In the previous article “Vol.9: How to Effectively Reach Buyers/Customers Directly in Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing?”, effectively targeting to directly reach buyers/customers was discussed. In doing so, 5W2H.framework was used, and the latter “H” of “How” was about web content development, which is the focus of this article.
1. What it is to successfully developing web content?
In short, it is to develop web content, respectively for buyer/customer persona already defined, solving problems of each persona and growing your business, in the persona’s words. To successfully develop such web contents, the website and all web pages needs to have a personality of the persona, i.e. consistent branding of the persona. Web contents should be developed based on the core message of what the company wants the buyer/customer persona to believe and take action from that belief.
2. How companies can develop web contents meeting needs of each buyer/customer persona?
In conclusion, it is to think and plan like a publisher with brand management concept, and develop web contents with key message of what the company wants the buyers/customers to believe which also solves their problem and/or fulfill their desire, with personality of the buyer/customer persona.
It is extremely important to align the message with the audience/web users (buyer/customer persona) is trying to reach and then deliver on that promise, as Gillin (2009, p204) emphasize. This is because then the message is not delivered on that promise, the audience would feel betrayed, and in web/Internet marketing, web users can immediately go away by a single click and would likely never come back again. They could even write about it variety of social media vehicles, which can easily go viral and damage the reputation and brand of the company.
Main points for successful web content development are as below.
1) Think and plan like a publisher.
As mentioned in previous articles, everyone is a publisher in web 2.0/Internet marketing and everyone need to think and plan like a publisher to create a meaningful content. This requires market-in mindset instead of product-in mindset. This means not selling to but embracing the persona with content that is not focused on company/product but solution to solve problems of buyers or answers to their questions, and requires needs analysis of the buyer/customer persona. Defining the essence of the desire and value of the persona is crucial. Having clarified the needs, think how the needs can be translated to what the company want buyer/customer persona to believe. Should the translated points be too many, simplification is needed but availability of multiple points is not a big problem.
2) Define personality of the web content with brand management concept.
Similarly to brand management (branding) of product and company, branding needs to be done for web content from by branding of the persona approach. From buyer/customer persona defined, design, layout, tone, taste, style etc. of the total web content, each page and all constituents (picture, audio/video, icon, chart, colouring, headline, text style and so forth) are defined, which should be consistent throughout the web content.
3) Construct authentic company story to tell directly to buyer/customer persona, targeting one at a time.
Similarly to presentations and sales talks, story telling is extremely effective in developing appealing web contents. With effective story telling, audience could easily understand and remember the message and content. They are more likely be able to vividly visualize, hear, feel the scenes/shots of the story even if the web content is of text. Of course, the effective use of audio, video, picture and chart would further assist this effect.
Story (scenario) is to be developed from the translated points already mentioned in the last part of “think and plan like a publisher”. From a translated points i.e. ingredients, different stories can be developed that gives completely different impression to audience meaning different reactions and outcomes; therefore, this process requires strategic thinking and sophisticate. It should be noted that authenticity and integrity need to be maintained. Audience would “sense” if it is not authentic, and if they should sense it, they would feel betrayed, finally leading to the company (web content owner) losing their trust.
4) Think and select the buyer/customer persona’s preferred media and learning styles.
This is the detailed action plan of “Where” of the previous article of “How to Effectively Reach Buyers/Customers Directly in Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing?”. As Scott (2009, p155) states, all people have different learning styles and media preferences and the companies should develop appropriate web content designed for each buyer/customer persona. Scott goes on to say that marketers should have messages (and stories) in as many formats as practical, and that even though the messages are the same, they will appeal to different group of people (buyer/customer persona). For examples, a persona may prefer an e-book but another persona may prefer a tele-seminar and therefore the company can take the same content and turn it into tele-seminar.
5) Use appropriate title, tags, and key words and phrases.
Title, tags and key words and phrases determine how web users are driven to the web content/page and whether they read the content. It goes without saying that not jargon, acronyms and industry-speak words and phrases should be refrained. Words and phrases need to be familiar with buyer/customer persona.
In addition, it should be noted that catchy title for printed matters such as newspapers and magazines may not be effective in Web/Internet marketing. What this means is that web/Internet marketing, worlds used in the title needs to be selected strategically from SEO (Search Engine Optimization) perspective, and this often means title that is quite different from great headlines of printed media, as Gillin states with concrete examples (2009, p205). In web/Internet marketing, simple, declarative title that matches the search terms is necessary.
6) Make buyer/customer persona engaged and stay connected.
Web/Internet marketing is all about engagement and being connected with buyers/customers with interactive conversation. Some tactics for this include including interactive content tools, making feedback loops available, providing ways for customers to interact one another, and creating content with pass-along value that could go viral, as mentioned by Scott (2009).
7) Think and implement methods to make persona easy to understand.
Methodology to help persona better understand varies according to persona. For example, as stated by Scott (2009), journalists may well request information both to better understand the big picture and background as well as detailed information (detailed product specs and other valuable data), and customers may find information on how other customers use products helpful.
There may well be more points for effective web content development, and after all, web content development is “more an art than a science” as Scott (2007, p108) says.
Content is the king and web content development meeting needs of buyer/customer persona is vital for successful web/Internet marketing. Next article is to be about driving web users to the contents/pages, which is another vital point for successful web/Internet marketing.
References:-
Gillin, Paul (2009), Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Quill Driver Books
Scott, David Meerman (2007), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Saturday, 28 November 2009
Saturday, 21 November 2009
Vol.9: How to Reach Buyers Directly in Web/Internet Marketing?
In the previous article “How to Start Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing”, segmentation and positioning were explained. In this article, effectively reaching buyers/customers is discussed, which is the next step after segmentation and positioning.
