Social Media Is Only Part Of The Story

Let’s not get confused about what the new marketing ecosystem is all about. Social media is a big part of the story but not the only part. If fact, I fear a huge backlash coming from overuse and over simplification of this “new marketing normal” that some are defining as just social media.

What really is happening on the web is an atomization process. We call it the “distributed web”. Social media plays a big role in that but so does the hundreds of niche ad networks, article directories, web 2.0 sites and communities, video portals…you get the point.

If your business marketing strategy is just focused on social media you will be missing a large part of the opporutnity for your business. Moreover, you marketing plan will be so much more powerful if it is put together in a cohesive strategy.

Don’t settle! Tell the company trying to sell you the Facebook Page for $300 no! That’s not the way you are going to succeed in this new marketing world. It’s not easy, but take the time to learn what is happening and build a comprehensive marketing plan for your company to dominate your market using all the tools that make sense for your objectives.

What to do next?

Start with researching your market. Find out where your target customers are going and hanging out. How and where is your competition meeting them in the distributed web? Don’t skip this step! You will need to prioritize where you focus because the opportunities are limitless. Once you have focus, you can develop a winning strategy and plan.

Check out our business marketing research book Digital Forensics. The cool thing about this new digital age is your customers and competitors leave a digital footprint that you can reverse engineer to better understand your market. We will show you how…and it’s FREE!

Major Trends For Small Business Marketing In 2010

Small business owners are getting ready to take Internet marketing to the next level as they see the economy starting to turn.

According to an Ad-ology Research study, small business owners are planning to engage customers in new ways in 2010. Armed with web 2.0 and social media marketing applications, they are looking to find ways to break through the clutter of the marketplace and generate leads and sales.

In this study, 28% of small business respondents say they will spend at least the same or more on online video, an increase of 75% over last year’s plan. Social media wins big with 25% saying they will commit more resources to social media; and 21% say the same for mobile advertising.

Outlook Improving

Well over half of small business owners (57%) say sales in 2009 were equal to or higher than sales in 2008, down from 60% who said the same last year. Looking ahead to 2010, 86% expect sales to be equal to or higher than 2009 figures, up from 83% last year.

More important, concerns about the economy have eased since last year: 22% say they are fearful about the economy, compared with 25% last year; 48% say they are concerned about the economy, compared with 58% last year; 17% say they are “cautiously optimistic.”

Internet Marketing

Small businesses have lot’s of room to grow in their Internet marketing strategies and use. The good news is they see light at the end of the recession tunnel and are looking to grow their businesses. Online marketing is seen as a key new opporutnity.

Nearly one-half of small businesses (46%) say they do not currently have an active company website. Of those with active sites, the primary functions are to inform customers about products/services, provide general information, and offer special promotions. Many small businesses really have not integrated Internet marketing into a comprehensive interactive marketing platform….yet! In our view, winners over the next year will gain a huge economic advantage by using the social web to bring down average costs per lead.

The survey results also indicate email marketing and business websites remain the most popular online marketing tools for small business owners.

In 2010, many small businesses plan to spend the same or more on the following online activities:

• 57% on email programs to current clients.
• 57% developing a company website.
• 55% on email programs to potential clients.

Here’s a chart reflecting plans to spend more or less (time or money) on online marketing in 2010.

Interest In Social Media Marketing For 2010 Is High

Plans for incorporating social media and web 2.0 marketing strategies into the mix show a notable increase over last year.  In the survey, 28% say they will spend more or about the same time or money on online video in 2010, an increase of 12 percentage points from last year, and 21% say the same for mobile advertising, up 10 points from the previous year.

But…Small businesses are confused about how and why to use it!

Overall interest in using social media in 2010 is nearly the same as in 2009, as 58% agree that social media is a good way to both increase business and know what people are saying about a business. However, some 46% say they wish they knew more about social media, and 27% think only young people use social media.

Small business leaders say Facebook and LinkedIn are more effective than other sites. We note this could be self fulfilling if they do not know the other local or vertical market social sites that are available or how to use the larger ones properly. Among those who say social media is “very or somewhat beneficial” to business:

• 33% say Facebook is more effective than others.
• 21% say LinkedIn is.
• 19% say Twitter.
• 17% say MySpace.
• 15% say YouTube.

As the chart below reflects, among small business owners who use social networking, the top benefits cited include generating leads (50%), keeping up with the industry (45%), and monitoring online conversations (44%).

Overall, this study reinforces the momentum behind social media marketing for small business. But also points out the confusion and complexity that small businesses face implementing new media marketing programs.

What do you think? Does this sound right?

