing?

Hennig-Thurau et al., (2004) stated that eWOM was;

“Using consumer communication as a means of multiplying a brand’s popularity through customers spreading the brand name of a product or name of a company”

Stauss (2000) illustrated eWOM to be;

“Any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions”

These two definitions provide a different approach to eWOM. Hennig-Thurau et al., adopts a narrow approach, and only places its emphasis on current customers. Conversely, Stauss (2000) broadens the scope of eWOM to negative eWOM, which is a valid point because negative eWOM is something which all businesses should not ignore, and also potential customers. Potential customers can create a buzz around upcoming products and its features, for example, before the Apple Watch was released, there was a number of blogs, forums and discussions online debating about the features of the watch. This has a significant impact on the perceived value and popularity of the brand.

Where does eWOM happen?

Well, to put it simply, eWOM can occur anywhere online. The most common channels for sellers and consumers is, blogs, social media, chat rooms, user reviews, forums, news groups, as you can see there is an abundance of channels which one can discuss a brand or product.

Why do people engage in WOM communication?

It should be noted first of all, that much of the literature in this area is debatable and is regarding the theories of motivations of consumers, thus, there can be no right or wrong answer within this section as it is dependent on the social, psychological, economical etc. of the individual. Although, academics can debate the area, their is no conclusive answer.

Hennig-Thurau et al., (2004) suggest that the motivations of traditional word-of-mouth and electronic word-of-moth do not differ significantly, thus the literature of traditional WOM will be analysed as well.Anderson (1998) suggested that the reason for WOM is when a consumers expectations are dis-confirmed, i.e. when one’s expectations are not met.

Dicther (1966), performed a study regarding WOM, in doing so Dicther identified four categories which motivate an individual to engage in positive WOM communication. These included; product-involvement, self involvement, other-involvement, and message-involvement. The first category suggest that the key motivational factors is where the customers has strong feelings regarding the product and wants to discuss the product. The second is where the individual can gratify certain emotional needs through the product. The penultimate category is where the individual feels the need to give something to the receiver and the final category refers to discussion which is stimulated by adverts and the like. Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1993) effectively identified the same categories, however, the renamed them, and introduced another motive, dissonance reduction, which they saw as a motivational for negative WOM communication. Another key piece of research performed by Sundaram, Mitra and Webster (1998). Sundaram et al., carried out 390 critical-incident for interviews, they identified eight motives for consumers to engage in WOM communication. Sundaram outlined four identical categories as Ditcher (1966) and Engel, Blackwell, and Miniard (1993) explaining positive motivations to engage in WOM communication. Conversely, the other four categories identified by Sundaram showed negative motives to engage in WOM communication i.e., altruism, anxiety reduction, vengeance, and advice seeking.

What is the Effect of eWOM?

Subsequent to the discussion regarding what eWOM is, where it happens and the motivational factors of why people engage in eWOM, it is necessary to discuss the effect of eWOM on a brand image.

WOM communication has been the talking point for a number of years, the academics referenced (Chatterjee, 2001; Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Herr et al., 1991; Kiecker and Cowles, 2001; Sen and Lerman, 2007; Smith and Vogt, 1995; Weinberger and Dillon, 1980; Xia and Bechwati, 2008) acknowledge that WOM has a significant influencing factor in forming a consumers attitude and behavioural intentions. Bickart and Schindler (2001) outlined that WOM communication is more influential than other communication through other sources such as adverts and editorial, a reason for this was outlined by Gruen et al., (2006), which outlined that it is perceived to be reliable information. Consequently, it can be observed that eWOM has a significant impact on a business, as it has great persuasiveness and is perceived to be more credible, this is supported by Chatterjee (2001) who outlined that it is even more effective than offline WOM communication due to its ability to be accessed by the millions.