1. What are KFS (Key Factors for Success) for companies to reach prospects directly, turning them into buyers/customers?
Targeting is the next step to take after market/customer segmentation, and this is about identifying one or more buyer/customer personas to target based on market/customer segmentation and positioning already done. As Scott (2007) says, buyer/customer persona profile for each customer segment, a kind of simple biography, needs to be built. This is best done by interviewing people of the customer segment.
The importance of buyer/customer persona in web marketing cannot be exaggerated, especially when customization/personalization is one of the characteristic of the Internet and it is logical to leverage Anderson’s (2006) concept of “The Long Tail”. Based on this theory, one-size-fits-for-all mass marketing approach is inappropriate in the Internet era, without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, but instead, narrowly targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare. To succeed in long-tail marketing (and PR/IR), different criteria accompanied by different customer segment each with different buyer/customer persona.
It is with good and accurate persona that effective web marketing plan is made, leading to successful online branding. With good and accurate person, web content appealing to target customers is developed and delivered appropriately (i.e. effective communication), turning prospects into buyers.
2. What needs to be defined in web marketing plan?
5W2H are required to be defined in web marketing plan.
1)What:
This is the key message the company aims to deliver to each buyer/customer persona to achieve the goal, such as “please purchase this” and “please sign up this”. This would be the core of the web content planning and development, which determine other “Ws” and “Hs”.
2) Who:
There are two for “Who”. The first and the more important is “who to target”. The company would have clear idea of this by this stage and actually should have defined this by developing the buyer/customer persona for each customer segment, through the process explained in the previous article.
The second is “who is responsible”. Specifying this may seem strange; however, in a large company/organization, defining and sharing with all related parties of who (which department) is responsible for what (which web content, which social media vehicle, which customer segment etc.) is a requirement for smooth operation. This does not mean bureaucracy; role-sharing clarification should never hinder cross-functional collaborative teamwork. Members of the role-sharing usually includes external members such as agency and partners. Company also need to strategically plan to “involve” other stakeholders, mass media, bloggers and other Internet marketers, leveraging viral marketing approach; viral marketing is extremely effective in Internet marketing.
3) When:
This is the timing of delivering the key message by respective web content to each buyer/customer persona. This is determined by the external business environment such as industry and competitors’ trend and events/incidents, and internal business environment such as company events (e.g. new product launch, campaign) as in offline marketing. This is also determined by how the company can find something new or something that the persona will be interested in even if there is no big news or event, to continue conversation with them and win their engagement.
4) Where:
This is which online media/channel to use to deliver respective web content, i.e. selecting which web initiatives and social media tools to use for each web content. There are variety of online media/channels, as already introduced in one of the previous article “Vol.7 - What is the Overview of Web 2.0 Online World?”, all of which has strengths and uniqueness.
It should be noted that selecting tools is secondary, coming after the company/business objectives/goal and “what” mentioned above, and that the tool with most advanced technology is not necessarily the best option. Media/channels/tools should be carefully selected based on the factors such as market share, vertical industry focus, adoption rate and market momentum as Gillin states (2009, p23) as well as web content characteristics and buyer/customer persona needs, and effectively mixed to generate synergy. Gillin proposes matrix chart of social media tools (2009, p24, p39) which are helpful in understanding strengths of each tools and selecting appropriate ones. Gillin’s charts and Clough’s framework of Web 2.0 Online Marketing ROI (2009) are worth referring to in tool selection.
5) Why:
This is the reason for web content development, which can be paraphrased by what the company what buyers/customers to believe such as “this product/service solves the problem” and “it is worth signing up this” so that they would take the action the company wants,. The action is equivalent to “What” already mentioned.
6) How much:
This is about determining the total resource (budget, manpower, infrastructure etc.) to invest and its allocation. In many cases, resources currently available in the company becomes a restraint in creating out-of-the-box ideas and developing an innovative strategy and action plan, and balancing risk taking and feasibility would count. After all, decision making on resource need to be done from perspective of short-term and long-term ROI, both quantitative and qualitative. Web/Internet metrics, especially those of social media, are still immature as Gillin (2009) says, but important to perform PDCA cycle with trial and error concept. This deserves discussion and will be discussed in later article(s).
7) How:
This can be paraphrased by with what web content the company reach directly respective persona. This deserves much discussion and will be the topic in the next article.In the previous article “How to Start Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing”, segmentation and positioning were explained. In this article, effectively reaching buyers/customers is discussed, which is the next step after segmentation and positioning.
References:-
Gillin, Paul (2009), Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Quill Driver Books
Scott, David Meerman (2007), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Anderson, Chris (2006), The Long Tail, in a nutshell
http://www.thelongtail.com/about.html
Clough, Mike (2009), Web 2.0 Online Marketing Series – Overview
http://bestbizpractices.org/2009/08/16/web-2-0-online-marketing-series-overview/
1. What are KFS (Key Factors for Success) for companies to reach prospects directly, turning them into buyers/customers?
Targeting is the next step to take after market/customer segmentation, and this is about identifying one or more buyer/customer personas to target based on market/customer segmentation and positioning already done. As Scott (2007) says, buyer/customer persona profile for each customer segment, a kind of simple biography, needs to be built. This is best done by interviewing people of the customer segment.
The importance of buyer/customer persona in web marketing cannot be exaggerated, especially when customization/personalization is one of the characteristic of the Internet and it is logical to leverage Anderson’s (2006) concept of “The Long Tail”. Based on this theory, one-size-fits-for-all mass marketing approach is inappropriate in the Internet era, without the constraints of physical shelf space and other bottlenecks of distribution, but instead, narrowly targeted goods and services can be as economically attractive as mainstream fare. To succeed in long-tail marketing (and PR/IR), different criteria accompanied by different customer segment each with different buyer/customer persona.
