REVIEWINGS THE INBOUND MARKETING METHODS OF 2 ORGANIZATIONS

 

REVIEW OF ORGANISATION: THE NORTH FACE

 

The North Face is a big multinational company. The presence of the brand is almost in everything in the world, so sometimes for this kind of companies is even more important to create and maintain first a strong brand identity and community and then the conversions will improve by their own.

For this reason, I already expected that The North Face has a strong presence on all the main digital channels and social media.

The goal is to create a strong community, demonstrate the high and technical strong quality of the products, and sharing by influencers and climbing experiences.

There is something for me that could be improved, for example on Instagram company profile I would add the e-commerce product tag on the pictures with prices, so the visitors when looking photos can see the name of a Jacket (for example) and by clicking on they could go directly on the website product page.

Blog strategy (https://www.thenorthface.co.uk/exploration/our-journal.html) is quite different I think from other companies, but looks like the aim is not to drive traffic to the website from Google search but more to create valuable articles for the community. Anyway, they drive traffic to the website with SEM strategy connected to specific keywords. I personally agree with this choice considering this type of company.

The e-commerce website is well done and it's definitely easier to drive traffic into conversion with a good user experience. Categories are very good and separate from each other, helping SEO strategy. CTA is always present and product pages are complete with all pieces of information about the products. Landing pages on websites help the conversion and tracking of data from different categories.

CRM is Salesforce, one of the most famous CRM in the world so I suppose they are required to do automations and a lot of data to manage in the right way.

The “subscribing process” is easy and I received an automatic welcome mail very well done. In my opinion, the importance of generating new leads is very important for this kind of website to drive people to buy in the official North Face Store rather than in resellers, so I would add a small pop-up in the header of the website.

The intention to nurture a “delight process” is clear because the company has created, for example, this loyalty program for maintaining the fidelity of customers https://www.thenorthface.co.uk/en_gb/loyalty-programme.html.

For sure I think they analyze customer data after purchase and have some automation for keeping high the trust and reputation level of the company, aiming to involve the consumer to buy other times.

 

Conclusion: I think that The North Face is doing a good job with the inbound marketing technology, and improvement in these levels is possible but not easy. They have lot of strengths and I don’t see weaknesses of this inbound marketing approach.

 

 

REVIEW OF ORGANISATION: THE STEAK SHOP

 

The Steak Shop thought was only an online beef shop, but then I discover is a Steakhouse with a butcher inside and, of course, home delivery.

I think for sure they can improve. I know that they are a small business compared to THE NORTH FACE and HUBSPOT and I choose them for that.

The inbound methodology is based first to attract new visitors with best practices like social media, blog, and keyword research. The social media strategy I don’t like for these mains reasons:

 

- they use only Facebook and Instagram, and the content strategy is not clear. If we see its Instagram profile: https://www.instagram.com/steakonthegreen/, we can see just pictures of products (pictures that seems to be downloaded from the web, not created on their own) and it is not clear if they sell only beef or fish from the photos. A good social media content strategy aims to create a community, so required most explanations of how to cook the products, most healthy and biological informations about the products, most social surveys and games in the stories section, and why not…show the peoples/employers who works in the company, create reels ECC… this is a good Instagram Italian profile for example https://www.instagram.com/wilfred.shop/

 

- In addition to that they don’t use Youtube which I think is one of the main channels for this kind of business to share good videos with the products.

 

Regarding blog strategy, the proposal is good, but it could be better and they have no constancy, which is fundamental for remaining on Google's first page. If they want to improve the online delivery business they need to improve their SEM and SEO strategy, otherwise, they will work always better with the physical store rather than the online store. They have a good presence on Google My business.

The ecommerce website is old https://www.thesteakshop.co.uk/. I suggest creating a new one with Shopify that is not too much expensive and do own photos with real products that they can use also for social media, not downloaded from the web similar to other websites. Products pages are almost empty, there is not a chatbot for those who want to ask informations etc…Result: Converting visitors into leads is very complicated now.

For these reasons, conversions could be low and so they could be better because the product is based on quality, and the physical store have a solid logistic and “base” center, both good things to have.

With a good and simple website and a CRM, they can do a good job and growth up this business by asking for newsletters, sending ebooks to emails cluster about instructions on how to cook beef etc…

The "delight process" could be to ask with automatic emails, how it has been the shopping experience on the website to improve. The best reviews could be published not only on the website but also in the highlights stories of Instagram/social media for example to create trust in more visitors.

 

Conclusion: with a budget dedicated to digital marketing, starting with inbound methodology and a new digital brand identity they could do much better. They have lot of weakness and bits of strengths (product maybe, and physical logistic restaurant already opened).