online marketing
Social + Search = Marketing (Part 3)
Photo by: The Rhumb Line
This is part 3 of the Marketing basics series. After discussing the 4 P’s of Marketing in part 1 and brand positioning in part 2, I will now discuss the customer sales cycle. It is very important to first understand what the sales cycle is and then to identify where you want to meet your potential customers. What online channels you use and how you engage with your potential customer will change depending on the sales cycle phase.
The sales cycle can be broadly broken down as:
- Phase 1 – Awareness
- Phase 2 – Search and Evaluation
- Phase 3 – Purchase
- Phase 4 – After-sales
Phase 1 – Awareness
Customers in the Awareness phase either do not know that your product exists or do not yet desire your product. The marketing objective when targeting customers is this phase is to make your product readily available so that when the customer is ready to find your product, they will be able to.
Sample online channels: Organic Search, PPC Search, PPC Display
Phase 2 – Search and Evaluation
Customers in the Search and Evaluation phase know they want your product or a competitor’s product, but must decide which product to buy and where to buy it. The marketing objective when targeting customers in this phase is to provide them with as much information as possible in a convenient and easy to use interface.
Sample online channels: Company website, Facebook Page, review sites (eg. Epinions.com)
Phase 3 – Purchase
Customers in the Purchase phase have finally decided to purchase your product and now need to physically make the purchase. The marketing objective when targeting customers in this phase is to facilitate the customers’ purchase, make it as easy as possible, make it stress free and make it a positive experience.
Sample online channels: Company website, mobile app, Facebook app
Phase 4 – After-sales
Customers in the After-sales phase have purchased and are using your product. The marketing objective when targeting customers in this phase is to create loyal customers by offering them value. It is an investment because a happy customer will be a returning customer. Selling to a returning customer is much easier and cheaper than trying to gain a new customer.
Sample online channels: Company website, Twitter, GetSatisfaction.com
Victor
eMarketing Strategist
Tags: after sales, awareness, basics, evaluation, loyal customers, online marketing, purchase, sales cycle, search marketing, social marketing, strategy
Social + Search = Marketing (Part 2)
This is part 2 of the Marketing basics series. After discussing the 4 P’s of Marketing in part 1, I thought it would be useful to talk about brand positioning. In particular, the basic T-C-B model is a good, simple framework to organize your thought process and approach when creating social media and search engine marketing strategies.
Brand positioning is an enormous topic in itself. Traditionally, companies tried to create a brand image for their companies through broadcasting marketing messages to their audiences through advertisements on TV, radio, print, etc. With the advent of social media, online marketing and engagement focused communications, it is suicide to sound like a traditional broadcast ad when engaging with your audience.
Traditional messaging approaches and the notion that you can define your brand for your audience do not carry over to online marketing. So it is important to understand your company’s brand positioning.
Even though you can’t tell your audience how to perceive your brand, your communications and actions do influence how they perceive it. What you say and what you do must be consistent with your desired brand image.
What is the T-C-B model?
I was first exposed to the T-C-B model while reading a Marketing book by Rossiter and Bellman. T stands for Target, C stands for Category and B stands for Benefit.
Target
It is important to understand who is your target audience. With social media, your target audience may be just one person or a small, special interest group you engage with. Whichever the case, you need to understand them on a deeper, more personal level than traditional marketing.
Category
It is also important to understand what category need your audience will get from your product, service or interaction with you. By category, I mean the type of product. For example, the iPhone’s category is a mobile phone. The iPod’s category is a MP3 player. The iPad’s category is…I’m still trying to figure out that one… If you cannot quickly communicate to your audience what your product does, why they need it or why they should care about your company, they will not pay attention.
Benefit
As touched upon in part 1 of this series, the benefit of a product to its consumers is the value your audience will receive from your product. If you understand who your audience is and what category need they desire, then the key benefit is the “thing” that will satisfy that need.
Try considering T-C-B before sending that next tweet. Who are you engaging with? What is it you’re talking about? What value will your followers get?
Victor Chan
eMarketing Strategist
Tags: benefit, brand, brand positioning, category need, digital strategy, engagement, internet marketing, marketing basics, online marketing, target audience
Behaviourally Targeted Online Ads…On the Rise!
Check out the eMarketer’s forecast as summarized by the fabulous daily, CynopsisDigital. Based on our team’s experience and success using behaviourally targeted online ads, this trend makes perfect sense. Still, the numbers are staggering.
