Why are businesses using blogs as a digital marketing tactic and what are the benefits?

For my digital marketing proposal I suggested that Krispy Kreme should incorporate a blog into their current marketing initiatives in order to enhance their 'word of mouth' strategy (Krispy Kreme, 2013). Prior to my research, I was completely oblivious to how many competitors and large organisations in general were already taking full advantage of blogging!

Whilst hunting for existing business bloggers I came across Starbucks, Costa and KK's primary competitor, DUNKIN DONUTS! Dunkin Donuts serve up to 3 million customers a day worldwide (Dunkin Donuts, 2014), so the use of a blog comes as no surprise as it is an extremely effective way of creating a direct communication channel to reach consumers, regardless of their geographic location. Dunkin donuts sole purpose for their blog is to post promotions relative to seasons/key events, for example their most recent post is promoting St Patrick's Day by enticing consumers with 'Top O the mornin' to ya!' whilst offering 'Irish creme filled cupcakes'. See below guys. 

So now we have seen how one particular organisation benefits, how can businesses in general benefit from a blog as a digital marketing tactic and how are they a contributing factor to creating brand awareness? 

I stumbled across a fairly recent article by Sprout Content that presents '19 reasons why your business should start writing a blog'. I have picked 7 of the 19 which I believe is more than enough to convince any business to act upon it! The reasons are as follows:

1. 60% of businesses who blog acquire more customers. 

2. It gives businesses a voice. A blog creates a place to talk about new products/services, comment on current news topics and market trends and share company initiatives. 

3. A blog is the heart of all your content digital marketing efforts (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email etc) 

4. A blog creates a 2 way conversation with customers. It encourages interaction, comments and feedback. 

5. Allows businesses to tell their brand story, by offering a greater insight into the company, ideas and employees. 

6. Blogs are cost-effective marketing investments. Every post that is published is a long term asset that helps build brand awareness.

7. Blogging Analytics! Businesses get to know their audience. 

                                                                                                        (Sprout Content, 2014) 

This article has confirmed my proposed marketing initiative and helped develop possible features for Krispy Kreme's blog as their are no obvious drawbacks and a HUGE amount of benefits! The implementation of a blog will certainly utilise Krispy Kreme’s core ‘word of mouth’ strategy as a blog will encourage discussion between consumers and industry professionals. Krispy Kreme has managed to create a distinct humbling brand image which a blog can support further as it states in point 5; allows for a brand story to be developed. 

If any of you readers think that a blog will benefit your business or even beginning to think it is a good way to express yourself take a look at the article by following the link in this post or see references below! 

References 

Dunkin Donuts (2014) ‘Blog’. [Online]  http://www.dunkindonuts.com/DDBlog.html#sthash.bmA9hIou.dpbs [Accessed: 20th March 2014]

Krispy Kreme Corporate (2013) ‘Company Profile’. [Online] http://investor.krispykreme.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=120929&p=irol-homeProfile&t=&id=& [Accessed: 20th March 2014] 

Sprout Content (2014) ''19 reasons why your business should be writing a blog'. [Online] 

http://www.sproutcontent.com/blog/bid/106416/19-Reasons-Why-Your-Business-Should-Be-Writing-a-Blog [Accessed: 20th March 2014]

Getting to know my audience through Google Analytics

About time I made another entry!

I have been looking at the impact of Google Analytics over the past few weeks and how effective it is for marketers and bloggers like myself. For those of you who are as clueless as I was, Google Analytics is a tool which allows people and organisations who have a website/blog to track their audience. For example I have looked at the following things;

• Geographic's- where are my blog viewers located?
• Behaviour- are they repeat or new visitors?
• Technology- what medium are they using to follow my blog?

Additionally Google Analytics allows you to download external dashboards which enable you to customise it to the results you are after. I downloaded a dashboard from a source called dashboard junkie to find out what posts are most popular, how they stumble across my blog page, and search terms they use to find me. This dashboard in particular focuses on my viewers interests, in relation to business this would be useful for a company website such as a retailer to analyse consumer behaviour. Below is a screenshot of my blogger dashboard to give you a bit more of an insight.

There are a huge number of customised dashboards available to those who wish to take there Google Analytics experience to the next level. If this interests you in the slightest follow the link to the Econsultancy page below which displays 10 very useful dashboards.

econsultancy-google analytics custom dashboards

Jamie Heywood-The Big Idea my Brother Inspired

The focus of this TED talk is how MIT mechanical engineer Jamie Heywood and his brother created a website called 'Patients Like Me' which is coordinated around people who are effected by illness. This was the influence of Jamie's youngest brother Stephen when he was diagnosed with ALS.

The purpose of this website was to improve the current chaotic medical system, particularly looking at the way treatments are developed and the way patients receive medical care.

Patients Like Me allows patients to get hold of information that has not previously been accessible. They are able to share their own data consisting of their illness, symptoms, treatment, and side effects and compare it to other subscribers data who have similar conditions. This collective data comes in a simplistic statistical and graphical format which has proved to be hugely comforting to these people and helps explain a lot of unanswered questions they initially had. The most recent advance to the website has enabled people to predict the outcomes of their condition within the next 12 months; using data of those with the same illness in a more advanced state.

I found this talk extremely insightful, and inspiring particularly when I was informed that almost every time the predictions prove to be correct. Jamie gave an example of this during the TED talk which was that from the predicted collective data they had discovered that ALS couldn't be slowed down by taking lithium, a year later there was a costly scientific study that resulted with the same answer.

If you are interested in either the TED talk or the website itself I have posted the links below.

TED Talk

Patients Like Me

First ever blog post

Not really one to blog but I'll give it a go!