So our journey comes to an end (at least for a while) 21st Century kid,
But before I go, I would like to give you some heads up. Something that you can think about, something that might help you in the future.
There is a known African proverb that says that “for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today”. The truth is that, in such a ephemeral world, where attention spam is increasingly scarce – as everyone is constantly talking to everyone – and the ability of reaching the public is decreasing, being proactive becomes much more than a quality. It is now a must-have attribute to anyone who wants to be successful and, in order to be so, one needs to be always in touch of what is coming next and try to act on it today.
And that is what I want you do to kid, act on it now.
So let’s start, shall we?
I find appropriate to say that thinking about the future of digital marketing is undoubtedly a great challenge to anyone. But this is also a two-way road, as no matter how hard it may seem, it is also extremely crucial and thus it must be taken seriously into consideration. And that is why I am here today, to tell you what are my, and specialists, thoughts on the prospects of digital marketing and how to jump on their bandwagons.
The truth is that there are a thousand trends, for this year alone, and they are in constant change. Still, these are my favorite 3.
Reputation Engines
One of the greatest things about the Internet is that you can share knowledge, talk to others and discuss pretty much everything you want. Even greater than that, is to think that your audiences is also out there in this digital world. And they talk, they share, they have a whole network of their own.
As said before, an engaged consumer will recommend the brand/idea four times more than a “neutral” one. But here is the thing: these recommendations will soon be – some already are – all made online. And from the number of Twitter followers, Facebook fans, mayorships on Foursquare…these “reputational builders” are growing colossally.
What comes next?
“Several recent companies such as BranchOut, Honestly.com (formerly Unvarnished) and Hashable, have attempted to bridge the gap between real-world reputation and online marks"
So keep an eye on that because soon you will be building – and maintaining – your reputation via one of those online tools.
QR Codes
QR Codes? What are those? They are the next step on the evolution of barcodes. They allow the storage of information much more than the limited bar code and seem to be here to stay.
But does it work and why is it a trend?
Social Networks
Social Networks might seem like a harp on platform but they are not. They still have a long way to go…and believe me they will. This is for certain, but what will be the next revolution involving social networks?
No one can say for sure but – and think carefully about this – given the success of Twitter, perhaps we can conclude that the next revolution will involve large-scale communication; given the success of foursquare, we might say that the next revolution will involve geolocation; given the success of mobile applications, we can argue that the next revolution will be on your phone, your tablet and also in your browser, and not just in one place.
In the end, the possibilities are endless and only time will tell.
Still, I find relevant to say that not every – future or current – trend works to everyone. In that sense the final decision, if you should jump on the bandwagon or not, depends on you. Just have a thought, see what each can bring you or your company and then join their bandwagons.
Good luck in the journey my kid and, as always, do not forget to share your thoughts.
I hope you learned as much as I did in last week’s blog and – most importantly – you are ready for this week’s one. Ok, now picture yourself in front of a couple of investors, you have butterflies in stomach, your hands are sweating but you have this incredible idea that they must hear. What should you do?
Pitching is the art of succinctly delivering a few powerful words that will convince a group of investor to buy your idea or product. But can this art be learned? Would pitching also be a science?
To me, pitching is not an exact science because every person is unique and thus every pitching has a piece of its pitcher on it. However, in a way, it can be seen as a science since it can be thought and thus improved. Truth be told, I am terrified of public speaking – in fact public speaking is a well spread phobia – but with some tips and outlines to follow it can definitely be easier and – at least to me – less scary.
Indeed, a good pitch is essential to generate interest in your project. So sit back, relax and join me while I also learn how to improve pitching skills.
1. Be short. In a pitch you will have little time, so try to give the message in one minute or less. This one minute is essential Kid, as with it you might get a further 5 minutes of attention and/or a meeting in the near future. As a matter of fact, this is where "elevator pitch" term comes from. But what exactly is an “elavator pitch”? Well, I will leave Sean Wise – consultant of the reality show Dragon’s Den – explain it, and also give some important tips, to you:
2. Be clear. Since you have little time you must be clear about what you are speaking, as you won’t have time to explain it further. Try to stick to your product and/or idea’s main characteristics and please DO NOT leave room for confusion. Moreover I find extremely useful to make some comparisons, making it easier for your investors to understand, as it serves as a reference.