Kelly (1993) outlined that the brand image of a company is based on the perceptions held in the consumers memory, and that brand image stems from all of a consumers consumption experiences. Following this Ayden and Ozer (2005) outlined that the customer perceptions about service quality directly affects brand image. Therefore, outlining how customers are more dependent on the interpersonal influence of eWOM (Lewis and Chambers, 2000).

Conclusion

Subsequent to the discussion regarding the motivational factors and effect of eWOM it is something which businesses should approach with caution and take into consideration. It is clear that the effect of eWOM has significant implications upon the decision making of others.

References

Anderson, E.W. (1998). Customer Satisfaction and Word-of-Mouth. Journal of Service Research, 1(1), 1–14.

Aydin, S. and Ozer, G. (2005), “The analysis of antecedents of customer loyalty in the Turkish mobile telecommunication market”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 39 Nos 7/8, pp. 910-25.

Baldacci, K. (2013). 7 Lessons You Can Learn from Jeff Bezos About Serving the Customer. Available: http://www.desk.com/blog/jeff-bezos-lessons/. Last accessed 24th April 2015.

Bickart, B. and Schindler, R.M. (2001), “Internet forums as influential sources of consumer information”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 31-40.

Chatterjee, P. (2001), “Online reviews: do consumers use them?”, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 129-33

Chatterjee, P. (2001), “Online reviews: do consumers use them?”, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 129-33.

Chevalier, J.A. and Mayzlin, D. (2006), “The effect of word of mouth on sales: online book reviews”, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 43 No. 3, pp. 345-54.

Dichter, E. (1966). How Word-of-Mouth Advertising Works. Harvard Business Review, 44(November–December), 147–166

Engel, J.F., Blackwell, R.D., & Miniard, P.W. (1993). Consumer Behaviour (8th ed). Fort Worth: Dryden Press

Gruen, T.W., Osmonbekov, T. and Czaplewski, A.J. (2006), “EWOM: the impact of customer-to-customer online know-how exchange on customer value and loyalty”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 59 No. 4, pp. 449-56.

Hennig‐Thurau, T., Gwinner, K. P., Walsh, G., & Gremler, D. D. (2004). Electronic word‐of‐mouth via consumer‐opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet?. Journal of interactive marketing, 18(1), 38-52.

Herr, P.M., Kardes, F.R. and Kim, J. (1991), “Effects of word-of-mouth and product-attribute information on persuasion: an accessibility-diagnosticity perspective”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 17 No. 4, pp. 454-62.

Keller, K.L. (1993), “Conceptualizing, measuring, and managing customer-based brand equity”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 57 No. 1, pp. 1-22.

Kiecker, P. and Cowles, D.L. (2001), “Interpersonal communication and personal influence on the internet: a framework for examining online word-of-mouth”, Internet Applications in Euromarketing, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 71-88.

Lewis, R.C. and Chambers, R.E. (2000), Marketing Leadership in Hospitality. Foundations and Practices, Vol. III, Wiley, New York, NY.

Mayzlin, D. (2006), “Promotional chat on the internet”, Marketing Science, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 155-63.

Sen, S. and Lerman, D. (2007), “Why are you telling me this? An examination into negative consumer reviews on the web”, Journal of Interactive Marketing, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 76-94.

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Stauss, B. (2000) Using new media for customer interaction: a challenge for relationship marketing. In T. Hennig-Thurau & U. Hansen (eds) Relationship Marketing. Berlin: Springer, pp. 233–253.

Sundaram, D.S., Mitra, K., & Webster, C. (1998). Wordof-Mouth Communications: A Motivational Analysis. Advances in Consumer Research, 25, 527–531.

Weinberger, M.G. and Dillon, W.R. (1980), “The effect of unfavorable product rating information”, Advances in Consumer Research, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 528-32

Xia, L. and Bechwati, N.N. (2008), “Word of mouth: the role of cognitive personalization in online consumer reviews”, Journal of Interactive Advertising, Vol. 9 No. 1, pp. 108-28.

Partner Categories To Target Facebook Ads

Date April 21, 2015

Posted by hd119

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What is a Facebook Ad?