It is with good and accurate persona that effective web marketing plan is made, leading to successful online branding. With good and accurate person, web content appealing to target customers is developed and delivered appropriately (i.e. effective communication), turning prospects into buyers.
2. What needs to be defined in web marketing plan?
5W2H are required to be defined in web marketing plan.
1)What:
This is the key message the company aims to deliver to each buyer/customer persona to achieve the goal, such as “please purchase this” and “please sign up this”. This would be the core of the web content planning and development, which determine other “Ws” and “Hs”.
2) Who:
There are two for “Who”. The first and the more important is “who to target”. The company would have clear idea of this by this stage and actually should have defined this by developing the buyer/customer persona for each customer segment, through the process explained in the previous article.
The second is “who is responsible”. Specifying this may seem strange; however, in a large company/organization, defining and sharing with all related parties of who (which department) is responsible for what (which web content, which social media vehicle, which customer segment etc.) is a requirement for smooth operation. This does not mean bureaucracy; role-sharing clarification should never hinder cross-functional collaborative teamwork. Members of the role-sharing usually includes external members such as agency and partners. Company also need to strategically plan to “involve” other stakeholders, mass media, bloggers and other Internet marketers, leveraging viral marketing approach; viral marketing is extremely effective in Internet marketing.
3) When:
This is the timing of delivering the key message by respective web content to each buyer/customer persona. This is determined by the external business environment such as industry and competitors’ trend and events/incidents, and internal business environment such as company events (e.g. new product launch, campaign) as in offline marketing. This is also determined by how the company can find something new or something that the persona will be interested in even if there is no big news or event, to continue conversation with them and win their engagement.
4) Where:
This is which online media/channel to use to deliver respective web content, i.e. selecting which web initiatives and social media tools to use for each web content. There are variety of online media/channels, as already introduced in one of the previous article “Vol.7 - What is the Overview of Web 2.0 Online World?”, all of which has strengths and uniqueness.
It should be noted that selecting tools is secondary, coming after the company/business objectives/goal and “what” mentioned above, and that the tool with most advanced technology is not necessarily the best option. Media/channels/tools should be carefully selected based on the factors such as market share, vertical industry focus, adoption rate and market momentum as Gillin states (2009, p23) as well as web content characteristics and buyer/customer persona needs, and effectively mixed to generate synergy. Gillin proposes matrix chart of social media tools (2009, p24, p39) which are helpful in understanding strengths of each tools and selecting appropriate ones. Gillin’s charts and Clough’s framework of Web 2.0 Online Marketing ROI (2009) are worth referring to in tool selection.
5) Why:
This is the reason for web content development, which can be paraphrased by what the company what buyers/customers to believe such as “this product/service solves the problem” and “it is worth signing up this” so that they would take the action the company wants,. The action is equivalent to “What” already mentioned.
6) How much:
This is about determining the total resource (budget, manpower, infrastructure etc.) to invest and its allocation. In many cases, resources currently available in the company becomes a restraint in creating out-of-the-box ideas and developing an innovative strategy and action plan, and balancing risk taking and feasibility would count. After all, decision making on resource need to be done from perspective of short-term and long-term ROI, both quantitative and qualitative. Web/Internet metrics, especially those of social media, are still immature as Gillin (2009) says, but important to perform PDCA cycle with trial and error concept. This deserves discussion and will be discussed in later article(s).
7) How:
This can be paraphrased by with what web content the company reach directly respective persona. This deserves much discussion and will be the topic in the next article.In the previous article “How to Start Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing”, segmentation and positioning were explained. In this article, effectively reaching buyers/customers is discussed, which is the next step after segmentation and positioning.
References:-
Gillin, Paul (2009), Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Quill Driver Books
Scott, David Meerman (2007), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Anderson, Chris (2006), The Long Tail, in a nutshell
http://www.thelongtail.com/about.html
Clough, Mike (2009), Web 2.0 Online Marketing Series – Overview
http://bestbizpractices.org/2009/08/16/web-2-0-online-marketing-series-overview/
Saturday, 14 November 2009
How to Start Web 2.0 / Internet Marketing?
One of the rules mentioned in the previous article “The New Rules of Marketing, PR & IR in Web 2.0 Online World” was reaching buyer/customer directly. This is the key for successful Web 2.0/Internet marketing, and this and upcoming articles will be discussed from this viewpoint.
1. Is reaching buyers/customers directly to be done the same way as direct marketing in offline world?
The author would answer “yes and no”. What she means is that as in many other marketing topics, basic concept, framework and theory of traditional marketing and offline marketing needs to be based on; however, in many cases they need to be tailored to meet online world requirements, based on the characteristics of the Internet world. Such characteristics include the following, to name a few.
Characteristics of the Internet
1) Ubiquitous: Boundary-free, connected worldwide.
2) Interactivity: Two-way of one-to-one, or even one-to-many, many-to-many, meaning interactive conversation is possible.
3) Continuous operation: 365 days a year / 7 days a week / 24 hours a day.
4) Pull media: Web users need to access the web page to get information, or register for RSS and e-newsletter etc. to receive “pushed” information, meaning permission marketing is required.
5) Richness and reachness: Basically there is no limitation of information volume unlike printed materials, audio and video is available besides still or moving pictures using flash and text in Web 2.0 online world. Also, everyone is equally able to reach information as long as they are connected to Internet and search the web page they desire.
6) Flexible information update: This is especially in Web 2.0 online world, in which people can upload web content without HTML and other web technology knowledge nor expertise.
