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Does Your Store Need a Blog?
AREA Magazine
July 2008
“Blog marketing presents a new medium to generate better customer communications and better public relations,” declares Eugene Fram, the J. Warren McClure Research Professor of Marketing at Rochester Institute of Technology. Despite its promise, few retailers have established a blog. Three experts look at their potential benefits and risks.
How It Works
A blog (originally called “web log”) is an interactive electronic site for sharing opinions or information. Readers are invited to post spontaneous comments that other visitors can read. Blogs are easy to start, fairly simple to operate, and increasingly common. Already, eight out of ten Americans know what a blog is and have visited at least one, according to Web Pro news. Every day, 175,000 new ones are created.
Blogs let a retailer develop a more personal customer connection. Two-way communication, says Kim Sheehan, Assoc. Professor of Communications and Marketing at the University of Oregon in Eugene, is “an opportunity to hear from customers in response to what you’re talking about. You can ask questions and invite them to respond. It’s a great way to start a conversation.”
You can set up a blog with free, user-friendly tools at www.blogger.com, www.wordpress.com, or www.typepad.com. Although a blog can have its own website, a link to it from Home Page encourages visitors to see what your customers are saying. A blog might have a theme, such as Customer Satisfaction, advises Lyn Mettler, president of Step Ahead Web Strategies in Charleston, SC. “Customers feel they’re being heard, without having to wait on the phone. You have a chance to tell about a possible new product line or service, and ask for their feedback. It’s like a focus group, on-line.”
A blog is predominantly a conversation, and shouldn’t read like a marketing or promotion tool. If you only use it to sell, people will be turned off immediately. “Your goal is to engage people, and show your store’s personality,” Ms. Mettler emphasizes.
Your postings can be brief, conversational, and casual, such as thoughts on a story you saw about something new in your industry, or High Point high-lights. “Be creative. Read other email newsletter for ideas. You could talk about trends in home furnishings, like What’s In/ What’s Out for Summer,” Ms. Mettler suggests.
“Anything you do on-line must have ‘social glue’ – what you and your customers have in common, whatever will draw people in,” says Ms. Sheehan.
“What kind of home furnishings information can you share? An example is new environmentally-friendly ways to produce or care for furniture. If you have an in-house decorator, post a weekly Quick Tip on how to update home décor.”
A new posting can take 15 minutes or less. Ms. Sheehan finds five sentences sufficient, starting as simply as, ‘Here’s what someone asked at the store. I thought you might be interested.’ “People want to know that someone is present on the other side of the computer. You can put photos, too. If you have a great new display, put in on your blog and say, ‘here’s our room idea.”
Get employees involved, and share responsibility, she stresses. “Talk to people! Ask staff members what they’re interested in, what they see customers interested in at the store. Then you can ask them to write something for the blog.”
Time and Cost Requirements
The best blog entries are entertaining and quick to read. Relationship building depends on how often customers blog and how often the retailer replies. Operation a blog does take some time, to read it and sift through comments, Professor Fram concedes. Because things more fast on-line, it’s important to update a blog at least twice a week. To maintain credibility, “be able to respond immediately. It won’t look good if someone posts a comment and isn’t answered for a week,” Ms. Mettler cautions.
While blogs are free to set up, the required investment is either time or a consulting service. Ms. Mettler started her company Step Ahead because many people want to use new technologies but are put off by time requirements. “We do some of the work for clients, like suggesting, researching, or writing a post for them in their voice. It’s not worth doing a blog if you don’t keep up with it! That does more harm than good.”
She recommends not making it look just like your website. “You want it to have the feel of a blog, with links to archives, and postings tagged by different subjects. Make sure a user has an easy time navigating your blog. If you’re not a good writer, you can always ask a local journalism student or writer to prepare brief entries. There’s no need to be super formal, just friendly. It’s not an essay or a homework assignment! Write how you would talk. Share your own perspective. Local shoppers are interested in what nearby (not national) stores have to say.”
