From engagement to sale, the story everyone wants to tell
Filed under: Customer Engagement, Customer Relationship Management, Marketing Strategy, Uncategorized
My starting point for this post was the desire to paint a picture of the ideal online customer engagement cycle – a sound strategy, intelligently and tactically implemented… Bear with me, sounds like the start of a sales pitch I know, and it kind of is, but it’s also hopefully a useful exercise (and of course you’ll have your own thoughts on the matter, and I’m more than happy to hear them if you disagree with mine!).
What we probably can all agree on, though, is that we’d love to track a customer’s interaction with our brand right from the moment we appear on their radar up to, hopefully, a sale. This might start off with an email or a Google search, go via a bespoke landing page to a contact form; or to a specific product, the shopping basket, and a sale. Or, as is unfortunately also often the case, it might be that you aren’t optimized for the right search terms and the prospect passes by, or a click leads to a generic homepage and a bounce, or a two-page foray into your site ends in them leaving in frustration because they can’t find what they’re after.
Of course, there are very valid reasons, usually budget related, why we have to make compromises, maybe focusing on website development in the first instance, or rolling out some lead generation campaigning without investing in a considered sales funnel to direct the recipient once they arrive on your landing page. We’ve also found ourselves recently in pitch situations against other agencies who specialize in one particular area of online marketing, and the same problem of siloed tactical thinking becomes apparent here, for different reasons. SEO specialists would sacrifice usability and creativity on the altar of ultimate rankings, email specialists focus only on click through- and open rates, and ecommerce houses get bogged down in the technology and not the output.
A website won’t pull like it could if it isn’t supported by the right search engine management, an email campaign could fall flat if the web page it clicks through to doesn’t deliver, and absolutely none of it will work if you aren’t talking to the right people in the first place. A typical strategy could be carried through via all of these elements, and they absolutely have to complement each other for it to perform, and to smash your targets for return on investment.
There’s no denying that there’s real power in having every tactical aspect of your online marketing strategy pulling together to draw people in as prospects and spit them out again as satisfied customers. That’s the beauty of online, particularly when accountability is everything, and that’s why we always propose solutions that address our clients’ business needs rather than having to push a solution because it happens to be what we sell.
Marketing is Simples
It is. It always has been, always will. It’s about having a conversation. Sometimes with people you know, sometimes with people you don’t. Whether it goes well or not is entirely dependent on your banter. Make it interesting, relevant and engaging. Listen and respond.
In order to demonstrate the point behind this posting I’d like to use an example from everyday life and from a place where a lot of the best conversations take place… the pub. However, this isn’t exactly a shining example of how good pub banter can be but more of an abject lesson in how bad it can be…
I was having a few drinks the with a group of friends I’d not seen for a while, one of my female friends introduced me to her new boyfriend; let’s call him ‘Cuthbert’ for the purposes of this posting. Now Cuthbert was the walking, talking embodiment of an old school approach to marketing. He used interruption and a ‘shock and awe’ conversational style in order to converse with his target audience (myself and 4 others). He hijacked our conversation on more than one occasion and when he did quite quickly steered the conversation onto the topic of him, what he did and how generally great he was. Oh how the time just flew by.
Now this did work to a point, it certainly made us stop what we were talking about and listen to dear old Cuthbert prattle on about how his “hedge fund” investments were “really coming to the fore” and how (and I kid you not) “this was going to be the year of The Cuthbert.” Now I’m a relatively patient person when it comes to this sort of situation because there’s usually a good reason why people are like this and I’ll try and give them the benefit of the doubt. However, after 45 minutes of Cuthbert’s verbal battering of me and my friends we were alienated, disengaged and rapidly losing the will to live. His girlfriend (my friend) was oblivious and content that she’d left him to mix it up with the boys whilst she caught up with the girls in the group.
Cuthbert was the marketing bludgeon, ram raiding his way through a set of conversations in the hope of impressing us to a point where we really ‘bought into’ him, his philosophies and just how amazing he really was. Cuthbert was a poorly conceived direct mail campaign. Cuthbert was a garish press advertisement. Cuthbert was a badly angled press release.
If our high flying friend had taken the time to listen to his target audience (us), understand us and respond in a personal and relevant fashion we’d have formed a far better opinion of his product – which in this instance was Cuthbert himself. If he’d done this then the next time we’d have found ourselves in the pub with him we’d be far more likely to embrace him as our own, instead he will be avoided like the Nora Virus.
"Marketing is Simples."
He should have recognised that not one of the people in the group worked in finance and therefore tailored his conversational content and vocabulary accordingly. People won’t engage if they don’t understand you or even worse you make them feel stupid. Exactly the same can be said with regards to how you market yourself. Send communications that demonstrate that you understand me and value me, you know when I want to talk to you, you know where and how I want to have the conversation (email? SMS? print?) . Give your audience the chance to have the conversation, a one way relationship doesn’t really cut the mustard in this day and age.
