Marketing budgets are notoriously hard to justify due to the
return on investment being difficult to measure. Running Facebook pages,
Twitter feeds and blogs all come in the firing line when trying to justify a
budget; the main problem is they don’t appear to drive a large number of sales.
Or do they?
I am currently developing a new digital marketing strategy for
Ilex Press Ltd as part of my final year study at the University of Brighton.
While developing this strategy I investigated the benefits of blogging and
micro blogging and the affects it can have on your business and marketing
campaign.
Lee et al, (2006) conducted a study on the fortune 500’s
corporate blogging and micro blogging strategies and concluded that it is an ‘effective
communication tool over the internet’.
While researching this topic I came a across a book called ‘Understanding
Digital Marketing: Strategies for Engaging the Digital Generation’ by D, Ryan
& C. Jones, (2012) these authors highlight four distinct benefits of
blogging and micro blogging which your business could benefit from, they are;
v
Increased
Exposure
The use of a blog and twitter feed can enhance the brands profile.
Using these platforms as promotional devices is a good way of driving interest
in your brand or advertising campaign; this will in turn drive people towards
your website or stores creating sales opportunities.
v
High
Reach
The reach of the campaign or brand can be greatly extended
by using these platforms. Significant increases in awareness can come from authoritative
sources which have thousands of followers. Smaller but not insignificant increases
can come from customers retweeting or sharing your blog content.
v
Integrated
Marketing Communications
Blogging and micro blogging can also offer a great medium
for integrated marketing communications. I.e. The content can work side by side
with other communication and promotional material.
v
Consumer
Engagement
These channels also give the business the opportunity to
engage with its customers, creating a two way conversation between customer and
business can help create long term relationships. This also greatly improves
customer retention.
Creating a Blog
Harnessing these benefits is an incredibly exciting proposition
for any business as it may help drive sales revenue and profitability. You may think that you don’t have the skills within your organisation to set up
and manage a blog. However, there are many comprehensive guides on the internet
to direct you through the process of creating and writing blogs. Two which I
have found helpful are below;
2.
12 Simple Steps to Business Blogging - https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/microsites/guide-business-blogging/
Blogging and Micro
Blogging - Social Signals Improving your Online Visibility
Blogging and Micro Blogging can eventually positively impact
your businesses online presence via search engine ranking. Search engines like
Google and Bing are using social signals like retweets and blog shares to
assess how highly your business should be ranked on specific keywords.
Click here to read a Q&A session with Google and Bing on
what social signals count towards your search engine ranking - http://searchengineland.com/what-social-signals-do-google-bing-really-count-55389
An example of social signals effecting a websites Google
rank is moz.com; moz.com had just 166 page views until they published a blog
called ‘the beginners guide to
SEO’ which was then tweeted by smashing magazine who had 779,000 followers.
The repercussions where incredible; their page ‘beginners guide to SEO’ popped
up on the first page for the keyword ‘beginners guide’ and their search engine
traffic increased in line with this.
This is a perfect example why your company should leverage
social sites to increase your online presence. After all higher online visibility
can be translated into generating a higher number of sales opportunities which
will have a direct impact on sales and revenue.
To read more examples on how social signals impact search
engine rankings click here - http://www.quicksprout.com/2014/01/31/how-social-signals-impact-search-engine-rankings/
References
D, Ryan & C. Jones, (2012), ‘Understanding Digital
Marketing: Strategies for Engaging the Digital Generation’, Kogan Page Ltd,
Great Britain
Lee et al, (2006), ‘Corporate blogging strategies of the
fortune 500 companies’, Management Decisions, Journal of Management History,
Volume 44, Issue 3
