Social Media Marketing

Reality In Marketing – What Place For Social Media?

I recently tweeted this post from Malcolm Auld…

…because it contains a number of very interesting points for marketers considering how to use social media.

(For non-Australian readers, the context of this is the recent Australian Federal election.)

Point #1:

“(Obama’s Director of Direct Marketing for his first election) …revealed that social channels were good for getting people to identify themselves and their issues, but this was only the start of the sales funnel. The real engagement with those who registered with social media came from email, direct mail, telephone and events, not the social channels.”

Point #2:

“Around 90% of Australians cannot be bothered with Twitter.”

Point 3:

“Westfield announced it was pulling out of Facebook advertising as it doesn’t pay. They have tracked all their channels and their magazine is the most powerful media for engaging customers and generating sales. Who’d have thought – a printed publication that shows a range of retail products and the related prices, would perform better than social media? Gosh what a surprise.”

Point 4:

“Which is exactly what Forrester Research revealed when it researched the world’s top online retail stores – less then 0.4% of links to online retail sites come from social media.”

In summary, the message from these points is that social media is certainly no “magic bullet” for marketers.

Now the point is not that you should avoid social media. Rather that, as with any marketing activity, if you choose to use social media do so strategically and with a clear purpose.

Here’s Dan Kennedy…

[Read more…]

Missing From Most Social Media Marketing…

…are only 2 things…

…strategy and tactics!

Or put another way…

…there’s a lot of poorly directed activity that ends up being nothing more than a distraction.

A suitable excuse to post this great Tom Fishburne cartoon…

“5 types of social media strategies”.

Reminds me a little of the great Claude Hopkins’ advice…

“Don’t boast, for all people resent it. Don’t try to show off.”

(From chapter 2 of “Scientific Advertising”).

As I was reviewing this, I was struck once again by how much marketing and business activity is conducted without too much sense of a clear purpose.

Some people seem to think that the simple act of furious activity will produce results.

Constant posting or tweeting or updating social media properties, for example.

Of course that’s rarely the case but it’s a trap that even smart marketers can fall into.

Ryan Healy is a marketer and copywriter that I have a very high regard for.

And yet, even he fell into the trap of unfocused activity, as he reveals in this post…

“How Some Silly Email Rules Increased Sales By 679% In 30 Days”.

Of course, the idea of regularly providing good quality information is seductive…

…and may well have longer term benefits, such as strengthening the relationship with your clients and prospects.

But on it’s own, it won’t necessarily deliver sales, as Ryan’s case study illustrates.

Producing a sale, requires a very specific strategy and sequence of steps…

…conducted in a purposeful manner.

Now, that’s not to say that every marketing message should be a hard pitch…far from it.

Even the hard-core “selling” advocates like Ben Settle and Matt Furey deliver value in their emails and other communications.

It’s just that they don’t deliver free content or training and then hope for the best that because you’ve been nice, people will buy from you.

There is a strategy and purpose to their actions.

So get clear on your own strategy and concentrate on actions that clearly help towards achieving your goals.

That way, you’ll be less likely to fall victim to the trap of unproductive marketing activity.

Facebook Business Pages…Build It…

…and they won’t necessarily turn up. From the great marketoonist Tom Fishburne…

…with added impact from Facebook’s IPO being in the news.

(As an aside, tying in your marketing to something topical will often increase the impact and results. It both adds to the relevance…see “Cutting Through Marketing Clutter”…and connects with what people may already be thinking about…the “Robert Collier Principle”.)

Full post at “our facebook page” where Tom not only discusses the fiasco (from an investor’s perspective) of the Facebook IPO (last closing price as I write this was $27.72, down from the listing price of $38)…

…but also the continuing lack of understanding from mainstream marketers about social media.

“The same lesson holds for brands and social media in general. Social media can generate a return, but we need to keep the emphasis on the right place. It’s not about getting rich quickly. It’s about deepening the connection with our audience.

We need less gold rush and more long-term community building.”

Of course, the long-term community building is only worthwhile if it forms part of a coherent strategy to generate leads and then convert those leads into paying customers.

As I’ve commented before, social media is a source of traffic, it’s a way to get in front of people, ideally people who are your potential customers.

It’s unfortunate, but the vast majority of businesses (even large corporations) really don’t understand how to market effectively. As a result, they get seduced by the latest fad as they search for the “magic bullet” that will somehow solve all their problems.

