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Posts Tagged ‘online marketing’

We now resume regular programming… Thursday, July 1st, 2010

How embarrassing, an online content consultancy that doesn’t update its own blog. I’ll eschew all the obvious analogies such as the plumber who doesn’t have time to do the plumbing at his own house, and instead just point to some of the things that have kept me away from the blog:

Ray Welling, Content Guy, Zazoo


Digital content: What customers want Thursday, February 25th, 2010

There may be a disconnect between the types of online content that customers want and the types that marketers think they want, according to a recently-published survey.

Marketing Sherpa and IDG Connect asked both marketers and buyers what types of offers would be increase the likelihood of clickthrough, and there were some sizable differences between the two groups. Marketers placed more weight on the impact of educational content (92%) and free research reports (86%) than buyers did (65% and 64%, respectively).

Marketing Sherpa reported that “While educational content, such as whitepapers or relevant industry research reports have their place, sending too many of these offers can further diminish their impact in buyers’ eyes. You need to create the right mix of offers, timed to stages of the buying cycle and contact role, to encourage continued interaction with your email messages.”

The survey revealed that buyers are receptive to receiving industry news and articles from vendor sources (84%), but only 73% of marketers felt the same way.

Marketing Sherpa recommended that marketers ”consider developing competitive comparison tools or guides to help prospects manage the buying process. Although more marketers than buyers said these tools increased their likelihood of a click, buyers still ranked comparisons and buying guides third on this list.

“….It’s difficult for a vendor to present a competitive comparison in an unbiased way, but at the very least you can provide a framework for doing competitive comparison.”

The survey asked how much more likely recipients were to click on certain types of offers. Surprisingly, buyers gave the highest rank to promotional content.

According to IDG Connect VP Bob Johnson, “Buyers want to see your promotional content. They need to understand what you do as a vendor, and need details about what your products and services offer.”

However, you can’t try to pass off promotional content as educational content. “That angers and frustrates them,” says Johnson.

Email body copy is another area in which marketers can provide more value for subscribers.

When asked which features would make vendor emails more useful, buyers ranked “highlight key words and points” (using bold fonts and hotlinks) third out of 12 options - more valuable than social media links, and more valuable than graphic imagery.

Ray Welling, Content Guy, Zazoo


Consumers expect video entertainment as well as marketing from companies Friday, February 5th, 2010

eMarketer’s recent report on the use of online video by the consumer packaged goods sector has uncovered some interesting results, such as the numbers showing that people are expecting to be entertained by companies as much as they are expecting to be marketed to. 

Across nearly all of the categories, entertainment rated as high as marketing (see above). Solving problems and offering incentives to buy were the highest rating expectations, on average.

The survey, conducted among nearly 600 US new media users, demonstrates the strength of online video and shows how consumers’ perceptions of marketing and advertising are changing, as the line between content and promotion becomes increasingly blurred.

“Digital video content, whether delivered through a computer, mobile phone, handheld device or TV monitor, has the potential to ignite two-way conversations between consumers and brands,” said Tobi Elkin, author of the report.

According to an eMarketer summary of the report: “Putting a hard number on the dollars spent by consumer packaged goods marketers on online video content is difficult, as outlays are not included in measures of paid advertising spending. Assessing its effectiveness is likewise a problem for marketers. The same metrics issues that bedevil marketers trying to assess the effect of online advertising on their brands also plague the ability to evaluate the performance of video content.”

Ray Welling, Content Guy, Zazoo


Constant content reaps business benefits Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

A recent article in MarketingProfs has some insightful comments about what sort of content you should put on our website to engage people and get them to keep coming back to your site.

Bob Knorpp, president of the advertising, marketing and social networking consultancy Cool Beans, makes the point that your website should be about the future, not the past. He says, “I could have easily filled my website with descriptions and photos of my past projects. But I hated that option,” because perusing a list of past accomplishments at a website is like “reading a history book and calling it cutting-edge thinking.”

He creates weekly podcasts and video clips related to the podcasts, tweets about site updates, and has a Facebook and Wikipedia page. Although the amount of effort sounds exhausting, he says it helps his business in three ways:

  1. It establishes him as an experts
  2. It provides context for clients.
  3. It makes him better at his job.

“Having your customers engage with a growing body of content is one of the surest ways to raise the perception that you are expert in your given field, and create a path toward ongoing loyalty and advocacy with your brand,” Bob says.