7) Personalization/customization: Navigating separately to ultimately different landing pages developed according to different customer segment is possible, “my page” is possible etc.
8) Data-oriented: Web statistics and e-newsletter metric statistics such as CTR (Click Through Rate) is obtainable with ease in a timely manner in comparison to traditional media.
It is because of the characteristics #1, #5 and #7 that companies are to reach their buyers/customer directly, and in doing so, companies need to plan and execute taking into account the above 8 points.
2. How to plan Web 2.0 / Internet marketing?
1) First, segmentation, positioning and targeting must to done, aligning with the company’s mission statement, vision/goal and strategy.
Similarly to traditional marketing, market and customer segmentation, positioning and targeting need to be done, starting with segmentation, and the author feels that these are even more critical in Internet/web online marketing than traditional offline marketing. What she means is that because of one of the characteristics of IT marketing “switching from one brand to another is difficult”, it is almost impossible to reverse the market share and become leader in Internet marketing once a competitor becomes a leader in the market segment the company targets. This is easily understood when compared with BtoC marketing of FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods in offline world in which customers can switch from one brand to another with ease.
In general, IT marketing consists of many factors that make customers difficult or unwilling to switch from one brand to another once they started using products of a particular brand. Such factors include compatibility of application/OS etc. often accompanied by software issues and war for industry standardization, customers required to learn and get used to utilizing application/OS etc., and importance of customer information DB. This is why in cases, despite short-tem loss, companies implement enormous campaign to acquire and retain customers in the seeding phase before competitors enter their marketing segment, and leverage CRM (Customer Relations Management) to maximize CLV (Customer Lifetime Value), for ultimate long-term win.
2) Rules of Web 2.0 / Internet marketing needs to be applied.
The difficulty of switching in IT marketing is the reason the two Ries (2001) state that one of the 11 immutable laws of Internet Branding is be first in the market segment to be targeted. This means that first mover advantage in the targeted market segment is vital to succeed in online business. This explains why an offline book giant Barns & Noble struggles to take the initiative in online book business from Amazon.
The prerequisite of benefiting from first mover advantage means that speed is inevitable in Internet business, hence the term “dog year” has long been used.
3) There are some possible solutions in entering a market already established by a competitor.
If a company should plan to target a market/customer segment that a competitor already leads, re-segmentation and re-positioning (even a little) followed by careful targeting based on its business domain and core competence are required in order to successfully start and grow business without directly competing with the market leader. This can be easily understood by online advertising business. Yahoo! was the leader in this business, primary business including banner advertising, then Google made a market segmentation of “search-engine advertising” leveraging its core competence and leading position in search engine and positioned itself as the leader in that market segment. And then with successful customer segmentation and targeting, Google successfully become the market leader in the segment, creating a new online advertising market, as is well known. This often means new business model.
Other possible solutions are based on starting destructive innovation, i.e. apply Christensen’s theory of The Innovator’s Dilemma and Solution. Such solutions are proactive strategies, leading to change in the external business environment of the company, such as industry trend and rule(s) and competitors’ positioning and strategy.
Emergence of something new such as government policy and technology is the optimum timing to adopt this kind of solution/strategy, also meaning new business model. Amazon, eBay, Dell and Fedex to name a few are such examples, which might be of Web 1.0 online world. Web 2.0 online world is still very new and it is impossible to define a good example agreed by everyone; however, the author feels that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn could become such examples, and there are others that have potential to become such candidates as Second Life. This is because the three companies are generating revenue and their profitability seems to be sound when many dot.com companies remain in the red for many years, in addition to the growth in number of their web users. They seem to be entering online advertising business and/or recruiting/job matching business market, and this could trigger paradigm shift(s) in the future online business.
The upcoming article is to be about targeting and directly reaching buyers/customers.
References:-
Ries, Al, and Laura, Ries (2001), The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, Harper Collins
1. Is reaching buyers/customers directly to be done the same way as direct marketing in offline world?
The author would answer “yes and no”. What she means is that as in many other marketing topics, basic concept, framework and theory of traditional marketing and offline marketing needs to be based on; however, in many cases they need to be tailored to meet online world requirements, based on the characteristics of the Internet world. Such characteristics include the following, to name a few.
Characteristics of the Internet
1) Ubiquitous: Boundary-free, connected worldwide.
2) Interactivity: Two-way of one-to-one, or even one-to-many, many-to-many, meaning interactive conversation is possible.
3) Continuous operation: 365 days a year / 7 days a week / 24 hours a day.
4) Pull media: Web users need to access the web page to get information, or register for RSS and e-newsletter etc. to receive “pushed” information, meaning permission marketing is required.
5) Richness and reachness: Basically there is no limitation of information volume unlike printed materials, audio and video is available besides still or moving pictures using flash and text in Web 2.0 online world. Also, everyone is equally able to reach information as long as they are connected to Internet and search the web page they desire.
6) Flexible information update: This is especially in Web 2.0 online world, in which people can upload web content without HTML and other web technology knowledge nor expertise.
7) Personalization/customization: Navigating separately to ultimately different landing pages developed according to different customer segment is possible, “my page” is possible etc.
8) Data-oriented: Web statistics and e-newsletter metric statistics such as CTR (Click Through Rate) is obtainable with ease in a timely manner in comparison to traditional media.
It is because of the characteristics #1, #5 and #7 that companies are to reach their buyers/customer directly, and in doing so, companies need to plan and execute taking into account the above 8 points.
2. How to plan Web 2.0 / Internet marketing?
1) First, segmentation, positioning and targeting must to done, aligning with the company’s mission statement, vision/goal and strategy.
