Woolworths marketer says brands need to start tracking sales metrics from blogger spend
From left: Lorraine Murphy, Olympus Imaging marketing manager Kristie Galea, blogger Chantelle Ellem, Woolworths senior brand manager Melanie Baker and blogger Lorraine Elliot
Brands will start to carefully scrutinise their return on investment of working with bloggers after admitting their metrics so far have revolved around customer “engagement” more than bottom line sales.
The change in approach was flagged by Woolworth senior brand manager Melanie Baker, who told a panel discussion at The Remarkables Influencer Forum yesterday the supermarket works with several bloggers within the group but currently measures success based on “engagement, shares and likes”.
“But we need to look at how can we track it to sales,” she said, adding it will look towards exclusive coupons and offers to monitor its ROI. “We are in a place where we can offer that, that is the next step for us, to add weight to what we are doing.”
Dont simply “claim” – prove with solid numbers!
By all means tie the investment back to a yield, but insisting that a blog or network of blogs, where audiences are measured in the low ‘000s, will be bench marked on their DR value associated with low-margin FMCG will only end in tears.
I was moderating a panel recently here in the states where Gary Arndt (A well respected travel blogger) made a great observation. Brands look at blogs through a microscope and they look at print and other traditional media outlets through a telescope.
I for one welcome the detailed analysis. Quality content on the web will win every time.
It will be interesting to see what the result is.
I personally feel there’s so many blogs out there and this will help gage who’s providing more value to their readers and also real levels of engagement.
However, I do wonder how much harder this will make it for up-and-coming bloggers to earn a living.