Article - Retailers focusing on Blog Posts...

[Cactus_AudreyK]

From: InternetRetailer.com - Daily News for Tuesday,*March*11, 2008

Some retailers setting their sights on bloggers to gauge word of mouth

Bloggers have proven to be a force to be reckoned with in some areas of American life, such as politics. There are more than 75 million blogs on just about every topic imaginable, according to popular blog search site Technorati.com. And there are plenty that cover retail goods and consumer brands.

Some retailers find bloggers to be helpful guides to public opinion and important individuals with whom they potentially can establish productive relationships.

“Social media is ramping up—blogs give people forums where they all are interested in similar topics and can congregate,” says Tony Roscelli, director of consumer research at Screenlife LLC, a manufacturer and retailer that specializes in interactive DVD board games. It recently started a formal program with BuzzLogic Inc. to monitor blog chatter. “We can tap into these forums and really see what these people are into and build products based on that interest. We ask the question: Are the online people interested in a theme enough to justify us to invest in it?”

With only 2.6% of U.S. shoppers using blogs when researching purchases, according to a recent JupiterResearch consumer survey, other retailers believe monitoring and potentially working with bloggers is of little value.

“It’s just not that big a deal at this point. Your resources are better spent elsewhere,” says Tom Cox, CEO of Golfballs.com Inc. “We have affiliate marketing, e-mail marketing, pay-per-click, organic search—I know if I commit resources to these it will get me a return on investment. Blogs are like the newsgroups of a decade ago—they were there, but did they ever move the needle? No.”

But some retailers already have had success with blogger experiments. Icon Estates, A Constellation Co., which operates wineries with 12 brands and e-commerce site HartwickandGrove.com, last year decided one of the best places to discover and routinely examine word of mouth is the massive blogosphere. It started a formal monitoring program with Andiamo Systems Inc. One of the first outlets it identified as an important player, based on traffic and reader comments, was food and wine blog VinDivine.com.

“In September we did a test with a deep discount coupon for one product, working with VinDivine.com. We shared the coupon with the blogger and he shared it with his readers,” says Matt Wood, vice president of retail operations. “It was 70% off an expensive wine we were very long on and that we had a margin to play with. It boosted sales the next day significantly.”

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What do you think??

[lucysdoghouse]

I am not 100 percent sure but it seems to me you ignore bloggers and blogging in general at your own peril. Many of the other forms of advertising are communication that is one way, without a lot of interaction from the potential consumer. There are a growing number of people that want to interact with a company that they buy from, that want more of personal relationship with who they are buying from. For many of us small businesses it is a way to replicate a similiar relationship that people had with small stores in their neighborhood.

I am not sure I would draw the comparison that the quoted fellow did, that blogs are the newsgroups of today. Combining RSS feeds with blogs is an incredible way to get a message out without a lot of effort and/or cost. What has potential to devalue the entire process are bloggers that are paid to blog about a company or product.

Also, while 2.6 percent of the shopping population does not sound like a lot, that still represents millions of consumers.

[robbbailey]

...all this depends on what context it's taken in.

We started a blog about 4 months ago and we haven't seen any superior increase in retail sales yet. But then again, we're not trying to sell t-shirts through a blogging platform. We're using it as more of a way for our customers to stay on top of what's going on with us. Plus a little fun and games mixed in there to make it interesting.

If we were trying to drive sales directly, we'd take a much more viral approach to blogging, much like some of the many t-shirt review blogs do. Google "t-shirt blog" and take your pick. They are driving many loyal readers to their likes and dislikes simply by writing about it, and driving ecommerce to the sites that make the tees every day.

I'm sure you can take an example from any book to prove a point, but to say that blogging isn't driving retail sales is stupid to me. Threadless.com sells millions of tee shirts per year, all done from a social networking platform built to enable an ongoing t-shirt competition. Their users submit the tee shirt art, vote on the designs they feel should be printed, then buy them. They have sold every shirt they have ever produced within 90 days. THIS IS UNHEARD OF in the retail business. A big part of this is because people are able to BLOG about their opinions to their friends, other customers, the administrators, etc., from within the site. It's genius.