A Facebook ad is placed in the right sidebar on a user’s homepage, as illustrated below, or it can also appeal on profile pages, and fan pages. However, despite the location of the advertisement, the ads are under a heading labelled as ‘Sponsored’.

A screenshot of a Facebook advert on the side of a user’s live feed

Facebook aim to display ads to users which they are relevant to, as this will produce better results for the advertiser, and Facebook. When a business is considering using a Facebook ad, they should consider all the targeting options available to them to maximise the potential of the advert. Thus, this blog aims to discuss how a business can target through advertising on Facebook.

The Benefits of Facebook Advertising

Before the blog goes in to a discussion regarding how to target the relevant audience, one must discuss the benefits of advertising on Facebook. It is evidential that there is an abundance of advantages when using Facebook advertising, however, this blog will identify the three key advantages.

It can be observed that Facebook offers a business the ability to enhance brand image, brand equity and therefore enhancing consumers’ intention to purchase (Dehghani, M & Tumer, M, 2015). Dehgannie and Tumer (2015) also observed that smaller firms can take advantage of Facebook advertising as it can be less expensive in comparison to other marketing channels.

The second advantage of Facebook advertising, is that the businesses has the ability to engage with potential customers (Gummerus et al., 2012). Mangold and Faulds (2009) also support this, stating that social media has the ability to engage a community.

Another key advantage, which one is focusing on in this discussion, is the power of targeting when advertising on Facebook. Davis (2014) outlined that when a business is advertising on Facebook, they have the ability to target in a number of different ways. Kim (2015) illustrated that firms can target through the use of recent purchasing behaviour, life events, and much more which will be discussed throughout.

Partner Categories Targeting

Partner categories are effectively, customer profiles derived from third party data from companies such as Datalogix, Acxiom and Epsilon. Why did Facebook introduce partner categories?

Advertisers on Facebook can focus adverts using the data produced by Facebook, i.e. the location, age, place of work and so on of the users. But potential consumers do not live their lives on Faacebook, i.e., they do not pay for food on Facebook, they do not buy holiday’s on Facebook and so on. Although, the Facebook user’s may post a status informing their friends they have made such purchases, this does not provide hard data where advertisers can delimit groups to advertise to.

Therefore, partner categories was introduced so advertisers could use this type of information to focus the adverts to users who have a particular interest in the area.

How to Use Partner Categories?

Partner categories can be used by using Power Editor, this is a tool used for advertisers who need to create ads and have precise control over the campaigns (Facebook), i.e., using partner categories.

Once the advertiser is on the Power Editor tool they can click on one of the ads and click on the audience tab, this is the tab that the advertiser will find the partner categories in. (Grizzell, N, 2014)

Proceeding this, the advertiser has the ability to utilise the partner categories to focus their advertising campaigns. Using an extremely wide array of data as illustrated below.

A screenshot of just a few of the categories to choose from. There are over 500 partner categories (Loomer, J, 2013)

This screenshot and information is from 2013, thus, it is highly likely this data is now out of date, however, it is an illustration of how much data there is for advertisers to use to focus their advertising campaigns.

It can be observed that within the categories there is millions of users, this is because Facebook had 1.35 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2014 according to Statista (2014). Thus, what does this mean for the advertisers, as the whole point of Partner Categories is to focus the advertising campaign to an extremely precise level and only apply it to the relevant users.

It can be observed that when an advertiser is using the Power Editor they can click a number of Partner Categories. Let us illustrate this with an example company, a car sales business in Brighton, specifically selling sports cars, of the brand BMW. The business owner can use the following categories; Sports car owner (x amount of user), make is BMW (y amount of users), vehicle is 5+ years old (z amount of users) and price is between £40k and £80K (w amount of users). If the business owner cross references these categories they will get a group of Facebook users which is applicable to the business, however, the number is still likely to be high. Thus, the advertiser can target further using the core audiences targeting, and applying the location of the users within this cross referenced group of users. Proceeding this process, the car sales company owner will get a group of people with sports cars, of the brand BMW, over 5 years old and who are within a close proximity. Therefore, a target audience which is very relevant to the market which the owner will be targeting, consequently, hopefully with a good advertising strategy, the business owner will gain more sales/leads.

