Digital marketing turmoil
There was a period when people coursed TV for all those hundreds of channels that came with it... I remember a song by Bruce Springsteen called "57 channels and Nothin' on", which describes the emptyness of family life while all free time is spent in front of the TV offering.
In 2015, there is much of the same game going on with more challenging channels - the digital marketing channels. There is a huge buzz going on around social media channels... which channel is wise to use for the business purposes and should we identify a totally new purpose for marketing?
One leader said it well from his own 20 year experience: the purpose of marketing has shifted from one-way advertising into multidirectional social interacting with selected stakeholders, customers, business partners and managing your own social media presense.
The modern marketing methods are versatile and content marketing is highly praised. The most advanced form of content marketing could be called Allure Marketing. The aim is to create attention and larger audiences in an attractive, funny, storytelling or professional way. Information is free for the receiver. This is done by using relevant (hot) topics, trends, news, views and inviting interest groups for a discussion, debate, opinion, sharing or testing something. But there are expectations for the broadcasting: high quality and great, consistent stories!
Allure Marketing is not about repeating a dull story. It does not directly advertise sales offers or new services. Its not a banner who asks you to click and order a fancy glitter shirt.
The rewarding result of Allure Marketing is a very loyal, expanding community who is eager to read and hear about any relevant topics your "channel" is sending out. Its also about giving the audience a feeling of empowerment via their comments, opinions and engagement in general. Its about building an important network of loyal listeners and reaching a very large audience in a powerful, convenient way. It takes a longer time to build a large network community than it takes to send one Email, but what here matters is the digital channel which offers free interaction and sharing.
In 2015 we have plenty of digital channels and methods to choose from when we wish to communicate with our stakeholders or when we wish to grow our audience. Here a brief list:
Trendy for phone
WhatsApp
Snapchat (max 10 sec image/video available only 24h disappearing after receiver sees it)
View the global activity of Snapchat.
Vine (short videos)
Trendy for phone and computer
YouTube
Pinterest
Tumblr and Blogger (forums for Blogging and Vlogging)
LinkedIn
Instagram
Spotify
Periscope (instant videos)
Twitter
9GAG (images/GIFs with fun commentary)
Dynamic websites/webshops with visitor chat
Between trendy and old school (in my opinion)
Facebook, Webinars, Google, Radio, Traditional Webshops.
Old school
Email, TV, Static websites and contact forms.
It may look like a long list to choose from. But lets narrow those down. You need to acknowledge the important communication and marketing goals and those channels that your target groups are using in order to reach them. The chosen channels depend on the purpose: why are we communicating?
After goals are clear its time to figure out how to reach the audience for:
getting sales leads / publishing news / advertising special offers / gaining influencial followers for brand awareness / having demo product testers / inviting decision makers to a seminar / introducing new strategy / informing about product updates / reaching buyers from young age groups / placing recruitment ads...
Creating a strategy for digital marketing and selecting right channels for the goals is a must.
A good starting point is to collect answers for the "Why-Who-How" questions. A cross-reference table of all the communication and marketing needs and goals helps in this task. Also a cross-departmental, multi-skilled team brings the most fruitful results. The end result can be for example "Marketing channel strategy", to be shared on intranet for everybody's reference. It should also include the nominated individuals for each type of role.
It pays off later when company starts to follow a coherent, agreed practice for the recognised communication needs (and reviews the needs annually).
Since mid-sized companies can manage only a few channels professionally by their own resources, outsourcing is necessary when more advanced content writing skills are required.
When doing marketing consulting business with the SME's, at a certain point this question drops: "how can we possibly reach all the key groups and stakeholders with 90% propability when we want to communicate our most important messages?".
The purposeful marketing channel is easier to select when the target group consists of the same age and is present on the same channels, like LinkedIn and Email. You also assume every adult has an Email account, but Email has become a "trash-sensitive channel" (message becames old fast and can disappear in the overloaded folders). When target group members are in different age groups and thus using many channels, you need to adopt to the situation. Start broadcasting on those channels your target group members are using. And this is the real challenge!
Furthermore, there are plenty of essential issues after company takes the leap into using digital channels or social media. Here are two of them which I find the most important.
1. Every employee should be aware of the company's social media presense (strategy) and who or which team is managing the online engagement. Since it is a true online engagement - fast responding and commenting is required in several digital media channels, it can be compared to face-to-face situation.
2. Every employee is a potential sales lead generator. Or a potential opinion influencer when employees are talking with their own social network outside the company network. Its a known fact that the most valued recommendations and suggestions are accepted from the most trusted connections - the network of friends. You listen to your friends opinions and most likely would support their choices too!
