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Archive for the ‘Strategy’ Category
13 Jan 2010
by Michelle O'Hagan
In case there’s still anyone out there who believes social media/social networking is:
- a fad
- for kids
- for B2C, not B2B
instead of a pervasive shift in how all people communicate with each other, now comes yet another eMarketer report, Social Network Ad Spending: 2010 Outlook , that should put those beliefs out to pasture.
One of the most important findings concerns marketing, not advertising:
According to eMarketer:
“… paid advertising in social networks—banners, text ads and search advertising, as well as the more targeted advertising being deployed by Facebook and MySpace—is only a fraction of the spending … The researcher estimated marketers spent $800 million in 2009 on social network, word-of-mouth and conversational marketing, up more than 23% over the previous year. Further growth of 35% is expected for 2010 to more than $1 billion.”
Long story short: Marketers are spending truckloads of money to create demand online in social networks, because that’s where their prospects (consumers and business people of all ages and walks of life ) are.
Demand creation using social media and social networks is no fad, and it is not exclusive to any particular demographic.
Things are looking up. 
Posted in Brand Visibility, Content Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Social Media, Strategy | No Comments »
20 Oct 2009
by Timothy Nolan
It may sound like a “Captain Obvious” statement, but when developing a Google Adwords campaign (or any online marketing strategy for that matter) it is essential to create goals and define conversions, for the following reasons:
1. Analytics: Meaning and Purpose
When looking at trends and analyzing data for an internal site or external client, the numbers mean nothing without context (a conversion rate). I have been looking through some of the campaigns for a major client. The numbers themselves seem to be moving in a positive direction, but without an identified end result I have no way of interpreting any of the trends.
2. Keyword Success
Perhaps you have been looking at your Adwords campaign thinking, “How can I ever increase these numbers?” It is much easier to analyze data that already exists. With goals, funnels, and conversion rates established, it is easy to tweak and test new ad groups against the current successful ones. By establishing goal conversions you can notice keyword success and decrease costs.
3. Visitors vs. Clients
Just as an established sales cycle helps companies close sales quicker, studying conversion rates is the key to quickly turning clicks into revenue streams. The conversion “ding” in your Analytics account will help to identify where that individual came from, what they looked at, and how they ended up converting. Now you can use that information to gain insights into what visitors are thinking.
Conversions Defined
Each one of these can be defined as a conversion:
- Download
- Purchase
- Sign-up/Subscribe
- View of a video(s)
- Click-thru
Don’t forget the landing page(s). A customized landing page and a prominent call to action makes it more likely visitors will follow your Reese’s Pieces (had to have an “E.T.” reference) to the end. But whatever the case may be, make sure that the goals are set on your end, and the path is illuminated on theirs.
Tags: adwords, calls-to-action, conversion, google, landing pages, marketing funnels
Posted in Content Marketing, Distribution Marketing, Metrics/ROI, SEO, Strategy | 2 Comments »
27 Mar 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
A passage in a recent eMarketer article, Magazines Run Online, reminds us once again why ‘quantity’ isn’t the end-all, be-all.
“Years of inflated circulation rate bases have backfired,” says Ms. Krol. “Magazines chased volume, banking on a larger set of readers to justify advertising rate increases. Unfortunately, that bloated universe of readers often proved less profitable.”
Some publishers, such as Newsweek, have responded by pruning their audiences to a smaller, more desirable demographic.
The big move in publishing, however, is online. But the transition may be coming too late for many titles.
The article is focused on consumer titles, but the lesson is clear: You cannot chase “all” readers–and practically give away your content ($10/year subscription for some of the titles to which I subscribe)–and expect to stay profitable.
That’s one of the reasons custom publishing hasn’t hit the skids like so many other types of publishing these days. In custom magazines, the content is targeted to a specific (sometimes, an extremely specific) audience. These people want what they’re getting (quality, not quantity). The content is valuable to them.
