Push Big Ideas Out. Draw Audiences In.

Where does Digital & Traditional Marketing intersect?

Probably one of the biggest areas of confusion for marketers working to understand digital marketing is “how does digital marketing fit in with traditional marketing?“  Actually the questions don’t come that way they sound more like:

  1. Do we need a Facebook page?
  2. Does social media mean we should spend less on our website?
  3. What if someone says something we don’t like, can we delete it?
  4. Shouldn’t we build a iPhone app?

[important]Digital Marketing and Traditional Marketing are mutually beneficial not mutually exclusive[/important]

Traditional Marketing vs Digital Marketing

The figures below show the difference between the old world (traditional marketing techniques) and the new world (traditional marketing enhanced by digital marketing).

The noticeable difference is the addition of a “Social Outreach” circle.  But before we go into that, let’s go over how the traditional elements are recast in their digital world.

“New” Core

The core are your owned media properties – your company and product websites.  To address the early concern of “do we still need a website”, yes.  Never abandon your owned media. The various social media networks have varying policies regarding who owns what when you post on their networks.  For that reason alone you want to maintain your main web presence.

As hinted, the content of your website must change.  Posting 20 page whitepapers is becoming rather staid. Your main content needs to be updated to be more interactive and interesting.  You’re not just competing with your typical product and service competitors, you’re competing with everything that may steal the attention of your audience.  Make sure website visitors have their questions answered and the interest piqued. Further, your new core needs to allow your customers/prospects interact with the content.  This may be accomplished by allowing thought leaders to maintain blogs and allow readers comments. [A word of caution, the more anonymity commenters are able to have the more likely the comments will be ugly]

“New” Amplifiers

Traditional amplifiers include TV, radio, print and display.  To that equation we add technical amplifiers like Search Engine Marketing, mobile, RSS feeds and email registration.  These Digital Marketing techniques improve your ability to get the word out.  The name of the game is “Lead Generation.”

Social Outreach

So what’s new? Social Outreach.

[important]Social Outreach is using social media to nurture and strengthen the bonds with customers and prospects[/important]

Let’s review some examples of social outreach:

  • Using LinkedIn groups for feedback, idea generation and updates
  • Organizing formal or informal Meetups (or tweetups)
  • Active social listening and responding to customer complaints
  • Engaging with passionate customer segments seeking product advice

Admittedly, social outreach is a fuzzy idea, but the difference with social outreach is the purposefully human connection.  This is hand-to-hand marketing, getting out there and interacting with your customers on a personal, individual level.

In terms of customer segments, I see social outreach as focusing on your existing customers.  Social outreach allows you to:

  • Maintain relevance and top of mind
  • Deal with customer problems while they are still relatively small problems
  • Obtain referrals because your customers know you and like you
  • Build “earned media” by leveraging your customers to drive “Word of Mouth”

Let’s revisit the questions mentioned

Now that we’ve covered of Digital Marketing supports Traditional Marketing, let’s revisit the common questions mention earlier:

  1. Do we need a Facebook page? Maybe you need a presence on Facebook (is that where your audience is?)
  2. Does social media mean we should spend less on our website? Your website is as important as ever but it can’t be the only place for your content (use content bread crumbs the sites your customers visit)
  3. What if someone says something we don’t like, can we delete it? You can’t delete what someone says about you (you don’t have control over your customers)
  4. Shouldn’t we build a iPhone app? Mobile is an important part of your strategy (but consider the content and the customers interaction with it on a mobile phone)

Drive Ideas Out. Draw Audiences In.

To recap, how does Digital Marketing interact Traditional Marketing?  It helps drive ideas out and draw audiences in. Digital Marketing doesn’t supplant traditional methods, although it may change them a bit. Marketers have new tools in their toolbox to get their message out.  Rather than just relying on broadcast messaging there are new mediums available to find and connect with customers and prospects.

A recent tweet from Laura Fitton said it best:

[notice]Stop pushing. Start attracting. Stop interrupting. Start engaging.[/notice]

I happily credit Nate Elliot and Forrester research for planting the seed in my head with Nate’s research The Interactive Brand Ecosystem.

5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed 9-3-11

Too busy snacking on BBQ this Labor Day weekend to give a hoot about Marketing Technology? Enough of that! Here are 5 Marketing Technology stories you might have missed.

1. Pound-for-pound, Pandora ads now worth more than radio

[link] On a phone call with investors and analysts after the stock market closed on Thursday afternoon, Pandora confirmed that pound for pound its ads are just as valuable as those broadcast on traditional radio. One analyst said that in reading the company’s quarterly report, he calculated that Pandora is now:

“generating more ad revenue per 1000 hours than traditional radio is, with a tenth of the user base.”

MY TAKE: It’s interesting to see online broadcast radio find a measure of equality with terrestrial radio.

2. How Younger Adults React to Brands on Social Networks

[link] Nearly one in four millennials (23.5%) interacted with content from a brand’s Facebook page at least once a daily, vs. 17% of older adults who did the same.  Brands have the opportunity not only to attract younger adults as fans of their brand, but also to interact with them frequently once they do.