In 2015, there is much of the same game going on with more challenging channels - the digital marketing channels. There is a huge buzz going on around social media channels... which channel is wise to use for the business purposes and should we identify a totally new purpose for marketing?
One leader said it well from his own 20 year experience: the purpose of marketing has shifted from one-way advertising into multidirectional social interacting with selected stakeholders, customers, business partners and managing your own social media presense.
The modern marketing methods are versatile and content marketing is highly praised. The most advanced form of content marketing could be called Allure Marketing. The aim is to create attention and larger audiences in an attractive, funny, storytelling or professional way. Information is free for the receiver. This is done by using relevant (hot) topics, trends, news, views and inviting interest groups for a discussion, debate, opinion, sharing or testing something. But there are expectations for the broadcasting: high quality and great, consistent stories!
Allure Marketing is not about repeating a dull story. It does not directly advertise sales offers or new services. Its not a banner who asks you to click and order a fancy glitter shirt.
The rewarding result of Allure Marketing is a very loyal, expanding community who is eager to read and hear about any relevant topics your "channel" is sending out. Its also about giving the audience a feeling of empowerment via their comments, opinions and engagement in general. Its about building an important network of loyal listeners and reaching a very large audience in a powerful, convenient way. It takes a longer time to build a large network community than it takes to send one Email, but what here matters is the digital channel which offers free interaction and sharing.
In 2015 we have plenty of digital channels and methods to choose from when we wish to communicate with our stakeholders or when we wish to grow our audience. Here a brief list:
Trendy for phone
Snapchat (max 10 sec image/video available only 24h disappearing after receiver sees it)
View the global activity of Snapchat.
Vine (short videos)
Trendy for phone and computer
YouTube
Tumblr and Blogger (forums for Blogging and Vlogging)
Spotify
Periscope (instant videos)
9GAG (images/GIFs with fun commentary)
Dynamic websites/webshops with visitor chat
Between trendy and old school (in my opinion)
Facebook, Webinars, Google, Radio, Traditional Webshops.
Old school
Email, TV, Static websites and contact forms.
It may look like a long list to choose from. But lets narrow those down. You need to acknowledge the important communication and marketing goals and those channels that your target groups are using in order to reach them. The chosen channels depend on the purpose: why are we communicating?
After goals are clear its time to figure out how to reach the audience for:
getting sales leads / publishing news / advertising special offers / gaining influencial followers for brand awareness / having demo product testers / inviting decision makers to a seminar / introducing new strategy / informing about product updates / reaching buyers from young age groups / placing recruitment ads...
Select PLACES after your PURPOSE is defined for reaching the target PEOPLE.WHY > WHO > HOW
Creating a strategy for digital marketing and selecting right channels for the goals is a must.
A good starting point is to collect answers for the "Why-Who-How" questions. A cross-reference table of all the communication and marketing needs and goals helps in this task. Also a cross-departmental, multi-skilled team brings the most fruitful results. The end result can be for example "Marketing channel strategy", to be shared on intranet for everybody's reference. It should also include the nominated individuals for each type of role.
It pays off later when company starts to follow a coherent, agreed practice for the recognised communication needs (and reviews the needs annually).
Since mid-sized companies can manage only a few channels professionally by their own resources, outsourcing is necessary when more advanced content writing skills are required.
When doing marketing consulting business with the SME's, at a certain point this question drops: "how can we possibly reach all the key groups and stakeholders with 90% propability when we want to communicate our most important messages?".
The purposeful marketing channel is easier to select when the target group consists of the same age and is present on the same channels, like LinkedIn and Email. You also assume every adult has an Email account, but Email has become a "trash-sensitive channel" (message becames old fast and can disappear in the overloaded folders). When target group members are in different age groups and thus using many channels, you need to adopt to the situation. Start broadcasting on those channels your target group members are using. And this is the real challenge!
Furthermore, there are plenty of essential issues after company takes the leap into using digital channels or social media. Here are two of them which I find the most important.
1. Every employee should be aware of the company's social media presense (strategy) and who or which team is managing the online engagement. Since it is a true online engagement - fast responding and commenting is required in several digital media channels, it can be compared to face-to-face situation.
2. Every employee is a potential sales lead generator. Or a potential opinion influencer when employees are talking with their own social network outside the company network. Its a known fact that the most valued recommendations and suggestions are accepted from the most trusted connections - the network of friends. You listen to your friends opinions and most likely would support their choices too!
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