Thus we are able to see the power of Partner Categories targeting, some have argued that it is a better method than Google AdWords (Klaassen, A, 2007), however, this is still a very debatable and new area of targeting.

Conclusion

It is clear that the use of Partner Categories is an extremely powerful tool for advertisers. It is an easy process to follow, and it is a form of targeting which is very developed with an extensive array of data on users. Consequently, I would recommend it to any business which has enough resources to invest to make it worthwhile.

References:

Dehghani, M and Tumer, M. (2015). A research on effectiveness of Facebook advertising on enhancing purchase intention of consumers.Computers in Human Behaviour. 49 (0), 597-600.

Davis, B. (2014). A guide to the new power of Facebook advertising. Available: https://econsultancy.com/blog/64924-a-guide-to-the-new-power-of-facebook-advertising#i.53pyrbflxcux10. Last accessed 17th April 2015.

Kim, L. (2015). 5 Ridiculously Powerful Facebook Ad Targeting Strategies. Available: http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/01/28/facebook-ad-targeting. Last accessed 17th April 2015.

GUMMERUS, J., LILJANDER, V., WEMAN, E. and MINNA PIHLSTRÃ¶M, 2012. Customer engagement in a Facebook brand community. Management Research Review, 35(9), pp. 857-877.

Gylnn Mangold, W and Faulds, J, D. (2009) Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion mix. Business horizons. Vol. 52, issue 4. Pages 357-365.

Facebook. (2015). Get Started with Power Editor. Available: https://en-gb.facebook.com/help/162528860609436/. Last accessed 17th April 2015.

Grizzell, N. (2014). Facebook Partner Categories: What you Need to Know. Available: http://www.agorapulse.com/blog/facebook-partner-categories-what-you-need-to-know-2014. Last accessed 17th April 2015.

Loomer, J. (2013). How to Target Facebook Ads Based on Purchase History, Lifestyles and More. Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-partner-categories/. Last accessed 21 April 2015.

Statista. (2014). Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 4th quarter 2014 (in millions). Available: http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/. Last accessed 21 April 2015.

Klaassen, A 2007, ‘Facebook vs. Google’s AdWords’, Advertising Age, 78, 34, p. 6, Communication & Mass Media Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 21 April 2015

The Effectiveness of Google AdWords for a start up

Date April 21, 2015

Posted by hd119

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What is Google AdWords?

Google AdWords is an advertising service provided by the search engine giant Google. Google AdWords markets your advert in the Google Search Engine and the affiliated sites. They do this by the use of a text ad that appears when people search phrases which match the adverts and the link appears with “sponsored link” on it.

A screen shot of a Google search with certain companies using Google AdWords to rank high on the search

The system is a “pay per click” system which means the advertiser can dictate where the advert appears through bidding for a series of phrases. But part of the benefits of Google AdWords is the pay per click element, the advertiser only pays when someone clicks on the ad to visit the website.

The benefits of Google AdWords

In this section of the blog we are going to discuss the key benefits of the marketing method.

AdWords is Measurable

Measuring the success of a marketing campaign can be very difficult, especially in traditional marketing such as television marketing (Bonoma, 1985). The new era of marketing online is becoming increasingly easier to measure the success or failure. Google AdWords is one of the most measurable pay per click advertising platforms out there. Google AdWords is transparent, and provides a large amount of pay per click metrics that allow the advertiser to see what works and what doesn’t (Gabbert, 2012). For example the business owner can use Google Analytics, and this can be set up in a matter of minutes. Demonstrated by Google in a tutorial on YouTube:

(Google Ads, 2012)

Start-ups will be new at AdWords, thus at the beginning it will be a trial and error process to establish what words are relevant and which words provide the highest conversion rate. Thus, this benefit will provide the business with a tactic to measure the conversion rates easily, and efficiently.