“Assuming that privacy concerns are adequately addressed, behavioral targeting will generate more than $1 billion in ad sales in the U.S this year, according to a forecast from eMarketer, with that number more than doubling to $2.6 billion by 2014. Behaviorally targeted ad dollars will rise as a proportion of online display spending from 14.2% in 2010 to nearly 20% by 2014, when ads targeted based on interests or intentions will account for 7.6% of total US online ad spending.
U.S. Behavioral Targeting Online Advertising Spending 2008-2014 (millions)
Year Spending % Change
2008 $775 47.6%
2009 $925 19.4%
2010 $1,125 21.6%
2011 $1,350 20.0%
2012 $1,700 25.9%
2013 $2,100 23.5%
2014 $2,600 23.8%
Source: eMarketer”
- Moyra
Tags: ad spending, behavioural advertising, online advertising, online marketing, PPC, SEM
ALERT! 5 Steps To Creating and Maintaining A Successful Online Presence
I’m an information junkie. I read almost everything I can get my eyes on if it relates to a topic of interest – social media, television, online marketing, cooking, travel, raising a toddler. Of course the problem is, there’s way more information than there is time.
A similar challenge faces businesses today. There are far more online marketing opportunities than time and money to support them. On one hand, it’s an embarrassment of riches. On the other, it’s a pain in the posterior for businesses trying to decide which tools will deliver the greatest ROI.
When I step into a bookstore, sometimes I “lose it.” My pulse quickens as I roam from section to section grabbing books I want to read that instant. Many of these books litter my home office waiting for me to crack their covers. The reality is, I can’t get to them all, just like I can’t get to every blog, forum and tweet.
Some businesses are “losing it,” too. I’m watching as they dabble with Twitter, Facebook, blogs, social bookmarking, and shiny apps that grab their attention. Trouble is, companies sometimes sew the seeds and forget to water them. They sit dormant, like my stacks of books.
For some reason, quite likely a combination of reasons actually, businesses are experimenting online without applying much thought or resources. When it comes to building an online presence, I’m all for experimentation. In fact, it’s necessary. But, that doesn’t mean playing fast and loose with your brand.
Perhaps it’s because many CEOs still dismiss the Internet as a frivolous frontier where their teenagers hang out and play games, where singles search for mates, serious types read news, and a whole lot of people watch porn. Perhaps, when it comes to engaging customers online, the barriers to entry are so low and so unregulated that it’s too far outside the costly and complex world of traditional marketing and advertising to make these opportunities seem credible … or comfortable. Whatever the reason, after fifty years of business obsessing about brand, it is remarkable that so many companies are throwing caution to the wind and jumping online without so much as a whiff of a plan.
That’s why we created A.L.E.R.T. It’s an acronym that spells out the five steps to creating and maintaining a successful online strategy. It’s a philosophy and for the Magnify team, a comprehensive system.
The core concept goes like this …
A.L.E.R.T. – ASSESS. LOCATE. ENGAGE. RESPOND. TRACK.
Assess – You need to know where you stand before you can figure out where you are going. This stage is all about figuring out what people online are saying about your brand, product or service, and what the conversations are about your competitors. It usually means paying attention to how users are finding and interacting with your website, too. And the websites of your competitors.
Locate – Where is your audience hanging out online? Once you start to find them, listen. Learn where they cluster, what matters to them, and how they like to engage in terms of platforms and communication style.
Engage – This is literally and figuratively the pivot point. It’s the most creative and often the most comprehensive part of the plan. How are you going to engage your target market? A paid advertising campaign? A simple blog? An aggressive Twitter and Facebook strategy? Quirky or eye-popping video? Games? Quizzes? All of the above? Whatever the plan, ensure you have the resources to make it thrive.
Respond – Listen more than you speak. It’s not a bad mantra for life and a darn good rule of thumb online. Monitor what is being said about your brand online. When someone asks a question, offers a compliment or throws a flame, a timely and authentic response can go a long way toward turning feedback into opportunities and critics into champions.
Track – Be sure to track your results each month. Dig into Google Analytics, Hootsuite, and the myriad other free monitoring tools. The only way to ensure ROI is to pay attention to the trends. Tweak the initiatives that aren’t working and amp up the ones that are.
Whether your company sells shoes or dreams, this process will help you build and maintain a successful online presence. It pays to be ALERT!
- Moyra
Tags: Business, facebook, internet marketing, online marketing, ROI, Social Media, Twitter