Is Social Media Marketing Trading Time For Money?

Lot’s of discussions going on around the Internet and in business meetings about how much time should be spent on social media marketing and how should that time be allocated.  A very active discussion is taking place at Chris Brogans blog where he postulates the framework of two hours a day broken down like this:

• 1/4 Listening in forums, blogs, tweets, competitors sites…
• 1/2 Commenting and communicating on and off your sites
• 1/4 Creating content…everything from blogging to video creation

Regardless of your personal view on how much time and how to allocate it, the point is social media marketing requires time, commitment and engagement. The question is…is this effort worth it?  Will I get more customers, more effectively and make more money? Simple question.

Our experience with our own products, and the clients we have worked with, point to these conclusions:

1. Versus a media mix of just PPC and/or traditional media, we are able to lower our average cost per lead significantly when social media marketing is added to the mix.
2. We become better at what we do because we are more in tune with the marketplace.
3. Our average lifetime value of a customer is always going up because we have a system, and multiple touch points, for activating our customer base when we have new products and services to sell.

Media and marketing is in a state of disruption.  If you have not already downloaded our free book on the subject I really encourage you do do it. The key point, if the results we get are real, the economic advantage a business can derive from implementing a social media marketing program is significant.

We believe that is leverage. Not trading time for money. Getting significantly more value for the time put in is what successful business know how to do.

What do you think about the time for value trade off?

How To Win In Business Marketing- In The New Normal

Business it tough these days.

New technologies, social media apps, web 2.0 sites…all combine to making it even harder to effectively market your products and services. We talk a lot about this new technology and how to make it work for your advantage.  This is a time of disruption where winners and losers will emerge in this “new normal” of marketing. But…

Truth be told, I get many executives and entrepreneurs that tell me that this new marketing and social media stuff is too hard. They try blogging or publishing articles or participating in forums but don’t seem to get traction.  We find that you need two things to be successful in this new marketing environment:

1. You need to approach marketing planning (in this new normal) strategically, incorporating all the new tools you have to work with.  I often work with companies that have been flailing from one social media tactic to the other based on the latest fad or email course they received.  This is not a strategy.  Develop a system that is based on accountable objectives and incorporate it into your business work flow.
2. Be determined to be consistent and persistent.  What makes this tough with social media marketing is you can’t just develop a print or TV campaign, build a media plan and then just run it.  You need to be involved and nurture your relationships. The cost of implementing these programs are very small but you need to experiment and “dial in” what your target audience in interested in and provide support and information through your expertise.  Hey, imagine that, you actually need to get close to your customers!

The rewards for those business that take advantage of the new marketing opportunities and persistently and consistently pursue them are huge. But it takes a different level of commitment, professionalism and persistence that we are used to.  Seth Godin calls it “the dip”, but if you are the business in your niche that breaks through, congratulations!  It’s called market domination!

Mastering The Marketing Mix

If gaining market share were as easy as switching from traditional marketing methods to more modern marketing techniques, we’d all be instant experts. In reality, the most successful marketing campaigns are a careful blend of the old and new.

The key lies in knowing how to combine the two successfully. Starbucks is an excellent example of an organization that pays attention to its marketing mix. In addition to having a strong presence in more traditional media outlets like print advertising, Starbucks has a Twitter page with more than 180,000 followers and a Facebook page with close to 2 million fans. In an effort to marry offline and online marketing techniques, Starbucks introduced a contest in which the first person to post an online photograph of one of the company’s newest marketing posters will win a prize. Contests such as these attract thousands of posts that help to reinforce the offline campaign.

More organizations are embracing the concept that a mix of traditional and modern marketing components—print, television, video, Internet, mobile phone—are key to customer outreach. As a matter of fact, a study of senior executives done by Heidrick and Struggles showed that when it comes to strategies designed to achieve their company’s growth objectives, optimizing the efficiency of the marketing mix across the business came out in front. Of course, understanding a concept and understanding how to put that concept into play so that your organizations emerges a winner are two separate things.

That’s right. Going forward there are going to be winners, and there are going to be losers. How is your organization going to fare? That depends upon your ability to successfully:

• Establish authority and a relationship with potential customers more effectively than the competition

• Offset the high cost of customer acquisitions by maximizing lifetime customer value

• Establish multiple sources of customer touch points for lead generation, customer service, and cross sell/upsell

• Leverage new technology to better understand your customer and competition

• Create an organization structure, and technology infrastructure, to take advantage of new, dynamic marketing capabilities in the distributed web

The key establishing a system to create new habits within your organization.  The sooner you start that process, the more likely it is your business ends up in the win column.