Similarly to traditional marketing, market and customer segmentation, positioning and targeting need to be done, starting with segmentation, and the author feels that these are even more critical in Internet/web online marketing than traditional offline marketing. What she means is that because of one of the characteristics of IT marketing “switching from one brand to another is difficult”, it is almost impossible to reverse the market share and become leader in Internet marketing once a competitor becomes a leader in the market segment the company targets. This is easily understood when compared with BtoC marketing of FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods in offline world in which customers can switch from one brand to another with ease.
In general, IT marketing consists of many factors that make customers difficult or unwilling to switch from one brand to another once they started using products of a particular brand. Such factors include compatibility of application/OS etc. often accompanied by software issues and war for industry standardization, customers required to learn and get used to utilizing application/OS etc., and importance of customer information DB. This is why in cases, despite short-tem loss, companies implement enormous campaign to acquire and retain customers in the seeding phase before competitors enter their marketing segment, and leverage CRM (Customer Relations Management) to maximize CLV (Customer Lifetime Value), for ultimate long-term win.
2) Rules of Web 2.0 / Internet marketing needs to be applied.
The difficulty of switching in IT marketing is the reason the two Ries (2001) state that one of the 11 immutable laws of Internet Branding is be first in the market segment to be targeted. This means that first mover advantage in the targeted market segment is vital to succeed in online business. This explains why an offline book giant Barns & Noble struggles to take the initiative in online book business from Amazon.
The prerequisite of benefiting from first mover advantage means that speed is inevitable in Internet business, hence the term “dog year” has long been used.
3) There are some possible solutions in entering a market already established by a competitor.
If a company should plan to target a market/customer segment that a competitor already leads, re-segmentation and re-positioning (even a little) followed by careful targeting based on its business domain and core competence are required in order to successfully start and grow business without directly competing with the market leader. This can be easily understood by online advertising business. Yahoo! was the leader in this business, primary business including banner advertising, then Google made a market segmentation of “search-engine advertising” leveraging its core competence and leading position in search engine and positioned itself as the leader in that market segment. And then with successful customer segmentation and targeting, Google successfully become the market leader in the segment, creating a new online advertising market, as is well known. This often means new business model.
Other possible solutions are based on starting destructive innovation, i.e. apply Christensen’s theory of The Innovator’s Dilemma and Solution. Such solutions are proactive strategies, leading to change in the external business environment of the company, such as industry trend and rule(s) and competitors’ positioning and strategy.
Emergence of something new such as government policy and technology is the optimum timing to adopt this kind of solution/strategy, also meaning new business model. Amazon, eBay, Dell and Fedex to name a few are such examples, which might be of Web 1.0 online world. Web 2.0 online world is still very new and it is impossible to define a good example agreed by everyone; however, the author feels that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn could become such examples, and there are others that have potential to become such candidates as Second Life. This is because the three companies are generating revenue and their profitability seems to be sound when many dot.com companies remain in the red for many years, in addition to the growth in number of their web users. They seem to be entering online advertising business and/or recruiting/job matching business market, and this could trigger paradigm shift(s) in the future online business.
The upcoming article is to be about targeting and directly reaching buyers/customers.
References:-
Ries, Al, and Laura, Ries (2001), The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding, Harper Collins
Saturday, 7 November 2009
Vol.7: The New Rules of Marketing, PR and IR in Web 2.0 Online World
How Web 2.0 is shaping marketing and other activities can be discussed from various aspects. After having read some resources and thought about this, the author decided to start with clarifying new rules in Web 2.0 online world, comparing with the old rules in the offline world. Following the previous article of “What is the Overview of Web 2.0 Online World?” in which the discussion was focused on marketing, this article will also focus on marketing plus PR and IR, which is the cousin of PR because of the new rule #1.
1. Old Rules in Offline World Before the Emergence of the Internet
Scott (2009, p8 & p12) lists the old rules of marketing and PR. The below are summary of the rules mentioned by Scott.
1) The Old Rules of Marketing
(1)Marketing simply meant advertising (and branding), appealing to the masses.
(2)Advertising relied on interrupting people to get them to pay attention to a message, which was exclusively about selling products.
(3)Advertising was one-way: company-to-consumer, based on campaigns with limited life.
(4)Creativity was deemed the most important factor of advertising, and ad agency winning advertising award was more important than client winning new customers.
(5)Marketing (advertising) and PR were separate disciplines run by different people with different goals, strategies and measurement criteria.
2) The Old Rules of PR
(1)Media was the only channel for PR and companies communicated to journalists via press releases, so actual press release was seen by only limited reports and editors and customers (buyers/consumers) would learn about the press release content only if the media wrote an article about it.
(2)Companies needed significant news to write a press release (thus PR was done only on big event basis).
(3)Jargon was accepted because the journalists all understood it but press release had to include quotes from third parties, such as customers, analysis and experts.
(4)The only way to measure the effectiveness of press releases was through “clip books”.
(5)PR and marketing were separate disciplines run by different people with different goals, strategies and measurement criteria.
IR is out of scope of Scott’s book, but to the author, many old rules of PR also apply to IR, the cousin of PR although there may be some IR specific rules.
2. New Rules in Web 2.0 Online World
In contrast to the above old rules, the new rules can be summarized as below.
1) Marketing, PR (and IR) is converging.
In the offline world, marketing, PR and IR were all separate; separate strategy developed and implemented by separate departments with different people/skills. However, in the online world, the line between traditional marketing, PR and IR is blurring. This is because of the rules that follow this first rule.
2) Marketing is not simply advertising.
In the online world of Web 2.0, marketing is about delivering customer-centric content at the precise moment when the customer (audience) needs it. Marketing is also about reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the web based on long-tail theory* instead of mainstream marketing or reaching of the mass. This is why personalization and customization encouraged by Web 2.0 is a key in success online business. After all, marketing is, as Scott (2007, p26) states, not about winning awards but is about the organization winning business.
