Does Social Media Replace the Marketing Planning Process

I recently took a group of students in a VECCI  Social Media seminar, and one of the points that I  very much wanted to emphasize with the group was that Social Media is not a replacement for the Marketing Planning Process (MPP) but rather a way to augment it even further.

 
  The MPP as described above is a methodical and logical methodology to guide a business or brand from one point to another, whilst both minimising risk and maximising the potential for sales and profitability long term.

The great news of course is that with the ever expanding range of social media platforms and modalities, not only can it help a business do its marketing planning, but it can do so at each stage of the MPP process.

Stage 1. Where are we know.  Social media can obviously tell you a lot about about how people see you today and your product offering. Is this where we wish to be positioned or is there some serious adjustment required.  Sentiment analysis for example will provide some clarity on this point.

Stage 2. Where are we going. No marketer has a crystal ball of course, but what we can do is look at current trends and by projecting that trajectory forward, we can in effect make educated guesses at what the future may hold for our business or brand. Again, looking at any number of research tools such as Survey Monkey as an example, we can ask clients and prospects what their intention to purchase is in the next 3 or 6 months.  Remember that your real value is much more linked to your future value not your past value.

Stage 3. Vision Statement. Aspirational and certainly out of our reach today but what we want to achieve anyway. Hopefully for an intelligent firm there will be a strong correlation between this and the unmet customer needs for your target market group. Again by listening in on your market using tools such as Board Tracker you will know what people, think, want and don't want.

Stage 4. Action Plans. Deciding how you are going to get there. Surely it makes sense to again align your broad strategy and specific tactical decisions on what your market wants, needs, desires, etc.
Again a plethora of tools exists to guide a business here and none better than Google Insights which is still tragically underused by so many businesses in the planning process but hopefully not by you.

In the end, Social Media can certainly amplify the signal in the MPP, but it still needs to be done and reviewed regularly to be and stay relevant to your market and business. And of course there's no better time to start than today.

If you'd like to attend a VECCI Social Media Seminar just go to the VECCI website at:    http://www.vecci.org.au  and Check for the next date that suits you, and until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele. 

What Information Do You Need to Put Effective Mailing Lists Together

Marketing Sherpa this week as part of its weekly chart showed the results of its Email Marketing Benchmark Study that asked 347 businesses what information they would typically try to obtain from customers as the basis for putting a mailing list together.

Not surprisingly all the businesses required the customers email address which is obviously the means by which the business would communicate with them. What was surprising was that only 70 percent of the same sample required that the respondents also provide their names.

Beyond these first two fields, the remaining fields quickly dip and were only mandatory for 35% or less  of the respondents. 

The reality is people don't like giving away too much information when they don't have to so the lesson here as witnessed by the results of the study, is that the business should initially only seek minimum amount of data (i.e. email and name).

Once this initial stage is successfully completed, the other desirable data fields can be asked for and obtained at a later point, as the relationship continues and is consolidated.

So to effectively build mailing lists, remind yourself of the words of that famous Frank Sinatra song, 'Nice and easy does it every time.'

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.

 

Blackberry. Say It Isn't So

Wow. How ironic that only a couple of weeks after the recent post on how Blackberry had fallen behind on what the market was doing and by extension what the market wanted, I heard the news this week that the parent company is trying to sell Blackberry off.

I think by now most of the readers will know I'm a long time Blackberry user and have none the less been acutely aware of their failings in recent time to deliver the type of quality the market demands.

In fact in very recent times understanding how far behind they have fallen, Blackberry have tried hard to save itself with a much improved latest offering in the way of its Blackberry Z, which has a better everything compared to the Blackberry Bold 9900 it replaced including a new and improved operating system. Despite this, the model has had little impact on market share and the firm is looking for a buyer.

There is some discussion around the traps that Microsoft may be a potential buyer with some interest based on Blackberry's ability to build phones which can not be doubted.  Let's hope such a buy takes place because Microsoft are first and foremost great marketers, and I can only imagine what they could do with it.

Still all in all a sad announcement and again a cautionary tale for all firms to keep current and work hard on your SWOT analysis to ensure that your brand stays up to date and relevant in your market place.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,

Daniele.

Keen Insights into Growing Your Email List

I was interested recently to see some very interesting data confirming that  valuable content was the strongest driver of email, list growth.

Marketing Sherpa this week listed in their always interesting chart of the week the results from a 

recent study that went to 161 participants and asked what the most effective tactics had been for capturing emails as part of building a quality list.

Perhaps not that surprising was that the most impactful tactic listed, with almost 3 in 10 respondents selecting 'White Paper or Other Premium Content'. As well the second most favored response was 'Webinar' which is essentially another methodology for delivering (wait for it) quality content.

I intimated earlier this is of no real surprise to anyone, because with all the issues that businesses continue to face today with tough markets where they be: economic, political. cultural or technological, the bottom line is that they mostly all need information, answers and simple pure insight into how to address their problems, issues and ongoing challenges.

For this reason again it is completely predictable that in the same data we find that providing quality content was even more effective for B2B and B2G marketers, with 43% believing that white papers or premium content were the most effective tactic to register new email subscribers.

Although not as powerful a driver as content, incentive based offers such as sweepstakes, discount coupons and gift cards also had some success in achieving the goal of email list building.

Ultimately most businesses will experiment with the range of options they offer over time, and hopefully through a combination of quality content and other possible enticements, the business will be able to grow a formidable email list.

And until next time, good luck and good marketing.

Regards,
Daniele.

The Need for Customer Service Continues to Rise

It may be difficult to believe that customer service is more important today than ever but it really is.
In the past as many would know, through purely word of mouth, dissatisfied customers tell on average 10 people about poor experiences, who in turn tell another 5.  So for every person who actually complains about something that we come to know about, 50 people know about it. The problem of course is that various studies have shown that only as few as 1 in 25 people complain. The other 24 say nothing but still go on to tell 10 people each who go on to tell 5 others.
Or at least that was the case before the advent of social media within the last ten years.


Now the average person is involved in 3 networks with an average of 150 connections for each.
So when they get a bad steak it's not 50 people who know but closer to 450 times 450.

If this wasn't bad enough in recent years we have seen the advent and rise of powerful and consumer review sites, where customers, patrons, members and any additional parties can proactively go to these sites and review their experience in great detail, be it good or bad.

For the record, the top 10 Reviews Sites in Google Place Search are:

1. Yelp
2. CitySearch
3. InsiderPages
4. YahooLocal
5. DealerRater
6. JudysBook
7. TripAdvisor
8. Edmunds
9. Zagats.com
10. OpenTable

With Honorable Mention to:


11. UrbanSpoon
12. DemandForce
13. Kudzu
14. Yellowbot
15. CityVoter
16. DexKnows
17. SuperPages
18. MenuPages
19. LilaGuide
20. Vitals.com

Now why do I write about this topic this week?  Because again I had yet another cosmically poor customer service experience in down town Melbourne. Who was the seller in the tile market in the inner city area will remain with me but suffice to say the message is still far from understood by so many. Word to the wise, understand it now or perish.

So until next time, good luck and good marketing.
Regards,
Daniele.