Digital Marketing Strategy: Planning for Present & Future Success

Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC 1

DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY: PLANNING FOR PRESENT & FUTURE SUCCESSBob Johnson, Ph.D.ACT Enrollment Planners ConferenceJuly 11-13, 2012 Chicago, IL


Just a play on words?

•“We don't believe in digital marketing. We believe in marketing in a digital world, and there's a huge difference." • Clive Sirken, CMO, Kimberly-Clark, March 2012


Strategy defined…

• “Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.”• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_strategy

http://www.google.com/url?url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_strategy&rct=j&sa=X&ei=ms1DT9X3OsG2qgHYr-jcCg&ved=0CC8QngkwAA&q=marketing+strategy&usg=AFQjCNFGqHIJGiIYmKVD6RB9Ah8q4xFxoQ


CAVEATS TO BEGIN…Perils and Pitfalls


This is silly, but real…


6 strategy points to start…

#1• Social media…

• Marketing and PR can’t control the message anymore

#2• Mobile…

• A new imperative for content brevity to focus on audience top tasks


Two more points…

#3• Privacy…

• “Big data” means more ability to profile people than ever before

#4• Engagement

• Most people will “like” and “follow” but not actively “engage” and “share”


And two more…

#5• New technology

• No need to be first in everything, especially if you don’t know where it fits in your marketing campaign

#6• ROI

• Difficult to measure the individual impact of every step in a marketing campaign


2 points to carry in our kit bag…• Is anything important forever… even Facebook?

• AOL• MySpace• Friendster• GeoCities• Google Wave

• People are still people…• People like to talk to real people… sometimes• People like getting information that interests them• People who are online have very little patience


A LITTLE BACKGROUNDHow we got started and where we are today


Smartphones enabled the mobile era…http://www.pewinternet.org/Infographics/2011/Smartphones.aspx


Now tablets are expanding it…


New options keep luring us…


Marketers can fall too quickly in love…• QR codes

• Only 5% of U.S. smartphone owners used them in last quarter of 2011• Mostly young men

• Why so few?• Too many code readers• Placed in weird places• Links to regular websites• Even if “mobile-friendly,”

no benefit to the user


WHAT RESEARCH TELLS US ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIAForrester Research…Pew Internet and American Life


Top 10 social media sites, 3/17/12…http://www.experian.com/hitwise/online-trends-social-media.html

Yelp

MySpace

Google+

Tagged

LindedIn

Yahoo Answers

Pinterest

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70


Adult activity on social media, all ages…http://empowered.forrester.com/tool_consumer.html

Creators

Critics

Collectors

Joiners

Spectators

Inactives

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%


Daily use of social media… Feb 2012http://bit.ly/H7y1nS

• 62% for Teens, 12 -17• 62% for Millennials, 18 - 34• 56% for GenEx, 35 - 46 • Less than 50% for everyone else

• Important to remember: Lifespan of a new item on Facebook, Twitter is very short

• If something is important, post it more than once


FACEBOOK… THE DIGITAL GIANT WE CAN’T IGNOREMarketers fly to Facebook like moths to a flame… and some get burned


Social media “experts” often insist…• “A two-way conversation between marketers and

consumers is the whole point of social…• “Anything less… is a reflection of outdated broadcast-style

thinking.”• Consider an alternate reality• Most people “follow” and “friend” brands to listen, not to

engage in a conversation.• Numbers do count… the more “spectators” the better

• Reality makes “ROI” extremely challenging to measure• What are all those “followers” and “friends” actually doing?• When will they take a “desired action”?


Key point about Facebook…

•901 million members in April, 2012…

•526 million daily users…•Most people who use FB will never care about your brand


Facebook as today’s mass media…• “People need to understand what Facebook can do for a brand and what it can’t do. It doesn’t really differ from mass media. It’s great to get decent reach, but to change the way people interact with a brand overnight is just unrealistic.”• Karen Nelson-Field, (Ehrenberg-Bass Institute,

Australia), based on FB metrics “People Talking About This”

http://www.marketingscience.info/


Burning on the Facebook flame…• “Eager to monetize the large followings they had built on

Facebook, many large brands set up shop on the social network for the first time last year (2011). • J.C. Penny, Gap, Nordstrom…

• “Now many of those Facebook stores are closing.• “In most cases, retailers have entered the f-commerce market

by importing their online catalogs and making them available for purchase in a Facebook app. The experience is nearly identical to shopping on their websites, with two major differences: 1) Shoppers can complete their entire browsing and checkout experience without leaving facebook.com; and 2) the Facebook apps tend to work more slowly.”• “Why are brands shutting their Facebook stores?” at http://

on.mash.to/wIhTXQ

http://mashable.com/2011/05/03/express-facebook-shop/

http://mashable.com/2011/05/03/express-facebook-shop/

http://www.facebook.com/

http://on.mash.to/wIhTXQ

http://on.mash.to/wIhTXQ


But Facebook can move people…• “Facebook has become an important traffic driver to retailers’ websites. • “For instance, 1.9% of traffic to Burberry’s website in

September 2010 came from Facebook; a year later, 29.1% of site traffic was from the social network, Mullen wrote in an email to Mashable.

• “[Burberry is] using the platform to drive traffic at a fraction of the cost of what it would have to pay on Google and other search engines. In addition a significant portion of that traffic and resulting sales is likely incremental,” she added.