3) PR and IR are not only for a mainstream media audience.
In Web 2.0 online world, PR and IR are for all web users. PR and IR are about customers = purchasers/people who benefit from their products and services seeing and effectively utilizing information of the company and products online. This means that, as Scott states, “The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost focus on media” (2007, p26). This is basically the same for IR as well.
4) Companies are to reach online consumers directly.
With new media channels of Internet/web, companies can and should reach consumers directly in the form the customers appreciate for those particular contents (e.g. blogs, podcasts, e-books, news releases, and all other online content format). The fact that companies are to directly reach customers means that companies need to drive people into purchasing (or any other action the company intends such as making subscription, making investment and donation etc.) process with appealing online content. This means that content is the most important factor. Safko and Brake advocate this using the phrase “content is the king” (2009) throughout their book.
5) With a good content, everyone can be and is a publisher.
As long as an individual has a good, appealing content, he/she can publish it online without HTML knowledge. This means that companies and individuals can be more flexible in delivering information online, which, together with the rule #4 i.e. that companies are to reach directly to customers, means that companies need to act on frequent basis instead of only on a big event basis as in offline world. This rule also implies that it is possible for many “trivial” and “unreliable” information to proliferate, and this is what Scott means by “people want authenticity, not spin” (2007, p25). In addition, this rule also indicates that voice of an individual can become louder and more influential than voice of an organization. Also, the risk of social media exists whether people participate or not, and this is why many companies are developing social media guidelines and training their employees, as Ross (2009) states.
6) Marketing, PR and IR are interactive communication.
In Web 2.0 online world, marketing, PR and IR are not one-way communication/interruption but interactive communication, attributing to interactivity of the Internet. This means that conversation with the customers is extremely important. Together with rule #5 that everyone (including individuals of customers) can be a publisher, companies need to encourage customers to participate and not propaganda to win their engagement.
Reaching buyers (customers) directly, the key factor in Web 2.0 online world, will be discussed in the next article.
References:-
Safko, Lon and Brake, David K (2009), The Social Media Bible – Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Scott, David Meerman (2007), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ross, Joshua-Michele (2009), A Corporate Guide For Social Media
http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/30/social-media-guidelines-intelligent-technology-oreilly.html
Scoopdog (2009), Tweet or Trouble: 2.0 Investor Relations
http://scoopdog.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/ir2-0-social-media-for-information-equality/
1. Old Rules in Offline World Before the Emergence of the Internet
Scott (2009, p8 & p12) lists the old rules of marketing and PR. The below are summary of the rules mentioned by Scott.
1) The Old Rules of Marketing
(1)Marketing simply meant advertising (and branding), appealing to the masses.
(2)Advertising relied on interrupting people to get them to pay attention to a message, which was exclusively about selling products.
(3)Advertising was one-way: company-to-consumer, based on campaigns with limited life.
(4)Creativity was deemed the most important factor of advertising, and ad agency winning advertising award was more important than client winning new customers.
(5)Marketing (advertising) and PR were separate disciplines run by different people with different goals, strategies and measurement criteria.
2) The Old Rules of PR
(1)Media was the only channel for PR and companies communicated to journalists via press releases, so actual press release was seen by only limited reports and editors and customers (buyers/consumers) would learn about the press release content only if the media wrote an article about it.
(2)Companies needed significant news to write a press release (thus PR was done only on big event basis).
(3)Jargon was accepted because the journalists all understood it but press release had to include quotes from third parties, such as customers, analysis and experts.
(4)The only way to measure the effectiveness of press releases was through “clip books”.
(5)PR and marketing were separate disciplines run by different people with different goals, strategies and measurement criteria.
IR is out of scope of Scott’s book, but to the author, many old rules of PR also apply to IR, the cousin of PR although there may be some IR specific rules.
2. New Rules in Web 2.0 Online World
In contrast to the above old rules, the new rules can be summarized as below.
1) Marketing, PR (and IR) is converging.
In the offline world, marketing, PR and IR were all separate; separate strategy developed and implemented by separate departments with different people/skills. However, in the online world, the line between traditional marketing, PR and IR is blurring. This is because of the rules that follow this first rule.
2) Marketing is not simply advertising.
In the online world of Web 2.0, marketing is about delivering customer-centric content at the precise moment when the customer (audience) needs it. Marketing is also about reaching vast numbers of underserved audiences via the web based on long-tail theory* instead of mainstream marketing or reaching of the mass. This is why personalization and customization encouraged by Web 2.0 is a key in success online business. After all, marketing is, as Scott (2007, p26) states, not about winning awards but is about the organization winning business.
3) PR and IR are not only for a mainstream media audience.
In Web 2.0 online world, PR and IR are for all web users. PR and IR are about customers = purchasers/people who benefit from their products and services seeing and effectively utilizing information of the company and products online. This means that, as Scott states, “The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost focus on media” (2007, p26). This is basically the same for IR as well.
4) Companies are to reach online consumers directly.
With new media channels of Internet/web, companies can and should reach consumers directly in the form the customers appreciate for those particular contents (e.g. blogs, podcasts, e-books, news releases, and all other online content format). The fact that companies are to directly reach customers means that companies need to drive people into purchasing (or any other action the company intends such as making subscription, making investment and donation etc.) process with appealing online content. This means that content is the most important factor. Safko and Brake advocate this using the phrase “content is the king” (2009) throughout their book.
5) With a good content, everyone can be and is a publisher.
