Engagement MarketingFinding, Connecting, and Converting Profitable Buyers

Evolution of Marketing

B.C. – 1950 1950 - 2000 2000 - present

1:1 1: many Many: many

The New Normal: Engagement

“Are you buying momentary attention or are you investing in a long term asset? Stop renting an audience – build one.” - Seth Godin, best-selling author

“Don’t interrupt what people are interested in – become what people are interested in.” – Jeff Lanctot, Avenue A / Razorfish

Sources of Consumer Trust

Source: Forrester Research, All Rights Reserved.

Consumers trust friends, family, & personal experience more than ads or strangers

Trust is required to acquire buyers

Trust is built through engagement

Paradigm Shift

Old Communications Model: one-way messages, brand dictates topics, infrequent distribution, no feedback, brand finds the audience (push)

New Communications Model: two-way dialogue, patients dictate the topics, frequent distribution, continual feedback, audience finds the brand (pull)

Implications for Marketers

Marketers are now facilitators of conversations

Marketers must “put a face on their brand” and learn to be personable/engaging

Marketers need to build their own platform to deliver relevant content to attract/build loyal followers instead of paying someone else to interrupt their audience with ads (thus, marketers must now think like a publisher)

Digital media is about “who” -- not “how many”

What This Means for Marketers“Business as usual” (interruption) no longer works

Implications for Marketers

Advertising alone does not influence consumer selection of product or service

Word-of-mouth referrals from existing customers is key (however, you want profitable referrals – and that means being able to identify what a profitable customer looks like)

Step 1: BrandingIt’s not what you think – and matters more than you think

Branding: What it is

Branding Basics: Positioning – what you want the brand to be Design – translating positioning into a name / logo / color Meaning – how the brand takes on associations

A name becomes a brand when people link it to other things (it is like a reputation)

Branding: Why it matters

Distinguishing your business from competitors is critical; simply touting “good service” is not enough

You must identify the one thing that makes your business unique (USP) and then become known for it

Climb off the billboard and into the community – put a face / voice on your brand and dialogue with potential buyers

Step 2: Identifying Profitable Buyers

Profile your most profitable customers, and find more of them

Customer Mix Realities

If you advertise to “everyone”, then don’t be surprised when “everyone” shows up at your doorstep (regardless of their ability to pay)

By targeting profitable buyers and connecting with them before your competitors do, you enhance your chances of improving customer mix

Understanding Buyer Personas

Demographic segmentation was invented to create stability so that groups of people could be messaged

Patient “personas” are more complete profiles than segments and reveal clues for connecting with them

Personas include: demographic, behavioral, interests, needs, channels of communication

Tips for creating personas: http://karen-goldfarb.com/marketing-strategy/21-tips-creating-buyer-personas

Identify Topics of Interest

Google Analytics: pages/topics with high page views

SEO: keyword volume

Twitter Search: keyword volume

Linked In / Facebook Groups

Survey buyer personas

Blog search

Forum sites where your personas hang out

Step 3: Engaging Profitable Buyers

New paradigm: you don’t find them – they find you

Why Search & Social Media Matter

20% of searches performed on Google each day have never been performed before (source: Google CTO)

81% of online shoppers read customer reviews prior to purchase (source: Nielson, Dec 2008)

There are more grandparents than high school kids on Facebook (source: ReadWriteWeb, July 2009)

Half of YouTube™ audience is over age 34; and online video viewing averages nearly 20 hours week (2 billion videos streamed each day)

126 million blogs on the Internet (10 billion Tweets since 2006)

Rules of Engagement

Authenticity – resist the urge to “sell” on the first date; you must invest the time to build trust and genuinely interested help the online/offline community

Transparency – you must actually participate in the conversations (instead of hiring an imposter to do it)

Relevancy - remember that you’re joining someone else’s conversation; listen first – then contribute if you have something relevant to say

SEO Ideas (online search visibility)

Tools SEMRush – competitor

word ranking Soribeseo.com Majesticseo (link value) Websitegrader.com SEOmoz.com Google ad manager

(your ads on your site) Google buzz Advanced segmentation

(Google Analytics)

Techniques Embed links in PR Avoid long URL’s 301 & 404 pages Alt text over images Tagging Interview people at

shows for your blog

Mediums for Connecting

Ranked from least-to-most time consuming: Blog (increase inbound leads by 50%) Web pages Video Webinar Case Study White Paper (shared 90% of the time) Comprehensive (complex) methodology

Make all but the most complex content available without forced registration (link sharing, SEO)

Include a compelling call-to-action (triples inbound leads)

Getting the Word Out (online)

Content Distribution Twitter Marketwire Pitch engine Flickr

(animation/illustrations) YouTube Blip.tv Scribd RSS Email Slideshare

Content Aggregation Friend Feed Digg Reddit Stumbleupon Linked In Google / Bing / Yahoo Bing Del.ic.ious

Step 4: Measure Your ResultsYou can’t manage what you can’t measure

Typical Metrics

Financial Campaign ROI Customer LTV CPA

(cost/acquisition)

Behavioral Buyer Actions

Response rates Email/RSS opt-in Seminar attendance Inbound calls Requests for

information RFP/RFQ Referrals Testimonials

Bringing it all TogetherTransforming your marketing from interruption to engagement

Go-to-Market Process

Contact

Steve Patti; (210) 201-3246

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stevepatti

Email: spatti@social-exposure.com

Twitter: @socialexposure6