Target market selection : ensure they are worth it
When you look at this from the outset, it sounds like one of the simplest things to do. But very often when putting together any form of marketing campaign, both online or offline, very often this point gets lost.
Where does targeting go wrong?
On a micro level there are many places where the sight does not quite line up to the target.
Sometimes the creative execution gets in the way and the idea becomes unmanageable. The marketing is stunning and the creative is eye catching and incredibly compelling but somewhere along the way it becomes too complicated. The target market may not have all the technology available to even view the creative and so all of that hard work and creative brilliance is wasted.
Very often every creatives, marketing strategists, even copywriters forget that the target market might be completely different from them. The campaign then gets planned and executed for their point of view to meet and achieve their expectations of what would make the campaign successful. This means that we’d have huge complex multi-level campaigns involving smartphones and internet marketing being pitched at low income, low LSM demographics.
On a more macro level, there are further pitfalls that can be run into when a company is looking at their marketing initiatives. Again, targeting is an area that needs to be given a lot of thought. This time though; when looking at the target market, we are less concerned about the demographical breakdown of the target market, but rather the critical mass that makes up that target market. This is especially true when looking at a business-to-business marketing model.
(Can you tell, I’m NO graphic designer?) What the graphic is basically trying to illustrate is that in the blue pyramid there are a large number of companies at the bottom of the pyramid, this then progresses to fewer companies at the top. When you look at the proportion of revenue generated (orange triangle) by each company in the blue pyramid, proportionally each company at the bottom is making FAR less revenue that those at the top.
In a short easy to understand sentence… “There are a lot of companies that make very little money, while there are very few companies who are making absolute bucket loads of cash!”
This means it vitally important that you ensure that when choosing your target market you make sure that the segment you ar going to be going after is big enough to sustain your business into the future.
Something which certainly every business owner has learnt since the recession became a buzzword is that if you do not have a sustainable target market in tough times, your business is going to be on permanently shaky ground.
Finding your target market means making sure that you have a sweet spot. You can still market to the areas slightly above and below your core group. But you need a large enough potential group to ensure further success.
Social Media : Addiction, Disease or Accepted Social norm?
Here comes another disclaimer. I seem to be doing this a lot lately. This article is not meant to be a dig at those who do the things I mention below. I am merely asking, from as neutral a view point as I can attain, why we (yes I said we) do these things? For whose benefit is it and how is it affecting all of us. This article is questioning more than it is laying blame; even though at times it doesn’t seem to be.
Is social media really all that social?
This is a serious question. When did the boundary between social media and real life become so grey and blurred? When did it become the social norm to walk in to a room, whip out the cell phone and “check in”, “tweet” (with geo-location) and “update your status”?
What about all the people that you are with? The friends that you have with you there and then; the ones trying to share the experience with you. Is it not a little anti-social to be continuously on your phone and screaming to the world, “I am here, watch me!”
I know that humans like to share. It is generally within our nature to let other people know who we are and what we are about; but why do we feel the need to do it all the time?
I understand that there are events of such huge magnitude that we cannot help but share it. These events give us social standing and give people a sense of who we really are. It gives our Twitter handle a persona, something that our followers can connect to. But how does a tweet which says, “morning ppl” add any value to my life whatsoever. If I had to Stumble Upon it (pun intended); it doesn’t really give me anything other than the fact that wherever you are, it happened to be morning when you tweeted it.
The difference between business social.
I understand that as a medium “social media” is still very young. There are no real rules governing what makes a good post / tweet / update; but surely a little common sense is required. Asking ourselves, is this tweet / update really going to help anybody with anything whatsoever.
Are we all not just jumping on the social media bandwagon; trying to amass a social status out of the amount of information (no matter how relevant) we push out in to the world under the banner of social media.
I am not for a minute saying that there is no value to be had from social media; nor am I saying that we need to completely segregate business from personal; this is near impossible in any event.
What I am saying is that we need to think for a second before we put something out to our social network as very often our networks are going to be a mixture of family, friends, clients and potential clients.