Imagine if all you had to do was look on your own retail site to see what the pulse of your customers were thinking... would you be able to market to them better? serve them better? engage them better? Of course you would... All that would lead to SELLING better.

I don't know how Tom Cox could engage his customers by getting them into golfballs any more than what they're already doing. Namely, hitting them into man-made ponds. Maybe he should try selling something a little more creative, then people would have something to get excited about. Then he'd have a different opinion?

Ah well, who knows...

[Cactus_AudreyK]

I agree with both of you... I was giving this a few days before I added my two cents... but... I really don't think ANY form of marketing should be ignored. Even if it is something that doesn't always directly drive sales, it can ALWAYS help brand your business... plus, if your business is linked back, then you've also created another LINKTO: resource for SEO... Google sees your site yet one more time linked in conjunction with relevant content.

ALSO... Customers (or potential customers) start seeing your business name/logo when they're just playing online... and then maybe eventually become shoppers of your site or bookmark it for later. It's just that they can begin their name recognition that much more easily if you're actively being a part of the whole online community.

I wanna go check out Threadless.com - sounds cool... and I myself just posted a bulletin on my personal MySpace about how I need T-Shirts... My own little marketing scheme to get free t-shirts from all the bands who asked me to be their "friend". I'll let you know how it works out.

[candypam]

Wow… my head is spinning reading all this about blogs. I want to comment on something I recently stumbled across. I sell candy, I do not have a blog (yet) on my store. After a few talks with John about blogs, I started to really look around for candy blogd and try and learn.
Not only did I find some of my big competitors had them, but I kept running across this one blog website candyaddict.com . This guys doesn’t sell candy, he just likes it and he’s getting mega attention.. I researched him and his way for days.
I contacted him and he replied back. He asked if I had a blog (I’m sure he knew I already didn’t.) He starts telling me how my big competitors all had them and how he would read them. We wrote back and forth for days. Finally I said I wanted to place an ad on his blog site, he said all ads were done by affiliate marketing (that’s also still new to me)

I immediately called Farukh and Robyn my PPC people, Farukh, dives in to help like always, checks this website out, comes back with the Whoa…” this guy is amazing”, he holds the #1 spot on Google for the generic term “candy”… all because he talks about candy… I was shocked and I think I can say Farukh was too. This guy is ranking higher on the word Candy, than Hershey, M&M Mars, Blair Candy hee hee.. etc…
Right then and there, I realized I needed a blog. I know just as much as him, probably more, about candy. I’m thinking all my chatter about candy on my blog when I get it might produce the same results as he achieves. In saying that, like Robb, I wouldn’t be looking to sell my candy though a blogging platform, but if it could attract more attention to us, that would be great! I was able to wheel and deal with candy addict and was able to place an ad, but it would be nice to not pay and get his results. Attention usually brings sales!

[Linda Bustos]

There are many benefits to reaching out to bloggers - like magazine editors or celebrities, sending free products to review can get you some positive attention. Paid review services like ReviewMe or PayPerPost programs, however, are not trust-worthy as true, natural editorial coverage.

Zappos has been very successful in creating positive blog-word-of-mouth by delivering excellent customer service.

Other etailers are slammed by bloggers for poor customer service. There's a reputation management side to social media marketing, for sure.

Affiliates often blog and can send you traffic, but you likely won't get any search engine benefits. If it is true that people trust bloggers for purchase decisions, including bloggers in your affiliate profile is a good thing to experiment with, and treat them very well. Don't give them the brushoff because they are not "super affiliates."

Widget development is still in its infancy but it can also encourage content sharing by "bloggers" and people who are bloggers but don't realize it (Facebook accounts, etc).

There's also guest posting that you can arrange with bloggers - you offer content that will benefit their audience, is informative, and not overly self-promotional.

Just a few ideas...

[Charmlady]

We all read blogging is good on so many levels - but who has the time....BUT with that said, can you really afford not to? What a better way to keep customer informed of upcoming products lines, get them to chatter about what they like (or dont like), gives you the inside scoop on what to stock (and not to) and Pam, no one likes ye olde link exchanges - but blogs are IN COMING links to your site!! Once you start blogging, you talk about something you know and put hyperlinks to various pages on your site, that leads customers who read (and spiders) to your front door....so its really just another sales tool--