Tags: circulation, eMarketer, Newsweek
Posted in Custom Magazines, Custom Publishing, Strategy | 2 Comments »
26 Mar 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
One of my colleagues, Rene Ryan, called my attention to a blog post on BusinessBytes, a small business technology blog. The Death of the Elevator Pitch highlights the fact that the “elevator pitch”–the supposedly succinct description of a business offering that marketers could use to entice a prospect when time was tight–is on its last legs. The blogger blames SMS and Twitter and mentions something about the downfall of civilization.
It’s way past time for the elevator pitch to go the way of the dodo, washboards and rotary-dial telephones. An elevator pitch is too long, and allows for too much fluffing-up. That’s right–if it takes you 60 seconds to describe the basics of what you do or sell, you have some work to do.
Too many people go into this elevator-pitch exercise with the goal of describing every wonderful thing about the company, the widgets, the service, and how they relate to every single customer segment or vertical. You’re not supposed to be doing that in an elevator (”Sorry, I pushed the wrong button, I’m getting off at 3 not 6″), at a cocktail party (”Um … I’ll be right back, I see my ex-boyfriend from high school over there”) or in professional or social networks (”un-friend,” “un-connect”).
If someone wants to know EVERYTHING about your company or service, they’ll come to your website or invite you to respond to an RFP.
First, make them want to come to your website or send you the RFP. And in a world of ever-shortening attention spans and information overload, anything more than the very basics takes too long whether you’re on Twitter or in an elevator.
The BusinessBytes blogger gave a wonderful example of what I’ll call a Twitter Pitch.
- Start with the basics; noun, verb, object. (i.e. We sell cloth.)
- Add a modifier to clarify what is special about you or your business. (i.e. We sell cloth made from bamboo.)
- Add a short modifying phrase to clarify what is not only unique; but niche about your business. (i.e. We sell cloth made from bamboo that is cheap, ample and green-friendly.)
- Edit the whole thing down by a third to one half and start with the most ear-catching words. (i.e. We’re totally green. Bamboo cloth. cheap & ample.)
- Exchange email addresses.
- Hook ‘em.
Marketers who can boil their company’s offering down to eight to 10 words or a single sentence have a firm grasp on what they’re selling and how to communicate effectively with their target audiences.
Hook ‘em.
Tags: BusinessBytes, elevator pitch, twitter, twitter pitch
Posted in Brand Visibility, Content Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Social Media, Strategy | 10 Comments »
27 Feb 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
Below is a great slideshow from Bud Caddell, a strategist at Undercurrent. It makes a strong case for relationship marketing with the ideas that: there is no such thing as a captive audience, and “fans” (not awareness) are the only thing you should be focused on, especially in a recession.
In order to be fan-focused, your organization must have three things:
- a point of view (you cannot court everyone)
- a belief in infinity (b/c fandom defies time, space and material)
- open-source relationships (b/c fandom requires exposing yourself to the mechanisms of culture)
Bud’s slideshow provides a few examples fan-focused organizations, mostly large brands you’ve heard of.
Question: What companies do you know that are fan-focused???
Tags: bud-caddell, fandom, undercurrent
Posted in Brand Visibility, Content Marketing, Custom Magazines, Custom Publishing, Digital, Distribution Marketing, Relationship Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, User Engagement | 1 Comment »
12 Feb 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
An earlier post about Facebook’s user-base made the point that if you’re a marketer, and your target audience includes women or people over the age of 26, your audience probably has a Facebook account.
An article in today’s Wall Street Journal is further proof of the mainstreaming of social media in general, and Facebook in particular. It seems Facebook and Nokia are “discussing a partnership that would embed parts of the social network into some Nokia phones … contact information stored in Facebook would be integrated with the phone’s address book: When users looked up a contact, they could see whether their Faceboook friends were logged on, send them messages and post comments on their profile pages.”
And Nokia isn’t the only handset manufacturer that Facebook is chatting up; Palm Inc. and Motorola also are in discussions, according to the article.
So, for marketers it seems the writing is on the Facebook wall: if you haven’t done so already, start developing targeted, relevant custom content in order to engage your audience on Facebook and mobile devices.
Tags: facebook, motorola, nokia
Posted in Brand Visibility, Content Marketing, Custom Magazines, Distribution Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, User Engagement | No Comments »