3. Know how to tell a story. Yes your product might be innovator and extremely interesting but you need to show that in an attractive way to your investor, otherwise they won’t buy it. The truth is that if you manage to make it attractive you can even sell ice to Eskimos, and a great way to do it is to make it personal, to enunciate the problem as something that you personally – or a friend, or someone that your “audience” can associate with – have struggle with.
4. Problem/Solution Problem and solution is something that needs to be treated as one. When you present a problem and follows up with a solution to it, you instantly creates a bond with your auditor/investors. It helps to establish the importance of your product or idea and, additionally, shows more clearly what you can and have to give to your client.
5. Financial attractiveness In the end, no matter how amazing your idea is, how clear and short your pitch was, and whether you created a story with a great solution to a latent problem, it also needs to also be profitable and financially attractive. How to do it? Well, I would say that, a good way is to present market data, relevant statistics or even show, somehow, that costumers will be willing to pay for your product. Your investors are your first – and possibly most important – costumers, sell it to them!
Are you taking notes Kids? I sure am.
Undeniably, doing all that in 2 minutes, or so, seems insane right? Perhaps, but trust me, it is not impossible. And in order to get there, to make a winning pitch, there is only one thing left: practice! Practice as much you can and I am sure you will get there. We will both get there – after all we are on this journey together, right?!
Thank you once again for company and do not forget to share you thoughts with me.
This week I was randomly watching videos on YouTube and saw this "How Cool Brands Stay Hot" video. Yes, I have a thing for chilli but the reason why I decided to share this with you is because they managed to approach brilliantly what is and how important Generation Y is.
Moreover, they present a new model on how to reach this core audience. I introduce you CRUSH:
Anyway, I hope you liked this bonus track and please remember to share your thoughts with me.
Have you noticed how much we learned since this blog started? It is amazing. Indeed, a lot has been said of how to use online tools, engage with your audience, structure a proper digital marketing campaign, and so on. But one question remains unanswered: how to know if this it is all worth it? Are you having the expected return? How to measure that in order to improve a campaign’s performance?
Well, today’s blog is my help to you in this quest of answering this core question. Truth be told, the greatest thing about online marketing is the fact that it offers you the opportunity to properly measure your campaigns outcomes. That because, unlike traditional media (e.g. TV, Radio, Magazines) – where the audience cannot be identified in isolation – online media enables you to know exactly who saw your campaign, who liked it, who did not, how they saw it and so on.
Actually, there are a thousand acronyms out there that would help you measure that, one for each occasion and purpose, but everyone needs a starting point, right?! This is mine; give it a go:
ROI
Return On Investment is probably my favorite measurement tool. That because in order to properly use it, firstly you will need to know in which grounds your brand and campaigns are currently in. That means that you and your brand should start by knowing and describing your target audience, the current audience, your goals, missions, where you want to increase traffic, which channels you want to use, etc. By doing so, you will generate a solid database, which will in the future enable the monitoring of your performance, accomplishments and what truly matters to you and the company – regardless if it is Twitter’s RTs, Facebook friends or blog readers.
You want to see some examples on how to measure the investments made? Check and try this out kid:
1. Promotional codes/coupons’ campaign can be a great way to measure success. Think about it! Coupon campaigns are an easy way to analyze how your consumers are using the coupons in your store in an everyday basis! Now think harder about this: it will generate a great amount of data – which will only help you measure your outcomes –how great is that?! 2. Now you want to know where are your consumers? Well, track your links! A great way to do so is by using Google Analytics – a gadget that can track from where your clients click are coming from (if it’s from Twitter, Facebook, blogs). That will give you a great heads on the repercussions of your campaign. Use it in your favor! 3. But what are they truly saying about my campaign? Indeed it is essential to know your customers’ feedback. And that is where Google Alerts come in. It can help you a lot with that as it follows in real time what they are saying about your brand. With this you will know if the effort put on the online media was worth and successful or not, which will then help you correct any errors and mistakes of your campaign.
Great, but when is the right time to measure ROI? Well, in this case patience is a virtue. Do not expect that from one day to the other you will be able to collect enough data to measure your campaign. You will not. That because it is not only through the number of followers and fans that a campaign lives, it is also extremely important to consider whether your brand is well positioned in search engines (e.g. Google, Yahoo), what happens when the traffic of your site increases, if you are expanding your consumer’s knowledge on your brand, and – most importantly – whether your audience is truly interested and engaged in your brand or not.