Large Advertising Agencies Still Not Getting Online…
I feel that I need to start this off with a disclaimer. This is not a personal dig, jab, poke or knife in for big agencies some of whom may be featured in this blog post. This is merely looking at what I feel large agencies are failing to notice and are still in my opinion; doing wrong! I don’t intend to piss anyone off (although I am virtually guaranteed of doing that). So with that out of the way; let’s get this started.
Full Service; Full Stop.
I’m specifically picking on agencies who call themselves “full service agencies”. In days gone by, large agencies were especially guilty of saying that they were full service agencies, this included advertising, branding, communication and everything in between. Unfortunately for them, digital no longer means that you can get away with a (say in Capetonian accent) “like totally awesome design, that contemplates the meaning of life!” That was especially cool when people gave a damn! Now there is a HUGE emphasis placed on what does my digital marketing do for me?! Where is my ROI (Return On Investment)?!
Websites in particular need to be found online and once they are found, what are the visitors going to do on the site when they are there? Are they going to give you a pat on the back for your ability to bring them to orgasm by looking at their design? No! They are going to leave if you cannot offer them what they are looking for in as short an amount of time as possible.
But this is true of EVERY digital medium out there as well, not only websites, but as I said large advertising agencies just dont seem to get online.
Let’s back this up with a few examples :
(click on each image to see it full screen)
The Father of advertising’s website.
Ogilvy’s website is quite possibly the most difficult website to get to grips with out of all the ones I looked at. And may I draw your eye to the 4th line of text on their site which says “Digital Media & Search Marketing”. Erm… Did I miss something…!? The entire site is flash – which does not index and if you happen not to have a flash player – that’s one site you are not going to see…!
I know that everyone (and I stress everyone) is or was a fan of TIM (The Incredible Machine); but when did it become a good idea to design a website in a 90’s style PC game? Ebony & Ivory have designed a beautiful site – half of which you can see at any time as they designed it to be seen of a 52inch monitor as it doesn’t scale any smaller.
It truly is beautiful and the attention to detail is superb; but it is the perfect example of large advertising creative steam rolling digital sense!
This might just be my favourite of all. Network BBDO clearly had this designed in Cape Town! (in another Cape Tonian accent) “This site is like totally groovy, becaue as you move your mouse the perspective changes and that is like a metaphor for the work that we do. WE like totally change the perspectives of how people interact with your brand!” Crap! It’s kak to navigate, it plays some awful sound when you navigate over a highlighted button and it gives you a headache! The only action I wanted to take was to click “back” not make you my agency of choice!
The reason why I love this one so much is because they are a huge advertising agency ; both in South Africa as well as globally. But the real kicker is that they are a sister company to Gloo Digital (don’t get me started). Clearly they are not sharing digital ideas that convert and if they are, they are certainly keeping it a secret.
Wrapping It Up!
The basic outtake from all of this is that when you are choosing a digital partner or even a stock standard advertising agency; be sure that their digital is not all about the creative; but that they are backing it up with hard core search engine optimisation as well as website conversion techniques – cos a pretty totally awesome design does not bring your business cash – no matter how many Loeries it wins!
Do Cell C “Noah” what they are doing?
In a tide of social media activity – both offline and online, Cell C have become the most talked about cellular provider in South Africa.
In a recent post I made on Ponder (an online marketing blog); I went in to great detail about how Cell C and Trevor Noah have bamboozled the general public and led us all to believe that “the tweet” and CEO (the real CEO) response was for real.
Now think of the campaign what you want.
Maybe it is social media genius to play the social media out like an offline campaign. Ticking all the boxes along the way with regards to media placements, creative cues. I personally feel that they are taking all of the “social” out of their campaign by staging all of the communication points along the way.
But here is the real kicker.
What is the one thing that is sticking out more than the fact that Cell C have taken this (apparent) huge stance to correcting their network? Well; its Trevor Noah!
Trevor Noah, apart from his (I’m sure) immense salary from Cell C is getting exposure second-to-none out there. Not only from the adverts that are Cell C sponsored across billboard, online, tv and radio – but Trevor also now has his own TV show. (It might be the lamest thing out – but its a tv show!) He is giving interviews on radio; and they are not introducing him as “Cell C’s Trevor Noah”… No, he is just, “Trevor Noah, the comedian”.
