Goal: Online search to store traffic
HH Gregg
HH Gregg is one of the nation's leading retailers of home appliances and consumer electronics, with more than 111 stores. In a competitive environment, HH Gregg competes by having a highly trained and professional sales staff, along with same-day delivery and low prices. HH Gregg also knows that much of its products are researched online before customers ever make a trip to the store.
According to Yahoo Research, 88 percent of sales revenue generated from online advertising is derived from consumers who have done their research on the internet, then made their purchase in a brick-and-mortar store. eMarketer says that as much as $500 billion in offline purchases were influenced by the internet in 2007. Meanwhile, BigResearch reports that 89 percent of consumers making in-store purchases in key categories have conducted research online.
Armed with this knowledge, HH Gregg has established several hundred blogs focused on both its products as well as its community involvement. Content is created through an intranet by the people closest to the products and the customers -- the company's employees. By winning search traffic over literally thousands of search terms with content that is specific to the query and written by smart, passionate employees, HH Gregg is in a position to be the educator when prospective customers are doing their product research.
Conclusion
All of these examples represent great corporate blogs because they were initiated with specific goals in mind. These organizations have all looked to leverage social media to help build their business in ways that are both human and mutually beneficial to both their clients and their companies.
Chris Baggott is co-founder and CEO of Compendium Blogware.
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