I was catching up on my feed-reading this weekend, and came across an episode of Diva Marketing Talks that featured Donna-Lyons Miller of Gourmet Station, and Tim Jackson, Brand Manager for Masi Bicycles. A great discussion about the benefits of adding social media to your marketing mix.But what perked my ears up was when both Tim and Donna discussed how sales at their companies have changed since they started blogging.
Tim reported that: "In the time I've been with the company, within the first two years we have doubled sales. And obviously it would be nice to say that it's all about the blog, because I'm such a blog proponent, but I know that that's been a key ingredient to it, because it's allowed me to reach people."
Donna adds that for Gourmet Station: "Our business is really growing nicely on a very very small marketing budget, and I attribute a lot of that (growth) to the blog. In 06 our growth was 30% and in 07 year-to-date it's 40%."
These quotes got my attention, because it's the validation that companies are looking for from blogs. We can talk all day about how blogging removes barriers, how better understanding your customers leads to more efficient marketing, and how the conversation monetizes itself. But until companies can see proof that blogging increases sales, many of them can't wrap their minds around what the big deal is with blogging and social media.
Ask Donna and Tim, they'll be happy to tell you.
Bonus link: Stormhoek's sales increase five-fold in less than 2 years, thanks to blogging
Tags:The Viral Garden, Marketing
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4 comments:
Very good news...and cute pic of Masiguy, to boot. I spy a great series for you to add to over time when you hear these success stories.
I think a lot of we marketing bloggers can agree that we've added a social media competency to our talents--be we working for companies full-time or consulting. And that increases our own net worth (insofar as skills/savvy).
It's definitely the viral give and take.
Has social media envelopped blogging as the primary means to reaching market value fast.
How many bloggers can say they developped a web app for facebook and were given $10 million in venture capital?
Mack - Thanks for the shout out. What is also interesting is although the strategic direction for the Masiguy and the GourmetStation blogs are quite different the common focus of understanding their communities and providing that content in a consistent, conversational manner played into the increased sales.
Mack - Thanks for the mention. Yes, we are quite happy with the blog. Delicious Destinations has given GourmetStation seo page dominance on certain critical key words and we believe that is the key driver behind the sales increase. Blog traffic and web site traffic are consistently up and we believe they are working nicely together.
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