Shameless plug: If you want to emulate those efforts but don’t have the time/internal resources, Zazoo can help you create relevant, up-to-date, optimised content.

Ray Welling, Content Guy, Zazoo


Digital marketing’s guilty secret: we’re making this stuff up Thursday, November 19th, 2009

I was listening to an interview recently with the head of Razorfish, one of the world’s largest digital agencies (If you want to keep up with what’s happening in the digital media, I can recommend Susan Bratton’s Dishymix program, it’s very informative).

It was both surprising and refreshing to hear this fellow, Clark Kokich, frequently use phrases such as “none of us know anything” about digital media, “we’re actually inventing this as we go along” and “there are no experts”.

If the head of an organisation that is billing hundreds of millions a dollars a year in digital media is prepared to admit this, it’s time for all of us working in this space to come clean. This is the guilty secret of digital media “experts” all over the world: no one really knows what consistently works. There are a few principles to be applied, but unlike traditional media - be it advertising, marketing or publishing - there is no established framework that ensures a certain level of response to a program or campaign.

If someone tells you they have a fool-proof way to engage your customer base and turn ordinary customers into raving fans, guaranteeing huge exposure and profits, they’re bullshitting you. We’re all still experimenting with clients’ money.

So why on earth should customers take their money out of traditional marketing and advertising budgets and give it to online? Well, one big reason is that traditional methods are becoming less and less effective as the world’s embrace of online irrevocably changes their life habits (you can hear more about this in a Zazoo-produced podcast interview with Ad Age colunnist Bob Garfield published on the HotHouse blog this week. Be warned, this interview is not for the faint-hearted.). You need to find alternative ways to reach your customers, or else your competitors will get there before you.

Ready or not, your world is changing. Finding your way in the dark with someone who has a torch, however dim, is more effective than sitting there cursing the dark. And those torches are getting brighter all the time.

- Ray Welling, Content Guy


What’s next in online marketing and content Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Here are a couple of interesting articles I came across this week - worth a read:

  • Online marketing’s future in a web-based world - A commentary from the head of Coremetrics, written for ZDNet, this article discusses the move from behavioural marketing to contextual marketing and the integration between offline and digital marketing.
  • If you build a branded online community, will customers come? - “User groups take on a new meaning with the advent of social networking technologies, which provide the means for sharply heightened communication and collaboration. However, even with the best toolkit, the onus remains on the company to offer a value proposition that will make customers eager to participate.”

What’s that smell? It might be your campaign Wednesday, June 17th, 2009

Chris Abrahams, a US & European-based social media and conversation marketing expert who I interviewed earlier this year for a HotHouse podcast, has written a cleverly-titled article in Ad Age this week: “Global Web Means Your ‘Fart Jokes’ Can Be Heard Out of Context“. (I know my wife won’t believe me, but honestly, I am not writing about this just because it allows me to use the word ‘fart’ in a blog post!)

Anyway, Chris cites the example of Grey Advertising Germany’s recent campaign for the Doc Morris pharmacy chain, which advertised condoms by implying that if Hitler, Bin Laden and Mao’s parents had used Doc Morris condoms, the world would be a better place today. (View the ads here). Even though the ads aren’t online ads per se, reaction to them as insensitive, racist, etc. etc. has spread quickly via social media.

Chris points out that “That’s the way it is with humor - sometimes you nail it, sometimes you bomb. Humor is powerful in both directions. A simple allegory for old-media folks who still don’t get it: Standing up and telling a fart joke while drinking with friends in your rec room = low risk. Standing up and telling a fart joke while drinking with friends at someone’s wedding party = high risk.

“With internet advertising and PR, you are always at someone’s wedding party; you are never safely behind closed doors.”

He advises advertisers, marketers and PR flacks to remember “On the internet, you are always talking to the whole world, whether you intend to or not; be cognizant of who your message will offend and decide deliberately if you are willing to offend them; and if you must offend, have your mea culpa machine ready to go before you pull the trigger.”


