Tag Archives: Marketing and Advertising

January 21, 2013 · 12:35 pm

Social and Shopping

How do you think social media influences what people buy?  If you believe a recent report on the influence of social media on shopping this past holiday season, the answer is not much.  As the article said:

online shoppers mostly ignored social channels as purchase influencers,according to survey results from Baynote. Pinterest and Twitter influenced online and in-store purchases for just 1 in 10 shoppers surveyed, with Facebook garnering only slightly more interest. Instead, online ratings and reviews were most likely to influence both online and in-store purchases (33% and 24%, respectively), with Google search results including a pictured product available by the retailer coming in next for online purchases (26%) and paper catalogs (21%) second for in-store purchases. Not surprisingly, social channels were most influential among younger consumers (aged 25-34), while paper catalogs got the attention of the 45+ crowd.

This was accompanied by another piece which announced that “only 2% of traffic to retailers during the holiday season came from social networks, per figures released by Adobe Systems.”   The article then goes on to say “Adobe isn’t the first to detail social media’s rather small influence over the holiday season.”

I could be wrong about this but given that Adobe is the parent company of one of the large analytics firms, I’m assuming they looked for traffic into shopping carts from social media.  Their question – is social media converting into sales – isn’t the right one.  How about “does social media influence sales?”  I’m willing to bet that a large percentage of what’s on Pinterest is aspirational – something the user wants or acknowledges as desirable.  Maybe it’s a place people use to research gifts for friends?   You will have a hard time convincing me, just based on what crosses my Twitter stream and Facebook news feeds, that people aren’t researching purchases via social media.

The Baynote data is a survey – let’s always remember that what people say and what they do sometimes don’t align.  That said, I think taking “catalogs” as a whole while segmenting digital into pieces (search vs. social vs online stores) is a bit misleading.  It also doesn’t reflect how users may begin with a search, move over to social to check out their connections’ thinking on what they’ve found, and then their use of the online store to buy, perhaps several days (and sessions) later.

Given the continuing and impressive growth of online shopping during the last holiday season I’m a believer in social as a influence.  People spend more of their lives online and that includes shopping.  Maybe these folks are asking the wrong questions.  I’m sure they’d have just as hard  time proving that TV or print resulted in the conversions they’re discussing yet very few people deny those media have an impact.  What do you think?

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January 17, 2013 · 11:30 am

The Most Effective Marketing Words

Since I seem to be emptying my “possible posts” research folder this week, here is something recent that comes to us from the good folks at Weber Shandwick.

English: Good customer service requires high p...

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s a study called “Buy It, Try It, Rate It” and you can read the study here.  While this may fall into the “duh” category of research, the study found that consumer reviewers trump professional reviewers as the key purchase influencers and further shows that 65 percent of potential consumer electronics purchasers are inspired by a consumer review to select a brand that had not been in their original consideration set.  It turns out that the average buyer consults 11 consumer reviews as they get ready to purchase.   A few other key findings:

  • Consumers report that they pay more attention to consumer reviews (77 percent) than professional critic reviews (23 percent). The gap between consumer and professional reviews closes noticeably, but not entirely, for more advanced technologies like tablets and computers.
  • The most influential reviews include certain elements. In consumer reviews, the most helpful ones are those that seem fair and reasonable (32 percent), are well-written (27 percent) and contain statistics, specifications and technical data (25 percent).
  • Shoppers trust consumer reviews on Amazon.com (84 percent) and BestBuy.com (75 percent) the most, topping Consumer Reports (72 percent). Consumers show no apparent discomfort in getting their research from a seller of the products they’re considering.

This gets to the notion of authenticity.  I’ve remarked to some people that the next review I find in a golf magazine which gives a bad review to a piece of equipment will be the first.  It’s pretty obvious that without golf manufacturers advertising in the books most of the publications would be in deep financial trouble.  Professionally generated content about electronics, cars, and other goods can have the same skew, or at least raise the issue in consumers‘ minds as the study shows.  What can you do as a brand?

First, be transparent.  This means, among other things, don’t do everything you can to have negative reviews pulled down and certainly don’t censor them on your own site.  Second, as the study suggests,

companies need dedicated resources to manage social network communities for purposes that go beyond branded content. An online community manager should be encouraging customers to review products, disseminating positive customer and professional reviews through social channels, and working in tandem with customer service to respond to customer feedback or issues quickly.

Third, be authentic.  Don’t use marketing speak – write as if you are a consumer.  Finally, don’t be afraid to engage on other sites – Amazon, for example – which have become so influential in the process.  Do so openly though.

The most effective marketing words are those coming out of consumers’  mouths.  While we as marketers can’t put them there, we can listen carefully and respond honestly   That can help make sure those words are positive.  You agree?

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January 9, 2013 · 11:09 am

Ghost Writers In The Sky

OK, first off, I know that the title of the screed today is NOT the name of the song – as you’ll see it’s an attempt at humor.  Second, it really isn’t “in the sky” – more like “in the cloud” given the subject today, which is content creation.

Words have a power all their own

(Photo credit: Lynne Hand)

When you spend a minute or two here on the screed, you’re getting something produced by me.  I write every word (OK, other than those I grab from press releases but I usually let you know when I’m doing that).  That hands-on approach isn’t necessarily the norm, and as the strategy of content marketing has become a bigger deal, ghost writing – specifically ghost blogging – has grown with it.

You might think that as someone who spends some time each work day trying to produce content that I might have an issue with those folks who hire ghost bloggers.  You’d be wrong if you thought that – I believe it’s an excellent thing for many companies to do.  I can spend a few hundred words here writing about content marketing but if you really want an explanation contact me and I’m happy to spend a few minutes explaining it.  Better yet –  hire me to do it for you! In any event, not everyone can write well and very few can create content on a regular basis (try to blog 300-500 words every day for a few weeks and let me know if you can).  Along with it being great content the piece needs to be written in a way that’s SEO-friendly so it’s discoverable by the audience you’re trying to reach.

Here is the caveat – you can’t lose authenticity   When I do content for someone, I have  a conversation with them about the topic we’re trying to cover.  That topic can be generated by something going on at the company – a new product, for example – or it can be based on a discovery in the web analytics – the brand is getting a lot of traffic from people searching for “X” so let’s write about that.  It’s their thinking and their ideas – I’m just putting their words down on paper.  That’s why I don’t really have an issue with ghost writers – the good ones are doing transcription more than they’re putting words into people’s (or brands’) mouths.  Besides, how many books written by CEOs, sports figures, or politicians are ghost written?  Nearly all.

What do you think?  Let me know – or hire someone to write the comment for you!

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