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Welcome to the The Marketing Source e-newsletter! Our goal is to provide
you with real-world marketing tips.If you have any ideas for articles,
please send them along.
Emerging Media and Marketing: Put These Tools
in Your Toolbox
Podcasts. Widgets. Blogs. Advergaming. The dizzying array of techno-cool
tools popping up on the marketing scene can make your head spin. Here's
a look at how to translate these trends into feasible, strategic marketing
tools for your organization, a follow up to last month's overview
of emerging media. The world's emerging media budget is estimated
to reach $8.1 billion by 2011, and marketing through technology will
no doubt become a greater portion of your marketing budget in the years
to come. The question is when, how and why you should allocate your valuable
marketing dollars to emerging media.
Let's start with why. Reaching highly targeted (but sometimes
smaller) groups of customers and potential customers with messages that
get to the heart of what they care about is no longer just a possibility.
These tools help make that idea reality. The good news? You can deliver
your key messages to just the right people, in just the right way, at
just the right time. In fact, the Internet even allows your target audiences
to come to you. The bad news? You'll have to look beyond your comfort
zone of traditional marketing. You'll have to jump up on the learning
curve to figure out how these tools can boost your marketing. For more
on how people are using technology and the intersection of technology
and marketing, check out a summary of The User Revolution, recently published
by international investment bank Piper Jaffray. This two year study gives
great insight into where things are heading with technology.
Now let's get to work on the ins and outs of using some of the
most popular emerging media tools. There's so much information
to share that we've gone a bit longer than our regular newsletter,
but it's a quick read loaded with tips and examples. And watch
for our upcoming white paper, where we'll include more details
and how to's.
Blogging
What if you had a tool guaranteed to increase your visibility
at very little cost? Something that could change on a moment's
notice to include new products and new messages? Something that would
allow you to showcase your expertise? Something easy and inexpensive
to produce?
It's your blog. There are so, so many reasons why your business
should have a blog! Blogs drive traffic, position you as an expert, serve
as an instant source of information and much more. If you haven't
ventured into the blogosphere, it's time to open another door for
yourself. Check out 5 Reasons Why We Blog at the Marketing Source's
fixyourmarketingblog.com
Companies are using blogs for all types of initiatives – gathering
data from customers and potential customers, sharing expertise, putting
out product information and even internal communications. Here are a
couple of examples that show how companies are putting blogs to work.
ESPN – an index page that connects viewers with the blogs of ESPN
analysts in every sport
General Motors – multiple blogs that share the stories behind GM
products and ask for customer input
Southwest Airlines – "Nuts
about Southwest" is a forum
for employees
To check out tons of blogs on every topic, visit Technorati.
Cautions and Caveats
- Our worlds are becoming more and more mobile. Woe
to the marketer who doesn't format blog posts to be read on a cell
phone or palm pilot!
- The corporate blogosphere has gone multi-media. If you're
not including podcasts, embedded video and cool images with your
blog, you'll get lost in the pack.
- Blogs have to be current. You'll need to
post a short message at least once a week (preferably more frequently),
or your blog looks outdated.
YouTube and Video Sharing
Creating and posting short, low-budget, creative
films can engage your audience in a new realm. YouTube is the largest
and most popular of the online sites that offer free short video clips,
but there are many sites on the Internet that might be just the right
forum for you.
Everyone from bands to corporations to random citizens share their videos
on these sites. It's a buzz-worthy venture, as some of these clips
become enormously popular and are shared around the world in a viral
marketing frenzy. While your standard 30 second commercial may not get
a lot of play, there's no harm in posting it. But it you have a
spectacularly funny or creative spot, or if you can extend your campaign
or promotion with a more creative video, that's where these sites
really come into play. Some companies even reap sales from unique uses
of their products. Check out these alternative uses for Diet Coke and
Mentos!
As marketers, we are fascinated that enough people have spare time available
to check out these sites. If you need convincing, you should know that
YouTube users spend on average 7 1/2 hours a week on the site.
Cautions and Caveats
Video broadcasting should only be a small portion
of your marketing budget. It is a great means to increase visibility,
but the rate of converting viewers to customers.
Advergaming
Wouldn't it be great to have your customers and potential
customers sharing your message for you?
Companies like Fuel Games are making that happen with game development
services specifically for marketers. Games can be a great source for
lead generation and have great pass-along value among a wide variety
of target markets. A retail game on Chrysler's web site to promote its
new Wrangler Rubicon directly generated fourteen percent of the vehicle's
initial orders.
You can also use product placement in games to boost your recognition. "Sims
Online" offers Nike shoes that enhance a player's speed. These forms
of advertising are popping up everywhere in video gaming, a particularly
booming hobby of males between 12 and 25.