This week’s social media links Sunday, May 24th, 2009

Here are a few interesting stories about social media that have been published in the past few days:

Social Media Benchmarks: Realities and Myths

“….many clients still ask about benchmarks. They ask, ‘What are good CTRs, CPCs, CPMs, etc. so I know how my programs stack up?’ Well, there’s good reason those benchmarks are hard to find. Lacking a reliable source, I ran my own analysis over the last three years and came up with many eye-opening results…”

Australian Social Media Statistics Compendium

“With so many new social sites emerging it is very important for marketers to have Australian specific intelligence to determine which channels are the most attractive to pursue as part of your marketing strategy….”

How Accurately Can You Gauge the ROI of Social Media Tactics?

“Marketers are under constant pressure to measure everything they do. The result is often a default to tactics that are more easily and accurately measureable, regardless of their effectiveness. This is especially true in social media marketing which often requires qualitative measurement rather than quantitative metrics that are more familiar to online marketers….”

Online Marketing’s Evolution

“What’s the future of interactive advertising? Executives from interactive agencies and marketing technology tech companies tried to answer that question at two conferences this week in New York City. Discussions ranged from the challenges of working in social media, risks for agencies in using pay-for-performance models, one online marketing sector that’s thriving, and Amazon.com’s crowdsourcing initiative. Here are some takeaways….”

Social Media Fails To Manifest As Marketing Medium, Report Likens Twitter To TiVo: More Hype Than Reality

“Social media has reached critical mass, with 83% of the Internet population now using it… But for all the media industry’s hype and buzz surrounding social networks, microblogs, and other social networking platforms, the genre has failed to become much of a marketing medium, and in the opinion of the Knowledge Networks’ analysts, likely never will. The report, “How People Use Social Media,” finds that social media is having a profound impact on the way people connect with each other, but that it’s not becoming a very meaningful way for people to connect with brands, or advertising promoting brands….”

The Social Data Revolution(s)

“In 2009, more data will be generated by individuals than in the entire history of mankind through 2008. Information overload is more serious than ever. What are the implications for marketing?….”


In praise of the bizarre Saturday, April 18th, 2009

I know it’s hard for most companies to acknowledge that they are no longer in control of their marketing, and that their customers now strongly influence what happens to their brand. It’s harder still for them to take active steps to give control to their customers, particularly when stories of what has happened to companies like Chevrolet, Skittles and Domino’s abound.

Believe it or not, it hasn’t been that long that companies have used the Internet to let customers actively play with their brand. I was reminded of this when I read recently about ‘celebrations’ of the fifth anniversary of Subservient Chicken, that creepy guy in the chicken suit with garters who reponds to user commands to reinforce the message that you can ‘have chicken your way’ at Burger King (Hungry Jack’s in Australia). The guys who came up with the idea have written a huge screed about the origins of Subservient Chicken which makes interesting reading.

The most important factor leading to this iconic online campaign was that the client was open to left-of-field ideas. As The Barbarian Group director Rick Webb writes, “To be perfectly frank, even as we were building the thing, I never believed it would launch. We here at TBG are insanely good these days for convincing clients to take risks. But in 2004, there was no way we ever could have sold the Chicken through. Sometimes getting the green light is as important as the idea. Most of the time, if you ask me.”

Of course, the big question is, did it sell more chicken for Burger King? To quote from AdWeek: ”About a month after the sandwich debuted, BK reported that sales had steadily increased an average of 9% a week. Since then the company has seen ‘double-digit’ growth of awareness of the TenderCrisp sandwich and ’significantly increased’ chicken sandwich sales. And the TenderCrisp does sell better than the original sandwich.”

Yes, you can make some mistakes by trying new things. But you might also take on that concept that powers your brand to a new level - and have fun doing it. Go on, try something new this month!


What makes users create content? Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Christine Beardsell has produced a thoughtful piece on ClickZ looking at what motivates people to participate online in brand-related user-generated content campaigns. Although money is a great external motivator, she says it can be over-used and diminish internal motivation factors. Based on her experience observing user-generated content communities at interactive agency Digitas in the US, she outlines 10 different ways companies can most successfully motivate user-generated content:

  • Make it easy
  • Make it fun
  • Give me cash
  • Give me access
  • Make me a star
  • Create something useful
  • Let me influence
  • Give me a challenge
  • Be altruistic
  • Surprise me

The key question companies need to ask themselves when considering a user-generated content campaign, Beardsell writes, is “Why would anyone want to participate in a brand-developed experience when there are endless unbranded community outlets for people to be a part of?” The answer to that question is to create “a balance between both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations, passions and reward.”


