Digital Marketing Audit of Blackmagic Design

Student ID: 100886273

Word Count: 2143

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 Content Page

Title Page………………………………………………………………………………1

Content Page…………………………………………………………………………..2

Executive Summary…………………………………………………………………...3

Overview & Analysis of Current Digital Marketing Strategies……………………4-10

Company Website…………………………………………………………...4-6

Social Media…………………………………………………………..…...6-10

Facebook………………………………………………………………7

Twitter…………………………………………………………………8

Instagram…………………………………….………………………8-9

Youtube…………………………………………………………….9-10

Summary Managerial Recommendations…………………………………………....11

Bibliograpy……………………………………………………………………….12-15

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Executive Summary

Blackmagic Design is a company that was founded in 1984 by Grant Betty,

specializing in designing and manufacturing digital movie cameras, film production

and post-production equipment, and developing digital video editing software.

Blackmagic Design prides itself on “being one of the world's leading innovators and

manufacturers of creative video technology” (blackmagicdesign.com, 2017) and has

manufactured equipment, such as the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, and developed

video editing software, such as DaVinci Resolve, which are both industry-leading

products.

Globally, the film industry is a popular and growing industry, with the TV and video

revenue worldwide in 2015 being USD286.17 billion dollars, which is expected to

grow to USD324.66 billion dollars in 2020. (Statista, 2016) Being in such a highly

lucrative industry, it is intensely competitive, with Blackmagic Design competing

against the likes of RED Digital Cinema Camera Company, ARRI, Adobe, and

Canon. As the companies set their eyes upon smaller budget filmmakers, instead of

the big budget companies, it is becoming increasingly important that they make use of

digital marketing to appeal to a new generation and bring attention to their product

over others.

In the following report, it is detailed the digital marketing methods Blackmagic

Design is currently taking and the ways it should improve on using them. The

methods they have been using can mainly be broken down into using their website

and using social media marketing, where they can focus more on using word of

mouth, as well as having a brand ambassador and social media influencers to bring

others to the product they’re selling.

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Overview & Analysis of Current Digital Marketing Strategies

Digital marketing gives consumers a voice and humanises the company. The top

priority of digital marketing is consumer engagement. (Ang & Gill, 2012) The

importance for the business and customer to be able to maintain a relationship,

interact and converse, cannot be understated in this day and age. Through digital

marketing, customers can be decisive and make quick decisions, give feedback

directly to the company and express their interest in new products.

Blackmagic Design’s current digital marketing strategies can be broken down into

using their website and using social media marketing. They use both of these tools to

reach out to newer customers, as well as to retain older customers.

Website

Having a website is one of the most important things in today’s digital marketing

landscape. As Dockman (2016) says, the website “is often the first point of contact

potential customers have of your company and your brand.” By being where people

go to find out more about the company and the products they’re selling, it is

absolutely essential that the website includes and anticipates details customers may be

looking for, as well as having an efficient design for customers to navigate around

easily.

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 Figure 1: No. of visits to blackmagicdesign.com, Jun – Nov 2017
Data from similarweb.com/website/blackmagicdesign.com#overview

In Figure 1, we can see that Blackmagic Design’s website, blackmagicdesign.com,

averages around four million total visits to their website. Most of these visitors visit

the website for three main purposes, to purchase a product, to interact with the forum

present for any queries, and to find out more about the company.

The customers who head to the website looking specifically either to purchase

Blackmagic Design’s products or to find out more about where they can purchase the

company’s products are the company’s first concern. This is seen by the website

having Blackmagic Design products featured front and center, which is good for

getting consumers to know what products they sell and how much it costs quickly.

Fredricksen (2013) writes that brand websites “are still a primary resource for

consumers seeking information about products and the companies that make them”

The website also has a forum present, where users can inquire about technical

difficulties, product specifications, and other such things. The forum is a place for the

company to reach out to existing customers and answer queries from new customers.

By having a forum present, the company is able to reach out and build customer

relationships, thus increasing brand loyalty. This helps to humanize the company and

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to build a digital community, where the customers feel that the company cares for

what they say and vice versa. (Tomaro, 2016)

When customers come to the website to seek to find out more about the brand, there is

not much they can find about the history or stated aims of the brand. McGregor

(2017) says that “if there is no way for customers to find information about you

immediately or can browse from the comfort of their own electronic device, they will

forget about you in no time at all.” Currently, Blackmagic Design is seriously lacking

in the availability of information about their company on their website. It only has a

single page that details some of its history and stated goals, but it should have more

information available on its website. This does not establish the company as a

relatable brand, thus negatively impacting brand loyalty.

In summation, Blackmagic Design fares well on having its customers come and use

the website to be able to purchase products and to build a digital community in its

forums. However, the company does not have any ways for consumers to find out

more about the company, its history, and its goals and stated aims.

Social Media

Social media marketing is fast growing in importance in many companies, as they

realize its importance. According to Kusinitz (2014), “92% of all marketers indicated

that their social media efforts have generated more exposure for their businesses.”

This shows that social media is indeed an important endeavor for many companies to

undertake, as they can help win over new customers and retain old customers by using

social media as a communication and marketing tool. The benefits of social media

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marketing are varied, including having increased brand recognition and brand loyalty,

decreased marketing costs, and richer customer experiences. (DeMers, 2014)

Blackmagic Design’s social media marketing strategy can be further split into the

different and varied approaches they use with different social media platforms.

Currently, the company uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube as their main

sources of social media to reach out and connect with the customer.

Facebook

Facebook is one of the major social media brands in the world, currently having 1.2

billion users, and growing. (Swartz, 2014) This cements its position as one of the

major networks where companies can do digital marketing and reach out to the

company’s customers.