AdWords is easier than search engine optimisation

Google AdWords is usually easier to use in comparison to search engine optimisation strategies. Search Engine Optimisation is often difficult and requires a team of well experience and well trained people to do a good job (Webb, 2011). Start-ups will more often than not, not be able to afford search engine optimisation specialists. This can be outlined by Trond Lyngbo, outlining the difficulties which businesses face when approaching the challenging task of Search Engine Optimisation, supporting the advantage of AdWords being easier than SEO.

Search Engine Optimisation is often slow

As previously stated search engine optimisation usually requires a team and also requires highly trained employees. For new businesses and websites, search engine optimisation can require a large budget and a large time scale, and it can take months for one to see positive results from search engine optimisation strategies (Vegh, 2010). In comparison to search engine optimisation, AdWords can work straight away for new business and the business can see results in a short period of time. Start-ups want to start earning money as soon as possible to break even, search engine optimisation frequently takes a longer time than AdWords.

AdWords can be a cheap method

This benefit is not to say that it is always a cheaper marketing strategy. Large companies such as WallMart, PC Mall and Amazon spend millions of dollars on AdWords. Google provide the buyer with a ‘no visit, no fee’ method, i.e. the pay per click element of the advertising. They also provide the buyer with a budget, and the investment is totally up to the buyer. Start-ups will frequently have a small budget as they will have no cash left over from previous profitable years, thus the method of controlling your budget is necessary for a start up.

Is AdWords traffic better than organic traffic?

This is the final benefit we are going to consider in this blog. Obviously traffic is great, whether it is organic or AdWords, although, businesses want a successful conversion rate which is going to make the advertising worthwhile. Libbey outlined that pay per click advertising, i.e. Google AdWords converts better than organic traffic (Libbey, 2009). However, the debate is still on going, which is the topic of another discussion, and it may be dependent on the industry of which the business is working in.

The negatives of Google AdWords

Paying for clicks

This negative relates to the final positive in the benefits section. When a business starts up they may be paying up to £6 per click to get people to their website. Some clicks can actually be in the range of £60 per clicks. However, the key issue with this negative is that whenever someone clicks on the advert, the business still has to pay Google, despite the fact that they may have clicked straight off of the website. This point also relates to the effectiveness of a businesses landing page, and the relevance of the search to the landing page. However, the principle negative of this point is that, despite a successful landing page, or an unsuccessful landing page, the business still has to pay, even if they do not make a sale.

The Competition is fierce

As it was previously stated that AdWords can be a relatively cheap medium of advertising, however, it may not be worthwhile if the business can only invest a small amount of cash. Large companies can afford to invest significant sums into AdWords advertising, compared to smaller companies (Kenney, 2015). As a start-up competing with large companies it is going to be increasingly difficult in every way possible, however, AdWords provides a very difficult task as start-ups do not have the budget.

You may not need to reach the millions

One of Google AdWords’ key sales point is that you can reach the millions, as with any digital marketing campaign, supposedly. However, for some markets AdWords is not suitable, for example the target audience are not regular users of google, such as elderly’s. Consequently, another use of marketing may be more relevant.

Conclusion

Throughout the course of writing this blog we have attempted to establish the benefits and negatives of using Google AdWords for a business which is new, or new online. The course of research has provided me with five key benefits which are applicable to small businesses. It can be observed that there are more applicable benefits to using Google AdWords, however, the negatives should be taken into consideration when a small business is considering using the marketing method.

The negatives which should be taken with extra caution is whether the AdWords is relevant to the businesses market, and to keep within your budget. The first negative is very relevant, although Google AdWords does not guarantee customers, it does guarantee traffic to a certain extent. The next step is up to the business, the landing page should be relevant to the search (Meerman, 2007). However, this is a discussion for another day.