The resources are probably from your promotion or public relations budgets, says Professor Fram, since those are the best people to develop the blog. “Retailers have only so many promotional dollars. Consider revenues, expenses and returns, including cost of staff time, overhead and space involved. Ask yourself, should I allocate this effort to blogging, or put ten ads in local papers offering a reduction on specific products?”
Risks and Rewards
“Word of mouth promotion can be very valuable. That’s what a blog is,” Professor Fram clarifies. “For decades, retailers have known that positive customer recommendations are highly effective in spurring sales.” Some large retailers have communications specialists who watch the blog world for comments about their store. Yet many businesspeople shy away from blogging or new Internet techniques, because they’re unfamiliar. Often, Ms. Mettler’s clients, concerned that they won’t be able to control negative comments or feedback, ask, “If people can post anything they want, do we want others to see it?”
In fact, “a single negative report can spread quickly on the Internet, causing huge public relations damage, at the very least,” observes Professor Fram, citing a predicament experienced by Dell Computer. One unfavorable comment, posted on the World Wide Web, circulated at lightning speed. The dissatisfied customer drew increasing attention, before Dell could even respond.
Had that irate Dell user been able to complain on Dell’s own blog, the company could have replied quickly, offered to correct the problem, and deflected all the unfortunate publicity. Allowing customers to communicate with your store directly is an excellent opportunity to control and maintain your image.
People with negative feedback will put it somewhere. If they post it widely, you may not even know until some damage is done. If one person has a negative thought about your store, others may also. Managing your reputation includes knowing consumer concerns, then shifting your message to ease any negative thoughts.
A blog can be set up allow disapproval of anything before posting. The sender may get a message saying, “This is a moderated blog.” However, Ms. Mettler advises clients to allow some negative postings on blog. “You can respond, clarify, and correct any misinformation. It’s better on your blog than out in cyberspace where you have no control. Visibility and credibility are the goals!”
By helping people see your store’s personality, a blog can make a difference in where consumers many want to shop. Showing you stay on top of the trends and know what’s going on is good for branding and establishes your store as experts. Blogs increase your on-line exposure, placing you higher in search engines. With frequent updates, a blog’s fresh copy continually improves its placement.
Consider what level of risk is comfortable. “You may find that 99% of bloggers like your products and services, but you do have to watch consumer feedback,” Professor Fram emphasizes.
Attracting Attention
It’s useful to be listed in blog directories. The biggest directory, www.Technorati.com, now tracks 112 million blogs, ranked by popularity. Set it up so people can easily subscribe to your blog. The retailer is notified of new posting, to see it and respond to it. Designate a staffer who will check e-mail regularly, to receive these notices.
Announce your new blog to your store’s entire e-mail list. Post comments on the big blogs in your industry (listed on Technorati). They they’ll respond to your blog, helping to make consumers aware of it.
Keep a signup sheet at your cash registers, and request e-mail addresses each time a purchase is made, advises Ms. Sheehan. “Put your blog on business cards, print materials, and even register receipts, and in newspaper ads, e-mail signatures, and direct mail pieces. Especially for stores with longer purchase cycles, spread the word. Promote the blog in off-line venues all the time.”
Establish mutual blog connections with other merchants in related (but not competitive) fields, such as paint store. Put a link to them on your blog, and they’ll have one to your blog in turn. Some blogs run occasional contests, which Ms. Sheehan considers a great way to get comments. “Ask people to post their favorite color; one entry will be randomly drawn to win a gift certificate or other small prize.”
Some people actively participate, others will simply read a blog. “Ask them to comment! Many people don’t say anything because they don’t have good writing skills, but will respond if you ask a simple, low threat question. To build interaction, try something like, ‘as summer approaches, what colors are you looking at?’” Ms. Sheehan suggests.
Summary
“This is a good opportunity to start a blog, since so few retailers have them yet,” says Ms. Sheehan. “It’s much lower-cost than other marketing tools, and you don’t even need computer skills.”
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