Blackmagic Design makes frequent use of its Facebook, posting many different

updates every few days. However, it only has about 19000 likes on Facebook by its

followers. It mainly uses Facebook as an avenue to share news, product launches and

updates. The posts on news and product updates do not garner many likes or shares,

showing that most people are not interested in reading what Blackmagic Design has

put on its Facebook. However, the posts with more likes and shares are the ones

where it launches new products, or sharing a video that was made by utilizing

Blackmagic Design’s products. The consumers want to see the usage and capabilities

of the new products, and they want to share it with their friends, thus garnering more

likes and shares on these posts.

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 Twitter

Twitter’s social impact cannot be understated, the social media platform having 328

million active users, and yet still growing at a rapid pace. (Wolfe, 2017) In Twitter,

users can campaign causes via hashtag, discuss breaking news, and rally people and

companies to different purposes. (Lee, 2013) Thus, it is highly important for

companies to use Twitter to maintain a following and to be able to manage the

conversation happening about their company.

Blackmagic Design’s Twitter, @Blackmagic_News, has 53.8K followers. Most of its

tweets comprise of news updates for its products and launches. It does not make effort

to engage with the audience, as it does not follow anyone, or reply to anyone.

Blackmagic Design mainly relies on its twitter to link consumers over to its websites

and press releases to find out more info. The company does not take effort to create a

two-way conversation, as there is a lack of hashtags the company uses, as well as no

official replies using the account. Edgecomb (2017) emphasizes the importance of

having a two-way conversation with social media users, noting that it helps to “show

the brand personality”, and “gain valuable, candid insight”. Currently Blackmagic

Design’s Twitter is just a news vehicle and does not help with gaining any

information for the company to take advantage of.

Instagram

Instagram is a fast growing platform where users can share photos with each other,

currently having 800 million users, as of September 2017. (Balakrishnan and

Boorstin, 2017) In Instagram, as a visual medium, people are won over by the

strength of the content available on Instagram. As said by Ferreti (2017), Instagram is

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a great opportunity for customers to interact and “virtually window shop” with what

the company has to offer.

Blackmagic Design’s Instagram, @blackmagicnewsofficial, has nearly 4000

followers, which is smaller compared to its Twitter and Facebook following. The

Instagram is mainly used to advertise on what people have done using Blackmagic

Design’s products. However, it mainly duplicates the same content that is on

Facebook and does not add anything unique to the social media platform. The

company also frequently adds links to its Instagram posts for users to follow and find

out more. However, links are not clickable on Instagram, thus leading to many people

not heading to the linked article and instead skipping past it. The company does not

follow anyone, and noticeably, rarely receives comments. This shows that the

company is not interacting and building a relationship with its customers.

Youtube

Having more than 100 hours of video uploaded onto Youtube every minute, and more

than a billion unique users monthy, Youtube is clearly a social media platform with a

very high global reach. (Brune, 2015) Youtube has changed the world, and now more

and more companies are finding it important to advertise through making videos and

uploading them on Youtube. Youtube marketing is successful, especially through the

use of popular Youtubers as influencers and brand ambassadors. By having certain

people endorse the product, companies increase engagement and have a direct

positive impact on sales and brand loyalty. (Sussman, 2017)

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Blackmagic Design’s Youtube channel is mainly used for news updates in various

languages, to advertise product launches and updates, and to show off the capabilities

of its products with various short films and behind the scenes projects. Each video

varies from having a few hundred views to having five thousand views. There are

very few videos that are above five thousand views, with most of the content that

garners more views being those that show off the capabilities of the product.

Blackmagic Design also makes a habit of uploading the company’s press conferences

in their entirety on its channel, thus creating two to three hour long videos that

relatively little people will sit through.

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Summary Managerial Recommendations

After having analyzed the digital marketing efforts Blackmagic Design has used, it is

evident that the main problem that the company is facing with its digital marketing

efforts is twofold. Firstly, the company does not make use of each various digital

marketing platforms effectively, usually uploading the same content on its website,

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. Secondly, the company does not reach

out to the customers much, effectively not engaging them and creating brand loyalty.

Jasmeet (2017) says that “content is king” and it is essential to vary your content

among all different platforms you use for marketing, as each platform has different

needs and demands. Blackmagic Design could make use of Youtube and Instagram to

show off the capabilities of their products by featuring short films and images taken

with their cameras, or edited with their software. This has proven popular among their

followers in the past, and therefore the company should be doing more of it. The

company could also use Facebook and Twitter to release news updates, but also to

interact fully with its customers, being able to manage the conversation and the

customers’ expectations.

By interacting with customers, Blackmagic Design helps to create brand loyalty, have

increased brand recognition, increased engagement rate and a higher conversion rate.

(DeMers, 2014) Blackmagic Design can do this by employing brand ambassadors and

influencers to further push the company’s products in the digital space, especially in

social media, like Facebook and Youtube. Leinbach-Reyle (2015) contends the power

of digital marketing, saying it is important for companies to “leverage online and

offline marketing together”. By reminding its customers of the company’s existence,

more and more people will be thinking of buying Blackmagic Design’s products first.

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 Bibliography

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Dockman, K. (2016). How Important Is Web Design to a Digital Marketing Plan?.

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way-conversation [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].

Balakrishnan, A. and Boorstin, J. (2017). Instagram says it now has 800 million

users, up 100 million since April. [online] CNBC. Available at:

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million.html [Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].

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Sussman, B. (2017). Forbes Welcome. [online] Forbes.com. Available at:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/07/28/influencer-marketing-

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[Accessed 26 Dec. 2017].

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