The final words is a word of advice for start-ups, Google AdWords is an excellent marketing method which has proved to be very successful for a number of businesses and one would advise any start-up to use it. However, the negatives should be taken with extreme caution. Start-ups should perform a lot of research to establish whether the method is relevant to the market, whether they have the budget for AdWords to be successful and what types of phrases and words are relevant to make the marketing method successful.

References

Elisa Gabbert. (2012) ‘Why use AdWords? Here are 10 reasons.’ http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2012/12/03/why-use-adwords [Accessed 30/03/2015]

Webb, Hillary. “Search engine optimization.” (2011).

Vegh, Aaron. “Search Engine Optimization.” Web Development with the Mac®(2010): 221-239.

https://www.google.co.uk/adwords/ [Accessed 30/03/2015]

Libbey, N. (2009) ‘True or False: Organic Traffic Converts Better than PPC’ http://moz.com/ugc/true-or-false-organic-traffic-converts-better-than-ppc [Accessed 30/03/2015]

Kenney, R. ‘Google AdWords – Destroyer of Small Business’ https://concept5.com/google-adwords-destroyer-of-small-business/ [Accessed 30/03/2015]

Scott, David Meerman. “The New Rules of Marketing.” (2007).

Google Ads. (2012). Video: how to link your AdWords and Analytics accounts. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKrU7jExa70. Last accessed 21 April 2015.

Lyngbo, T. (2013). 6 SEO Challenges Every Business Owner & Marketer Must Contend With In 2014. Available: http://searchengineland.com/6-challenges-every-business-owner-marketer-must-know-about-seo-in-2014-170386. Last accessed 21 April 2015.

Twitter as an interactive tool for businesses

Date April 17, 2015

Posted by hd119

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What is twitter?

Twitter is one of the most popular social networking platforms out there, with 645,750,000 registered users and an average of 58 million tweets a day, as of March 25^th 2015 (Huffington Post (2015)). Consequently, one can comprehend why twitter is one of the most popular social network platforms there is.

In consideration of the statistics previously outlined, it is evidential why companies invest such a large amount of resources to the marketing campaign on twitter.

Twitter for marketing purposes

This section will be a brief discussion regarding twitter as a marketing channel.

Twitter is obvious an excellent way to communicate with potential customers, Duncan and Moriarty (Duncan and Moriarty (1998, p.8)) outlined that interactivity between the company and the customer is a “hallmark of the paradigm shift in both marketing and communication”. Twitter as a marketing strategy has enormous potential, such as reaching millions of people, the communication with individuals on a personal level, and the ability to interact with customers easily. It is clear that one of the most important benefits of twitter is the interactivity which companies can achieve with ease.

Twitter solves a key problem companies have, the ability to give customers feedback. Before the use of twitter, companies responded to customers via email, phone, mail and other slow means of communication. Twitter has provided an alternative from using these means of communication, by replying to customers with a short response, instead of a lengthy and slow response. The BBC (18 September 2013) performed an experiment testing the response time on twitter, and the quickest response was in just 3 minutes. This is just one way of outlining the excellent use of twitter in interacting with customers.

Companies will use twitter in different ways in consideration of their sector, industry, geographical markets and other factors (Burton & Sobelava (2011)). In the next section we will see this in practice by outlining some of the best companies which have used twitter as an excellent interactive tool.

The success stories

Victoria’s Secret

Victoria’s Secret utilises twitter to interact with its customers with the hashtag #AskAnAngel. This hashtag campaign has given hundreds of thousands of people to interact with the face of the brand.

Warby Parker

Warby Parker interacts with its customers through twitter competitions. Using a hashtag #whereswarby

Wendys

Wendy’s a restaurant chain in the US has created a page for a type of burger they sell in their restaurants. This specific page has competitions where the individual has to tweet the page.

Nike

Nike interacts with individuals by posting motivating tweets.

KJ Wines

KJ Wines is a winery which interacts with its customers frequently, mainly regarding questions about wine.