Look at these examples of advergaming in action:
Coca-Cola
Jeep
Cautions and Caveats
Games have to be fun, but they also have to be strategic.
It's easy to get swept up by the cool factor, and end up with a great
game that does nothing to truly support your marketing.
SMS Messaging
As mobile phones become more and more advanced, the opportunity
for customer interaction is on the rise. You are probably all too familiar
with the annoying spam text messages sent to cell phones, but this
technology does have a place in legitimate marketing.
Rapid delivery time, often within minutes, makes this a great way to
spread the word about last minute specials or spur-of-the-moment offers.
Typical response rates are 10% – though if you plan well, you can
achieve rates even much higher than this. You pay for SMS on a per-message
basis. One means of measurement can be "show this message" coupons
that can help you determine your ROI. Also, the digital delivery of the
promotions means less waste and shows an environmentally friendly stance.
Sites online now offer opportunities to send mass SMS messages to your
customer base via software installable on your desktop or in your mail
system. Check out MobiMarketing for software that can be installed in
your Microsoft Outlook to send SMS messages to all your selected contacts.
Or look at TextAlert to send mass messages to your regulars.
Cautions and Caveats
- Not all mobile phone users are regular SMS users. Vertis Communications
found that text messaging is ". . . the most desired method
of follow-up communication in younger men ages 18-24, with 23 percent
desiring contact via text message from a company they are interested
in, compared to 5 percent of women the same age."
- Like email, you should send messages only on an opt-in basis. Target
customers you already have a relationship with, or who have given
you specific permission to send messages to them. Unsolicited messages
are spam – and
they are illegal.
Podcasting
Projections say that more than 75 million people will be active
podcast listeners by 2010, and current numbers are already in the millions.
Podcasts require only that listeners have a computer, so they are
easily accessible. They aren't hard to produce and provide a tremendous
opportunity to reach a targeted group of listeners.
Podcasting is like reaching any other social community. People gather
in like-minded groups, and these groups aren't millions and millions
of people, but thousands and thousands or even dozens and dozens. But
because they have similar interests, these listeners are likely to be
receptive to the same marketing message.
The "a la carte" marketing opportunities podcasting offers
are where the smart advertising dollars will be spent. Your job is to
segment your audiences and determine which ones would be the most likely
candidates to listen to podcasts.
Look at Acura's use of a sound engineer to comment on his involvement
with Acura's surround sound. Talking about his past musical experiences
is interesting content, and his talents and partnership provide a somewhat
subtle pitch for the car. An extreme example of podcasting is Disney.
Though we don't all have the brand recognition that the media conglomerate
does, you'll find some ideas when you check out Disney's
Podcasts.
Many companies offer free podcasts, and subscription-based podcasts
can be marketed via your company website, blog, or other forums. They
can also be offered through iTunes and other download sites.
Cautions and Caveats
Podcasts are a low risk enterprise. The challenge
is to create podcast content that is meaningful and will attract listeners.
You can't simply put out information about your product and expect
to get lots of listeners.
Widgets
Widgets are all about providing your users with the tools to
promote your business. Widgets will increasingly be windows into a
more interesting experience. The action happening in widgets themselves
is relatively minimal because most are pretty small and offer a specific,
limited application. People are attracted to widgets because they offer
an easy access portal into the internet and creative tools that are
easy to access. You want your business to be something people want to
follow closely. Offering a widget gives them that chance.
One of the greatest things about web widgets is that you don't
have to be a developer to make use of them. Anybody who understands how
to copy/paste is able to display "widgetized" content or
functionality on their own blog or web site.
A number of online sites offer ways to turn your blog content into a
free widget like Widgetbox and Yahoo!
Widgets. Macintosh's new
platform Mac OS X includes widgets as a software program. Owners are
provided with some widgets already, and can get many, many more via their
computers.
Get Our
Widget – It will display with other widgets on your desktop
so you know when our blog has been updated. It shows you the headline
so you can determine if the story is something you are interested in
reading about.
Cautions and Caveats
You can't measure widgets with the same standards
you apply to online display advertising. It's more of tool to build
loyalty and further engage viewers and listeners.
So get busy, be creative, have fun – and
be smart
It's a brave new marketing world out there, and it's changing
every day. It offers tremendous opportunities, and the challenge of not
being so caught up in what's neat and what's new that you
lose sight of how it will contribute to your strategic marketing.
Need help putting the latest technology to work in a strategic way?
We can help.
Need to rev up your marketing with a little innovation? The Marketing
Source can bring a new perspective to your projects and challenges. We're
Ready to Help.
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