As long as an individual has a good, appealing content, he/she can publish it online without HTML knowledge. This means that companies and individuals can be more flexible in delivering information online, which, together with the rule #4 i.e. that companies are to reach directly to customers, means that companies need to act on frequent basis instead of only on a big event basis as in offline world. This rule also implies that it is possible for many “trivial” and “unreliable” information to proliferate, and this is what Scott means by “people want authenticity, not spin” (2007, p25). In addition, this rule also indicates that voice of an individual can become louder and more influential than voice of an organization. Also, the risk of social media exists whether people participate or not, and this is why many companies are developing social media guidelines and training their employees, as Ross (2009) states.
6) Marketing, PR and IR are interactive communication.
In Web 2.0 online world, marketing, PR and IR are not one-way communication/interruption but interactive communication, attributing to interactivity of the Internet. This means that conversation with the customers is extremely important. Together with rule #5 that everyone (including individuals of customers) can be a publisher, companies need to encourage customers to participate and not propaganda to win their engagement.
Reaching buyers (customers) directly, the key factor in Web 2.0 online world, will be discussed in the next article.
References:-
Safko, Lon and Brake, David K (2009), The Social Media Bible – Tactics, Tools & Strategies for Business Success. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Scott, David Meerman (2007), The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Ross, Joshua-Michele (2009), A Corporate Guide For Social Media
http://www.forbes.com/2009/06/30/social-media-guidelines-intelligent-technology-oreilly.html
Scoopdog (2009), Tweet or Trouble: 2.0 Investor Relations
http://scoopdog.wordpress.com/2009/09/28/ir2-0-social-media-for-information-equality/
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Vol.6: What is the Overview of Web 2.0 Online World?
In the previous article, the social media ecosystem realized by Web 2.0 technologies was introduced, in which social media categories were briefly explained. In this article, Overview of Web 2.0 Online World is introduced utilizing an interesting framework in which social media categories introduced in the previous article constitute many of the elements.
Overview of Web 2.0 Online World is introduced from marketing perspective because this is the most logical and practical. As from survey results of McKinsey and others, companies leverage Web 2.0 technologies to benefit in marketing the most. Many other use of Web 2.0 mentioned in the survey such as product development and collaboration with business partners are part of or related to 4Ps of marketing (product, price, place, promotion). Also, HR activities which are also how companies benefit from Web 2.0 (e.g. recruiting, employee engagement) can be said as marketing in the broad sense because such activities are employee marketing. Furthermore, there is an interesting framework of Web 2.0 overview developed from marketing perspective.
This is probably the best concept as far as the author knows to understand the big picture of an organic structure of the Web 2.0 Online World Overview, constituted by website and other elements including social media categories. This depicts well how each element relates one another from marketing ROI (Return on Investment), and this can be of a good reference in planning and executing online strategy.
Website is the core of Web 2.0 world, surrounded by all other elements of Internet that support the website, although there might be a discussion that blog(s) can entirely substitute a website. Blog(s) might substitute a website for online branding and web strategy, for an individual and for small organizations in particular, but an official website is the core of web strategy. This concept is supported by an interesting framework of Web 2.0 Online Marketing ROI developed by Clough (2009), which has a website in the centre.
The website in the first ring or as Clough (2009) says “bulls-eye” is the centre of the Web 2.0 online marketing strategy. In the virtual, Internet world, it is the virtual store/office of the companies and organizations, and it is where business is done to generate revenue and provide the highest ROI. Web design and architecture, page layout, quality and quantity of information, navigation and accessibility, and total web branding are KFS (Key Factors for Success) of websites, and they need to be built from customer-centric way. This means that websites needs to be carefully designed taking into consideration psychology and behaviour of customers online, similarly to designing a store in the real world. In doing so, traditional concept such as AIDMA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, Action) can be applied even though some web consultants may advocate different concepts, which to the author, are application of AIDMA.
The elements located in the second ring (the outer ring of the first ring of bulls-eye) including blogs, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), online press releases, e-mail marketing, pay-per-click advertising and auto responder are the next priority. This is because they are critical to support online activity at the website, and they generate the next highest ROI. Among these elements, blog and SEO were mentioned as social media categories in the previous article.
The elements located in the third ring (outer ring of the second ring) do not mean that they are less important than elements located in the second ring; it simply means that they are in general of smaller ROI. Many of them were mentioned as social media categories in the previous articles (e.g. social networking, video/podcasts, RSS feeds) and many of them provide richer contents than Web 1.0 websites. Furthermore, many of them are very effective in community building and customer engagement, which are the characteristics of social media realized by Web 2,0 technologies, and the importance of these characteristics is continuously increase as the web/Internet marketing evolves. Even the elements that were not mentioned as social media categories are effective online initiative as long as they are carefully designed and implemented, sometimes totally changing how the business is performed (or even a new business model can be realized) from how business is performed in the traditional old economy for successful online business. Affiliate programme is perhaps one of such a good example, along with e-mail marketing located in the second ring.
The author would add some of the social media categories mentioned in the previous article to the framework, such as live casting, virtual worlds, gaming, aggregators and interpersonal in the third ring. She strongly feels that importance of virtual world, gaming and aggregators would increase in the future, especially in entertainment industry, and that its technique and methodology developed may well be applied to other industries and settings such as EC (electronic commerce) and online advertising.
Assuming the framework is that of PC, the author would position mobile as something encompassing the whole of the framework. She also envisions that as interactive TV and its services become established and popularize in the future (in Web 3.0 world), interactive TV would be added as the 16th social media category of the social media ecosystem, which encompasses the whole of the framework mentioned above, similarly to mobile.