Disney

Disney interacts with its customers by playing games such as requesting the individuals to fill in the blanks in their most well-known songs.

Conclusion

In this blog we have outlined how a twitter can be used as an outstanding interactive tool. Twitter’s potential as a marketing strategy is far reaching, this blog has outlined a number of ways a company can interact with the individual twitter user. Thus, can be used by businesses as an interactive tool to humanise the business (Singh, 2008)

References

Burton, Suzan, and Alena Soboleva. “Interactive or reactive? Marketing with Twitter.” Journal of Consumer Marketing 28.7 (2011): 491-499.

Duncan, Tom, and Sandra E. Moriarty. “A communication-based marketing model for managing relationships.” The Journal of marketing (1998): 1-13.

Sing, T, Veron-Jackson, L and Cullinane, J. (2008) Blogging: A new play in your marketing game plan. Business Horizons. Vol. 51, Issue 4. Pages 281-292

Blogging: It’s the way forward for a small business

Date April 17, 2015

Posted by hd119

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“Blogs are not an elective. They’re a prerequisite” (Baker and Green, 2005)

Blogging has blown up recently, individuals are creating and making an extremely good living off of blogging. However, can companies use blogging as a successful marketing strategy?

This blog attempts to extract the benefits from blogging within a commercial context for small businesses. The blog will advise the reader on how to benefit from the use of blogs and provide examples of good and bad blogs which real businesses have used.

How it all works

To put the questions in context it is necessary to explain what a blog is and how they work. Business blogging is a marketing method which supposedly improves a business’s online presence.

However, that definition gives rise to two questions:

What is ‘blogging’?
And what do you mean by an online presence?

Blogging is a post which belongs to your websites “blog”. These posts are usually a written piece regarding anything the writer wishes. Although this definition of ‘blogging’ is ambiguous, this blog aims to develop this definition further.

An online presence is self-explanatory, it is the ability for a your business to be visible online, this could mean various things, such as being at the top of search engine searches, on people’s social media platforms and also create a buzz around the products online. (Dobele, Toleman & Beverland (2005))

How is blogging as an individual different to blogging as a business?

Now we have outlined the meaning behind blogging, the next question which occurs is how blogging as a business differs from blogging as an individual. One of the biggest differences which can be extracted is individual bloggers usually blog as a hobby, it was previously stated that some individual bloggers have earned a living, and sometimes a very good living, off of blogging. However, the majority of bloggers are blogging because they care about what they blog about as a hobby.

Alternatively, businesses blog to market their business. Marketing has developed significantly since the internet has blown up, thus the introduction of marketing on social media, email marketing, search engine optimisation and so on has been introduced. Marketing through the medium of blogs has also increased, and it has proven success for a number of companies, if I direct the reader to the opening sentence from Baker and Green outlining blogs are a prerequisite. Thus outlining, the importance of blogging as a business.

Why should a business blog though?

We have outlined the difference between blogging between individuals and businesses, and Baker and Greens opinion on blogging. However, this section is going to further examine the benefits of blogging from a business perspective.

The first benefit which we are able to outline is that they humanise a faceless business, it is an interactive tool for the business. (Singh, Veron-Jackson and Cullinane (2008)) Businesses are often seen as big corporations, even when they are not a multi-national corporation, this benefit gives customers an insight into the company. For example an online company where the potential customer will almost never meet any of the employees, gives the customer a sense of connection to the employees writing the blog, it will have the same effect as excellent customer service in a shop. This benefit is also closely linked to brand loyalty, when a potential customer, or reader of the blog has a positive experience then it can turn into brand loyalty. Firms can empower customers by enabling them to have a role in the business, and this in turn can lead to brand loyalty. (Nardini (2005))

DeFelice (DeFelice, A. (2006b) outlined that firms can also use blogs to stay relevant to their customers, i.e. an old company keeping up with the developing marketing strategies. An example of this can be shown from the suit makers ‘Scabal’, a company which was established in 1539 has a blog and uses it to its full potential. Subsequent to analysing their website, their target market is male aged 30-60, however, the use of a blog will undoubtedly introduce new customers to the company who are interested in menswear and tailoring.

