I. INTRODUCTION: POSITIVE EFFECTS OF BLOGGING
BACKGROUND:
The Advertising Research Department of San Francisco State
University assigned this study at the request of Sonoma Hanzell
Vineyard. Before authorizing to create a blog of a Hanzell
Vineyard, the executive council requested a study examining the
positive effect of blogging on existing companies who are using
blogs. Members of executive council wanted to determine to what
extent the blogging will benefit the company.
For those who are unfamiliar with blogging, it is a free website
where the company can post the information of the company, as well
as its products. It is web page intended for general public
consumption that can be run by an individual or small group, which
is written in informal or conversational style. Bogs are different
from website, because they are easy to use and can be used as a
platform where customers can leave their comments. Blogs generally
represent the personality and purpose of the companies and it can
be used in different ways. From all the research done in past, it
has been proved that blogging has direct and indirect benefits that
can help the companies to increase their revenues by as much as 55
percent or more. Blog is a low cost, easy to use, highly effective
marketing tool for differentiating the company from the competition
and increasing customer loyalty. And all it requires is commitment,
creativity, most importantly keeping the blog content useful for
the readers.
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this report is to show the benefits of blogging
and how it will help the Vineyards to increase its revenue. The
original goal is to create an affordable solution to introduce this
company to online audience through a blog with relevant content and
use this opportunity as a marketing tactic to drive traffic to the
company website.
SIGNIFICANCE:
The report will compare the costs for creating and maintaining
the blog. It will also measure the returns and the paybacks. The
report is significant because the increase in revenue will
encourage the growth of company and the careful frequent blogging
has a lot of benefits in return with the minimal costs.
SCOPE:
Even though Sonoma Hanzell Vineyard is a small and family owned
business, it can still learn a lot of benefits from blogging. This
report will show the effects of blogging and compare the revenues
between the companies that blog to the ones that does not blog.
This report will elaborate on what small business can learn from
blogging. Furthermore, this report will show how cost effective
blogging actually is and how Hanzell Vineyard can profit by
creating and updating its blog on a daily basis.
ORGANIZATION:
This study was designed to analyze the direct and indirect sales
impact from blogging on the Sonoma Hanzell Vineyard of Sonoma, CA.
Specifically, the study seeks answers to these questions in
following patterns.
How can blogging be the bridge that connects the customers to
the winery? How does creating a blog will increase the customers
participation?
How can a blog increase the revenue of the company? How much is
it going to cost to maintain and update the blog?
What is the cost of maintaining the blog? Is the payback worth
it for the expenses created by blog?
II. FINDINGS
A: Companies with blog have 40% or more traffic, than who
doesnt:
There are countless customers looking for information on the
products and services. If the company fails to provide the
information then the business is losing out on a potential sales.
The Hanzells blog can be the place where customers meet their
Vineyard needs and curiosities. Blogging is a good way to educate
the target audience so that they become better informed on making
buying decisions. As shown in figure 1, 60 percent of business uses
blog, while 329 million people view blogs on daily basis.
Figure 1
Blogging Statsistics
Data From:
http://www.digitalsherpa.com/blog/wp-content/Blogging-Stats-01.jpg
Designed by: Digital Sherpa
The Vineyards blog can be a tool to advertise and market the
wines by introducing the new deals and discounts to attract the
visitors. The research done by hubspot found out that, the
companies that blog gets 55 percent more visitors as shown in
figure 2.
Figure 2
Benefits of Blogging
Data From: http://www.michalwurm.com/blog
Designed by: Hubspot
B: Daily blog reaps the best result:
The habit of daily blogging contributes a handsome increase in
the traffic of the companies website in compare to those who
doesnt. The companies who updates their blog daily gets 77% more
customers in compare to the one who only blogs once a month. When
the company blogs every day, the trust of search engines like
Google, Yahoo and Bing will likely develop. Quality and well-formed
posts on daily basis will form a good reputation from search
engines. So, when customer searches the similar information as
provided on the Hanzell blog, the search engine will show up the
Hanzell Vineyards blog because of the good reputation it has
established. As shown in Figure 2, the number of visitors has
always increased on the days when the company updated their
blog.
Figure 2
Effect of blogging every day
Source:
http://nectafy.com/17-higher-on-days-we-blog-new-blogging-stats/
Designed by: Danju Maharjan
C: The minimal setup costs for maintain blogging:
Blogging is effective low-cost marketing. It doesnt cost much to
add a blog into the website. Technically, the company can create
its blog for free and in minutes. While there are different options
for blogging services, Wordpress.com is one of the widely used one.