Sounding too complicated? Well, the truth is that calculating the success of a campaign is not simple, it is not an easy task – mostly because there is not a standard of how to do it – but I can tell you something 21st Century Kid, everything can be solved when there is a good plan and detailed result’s analysis behind it.
Want to see some examples of how ROI helped improve campaign performance? Check this Socialnomics’ video where it shows several campaigns and its usage of ROIs.
Did you like it?! I hope you did kid.
Now go plan yourself, good luck and remember to always share your thoughts with me.
I have been fighting with my computer for hours now trying to find a way to start this week’s post. That because I am here to explain how to engage an audience to create deeper relationships, and it is not that I don’t think I am doing a good job, it is that it kind of feels like I am sharing a secret with someone I should not – after all you are my audience.
And just so I don’t feel like I am betraying myself, or something, I am giving Chris Garrett the first words.
Ok, now my fussing apart, my thoughts on the issue is the following. This is how I believe one should engage with their audience, and most importantly how I – as far as I can go – engage with you. So firstly, and foremost, you must know your audience. “The more you pin them down, the more you get inside their heads, the more you can really write for them, what they really want“.
Secondly, provide a high-quality content. The truth is that if you want to engage any audience, a great starting point is to provide good (regardless if through tweets, blog posts or videos) content – one that grab your audience’s attention through interesting and valuable information. That because in today’s digital world we are overwhelmed with mediocre information, thus presenting useful content will not only attract the audience but also make them come back and, in the process, build deeper relationships.
Thirdly, you must join the conversation! Please have in mind that social media is a platform which is intricately related to what is happening now in the world and thus, in order to engage the audience, one needs to share their thoughts, opinions and – above all things – knowledge on current issues. So join the bandwagon 21st Century Kid, join the conversation, as it is how you make your audience know that you are well informed and thus can provide good content to them.
Fourthly, listen to your audience. It bears repetition that social media is becoming a – if not the most – valuable means of communication. In that sense, use it both in your and your audience’s advantage. Listen to them and learn from them. Meaning that you must keep what is working but also, try to implement the changes they suggest. They are core to any idea and thus you must do anything to meet their desire. Fifthly, do not forget to give feedback, comment and even some sort ofrewardto your contributors. As by doing so you will be encouraging participation from others, which will then – most likely – make your audience grow.
And lastly, meet them in person. Wait 21st Century kid, I am not telling you to go randomly meet every single one of your audience, what I mean by that is that despite all the power of social media, there is no better way to truly connect and engage with people than knowing them personally. That is why symposia, conferences, lectures, seminars are still so popular. Thus if you have a chance to meet some of your audience in an event, do it! – as it will most definitely create a stronger bond between you and your audience.
The truth is that:
4x → an engaged consumer will recommend the brand/idea four times more than a “neutral” one.
and
3x → engaged audience will visit the website two times more and buy your products three times more than “neutral” consumers.
There you are my kid, my little secret to you. In the end the Little Prince’s fox is right, "[i]t is the time that you have spent for your rose that makes your rose so important" and it is indeed the time that I’ve spend for you that makes you so important to me.
Thank you for another journey and please remember to share your thoughts with me.
Let’s start a new journey on the digital marketing world, shall we?
So last post I presented you my favorite digital marketing creative. Indeed, once we have all the results of a given campaign, it seems fairly easy and stress-free the path in which the team has gone through to reach such a successful campaign. But truth be told, the path to get to this success is long and demanding.
As a matter of fact, I believe that more than merely having a great idea, producing a successful project depends more on the ability of adapting to change, of planning and, above all things, of delivering results on time and on budget.
But how we do that?
Well, first and foremost it is needed for us to understand that a project is a temporary work – which means that it has a beginning and an end – that has fixed goals and missions. More than that, it is important to have in mind that managing a project means acting in way to achieve the proposed objectives within the determined – meaning actively working within the parameters restrictions of deadlines and costs (budget).
Thus, the job of a good project manager is to ensure that these goals will be reached despite the constraints of resource and time. And these are my tips to you my 21st Century kid…for you to be a great project manager.