The previous benefit leads on to the next benefit nicely, blogs provide a way to bridge a generational gap as previously outlined with the example of the company ‘Scabal’. Another example which exemplifies this benefit is the company Southwest Airlines. Their blog attracts readers from college students to retirees. These examples outline how a blog which interacts a reader can attract attention from a market which the small business didn’t even expect to ever attract.

Blogging is global! The internet provides a global platform, thus writing a blog provides a platform which is worldwide. Consequently, it is clear blogging is a low-cost method to create opportunities to increase revenue to your business. Every time the business publishes a blog post, the business creates more opportunity to be found online, consequently increasing the online presence.

Although there is a significant amount of blogs, there are limitations to blogging. Companies have a lack of control over blogs, and that blogging can result in brand bashing (Murphy, 2006).

Blogs also require a lot of commitment and continuity, blogs are used as an interactive tool and having a lack of commitment can counteract all the positives which were once created from the blog.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

This blog post has now identified what a blog is, how blogging differs between individuals, and the benefits of blogging for a business. However, blogging is easier said than done, a number of businesses have attempted and failed, however some have exceeded all expectations.

The first blog to identify is ‘The Body Shop’. It is common knowledge that the body shops blog has been a raving success. They have a far reaching blog with competitions, skin care tips, how to guides and campaigns. However, it is not only their blog which has contributed to the increase of sales. Other bloggers also contribute to the success of the blog, bloggers such as ‘Zoella’ blog about their products.

The Virgin Atlantic blog is also a company which utilises digital marketing strategies. The Virgin media group know they’re audience very well and the type of content they enjoy reading. It is also the content which is something of a success story, the bloggers have interesting concepts of every day stories, the products and services virgin provide are arguably not very exciting. However, their blog is something to get excited about.

Instagram is another successful blog, they engage with the readers and really interact with the audience. Instagram blog about current affairs and global events, which everyone in the world can connect with. They also use the ‘Weekend Hashtag Project’ which invites the readers to use the hashtag which everyone else who partakes is using.

insta

This blog has identified three blogs which have been very successful, these are not the only successful blogs online. However, these blogs are in a range of different sectors and provide the reader with a varied view of what a successful blog looks like.

Although the companies outlined are huge companies, the principles still apply to a small business. The readers of this blog can learn from the positive points regarding the three blogs above, and the principles of blogging as a marketing channel.

How should a business blog then?

We can withdraw various principles from the three examples provided, such as in the case of Virgin. They know their audience to the best of their ability, and they understand what type of content they want to read. Instagram provide a fantastic example of how to engage with their audience and the body shop outlines how to provide excellent content.

Top 10 tips

Write interesting and original content.
Engage with your readers.
Establish your goals as a blog.
Research your audience.
Be committed to posting frequently
Develop your blogs brand
Market your blog
Build an audience and a following.
Make your blog shareable
Measure your blog’s performance.

Is blogging for you?

I think it is clear to see that blogging is for every business, it has a long list of benefits as we have established. A blog will help you reach the capacity your business can work at, however, blogging is a lot of work, and nevertheless it has significant rewards.

References

Baker, Stephen, and Heather Green. “Blogs will change your business.” Business Week 2.05 (2005).

Sing, T, Veron-Jackson, L and Cullinane, J. (2008) Blogging: A new play in your marketing game plan. Business Horizons. Vol. 51, Issue 4. Pages 281-292
Nardini, J. (2005). Blogging 101. Frozen Food Age, 53(12), 32— 33.
DeFelice, A. (2006a). A new marketing medium. Customer Relationship Management, 10(1), 32—35.

Murphy, C. (2006). Blogging: Waste of time or corporate tool? Retrieved August 12, 2006