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Digital Marketing How (and why) modern-day marketers communicate in the digital age

Duane Bailey

@duanebailey

www.linkedin.com/in/duanebailey

dbailey83@verizon.net

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Communication is not new…

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The technology we use to communicate is.

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Why do marketers communicate?

• Educate• Create awareness/demand• Show value• Differentiate• Close the sale• Build relationships/loyalty

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Types of communication

• Advertising– Print ads, TV/radio ads, banner ads, Google AdWords

• Direct Response– Direct mail, telesales, email, social media

• Event Marketing– Entertainment, sponsorships, street activities

• Public Relations– Press releases, community activities

• Personal Selling– Sales presentations

• Sales Promotion– Contests, coupons, rebates

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Steps for communicating effectively in the Digital Age

• Define your target audience (“ideal customer”)• Set concrete goals• Establish a budget• Develop an optimal communications mix• Test• Implement• Re-test/audit and adjust• Measure results (analytics)

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Set concrete goals

• Increase sales• Generate leads• Build subscriber lists• Expand social media reach• Increase social media influence and engagement• Increase site traffic• Increase visit/customer conversion rates• Increase profits

Return on Investment (ROI) –

“If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense”- Genevieve Coates, Community Manager, HubSpot

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Develop an optimal communication mix

• Advertising• Direct Response

– Direct mail– Telesales– Email (e-marketing) – Social Media (social networking)

• Event Marketing

Maximum reach and effectiveness –

Give them what they want, when they want it and how they want it.

Digital Strategy

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How technology is changing the way we communicate…

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Implications to marketers

• Consumers expect brand experiences to be seamless – Google: 9 out of 10 people have multi-screen brand

experiences– Litmus research: almost half of all emails are opened on

a mobile device

• Digital communications strategy is not a discrete initiative– Integration of traditional and digital communications

strategies for a unified effect

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Email…

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Why email?

• Consumer acquisition has quadrupled over the last 4 years1

• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is 12% higher than average1

• More effective than social media in attracting customers to your business online2

• Subscribers are more loyal than those from traditional websites and social media3

1 Custora E-commerce Customer Acquisition Snapshot Q2 20132 Forbes, ‘Why Email Is Still More Effective Than Social Media Marketing,’ October 1, 20133 Adweek, ‘Don’t Count Out Email Newsletters,’ April 15, 2014

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Email implementation & testing

• Avoid spam triggers• Target customer segments and buying patterns• Use a familiar return email address• Create a call to action• Include links to landing pages• Add social share buttons• Optimize for mobile

– Simple, short subject lines, scrolling, narrow width

• Test – the best email strategies evolve– A/B Test (A=original; B=test)

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Email analytics

Dashboard results:• Spam score• Unique opens• CTR• Unsubscribes• Bounces

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Social media…

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Why social media?

• Complements email:– Email: new offers– Facebook: personal engagement– Twitter: news and updates– Pinterest: brand story in pictures

– LinkedIn: connect on a professional level • Your customers are on social media4:

– 81% visit LinkedIn every month– 81% visit Facebook monthly– 62% visit Twitter at least monthly– 32% use Pinterest at least monthly

• 93% of marketers use social media for business5

4 Forrester Research Study, ‘The Social Behaviors of Your Customers,’ July 17, 20135 Fast Company, “10 Surprising Social Media Statistics That Will Make You Rethink Your Social Strategy,” November 18, 2013

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Social media implementation & testing

• Hope is not a strategy– Concrete goals, social media policy, content calendar

• Consistent voice and messaging• Engage and interact:

– Be human– Hashtags, scheduling, sharing, direct messages

• Reason to click-through:– Images, videos, infographics, links to content

• Monitor influence and engagement• Audit strategy and execution

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Social media analytics

Measures of reach:• Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest

– Followers, friends, connections– Retweets, mentions, shares, comments, profile views– Favorites, likes, repins

• Facebook Insights– For Facebook Pages only– Requires 30 likes– Demographic data:

• Gender and age• Countries, cities

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Social media analytics

Measures of influence and outreach:• Kred• Klout

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Social media analytics

Deeper analysis and insight (engagement):• Radian6

– Sentiment analysis– Language processing– Online influence– Author demographics– Intelligent dashboards and

analytics:– Trends and emerging

issues

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Measure results – ROI

Why Return on Investment (ROI)?

Among B2B marketing leaders surveyed in 20136:• 93% say lack of ROI makes it difficult to justify future

investment.• 35% say they can calculate the ROI of their

marketing spend most or all of the time.

6 B2B Marketing/Circle Research online survey of 100 marketing leaders, July 2013

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Measure results – How?

Google Analytics (GA)

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Measure results – ROI analytics

In the context of digital marketing, GA will tell you…

• How much traffic email and social networks send to your website

• What visitors do– What pages they look at– How much time they spend on each page– The action they take on your website (ROI)

• Purchase (ecommerce), submit form (lead generation), download PDF (information), engage (blogs), email signup (list building)

• Conversion rate = %age of visits that complete a goal or action you define

“If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense”- Genevieve Coates, Community Manager, HubSpot

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Still not sold on digital marketing…

“Today’s buyers might be anywhere from two-thirds to 90% of the way through their journey before they reach out to a vendor.”

- Lori Wizdo, Principal Analyst at Forrester, 2013

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Digital marketing will help you…

Give them what they want, when they want it and how they want it.

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The conversation continues…