• Have specific goals.
Again, last post, I pointed out that one of the reasons why catchachoo campaign was so successful is due to its specific goals. To me this is basic marketing strategy as having specific goals means knowing the project’s milestones and, thus, having a proper mission. And having those means not diverting the path to achieve them and thus not overspending money or time.
• Also have a methodology.
Adding to the previous point, having a methodology means having more control over the resources that will be used in the project. And to me, controlling the process is the best way to make it more effective – as it will, most likely, mean projects’ delivers with higher accuracy rate in terms of time and costs. Indeed a good use of a methodology is important because it helps avoiding practices that can in the future lead one to failure. One good example of a methodology that has been use lately is IBM’s RUP – Rational Unified Process. It is indeed quite interesting and worth having a look kid.
• Define project scope and detail activities.
You heard me kid, use and abuse the use of WBS!!! Work Breakdown Structure should be your best friend in this journey. That because after defining your scope – which is highly important because it permits the team to understand the delineations of the project and draw a line between what should be done and what shouldn’t – you will need to work closely with your WBS’ charts in order to thoroughly detail every and each person/teams’ activities.
• Now communicate!!!
Communication is the most important element of any kind of project, relationship or environment. Why is it so essential? Well, in order for you to understand this better, I will (temporarily) give my dm-clickthrough voice to Rita Mulcahy – an expert in advanced project management. She has excellent communication skills and thus explains more succinctly and brilliantly the importance of communication for a project.
• Know your team and every one else involved on the project.
Everyone involved in the project is known as “stakeholders”. It is them you have to know, they are the ones that you have to work it, and – most importantly – they are the ones you have to please. Knowing the interests of all those involved means delivering more effective and accurate projects.
Project Agency research shows that those projects where stakeholders are identified and well managed deliver better project results than those, which take little or no account of this important group.
• Develop a chronogram together with those “who get their hands dirty”.
This one is more focused on the project manager’s role, but the core idea here is of interconnection among every sub-team. To me the main way of developing a successful agenda – and thus delivering the project on brief, time and budget – is to do it alongside those who “actually work” on it. That because an effective chronogram means identifying specific tasks required, estimating time required to complete, and who will perform each task and how can one do it without interacting with those involved? Thus, please be sure to include your project team – and sub-teams – when estimating the work effort required in completing each task, and indeed the whole project.
• Monitor – identify and reduce – the risks and be pro-active!!!
Now that everyone knows that to do, it is highly important to identify risks that may prevent the successful development of the project. So many projects have failed because something “unexpected” happened, you do not want to be one of those! “You need to ensure these unexpected things (risks) are identified early in the life of the project and managed effectively.” (Rosenhead) Again, use and abuse of typical project management tolls. Draw GANTT charts, several of them – in post-it, online, by hand, it does not matter –, they are a great help in foreseen possible threats and risks; and thus a great way of preventing the project’s failure in relation to its’ parameters.
• Have a formal beginning and ending of the project.
I know that I have been, throughout this blog’s life, harping on some things about project management and campaigns, but understand 21st Century kid that if I do so is because they are indeed something important to be taken into consideration. One example of this is my recurrent idea that one must evaluate project’s results. Having a specific beginning to a project is important, but having a explicit end to it is much more important one as it is only then that one will know for sure if the project achieved its goals within the time and budget constrains. And that is precisely what will differentiate an extremely to a successful one, an “ok” one and, obviously, successful campaigna failed one.
There we are. Are you now ready to develop a successful project that will be delivered succinctly, on time and on budget? I am sure you are!
Good luck in any project you create in your life 21st Century kid.
Let me know how they go and please don’t forget to always share your thoughts with me.
Hello again 21st Century Kid, Last post I was talking about my – beloved – Catchachoo campaign and I felt unsure if I should have posted another video or not…and decided for the latter as felt like, with all the objectives and numbers, it might have been too much.
However, I still have the feeling that I should give a face to the wonderful creators of this campaign. So this is Charlie Osmond, Strategy Director of FreshNetworks. The head – one of the several I believe – behind Catchachoo:
More than knowing who created the campaign, this video is reallyyyyy good to understand the whole process of creating a successful campaign. Osmond points out some – not all, ok – of the stages the creative team went through. More than that, it gives – at least it gave me – a better sense of how they think, how they connect the ideas, howwas their PR reception, how they understand (and take into consideration) the audience...it truly gives an idea of what is like to be a marketer.