Of course, when they spend a lot of money and get dismal results, not surprisingly disillusionment sets in.

Seems that’s happened to the once-great General Motors…

“GM Says Facebook Ads Don’t Work, Pulls $10 Million Account”.

Note that this refers to the paid ads on Facebook. GM appears to be continuing with its pages and content marketing.

I found this interesting…

“GM has been re-evaluating much of its advertising strategy over the past year, consolidating its global advertising and media-buying agencies in a bid to cut $2 billion from its marketing budget while improving the efficiency of its advertising.

The Journal, citing people familiar with GM’s thinking, said the carmaker began to question the effectiveness of its Facebook ads earlier this year and GM marketing executives, including Ewanick, met with Facebook managers to address their concerns but remained unconvinced that advertising on the website made sense.”

Think about those comments for a moment.

The implication is that GM has no idea of what results are being produced by their advertising! If they did, the evaluation process would be clear-cut because they would know what the ROI (“Return On Investment”) is.

GM is clearly not conducting direct response marketing and appears to be ignoring the principles of “Scientific Advertising” set out by the great Claude Hopkins. I guess this should come as no great surprise, given the disaster area that GM has become (what would the great Alfred P. Sloan think?).

Back to social media. First get clear about your core marketing funnel and system. Then consider how social media fits in with that.

Most businesses struggle with social media because…

1) They don’t have an effective marketing strategy in place to start with

2) If they do, they focus on the “bells and whistles” of social media and as an after-thought (if at all) then how it fits in with making sales and creating customers.

Reality Check On Social Media Marketing From Dan Kennedy

Just finished reading the latest edition (4th) of Dan Kennedy’s…

…”The Ultimate Marketing Plan”.

I ‘d read a previous edition (2nd) many years ago and decided it was time for a “refresher” course in the basics and see what new material Dan thought worth including.

The new edition is a comprehensive update…

…while still containing the core principles of Dan Kennedy style direct response marketing.

One of the chapters covers…

“Profitably Using Marketing Technologies And Online/Internet Marketing Media”.

Note the emphasis on “profitably”.

It’s no secret that on a personal basis Dan might be described as somewhat “hostile” towards the internet and much modern technology.

But that doesn’t mean he is blind to the marketing opportunities.

He is, however, like the master direct marketer he is, insistent that any channel pays its way and demonstrably produces an acceptable return on investment.

With that in mind, here are a couple of items from that chapter on using social media for marketing.

The first is an example of a big success…

“Two partners with a mobile taco stand selling Korean BBQ tacos were struggling in the cluttered, competitive, urban market of Los Angeles. Their business breakthrough came from Twitter. One partner began broadcasting the the truck’s locations, times there, and descriptions of unique food items on Twitter, in advance and in real time, hour by hour. They also encouraged their happy customers to tweet while enjoying their tacos, to spread the word.”

The result?

“Their follower list grew exponentially, from 10 followers to 100 to 500 to 5,000. Their truck was soon mobbed at every stop, and a second truck was added.”

This has always seemed to me to be an ideal marketing application for Twitter. If you have a business, where regular updates provide real value for customers, and the food service industry is a good example, then the micro-blogging platform can be highly effective.

The next item introduces a note of caution, however, and provides a reality check on social media as marketing media.

Here are the results from Nation’s Restaurant News’ annual survey of restaurant customers and restaurant owners on the topic of social media…

Only 8% of customers follow a restaurant on Facebook, but 61% of restaurant owners have a Facebook page and actively market via Facebook

Only 15% of customers anticipate following more restaurants on Facebook, but 78% of restaurant owners have plans to increase their use of Facebook as a marketing tool

Only 3% pay attention to a restaurant via Twitter, while 53% of restaurants use Twitter for marketing purposes

Only 9% of customers expect to use Twitter more regarding restaurants they use, while 66% of restaurants intend doing more with Twitter.

In the survey, more that one third were younger than 35.

I confess, I was rather stunned by this. Remember, this is in the restaurant business which, on the face of it, is well suited to use social media marketing.

So, the success of the taco truck could be the exception, rather than the rule.

Dan’s conclusion?

It’s essential to track results and allocate marketing resources in line with the results you get.

Of course that applies to all marketing but especially with channels like social media where it’s all too easy to get caught up in the excitement of the latest “new thing”.