The vineyard could buy its own domain name, the one which is
similar and appropriate for as low as $6 per month. The company
needs to hire a writer to develop post-worthy content. The average
cost of writer to update a blog on daily basis is less than $2500 a
month. San Francisco State University Department went to 14
different wineries for research purposes to know the better impact
of blog from those who are using blog for their wineries. Figure 3
shows what the managers from Ravenswood Winery, Envolve Winery, and
Roche Winery had to say about the blog.
Figure 3
Opinions of Different Managers
Point 1 Point 2 Point 3 Overall
Data From: SFSU Research on 18 wineries of Sonoma, CA
Desined by; Danju Maharjan
III. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
A, Summary of Problems and Procedures
Blog can speak for the company brand and establish the
credibility among Internet users. Most importantly, blogging builds
trust. About two-thirds of marketers say their company blog is
critical and important to their business. Part of the reason is
that blogs are great way to engage the visitors. Blogs can assist
the Hanzell Vineyard with the effective promotion of a service and
products. The blog can become a central place for all of the other
online interaction with customers. By creating a blog, Hanzell
vineyard allows itself to create a focal point for a community of
customers, provide the company with its own social network hub in
the market and allows the company to expand on the information on
other social media as well such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram
and so on.
B: Summary of Findings:
The daily updated blog attracts 40% more traffic to their
company website, which converts that traffic into leads. There are
plenty of studies, which prove that the companies with blogs gain
as much as 67% increases in lead over their competitors that dont.
Those leads will eventually become a sale. According to study done
by Factbrowser, more than 60 % of United States online customers
say theyve made a purchase as a direct result of reading bloggers
recommendation. Blogs are very valuable type of content. Blogs are
63% more likely to influence purchase decisions than magazines.
There is very minimal cost to create and maintain the blog; in fact
blog has below average cost in compare to other channel.
C. Conclusion:
On the basis of these findings, it is recommended that creating
the blog can increase the sales and revenues of the Vineyard. The
increase in sales would encourage the growth of the company, thus
much needed step moving forward for Sonoma Hanzell Vineyard.
Blogging is comparatively affordable, while it has direct as
well as indirect benefit to the company. With the increasing number
of Internet users and the popularity of social media and social
websites, the customers could easily share the companys blog in
their social media. When the content is good, the social media
users are more likely to share it, and the social media users
covers more people than ever and that viral share will be the huge
indirect benefit for reaching out to other potential customers.
D. Recommendations:
A blog gives the Hanzell Vineyard a great opportunity to build
up the brand awareness. By connecting the companys blog with social
bookmarking and social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook,
Reedit, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram and so on, the blog
can also spread the influence into areas of potential customers
which the company could not have been able to target otherwise. The
company can use one of many free blogging service like Wordpress,
Typepad or Blogger. Once the blog has been setup, the only
investment required is time. Once the Vineyards gets into the habit
of posting blog updates regularly, the benefits Hanzell will be
getting back in return will amaze the management.
REFERENCES
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Ways It Improves Your
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Cabrera, P. (2013, June 11). 11 Top Reasons Why Blogging Is
Important For Business |
TWELVESKIP. Retrieved April 7, 2015
Ediron, C. (2013, November 6). The Benefits of Blogging: Why
Businesses Do It, and You Should
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http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/the-benefits-of-
business-blogging-h
Larkwen, M. (2012, April 14). 61% of U.S. online consumers have
made a purchase based on
recommendations from a blog. Retrieved April 7, 2015, from
http://www.factbrowser.com/facts/7065/
Micher, S. (2013, December 9). 4 Tips for Breaking Into Social
Media and
Blogging in the New Year. Retrieved April 5, 2015.
O'Loughlin, H. (2015, January 14). Visits Are 17% Higher On Days
We Blog |
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Sheridan, M. (2011, December 2). 5 Reasons Your Business Should
Be
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Watts, D. (2011, December 2). 19 Reasons Why Your Business
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Retrieved April 7, 2015.
Positive:Negative:Neutral: Mixed Support.
Approves."Not easy Approves, but "Good plan but
to write content."with "caution." needs effort."
Positive:Negative:Neutral: Optimstic:
Strong Support:Time ConsumingHave to give a "Worth a
" "Easy and free." shot trouble."
Positive:Negative:Neutral:
Approves: "Low-cost "Updating daily"Benefits far Supports
plan.
source of marketing."needs commitment."outweigh costs."
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