Hope you guys liked the video and the whole campaign as much as I did.
So if there is one thing that you should know about me is that I am slightly addicted to shoes. Truth be told I dislike being a walking cliché but when it comes to this, I am a truly Sex in the City type of girl. Hence this week's post, on my favorite digital campaign, could not be on anything else but…shoes!
Jimmy Choo’s “Catch a Choo” campaign. A simplistic plain idea that turned the head of many shoe addicted women in London last year.
The idea was simple: a pair of Jimmy Choo’s trainers would check into, using Foursquare, various venues – some of the most exclusive and fashionable places in London – and all the hunters had to do is to track them down and take hold of the trainers while still checked in at that venue…and if one managed to do so, then that pair would be theirs!
But why do I find this campaign to be so appealing and indeed my favorite one so far?
Well, firstly because of the simple fact that the idea is so simple. Basically what they needed was a pair of trainers and three catchachoo profiles – on Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter.
Secondly because it had very specific goals – to generate significant online buzz/coverage about the new trainer collection; get people talking about the new trainer range online and offline; encourage interaction with the Jimmy Choo brand; increase offline press coverage about the new trainer range; increase online positive sentiment, and positive mentions, about the Jimmy Choo brand as a whole and increase sales from the new trainer range – and to me this is the core point of any campaign that truly wants to be successful. And lastly, but definitely not least, this campaign is my favorite one because it achieved all its ambitions and it was indeed extremely successful.
“The Jimmy Choo Trainer Hunt, CatchAChoo, has been a real success in terms of achieving our key objectives for the campaign. The campaign not only generated successfully traditional offline media coverage, it also spread the online word-of-mouth about our new Jimmy Choo Trainer collection. We have been pleased at how it has increased the level of interaction with our brand, and with trainer sales in-store increasing as a direct result of the campaign, we are very pleased that FreshNetworks’ strategic approach has helped generate real ROI.”
Joshua Schulman, CEO of Jimmy Choo
The results? Well…
4,000 individuals participated in the Jimmy Choo trainer hunt on Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook in just under 3 weeks.
The competition details were viewed on Facebook 285,000 times.
The campaign was mentioned over 4,000 times on Twitter.
1 in 17 of all users of Foursquare in London were following the Jimmy Choo trainer hunt online.
250 different blogs covered the Jimmy Choo trainer hunt.
The Jimmy Choo trainer hunt was covered by Reuters, The Evening Standard, PR Week, Marketing magazine, Vogue, The Irish Daily Mail and Brand Republic to name but a few press and magazine titles.
The Jimmy Choo trainer hunt was the most clicked on story on PR Week’s news site and the second most clicked on story on Marketing’s news area during the week the story was published.
Daily trainer sales in-store went up 33% after The Evening Standard covered The Jimmy Choo trainer hunt.
Influential social media blog Mashable covered the Jimmy Choo trainer hunt because of the unique use of Foursquare and the fact that a luxury brand had engaged whole heatedly with social media, helping to spread word-of-mouth about the new trainers among a new audience.
Positive mentions of the Jimmy Choo brand increased by almost 40% as a result of the campaign (measurements taken between 19th April – 6th May).
Overall, going beyond my shoe addiction, how can one not find this – Jimmy Choo’s first social media campaign – creative campaign at least interesting?
If you agree with me and want to see more on the campaign do not forget to check FreshNetworks’ website.
And please remember to always share your thoughts with me.
This week I am here to try to understand what I have been trying to do for the past 3 weeks. Complicated? Perhaps but let me take you through. I am here today to find the most suitable way to reach you. A way to try to understand you, to amuse you…to impress you.
But, firstly, who are you?
You are the ultimate digital native kid. Born after the 1980’s, you are the one who likes to receive information quickly and from multiple sources. Who loves multitasking and indeed have this incredible ability to process – in parallel – information quickly. Not much into reading, you dislike texts and are much more attracted to pictures, sounds and videos. You love hyperlinked sources and real time interaction, but above all things…you are drawn by instant, relevant and fun “learning”.
Ok, now how can I reach you? How to select the most appropriate channel to reach digital natives?