Hard to measure branding impact, but it’s there Wednesday, January 7th, 2009

Online Media Daily has published a commentary piece on the difficulties of measuring value online and the implications for online branding. It is a bit dense, but well worth reading carefully. In summary, Andy Atherton argues that 1) Something that is valuable is not necessarily directly measurable, because value can be difficult to measure; and 2) No model can substitute for relevant experience and common sense. Models aren’t always right.

To support his argument, Atherton quotes a recent study from the Atlas Institute which concludes that about 60% of all paid search clicks are on branded terms. Calling that number “simply astounding,” Atherton writes that ”Obviously Atlas’ parent company, Microsoft, has a vested interest in moving the market away from an excessive focus on Search, so skepticism is warranted. However, even if we cut that percentage in half, the inescapable conclusion is that a lot of the money brand marketers are spending on other media (online and offline) is having an impact - even if we can’t measure it precisely. 

“The other just as important and also equally inescapable conclusion is that marketers who only spend on search are losing potential sales to those marketers who use the full funnel. A consumer who begins by searching for ‘Campbell’s Soup’ must be more likely to end up buying Campbell’s Soup - versus buying Progresso soup or any other brand - than if they began by just searching for ’soup.’ ”

He concludes that, “Accountability is always good. However, accountability should never be a mandate (or an excuse) for doing only things that can be precisely measured. Just because we can’t measure something as precisely as we would like, doesn’t mean that thing is not valuable. That’s point #1.   

“Point #2 is that a measurement itself is only as good as the model on which it’s based. Models are a complement, not a substitute, for experience and intuition. 

“There’s an interesting parallel to be drawn with the current financial crisis. An army of ‘quants’ had built complex and impressive models explaining how return could finally be separated from risk. Some experienced investors, following their own common sense, avoided this trap - Warren Buffet comes to mind.  Often common sense is the best sense of all.”


It all starts - or stops - at the top Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

I’ve come across an interesting blog-versation about CEOs who just don’t ‘get it’ when it comes to digital marketing. Mayra Ruiz started the conversation on her Marketing Misfit blog when she asked for some advice about how to deal with a client who wants to turn his website back into a brochureware site, supported by offline-only marketing, because his company’s sales are down and he believes his website isn’t helping. As Mayra explains, the sales problem could have something to do with a change in his sales team. Anyway, she asked for advice via her blog and Twitter, and she’s received plenty of good advice about convincing a CEO to stick with digital. Here are some highlights:

Kari Rippetoe at the Caffeinated Blog writes: “It seems to me that the CEO has the mindset that his product in all its feature-laden glory should be valuable enough for his visitors.  Now, I haven’t seen the website myself, so I don’t know how the product is described; but none of his prospective customers are going to care enough about his product to visit the site more than a couple of times…. Why doesn’t the CEO want his website to be one of those go-to places for research and data related to his product?  Why doesn’t he want his company to be an authority in its industry?  They have an incredible opportunity to build trust and authority around their product through content - they just have to create an effective content marketing strategy and stick with it…. Prospects have to go through the research phase of the buying funnel - they’re looking for the what, when, where, why, and how and gathering as much information as they can (all that “extra stuff”) in order to draw up a well-researched short-list of options…. Prospects expect a website … Offline marketing efforts won’t be nearly as effective on their own without a tandem online strategy to help keep your sales leads warm.  Kill your website, and I guarantee you’ll be killing your new business.”

Jonathon Betts at the Bettsonian Blog writes: “For a company that is marketing software it would seem a tragedy to discard the opportunity offered by web 2.0 tools. They could be used to support a company’s positioning as dynamic, innovative, tech-savvy and responsive…. This also demonstrates the importance of being able to demonstrate return on investment…. Does the CEO really understand what web 2.0 is really about? …the social media “market” has been characterised by hype and fragmentation. This doesn’t present a clear picture to your average business person. A ‘3 minute guide to social media’ to give non-marketing execs a snapshot of what’s going on would be worthwhile….Implement new channels incrementally rather than going for a big bang/all-or-nothing approach. Starting with a blog requires little or no cash outlay. The results from this will then support further investment decisions.”