MY TAKE: If you’re managing a brand online, recognize that the younger set is much more likely to follow and interact.

3.  B2B Marketers Yet to Connect Financial Metrics to Marketing Campaigns

[link] Though a third of B2B marketers track revenue metrics associated with marketing-generated opportunities, closed deals and percent of total sales, 35% said they do not report any financial-contribution metrics to executives. For now, it appears marketers are more likely to be held accountable for marketing-performance-related metrics. More than half (58%) report the number of marketing-qualified leads to senior management and 48% track the number of opportunities generated.

MY TAKE: When someone challenges you to defend the ROI, ask them how they calculate the ROI for traditional media.

4. Silverpop Unveils Two Mobile Applications for Marketers

[link] Pop-In, supports remote data collection via an iPad, allowing marketers to grow their contact databases while in the field. The other application is Silverpop Engage iPhone application that offers mobile access to Engage reporting.   With just a few taps on their iPhones, Engage users can review important metrics such as recipient count and deliverability statistics for either the most recent mailings or those within a specific date range.

MY TAKE: So many apps are being applied to Sales activities. It’s nice to see a focus in real-time Marketing

5 Blog Frog adds community to your site.

[link] Robert Scoble featured Blog Frog this week.  Blog Frog allows a blogger to create or interact with a community.  The problem Blog Frog solves is that blog conversation is between the author and the audience based on what the author wants to discuss and the community can’t engage with one another.  Not only can you take part in a community but you can embed that in your blog.

Love the saying quoted in the article:

building a community isn’t about connecting people to you – it’s about connecting them to each other.

MY TAKE: Check out and join the Marketing Technology at http://refford.com/community

Sept Poll: What blogging platform do you use?

There are many, many options available to those that want to share an opinion ranging from free and simple to….well, inexpensive and involved.  I’m tracking some of the most popular platforms. If I missed the one you use please add it in the comments.

–

[poll id=”12″]

image credit Salvatore Vuono

What Makes A Community Successful?

Unfortunately I couldn’t join #IMChat, but I learned a lot from seasoned Community Managers.  Review this wrap up to hear what some of the best and brightest are doing.

Topics covered are outlined in Melissa Parrish’s blog post and cover:

  1. What is the main purpose of your community (customer support, product ideation, thought leadership, etc.)?
  2. What membership or activity goals did you set (or are you setting) to measure the initial success of your community?
  3. What factors contributed to whether or not you met those goals?
  4. How did you initially promote your community? What kinds of ongoing promotion do you use?
  5. How many employees are dedicated to your community and what are their responsibilities?

What is Marketing Technology?

So what is Marketing Technology?

I certainly talk about a lot it but frankly I’m hard pressed to define it. Let’s look at some of the groundwork that’s been laid.

Mr. Chief Marketing Technologist – Scott Brinker

Scott Brinker does yeomen work writing about the role of a marketing technologist.  As reported Scott says a Marketing Technologist is:

“… someone who has a hybrid between business and technology, a strong background in engineering and IT, is an early adopter of technology, but someone who also understands the pragmatic realities of scaling technology. But most importantly, someone who brings those skills and combines them with a deep love and passion for the marketing mix. This is a technologist that reports to the CMO, not the CIO.”

Marketing Technology Consultant – Douglass Karr

Douglas Karr’s Marketing Technology Blog provides insight into the role on posts daily on the topics below.  The list below provides insight to what Marketing Technology consists of.

Practitioner – John Refford

I myself have wrote on the roles and responsibilities of a Marketing Technologist focusing on:

  • Strategist – you will frequently be asked to analyze situations, evaluate options, and recommend strategy & tactics
  • Change Agent – you may find yourself playing the role of a change agent where you have the opportunity to introduce new marketing technology and techniques
  • Consultant – you may be asked advise ebusiness teams on how to integrate new “Web 2.0″ digital techniques to the traditional websites
  • Project Manager – given your unique position between IT & Marketing, you may be asked to manage several projects

The Social Crowd

In working to craft a definition I reached out to a few LinkedIn groups (here and here) and asked how practitioners define “Marketing Technology”.

Here are the definitions offered:

  • Nigel Cliffe: The action of combining technology with business processes to promote the selling of products or services.
  • Nazli Yuzak: A series of technologies that enables marketers to execute higher quality integrated marketing campaigns while optimizing resources and maximizing ROI.
  • Eric Schmidt: At the corner of IT and Marketing you find the Marketing Technologist. A marketer has a message, an IT developer has a system, the MT uses a specific system for a specific message.
  • @BrianMakas: Bi-lingual marketer/techie that often offers solutions well before need for tech even identified.


 Here’s my draft definition of Marketing Technology:

Applied information technology sciences to the benefit sales and marketing efforts associated with advancing organizational goals. Contrasted with traditional marketing consisting of print, display, tv advertising and public relations analog techniques.

I’m intrigued that the category continues to be defined by the people as much as by the content.  Because of this fluidity, I’m really intrigued to see if we can settle on a common definition.

How do you define Marketing Technology?

Load more