In planning and executing web/Internet (marketing) strategy in the Web 2.0 world, social media categories realized by Web 2.0 technologies and other Web 1.0 elements/initiatives need to be strategically selected and effectively and systematically mixed with clear objectives and strategy for synergy and total maximum ROI. Linking mobile with PC online marketing (and with interactive TV in the future) would be inevitable and this trend would surely become more and more vital. Last but not least, online marketing should be aligned with total business strategy of the company/organization, to make synergy with offline initiatives.
The upcoming article is to be about how social media realized by Web 2.0 technologies is changing marketing and business.
References:-
Clough, Mike (2009), Web 2.0 Online Marketing Series – Overview
http://bestbizpractices.org/2009/08/16/web-2-0-online-marketing-series-overview/
McKinsey (2009), How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Business_Technology/BT_Strategy/How_companies_are_benefiting_from_Web_20_McKinsey_Global_Survey_Results_2432
Mzinga (2009), Social Media’s Primary Use: Marketing (from Social Software Business Survey)
http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2009/161/social-medias-primary-use-marketing
Overview of Web 2.0 Online World is introduced from marketing perspective because this is the most logical and practical. As from survey results of McKinsey and others, companies leverage Web 2.0 technologies to benefit in marketing the most. Many other use of Web 2.0 mentioned in the survey such as product development and collaboration with business partners are part of or related to 4Ps of marketing (product, price, place, promotion). Also, HR activities which are also how companies benefit from Web 2.0 (e.g. recruiting, employee engagement) can be said as marketing in the broad sense because such activities are employee marketing. Furthermore, there is an interesting framework of Web 2.0 overview developed from marketing perspective.
This is probably the best concept as far as the author knows to understand the big picture of an organic structure of the Web 2.0 Online World Overview, constituted by website and other elements including social media categories. This depicts well how each element relates one another from marketing ROI (Return on Investment), and this can be of a good reference in planning and executing online strategy.
Website is the core of Web 2.0 world, surrounded by all other elements of Internet that support the website, although there might be a discussion that blog(s) can entirely substitute a website. Blog(s) might substitute a website for online branding and web strategy, for an individual and for small organizations in particular, but an official website is the core of web strategy. This concept is supported by an interesting framework of Web 2.0 Online Marketing ROI developed by Clough (2009), which has a website in the centre.
The website in the first ring or as Clough (2009) says “bulls-eye” is the centre of the Web 2.0 online marketing strategy. In the virtual, Internet world, it is the virtual store/office of the companies and organizations, and it is where business is done to generate revenue and provide the highest ROI. Web design and architecture, page layout, quality and quantity of information, navigation and accessibility, and total web branding are KFS (Key Factors for Success) of websites, and they need to be built from customer-centric way. This means that websites needs to be carefully designed taking into consideration psychology and behaviour of customers online, similarly to designing a store in the real world. In doing so, traditional concept such as AIDMA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Memory, Action) can be applied even though some web consultants may advocate different concepts, which to the author, are application of AIDMA.
The elements located in the second ring (the outer ring of the first ring of bulls-eye) including blogs, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), online press releases, e-mail marketing, pay-per-click advertising and auto responder are the next priority. This is because they are critical to support online activity at the website, and they generate the next highest ROI. Among these elements, blog and SEO were mentioned as social media categories in the previous article.
The elements located in the third ring (outer ring of the second ring) do not mean that they are less important than elements located in the second ring; it simply means that they are in general of smaller ROI. Many of them were mentioned as social media categories in the previous articles (e.g. social networking, video/podcasts, RSS feeds) and many of them provide richer contents than Web 1.0 websites. Furthermore, many of them are very effective in community building and customer engagement, which are the characteristics of social media realized by Web 2,0 technologies, and the importance of these characteristics is continuously increase as the web/Internet marketing evolves. Even the elements that were not mentioned as social media categories are effective online initiative as long as they are carefully designed and implemented, sometimes totally changing how the business is performed (or even a new business model can be realized) from how business is performed in the traditional old economy for successful online business. Affiliate programme is perhaps one of such a good example, along with e-mail marketing located in the second ring.
The author would add some of the social media categories mentioned in the previous article to the framework, such as live casting, virtual worlds, gaming, aggregators and interpersonal in the third ring. She strongly feels that importance of virtual world, gaming and aggregators would increase in the future, especially in entertainment industry, and that its technique and methodology developed may well be applied to other industries and settings such as EC (electronic commerce) and online advertising.
Assuming the framework is that of PC, the author would position mobile as something encompassing the whole of the framework. She also envisions that as interactive TV and its services become established and popularize in the future (in Web 3.0 world), interactive TV would be added as the 16th social media category of the social media ecosystem, which encompasses the whole of the framework mentioned above, similarly to mobile.
In planning and executing web/Internet (marketing) strategy in the Web 2.0 world, social media categories realized by Web 2.0 technologies and other Web 1.0 elements/initiatives need to be strategically selected and effectively and systematically mixed with clear objectives and strategy for synergy and total maximum ROI. Linking mobile with PC online marketing (and with interactive TV in the future) would be inevitable and this trend would surely become more and more vital. Last but not least, online marketing should be aligned with total business strategy of the company/organization, to make synergy with offline initiatives.
The upcoming article is to be about how social media realized by Web 2.0 technologies is changing marketing and business.
References:-
Clough, Mike (2009), Web 2.0 Online Marketing Series – Overview
http://bestbizpractices.org/2009/08/16/web-2-0-online-marketing-series-overview/
McKinsey (2009), How companies are benefiting from Web 2.0: McKinsey Global Survey Results
http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Business_Technology/BT_Strategy/How_companies_are_benefiting_from_Web_20_McKinsey_Global_Survey_Results_2432
Mzinga (2009), Social Media’s Primary Use: Marketing (from Social Software Business Survey)
http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2009/161/social-medias-primary-use-marketing
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