My own 2 cents: take a look at the company’s marketing strategy and provide simple illustrations as to how a digital strategy can help achieve marketing/sales goals. If the CEO can’t articulate the marketing strategy, then heaven help the business.


Online content strategy - in a nutshell Tuesday, December 30th, 2008

Heidi Cohen has written a terrific piece on ClickZ explaining why an integrated content strategy is a must in 2009 for companies looking for effective marketing spend. The article is well worth reading in total and saving/printing, but here are some highlights:

When creating a communications strategy, “your content must address consumers as people. You should supply them with relevant and engaging information without sounding like sanitized marketing-speak.” If you get it right, you will 1) extend your brand; 2) drive traffic to your site; 3) diversify the ways you engage with potential customers; 4) make it easier for people to find your site via search engines; 5) provide product support; and 6) build community. 

Heidi outlines nine content formats to consider, including online video, podcasts, webinars and Twitter. She also discusses three ways to stretch your marketing resources online and five metrics to track (hint: page views are not on the list).

Attention potential clients: this is a preview of what we’ll be talking to you about next year. Thanks, Heidi!


More 2009 predictions Monday, December 29th, 2008

Here are some more predictions posted about online growth/trends for next year. Social media manager Roger Harris predicts that Twitter will go through consolidation and integration phases in 2009 (BTW, I found this link via a Twitter connection), use of viral video will increase, and social media will be used internally by large companies for ‘management efficiency gains’.

Meanwhile, BusinessWeek says that accountability and compelling user experiences are two reasons why online advertising will be the only sector of the advertising industry to experience growth next year (albeit only 6-10% growth, less than half of pre-GFC predictions).

The power of word of mouth marketing is another reason why online will be the shining spot in a dark year. Jeffrey Rayport writes that, “It’s not that online advertising will supplant traditional media. It won’t. But a new and different ad equilibrium will emerge from the coming economic recovery - and it will represent a radical shift from anything we’ve known before. “


Repeat after me, part II: ROI bad, VRM good Monday, December 8th, 2008

Following on from my post the other day about the problems of using traditional return on investment (ROI) measurements for web activities, I’ve discovered another useful acronym - VRM, or Value Reference Measurement. Lewis Green, writing in the bizsolutionsplus blog, has produced a concise definition of this measurement, developed by the US Federal Chief Information Officers Council in 2002. He quite properly distinguishes it from ROI and suggests VRM, which is measured over a lifetime of sales and relationships, may be more valuable for measuring the impact of social media and social networking than ROI, which is strictly how much money was returned against an investment.

“Don’t say ROI unless you mean it,” he writes. “Instead, use metrics that measure both ROI and Value, and help decision makers understand how they differ and how each grows a business. ROI hits the bottom line; Value hits the top line.”

“Keep in mind that ROI might be either positive or negative, so to avoid what at first glance appears to have been a bad decision, it is smart to also measure Value through intangible benefits such as customer experiences, customer loyalty, and word of mouth to justify any expense. ROI is an important metric, but it needs to be balanced with a rigorous analysis of all the value factors.”

“….When discussing marketing and communications with C-level executives, do not say ROI unless you mean it in dollars and cents. Instead, offer up both ROI and VRM and then you will be speaking your client’s language. Be patient and know what you are talking about.

“Finally, don’t sell tools, sell goals and  strategies to achieve a company’s objectives. Do it in concert with the Marketing, Communications, Sales, and Customer Service departments. Executives and business owners don’t want to buy a tool; they want to buy a plan for success, and they want both ROI and VRM. Some of the tactics (e.g., SM [social media] and SN [social networking]) likely will drive Value more than ROI. Others (e.g., advertising and direct marketing) likely will drive ROI more than Value. Together they will produce dynamic results.”

Social media blogger Peter Kim agrees with Lewis’ assessment, but argues that you need to present ROI measures as well as VRM measures to C-suite executives, writing that “If ROI doesn’t apply to social media marketing, then social media should not be used for marketing.” His views sparked a flurry of comments both supporting and rejecting his position - check out his posting to see them.


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