Wolf of Marketing

"THE WOLF OF MARKETING"

Online reviews from bloggers can drive product sales in a big way. Today's most popular form of word-of-mouth marketing "BLOGGERS"

THE WOLF OF MARKETING

Bloggers Role is Huge in Word of Mouth Marketing

Consumers no longer want to hear from brands anymore, they want to hear from other consumers for a recommendation and bloggers are a key part in B2I2C. (Business to Influencer to Consumer)

Just take a look at some of the stats:

·         31% of consumers say blog influenced their purchase

·         81% of the online population trusts information and advice they get from bloggers

·         61% of the online population has made a purchase based on a recommendation from bloggers.

Not too long ago, when potential customers wanted to know about the quality of your product or service, they relied on the opinions of friends and family. Word-of-mouth is still alive in today’s connected world—it’s just become exponentially amplified with the use of online reviews. One good (or bad) review of your business can echo through cyberspace indefinitely

Bigger doesn't necessarily mean better

Interestingly enough, 54% of consumers believe that the smaller the community the bigger the influence. Consumer’s belief in the trustworthiness of smaller communities.  No community should consider themselves too small to start tracking metrics.

Targets are Niche Based not Genre Any-more

When PR pros reached out to traditional journalists, they were reaching out to people who covered a much broader area whereas bloggers write about very specific topics.

A blogger’s audience comes to them and follows them to stay up to date, inspired or educated on a very specific topic and a brand mention that doesn’t fit snugly within that niche sticks out like a sore thumb.

Finding niche bloggers is a lot more involved and time consuming than consulting a traditional media data base of contacts. Hence the popularity of blogger outreach tools within the last few years.

If you’re a Group High user, the “post content filter” is very useful in finding bloggers by targeted topics.

Because I work best with examples: I’m promoting a brand of clothing and want to do a campaign where I have fashion bloggers who can review my clothing brand. Well, I wouldn’t reach out to all DIY and fashion bloggers because some never write about clothing—they may only write about accessories.

Thus I’d want to research bloggers who focus not just on DIY and clothing but DIY and fashion clothing that at least occasionally include clothing style tips or inspiration in their posts. I would also want to make sure I eliminate the bloggers who write about DIY for people on a budget because that would not be my target audience.

Powerful Messaging

With the access everyone has to social media and how quickly digital words can spread, everything a blogger says—fantastic or awful—gets amplified. Through social media sharing and re sharing and their recommendations and lack thereof in their posts.

Even a “bad pitch” now gets publicized and spread around all over Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest and inserted in to blog posts so a word of caution there!

More Personify

From the pitch you send to your bloggers to the content that they create for their audience—it’s all super targeted and personalized.

Bloggers respond better to personalized pitches that show that you have read their blog.

They are also creating content personalized for a targeted audience of your buyer personas so the “personal touch” you put in your pitch and blogger communication will be reciprocated with some fantastic posts recommending your brand.

Mid-Level Works

Many brands are seeing success by pitching a higher volume of mid-level influencers, often in the form of bloggers, than “super influencers” like celebrities.

It’s a Dark World

Working with traditional journalists followed a very black and white process and set of rules.

·         Bloggers don’t set rules

·         Strict code of ethics or editorial schedule is not required.

Involving Network Power

Because bloggers are an involving network, their audiences tend to be very engaged and loyal.

Bloggers tailor their post and engage audience with them because they would not be successful without their followers. This causes a relationship of extreme loyalty which means a brand mention causes more action than awareness.

What are your thoughts on THE WOLF OF MARKETING? Would love input in the comments below. 

Cheers to a good discussion!