The answer to this is tricky. It is a two-way road: if on the one hand, it is easier to find digital channels that are more suitable for digital natives rather than immigrants; keeping their attention and interest is what is truly challenging.
Still, Don Tapscott in his book “Grow Up Digital” finds the perfect way to understand them and thus to find a way into digital natives’ hearts. According to him, in order to select an appropriate channel to reach them, one needs to keep in mind that digital native:
Like freedom – freedom of choice, freedom of expression, any and all kinds of freedom.
“Choice is like oxygen to them”
Like to make things, and everything, their own – customization and personalization is their primarily motto.
“[A]re the new scrutinizers”.
Like entertainment and have a playful mentality – digital natives would love to be able to play in their education, work and social life.
Like to collaborate, discuss and share their thoughts.
Like, and have the need for, speed – due to their shorter attention spam.
And above all…they are the innovators.
So if a channel offers freedom of choice, has the option of being “personal”, is fun, interactive and innovative, it will most certainly be appealing to digital natives.
And examples of these are everywhere in today’s wide web. From Yahoo to YouTube, passing through Facebook, mobiles apps, twitter, messenger, Wikispaces and blogs – yes, me! – it is all around.
The truth, 21st Century Kid, is that the world is now your invention. You are the one who gives it a meaning; you make it beautiful; you…you cover it with color.
It is all….you!
So please keep improving it and do not forget to – as always – share your thoughts with me.
I guess by now you already realized that Digital Marketing is not a precise science. It is a vast world, a flexible area that is in constant change…that we all need to keep up with.
As said before, attention is becoming increasingly scarce. For that reason, Digital Marketing has today new and different forms of attracting users' attention: videos, social networks, interactive websites, iPhone apps, the list is endless. And the truth is that, with the advantage of the Internet and new technologies – like smartphones and iPad –, digital marketing has today an even bigger role on a company’s Marketing strategy. Especially those who want to stand out. Now, 21st Century Kid, picture you as a marketing director. How would you produce an effective online marketing strategy? What would you take into consideration to make it a success? This are my ideas on what should be taken into consideration. Join me.
1. Know your audience: Know your audience! They are the single most important think in any marketing strategy. Without them, nothing else matters and you won’t go anywhere. Getting to know who is your target is the best way to understand its needs and thus produce an effective campaign.
2. Also know your client and competitors: Knowing your audience is only one side of the equation. In order to develop a successful marketing strategy one should always know exactly who their client is, and most importantly, know who their competitor is. Two simple but extremely important points: using your knowledge about your client’s image and its motto as a way of associating your product to your audience; and by knowing your competitor, you also learn how to differentiate and stand out from them.
3. Total integration: Digital marketing is only a part of a companies’ general marketing strategy and thus cannot be developed separately. The marketing is one, the main concept is the same, and it is only the actions that are applied to different mediums. And each medium offers a differential, something that should and must always be explored as a mean to boost a campaigns’ outcome.
4. Search Engine Optimization: Search engines are the opening doors to current online marketing, after all, better than announcing is being found.
“Search engine optimizers are the future’s most successful real estate tycoons. Our formidable capabilities have provided us with an incredible opportunity to gather great viewers at an inexpensive cost.”
Top search results show more credibility and value to the users. Use it on your advantage.
5. Be relevant and consistent: Adding to the SEO idea comes this: if your website (or blog) is relevant and easily found in search engines it is a great start. But it cannot stop there. Your website, blog, campaign must have a good content and reach the audiences expectations – it must be consistent!
6. Social Networks and Banners: The new and the old channels are here to be used. Social networks are a great – new and hype – way to put interactive content into practice. Especially among young users, it should be intensely used. And banners, although seen as an old medium, it is still a good way to draw the audiences’ attention; it generates traffic and also creates an important interactive relationship with users.
7. Be mobile: Explore what is the best in mobile devices! Smartphones and tablets are now reality, thus having a proper digital marketing strategy that is adapted to these mediums is hugely important. As I said, digital marketing is in constant change, and a good strategy must keep up with it, adapt. It is the best way to evolve and stand up from all the others.
8. More interaction: Integration between company and audience is fundamental! Digital marketing means two-way involvement, it is more than just communicate, a company must listen and create a relationship with its clients and audience. Only then a marketing strategy can be consider fruitful.