I’d like to close with a glancing reference to a very current example of how a straight forward marketing strategy and concept can capture the imagination of its target audience and above all engage with it. Alexandr Orlov, the talking Meerkat and anti-brand hero of the ‘Compare The Meerkat’ campaigns has mass appeal across the CompareTheMarket.com customer base. He engages across multiple channels, be it social media, web, SMS, direct mail, television, etc, in all instances the consumer is prompted to engage and have interaction with the brand in a manner of their choosing. Alexandr is now synonymous with the main brand (whether you like him or not) and has become a trusted, fun and truly engaging brand ambassador that resonates whether you’re 16 or 60. Everyone can understand him and what he’s (Comparethemarket.com) trying to do, it’s transparent and in the words of the Meerkat himself it’s marketing that is ‘Simples’.
By James Smee.
10 Measures By Which To Rate Your SEO Agency
Customer Satisfaction
Your SEO Agency should be able to provide testimonials from satisfied clients. Satisfied clients should be happy with the following points.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/many-satisfied-customers
Actual Results
The SEO Agency should be able to provide evidence of ranking improvement. Measures should also cover the volume of traffic and number of conversions.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/great-results
Regular Communication
Communication should be regular, frequent and be proactive. Monthly KPI reports will show how well your agency
measures against agreed targets.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/monthly-kpis
Understanding Your Business Model
There are 4 key online business models. Can your SEO agency name them and explain the differences between the measures?
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/what-do-you-want-from-your-site
Understanding Your Customers
Your SEO agency should be able to provide evidence of creating visitor personas for your site. Who uses your site? What do they want? How do they get what they want and convert?
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/who-are-your-customers
Structured Strategy
SEO is not rocket science, but your SEO agency should provide a structured approach to optimisation. How will they increase visitors? How will they improve targeting?
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/use-tried-and-tested-methods
It is Impossible Guarantee Relevant Number 1 Rankings
Beware of any agency guaranteeing number 1 spot. Is this term useful to you? Will it drive targeted traffic to you? Why aren’t your competitors there?
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/watch-out-for-cowboys
Provide Clear, Reasonable Pricing
SEO is very labour intensive for the agency. The cheapest option is not always the best investment. If you receive a very cheap quote ensure you understand a full breakdown of what you get.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/avoid-really-cheap-quotes
Have the Ability to Link into Current Trends
Social Media is a good way of driving targeted visitors through to your site. There are many simple ways of linking SEO with Social Media to improve visitor conversions.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/link-with-twitter-and-facebook
Offer a Range of Service Levels to Match Your Requirements
SEO should be tailored to your needs. Ensure that your agency understands how you work to get the most out of SEO.
http://www.purestone.co.uk/…/fully-managed-or-standard-service
Anyone for some doom & gloom? Not us.
Everyone else is talking about it, so in an effort to keep up with the Joneses, we’re jumping on our very own recession soap box and venting our economic spleen. However, contrary to the media and their continual doom and gloom mongering, we’re relatively upbeat about things and for good reason too. A small part of this is about being good old-fashioned Brits, stiffening the upper lip and staring downturn in the face but the larger part of it is the fact that the online marketing industry is in good shape.
All of the marketing industry rags and analysts are predicting that the axe will fall hardest on the traditional side of the marketing mix. PR, press advertising, exhibitions, direct mail are all cited as beginning to feel the pinch and this is predicted to continue. It’s quite clear why this is the case: it basically boils down to measurement and how much bang you can get for your marketing buck. PR and press advertising can be incredibly effective at building brand awareness and blanketing a market sector but they’re not cheap exercises. When purse strings have been tightened, marketers have to look at activities that they can genuinely quantify, measure and justify back to the business. Simple stuff really , such as if I spend £1 how much will I make in return?
The answer to this question is far more attainable with online marketing than traditional. The analytics coupled with much better economies of scale make activities such as e-mail marketing, website development and search engine optimisation/PPC far more attractive to businesses. That is why the online advertising and email marketing industry are still posting big growth figures and by all accounts, recession or not, this will continue throughout 2009.
It’s very hard not to get embroiled in conversations regarding the economy at the moment because the media make it unavoidable, it plays on a continual loop 24 x 7, newspapers, radio, television and online. However through talking with our clients we’ve found that, in the main, the mood is cautionary as opposed to panic stations. I think everyone understand that things may get worse before they get better, but as long as we’re all sensible then the cogs will keep turning and there is still good business to be made – in fact many would argue that a period of downturn is the best time to market your wares!
James Smee, Director of Optimism
Social Media – Tool or Weapon?
So the media burbles on about Social media and it made me think – is this a tool by which we can meet our customers or is it just a weapon they can use to publicly humiliate us?