The Cell C campaign may tank beyond belief; but Trevor is not! Cell C might become synonymous with Trevor Noah; but he is certainly not becoming synonymous with Cell C.
I think that the true winner out of this is going to be Trevor and second to that, online marketers who are going to realise some of the pitfalls of social media.
More On Online Marketing To The Rich
After the post I made a few weeks ago about marketing to the super rich online; Ive done a lot more thinking about the issue and spoken to a few others about it to try and broaden my understanding of the issue and see how others are feeling.
One critical thing which came up – something which I did mention in my previous post – starts to touch on this point. The heading was “be where they are”. Basically what this means is that you need to place your brand or product in the spaces and places where the rich are spending their time. The part which I didn’t mention is that you cannot simply use the same kinds of marketing tricks to do this as you normally would.
If you think that “normal” (I use this term loosely) people are good at turning off to unwanted marketing clutter, then you have not even begun to explore the super wealthy. They are expert at weeding through the marketing gumpf and simply turning off to advertising speak.
Market without marketing at all! (cryptic huh?)
The trick with the super wealthy when trying to reach them – online or offline – is to appear that you are not marketing to them at all. To the super wealthy – who by the way are looking for exclusivity – an ad placed that looks like it is screaming for business, is going to get glazed over with the rest of the pile. They want to know that they are special and that the ad they are looking at is especially 100% for their eyes only.
Keep It Fresh…
The rich (celebrities and non-celebrities) are all keen on having and showing off that they have the best and newest of something. That they were singled out and because they are who they are; they were given something first! They are cool and trend setters.
This needs to be used to the marketers advantage and kept top of mind when planning and executing any sort of campaign to the super rich.
Whether they are captains of industry or the latest, greatest Hollywood star; they want to be exclusive and have their egos stroked!
The 2 points that I have mentioned here are probably the most important facts about marketing to the super rich! The others points hold true, but if you can get these points right, then the rest will follow suit.
Online Reputation Management – affected by everything offline
Online Reputation Management (ORM) has become one of the biggest talking points of the online marketing industry of late.
The irony about ORM is that it is everything that is done offline that affects your online reputation. What is quite key about this is that people using Online Reputation Management tools and monitoring need to realise that online reputation management by itself is useless. It is great to say that my company has been monitoring the sentiment of over 1 000 web listings and we have a 43% positive sentiment rating…! Whooppee…!! But what does that actually tell you…? Nothing…? Incorrect!
ORM tells you what is wrong.
The real value of ORM comes out of using what information it is telling you and then acting on that. Now before you jump the gun, that does not mean (to quote PR specialist Craig Rodney at the last Heavy Chef event) you need to take a water pistol and quickly squirt out the fire. Stop. Listen. See what you can learn from the information that is being spread and what you can do about it. Sometimes a guy just needs to have a rant to get it out of his system; you don’t have to reply to and fulfill each and every social media post out there about you and your brand.
The real value as I said is to be given the information about what is bugging your clients and have the opportunity to change their perceptions about your service offering.
Online Reputation Management Tricks
The truth is, there really are no tricks to online reputation management; except for the fact that the term ORM itself is a trick. To manage your online reputation you need to take action offline and ensure that you are doing everything that you possibly can to improve your clients experiences with your company and brand.
An example of this is the following story. If you Google “Absa Bank”; what you will get returned in the SERPS is a really long list of people saying that their customer service is completely useless. Today a Absa Bank Platinum Priority Services Consultant named Phumelele Mthetwa completely proved each and every one of those posts wrong. Phulelele called me this morning about an Absa Bank service, he was friendly, polite and engaging in the conversation. She could answer all of my questions and later delivered via email on all of the promises she made me on the phone. I then mailed her back with a few queries to which she promptly responded with a reply mail and then another phone call to make sure I was satisfied. I was totally impressed with her service deliver that she in part inspired this blog post.