9. Entertainment: Make it fun, unique and even controversial if it suits. Everything that is interactive and entertains attracts audience and consumer – which makes them spend more time interacting with the brand and eventually, enhances results. Use and abuse of blogs, games, applicative, social networks…they are the best interactive tools on today's online world.
10. Test, measure and optimize: Measuring results with online tools such as web analytics is a must have consideration for any online marketing strategy. With CTR (Click Through Rate) and other sots of tools, online actions can be measured and worked on. Use the advantages of Internet in your favor, they are a great way to improve ones campaign, to boots results and to help on the planning of new and future strategies.
Ok, let me stop writing now and show you some examples of innovative and successful online marketing so you can see – if not all, at least – some of these points being put in action.
So, what did you think about the examples? Did you like it? Were you able to see my considerations on it? As always, please share your thoughts with me.
Do you remember when you were at High School and needed to learn the Periodic Table by heart? These years are now gone, but is never too late to study a modernized version of it...
Last week I asked you to look around and notice how we are becoming a digital generation. This week I am asking you to realized how this shift has changed the world forever. Due to this technological revolution, our relationship with information, culture, entertainment and business has been transformed irreversibly. With the digital world everything now circulates in a decentralized and frenetic way.
Now everybody talks to everybody at the same time, attention is increasingly scarce, and the ability to reach the public is decreasing. For that reason, searching for new business models has shown to be a much smarter strategy than trying to preserve old ones.
And thus, even without being sure of what the future might brings, change is certainly necessary. But how to effectively gain market and audience insight? How can one use online tools in order to draw attention to its brand?
First things first,
Try to establish a network and foster relationships with people that are already active in social media!
Done? Good, now the complex part…
The truth is that in the same way that this online/digital world is practically infinite, the ways of connecting and effectively approaching the audience are endless. However, or perhaps because of that, I will focus on just three digital – and I must say extremely interesting – ways to do so.
YOUTUBE With the rise of videos and viral campaigns, YouTube has become an important online tool to attract the market. Partly because videos are the closest to something that we’ve been using for the past 50 years now; and partly because – differently from TV – it is more interactive, and therefore one must remember this when dealing with it:
Be catchy. Be simple. Be interactive.
That is the whole point of YouTube. Use it in your advantage!
Have a look at French Connection’s channel YouTique…they nailed it.
TWITTER Twitter is the new world fever. And Brian K. McDaniel, owner of the webdesign company BKM, is one of the millions who caught the fever. However, differently from many, he knew exactly how to adapt to this new channel and since he joined Twitter in 2009 he gained 15 new clients – in a 6-month period, an average 2 per month –, 20 new projects and a substantial number of job offers. All thanks to this 140-character Social Media. But how did he do it? Basically following these three steps:
1 – STOP MARKETING. I know this may sound crazy but the truth is that bombarding your followers with self-promotion is not the way in. People tend to ignore and unfollow people/companies with this behavior and without them you wont go anywhere.
2 – START ENGAGING. Some uses Twitter to gather information, some to share personal thoughts and interact with others and some as a platform. So how to target them all? Simple, what McDaniel does – and advice one to do – is to equally balance the content for all these followers.
“Pay attention to others. Take an interest in their lives, or at least their tweets. The more you engage as a real person with other real people, the more others will do the same with you.”
3 – CONTINUE GIVING. Again according to him, one of the main reasons why he got clients through Twitter is because someone else told of how he had helped them out. “Word of mouth is the best possible way to attract new clients, because they come to you with a foundational level of confidence in you and your services. If someone they trust has convinced them that they can trust you, you do good work and you’re a good person, you’re already well on your way to building a solid relationship.”
Find way to help people and they will recommend you to others.
GAME This is a trick – consequently not so used – one, but games are one of the best online tools one can use to attract its audience. That because games are in its core engaging, games is loyalty driven tool, it can make money directly or indirectly and works greatly on mobile as well as web, TV, computer, etc and most importantly games is a big growing business.
Use it, explore it...engage people with it.
Anyhow, from Facebook to Twitter there are a thousand ways to effectively gain market and/or audience insight. Which ones to choose is up to you and wow, what a vast world we have there.
Do you have an example of the usage of online tool to attract the audience? Please share with me.
