Leveraging Blogosphere Helps Promote Businesses
Anyone with an email address is familiar with spam, but today I received a note that on first glance appeared to be spam but upon reading it I realized it was actually a very interesting PR tactic. And I use the word “interesting” because I’m not sure if it’s a good idea or a bad idea. I’ll let you read the email and then we’ll chat about it on the other side:
Hello,
My name is Don Lair and I’m contacting you on behalf of GoldsmithJewelry.com. We are running a diamond earring giveaway that is open to bloggers and I thought you might be interested. The earrings are valued at $1,518 (1 carat diamond studs) and the giveaway is part of a Valentine’s Day promotion.
All you have to do to enter is write a post about Goldsmith Jewelry on your blog and include a link to the site. We will be linking to all blogs that enter the giveaway, so there’s a benefit for you even if you don’t win the big prize.
Here’s the page that has all the details:
http://www.goldsmithjewelry.com/pages/diamond-stud-earring-giveaway.php
We are announcing the winner on February 10 and he or she will receive the earrings before Valentine’s Day. Send me an email with a link to your entry and I’ll add a link to your blog on the official giveaway page.
Regards,
Don Lair
OK, what do you think? Would you recommend this tactic to your clients? I think it’s a shot in the dark, but then again so is firing out a release on PR Newswire. I have to admit I’m at least intrigued by the idea, so much so that I clicked through to the Web site to learn more about the company. But truth is, I don’t think I’d buy jewelry on the Internet and if I did I certainly wouldn’t buy it from a no-name business in Orlando.
Still, something like this on a local level or for a more established business might be worth a shot. And by simply blogging about this campaign I have indeed promoted his business — although I doubt it’s what he had in mind.
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Comments
January 8th, 2008 at 11:26 am
I think Leslie has a shot at some diamond earrings, that’s what I think!
January 8th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Okay, seriously, Len, have a backup gift available.
I don’t think it’s a PR tactic. It’s a promotional gimmick. I think your first instincts were correct: this is spam.
It’s a valiant attempt but fundamentally, they misunderstand bloggers and blogging. They’re trying to buy-off bloggers with jewelry and link-love and serious bloggers just won’t go there.
The pre-Valentine’s timing is right but I think they are missing the point of blogging which is people sharing passions – specifically here around a *brand experience*. Bloggers are asked to enter a contest, not experience their website, service, or some of the other things that might differentiate/distinguish the seller’s brand. What a missed opportunity!
What are we going to blog about here? “Hey, I won those earrings?” That’s not appropriate for us and probably most on their list. Best case, their name is out there -but again – so what if noone interacts with the brand.
They would have been much better off sending individual, personal notes to a small, targeted (read: well-researched) group of highly influential (in-relationship?) consumer bloggers to experience buying jewelry from their site over the Internet. If it’s the incredible or unique experience they claim, the bloggers will bite and write.
Also, this would be a great — and I believe highly viral — promotion/contest on Facebook or MySpace vs. with bloggers. “Send your friends a diamond ring.” Track who sent and enter them to win.
Hey Goldsmith — free idea — there’s still time!
January 8th, 2008 at 1:24 pm
While certainly walking the line o’ spam I actually applaud Don over at Goldsmith Jewelry. Why? He has sparked a conversation on VPRB. Who knows how many others he e-mailed this to and who knows how many other conversations have spawned as a result.
Don’s looking for inbound links. They’re good to have (understatement?). There is a steady stream of PR/SEO/SEM/Blogging/etc.-specific blogs out there that seem to always need a new topic. So why not throw Don a bone (and likely link to his site from “diamond earings”, “diamond studs” or some variation that is valuable to him) and blog about his approach/tactic as a discussion item like we have here on VPRB?
Who knows if it will work (if you see my wife with diamond studs in my ears anytime soon you’ll have your answer)but I agree… it’s intriquing!
January 9th, 2008 at 11:04 am
I specialize in online marketing (for online retailers) and while the message does come across somewhat as SPAM there is some legitimacy to it.
Sponsoring blog posts is not a new idea. Check out PayPerPost.com to see what I mean – it’s a site where you can create specific offers for bloggers to actually be paid in cash to write about you.
In our marketing plans for our clients, we routinely recommend conducting PR to bloggers to get them writing.
For example, I’m doing some marketing for ChathamsFineChocolates.com (local specialty chocolate retailer). We’ll be sending free boxes of chocolate to (specific) bloggers that reach our ideal target consumer audiences with complimentary content. Obviously, the hope is that they love the chocolate and can’t resist writing about it. And of course, we’ll offer more free chocolate as an incentive to write.
What makes this to me feel SPAMish is simple – he’s sent it to bloggers that really aren’t sensible venues to promote his jewelry store. Looks like he just bought a list of bloggers from a list aggregator and SPAMmed the whole list!
Of course it’s paying off for him though. You wrote about him. Others certainly have as well. And even if it’s not in a favorable light…it gets him links back to his site. And that means his Google search ranking goes up, and he gets more traffic from this blog, even though the shopper may have never viewed this blog at all!
There’s a method to his madness. It’s a good idea. I just can’t condone SPAM…
January 9th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
I did not get the email request. But bloggers will blog it. There are many, many bloggers who write about contests, so it will spread like wild fire. Which I wish weren’t true, becuase I would really like to win them.
But, to the man who does promotions for a chocolate company…..
I love chocolate! And I do reviews and giveaways for companies.
I think that if Goldsmith really wants to get some great reviews they should give a few bloggers some jewelry and some to give away. Small diamonds would still be cheap advertising for the scale some bloggers are able to spread the word.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Dan:
This is an interesting tactic – I wouldn’t call it a strategy though.
It appears that whomever is in charge of the overall strategy is mixing the tried-and-true contest/give-away with a blog carnival.
I think it’s a bit of a shot in the dark, but it’s better than resting on their laurels and doing nothing.
I believe their campaign could have been more targeted to specific influencers (not that you’re not an influencer, dan!). I don’t know the full scope of their campaign, but they might have been able to do a better job on influencer identification and engagement prior to the contest.
As for buying diamonds from an unknown jeweler, normally I would be inclined to agree, however, this email appears to come from ‘Don’ who – via this email – is clearly a decision maker at Goldsmith Jewelry and that adds a bit of credibility to the campaign if I were to check it out and find out that Don is the owner or VP or something. The question is: does it add enough credibility to make people buy?
My thoughts on this are that if they can ‘afford’ to give away diamond earrings, I would at least visit their site (which I did).
Some things that I would have done differently:
* develop a customized landing page for the contest (it was really a serious oversight for them not to have done this)
* do a better job on influencer identification and engagement
* add a title after Don’s name so we know immediately if he’s a ‘big wheel’ at Goldsmith or not.
Thanks,
Lena
http://weblog.infoworld.com/social-media-360/