After a bit of waffle there; that is how working on what you are putting out there “offline” as a company has influence on your online reputation. I have posted this article about excellent Absa service; which will make its way in to the search results pages and slowly help Absa change the negative attitude towards them online.
If there is one key lesson out of this lengthy post, it is that online reputation management is about listening to what is happening online and then putting management techniques in place for what is affecting it offline!
Marketing to the super rich online
I have recently been asked to help a client of ours to look at new ways of reaching the super, obnoxiously rich online.
Now this presents two problems.
The first is : I am not superbly obnoxiously rich, so putting myself in their shoes is proving to be a challenge. (I am willing to take all
donations and I will willfully sacrifice myself for the greater good of having an answer to this question.)
The second is that there is very little difference at the end of the day between me and Cristiano Ronaldo. Ok, maybe there are a few superficial differences; and the slight little issue about him earning in excess of £120 000 a week.
Ok, so in truth there are a number of differences between the super wealthy and the average Joe in the street; but that should not affect the way in which a marketing campaign is put together. The following factors are things that you should be looking at in any event when putting together any sort of campaign no matter who the target market.
Time
The pace that the world is moving at today means that every single person out there is extremely pushed for time. This means that no matter how you are marketing yourself online make sure that you are taking as little of their time as possible. This does not translate into making the message less impactful, it just means that you need to ensure that you are giving them the relevant information that they need to make a decision about your product. The old adage here rings true : sell benefits, not features.
Relevance
This goes hand in hand with the previous one, make sure that you are being relevant to what they are looking for. In other words, don’t take out an advert for baby diapers on the FHM Magazine website. Again, this is not something that is specifically true for trying to reach the super wealthy. This is true for any demographic.
Pull, don’t push
Make your marketing messaging compelling enough to your target so that you are enticing them – daring them – to look at what you have to offer. Everyone is bombarded with a multitude of marketing messages each and every day that are geared to try and make them take action. Offering bargains here, specials there, etc. etc. These are so done! It is time to pull people in and stop pushing offerings down on them.
Be where they are
This one sounds a lot easier said than done, but in actual fact – it is pretty simple to work through. The super rich and the mundanely average are all consuming media on a daily basis. The first place to start is Search Engine Optimisation. Rich people use Google as well. Optimise your site and use PPC Marketing to reach them, just contextualize your site and ads to reflect your audience.
The social media wave that is sweeping across the world is an area where a lot of attention needs to be placed. The super rich may not have a lot of spare time available for themselves, but the majority are all using or at the very least watching and listening in on the social networks to see what is new and happening.
Taking their money
The super rich are rich because they know how to handle their money. The cardinal rule is to make sure that when you are asking them for their hard earned riches, you are giving them quality back in return. Again this should be no different to when you are marketing to Joe Bloggs from down the road.
If you feel I have missed some important points here about reaching the super rish online, I would love to hear your thoughts and comments. I have some additional thoughts which I will follow up with another article later.
Planning your online marketing campaign success
In the recent weeks and months there has been a lot of discussion and effort around companies wanting to rank for specific events that are only relevant for a very short period of time. Take the recent World Cup that was played in South Africa; so many companies have stretched their online marketing budgets to try and ensure that they can catch some of the tourist spend that has flooded in to the country.
Businesses in the travel and accommodation sectors have been particularly keen on making their online marketing budgets have a far greater bang. Unfortunately for the majority there has been one crucial flaw in all their online marketing. That flaw has been the time that they devoted to the campaign itself.
Let me explain this a little further. The campaign start date was June 23rd, the campaign end date was July 11. That’s a month worth of campaign. Now this would be great if the campaign was using online marketing such as 3rd party advertising and AdWords only; unfortunately many companies have had limited budgets and have wanted to rank organically for specific search terms over this specific period. (can you see the problem yet???)
Search engines, although they have given some assistance with real time search results, are still looking for longevity and relevance!
The keyword there is longevity. If you want to rank for a keyword or phrase that is going to be highly contested, a single page (no matter how well written for search) is not going to be seen as the most relevant to a search engine. To this end, an online marketing campaign’s start needs have traction before the event you are “piggy backing” off starts. This means that at least 6 weeks to 10 weeks before your special actually kicks in, you need to be promoting and speaking about your special and the event itself. This will make your content more relevant and more compelling to both search engines as well as the people you are trying to reach.
For events that are truly massive with a worldwide appeal such as the 2012 Olympics and the keyword “2012 Olympics accommodation”, you’d better get started within the next year. Make sure all content is relevant, from the domain name to the articles.
Ultimately backing this ‘basic’ seo up with AdWords and 3rd party advertising, not to mention social media, is what will truly culminate in a successful online marketing initiative. Online marketing is truly successful when many different layers are used together; this means taking best practice SEO as the base and then adding social media (twitter, facebook, etc); pay-per-click advertising (AdWords, Facebook ads) and 3rd party advertising to that all concentrate your efforts and make for a better return on investment.
Social Media and the “digital natives”
Having recently attended the Net Prophet conference in Cape Town; I thought I should quickly jot down a post on some social media thoughts mostly to get your thoughts on a theory…
Basic thought process is : the so called digital natives who are brought up with social media… Are they going to need social media sold to them as a service when they finish varsity and enter the job market…?
I want to get a crowd sourced opinion (check my buzz words) on this so I can make a full post on the thoughts from Net Prophet and compare it to general expert opinion (bit of an oxymoron there)..!
Can’t wait to hear your thoughts and write this one..!
foot note : a digital native is defined as : A digital native is a person for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born, and hence has grown up with digital technology such as computers, the Internet, mobile phones andMP3s. A digital immigrant is an individual who grew up without digital technology and adopted it later.
Is website optimization really worth the trouble?
The short answer here is : yes..!
Website optimization allows you the opportunity to take a good looking website and convert into a great performing website!
Let’s face it, we all want a website that not only has a lot of traffic driven to it, but also a site that then takes that traffic and makes sure that it converts by filling in a form or actually buying something there and then! This is the point of a website; to make people convert. To make your website change from being a presence online to a money making machine!
How can this be?
Website optimization makes this possible.
Website design is an art. The designer needs to take note of many different pieces of information to design a site which answers to the websites objectives. They need to look at everything from brand to customer demographic as well as the site’s objectives. By testing the layout, colours, calls to action, copy, headlines and more you can really start to ensure that your page is converting as many people as possible.
Google’s Website Optimizer tools are excellent as they cover both a/b testing as well as multivariate testing.
a/b testing is an optimization technique where you literally change one variable at a time to gauge how it changes the conversions on a specific page. By testing one variable at a time, we get a very clear indication of exactly what works and what does not.
Multivariate testing is when different versions of the page are tested. This offers completely different versions of the page which gives great results, but the pin point accuracy of exactly which change made the difference is lost.
Elements to test
Of all the elements that make up a landing page. There are a few that are slightly more important than other in my opinion.
The first is your heading.
The heading is the link between what the user searched for, and your page. They have trusted you enough to click on your PPC ad or your organic listing, now you need to let them know they did the right thing. By reflecting what they clicked on in your heading you are earning a little more trust and will make the user a little more at ease.
Second is the call to action.
The Call To Action (CTA) is what you want the user to do on your page. Fill in a form, click a button, buy something. Don’t confuse your user by having 3 things for them to do. Make it clear to see, obvious to understand and impossible to miss. This is why your website exists, it is to get people to take this action; so why hide it?
One of the best solutions is to have the form that you want them to fill in (assuming its a form) on the page and above the fold. Don’t make them look for it and don’t make them click away to a “contact us” page. Make it easy for them to contact you.
Benefits or features?
Benefits. Benefits. Benefits. It’s as simple as that. Make sure that the benefits you are mentioning on your page are addressing something that the user typed in to find your page in the first place. This is going to build confidence with the user and take one more step in convincing them to fill in your perfectly positioned contact form. Convincing copy that is relevant to their search term and shows them value is always a win.
These are by no means all the things you need to look at when practicing website optimizastion, but I feel that they are some of the important ones that you should look at first.