This combo works for Burberry…


More than one Facebook site? National Geographic…………………University of Virginia


CONTENT STRATEGYIn a nutshell…


Inside the nutshell…• 75 percent of the content on your website is garbage.

• Identify and remove it to thrive in a mobile world… focus on top tasks

• Example: University of Richmond eliminated about 50 percent of overall web content• About 75 percent of admissions and financial aid content


ADVERTISING IN THE DIGITAL WORLD Where are your dollars going now?Targeting for Facebook… and all else


Lots of possibilities…, old & newhttp://mediassociates.com/advertising/internet.php#

http://mediassociates.com/advertising/internet.php


Is Facebook a place for advertising?• The best place for advertising?

• FB click through on ads is “well below” industry average• But FB is huge…

• People spent 18% of their online time on FB in 2011• Up from 8% in 2010• More time on FB = less opportunity to engage elsewhere

• FB advertising can be successful just because so many people spend so much time there that a high click through rate isn’t always necessary

• “Why Facebook is becoming the media world’s black hole,” Simon Dumenco, 3 October 2011


Advertising on Facebook…


Sorting the people on FB…


Controlling the cost to experiment…


Of course, track the results…


DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING ONLINEMatching programs with ad placement


Again, targeting is key…http://www.24mas.com/

• Age• Gender• Location• Behavior• Time• Handset• And more…


Direct response… program ad matches placement


Leads to a proper landing page…


And a social media connection…


Simple, clean, quick email response…


RETARGETED ADVERTISINGCreepy to some, successful to others


It might start with a search…


REJ on a automobile forum…


REJ on Flyertalk…


REJ on the Washington Post…http://wapo.st/HfuLaY


Retargeting specialists…http://www.adroll.com/

http://www.adroll.com/

http://www.adroll.com/


GROUP ADVERTISING“Lead gen” for more leads at less cost w/ 3rd party screening


“Online masters degree finance”...


Where will you be among 55 choices?http://www.elearners.com/online-degrees/master/finance.htm

http://www.elearners.com/online-degrees/master/finance.htm


Selection: 60 bachelor’s degrees…


FOR BEST ROI ON ANY ADVERTISINGAttention to the Inquiry Form…And the first response time

Simple, clean, quick…https://www.scps.nyu.edu/contactUs.htm


https://www.scps.nyu.edu/contactUs.htm


Immediate & continuing response…


BEWARE THE DEVIL’S DETAILS…Bad experiences kill brands


Focused online advertising is good…


But not a good follow through…http://bit.ly/HghsZh

• Don’t drop people into a regular web page

• Be direct in asking for a response…• “If we can help you

decide if this is the right program for your career advancement, please do not hesitate to contact us at 315-443-3368.”


Content isn’t king if you can’t read it…http://www.bu.edu/ar/2010/research/


Mobile visitors to mobile friendly sites…

Mobile friendly Not mobile friendly


Tablet users have high expectations…http://bit.ly/HUPxPj (March 2012 research)


That are not being met now…


WHAT TO EXPECT FOR 2015… AND BEYOND(1) “Big Data” (2) Speed (3) Video


(1) “Big data” and marketing…• Early days in 2012…• Demand for data analysts will grow… and grow• May compete for resources with “brand” advertising to large audiences• Super Bowl marketing… an example of “brand

awareness”• Driving 21st century direct response marketing• Google, Facebook, Amazon… Big Data players


Benefit from a privacy decline…• Google, Facebook = end of privacy online• Marketers will know more & more about individuals online• Fact: people do not object to ads on things that interest

them• Opportunity: skip mass advertising, focus lead generation

marketing to people you know might have an interest• Conversion: with permission to speak, keep the content

relevant to interests of the people receiving it• Penalty: to much “brand speak” and people will withdraw

permission to speak to them


“Big data”… to tell a “clear story”http://www.factual.com/ http://www.clearstorydata.com/


(2) Plan for extraordinary speed…• “In 2000, “the first ads we wrote for Oracle were about 7 seconds. If the consumer was online and didn’t get the content that they wanted within 7 seconds, they’d be gone.

• “Now 7 seconds is a lifetime.”• In 2017?

• “If Spotify is fixated with delivering content in under 200 milliseconds now, can you imagine what the competition will be in 5 years?”• Lawrence A. Kimmel, CEO, Direct Marketing Association


A verbal future… no nav, no searchhttp://www.nuance.com/

• In the mobile world, no need to touch anything

• What words will your visitors use?

• Must work better than your “search” works now

• “Top tasks” even more important… know “Task words”


(3) Best of 30 “2015” predictions… Video

• ”Video is the number one activity marketers plan to expand in the future, which we see as a commitment to visual storytelling.

• “The number two area of interest is mobile. That makes sense given the incredible explosion in the tablet market.

• “By tablet, I’m talking about iPads and e-readers.”• Rebecca Lieb, “Expert Predictions for Content Marketing 2015,”

http://bit.ly/Ht8gxN




Invest in… Social Videohttp://bit.ly/Hhybvj

• “Create video content that taps into psychological triggers, which drive people’s desire to share that content with others…

• “…when I watch it, I immediately think to myself, “Wow, Grant needs to see this as well.”• Mark Robertson, http://bit.ly/HnVBfp


Humorous works best…http://jungroup.com/infographic2011/


15 seconds gets best response…


Women are most likely responders…


Video leads to your Facebook page…


STRATEGY POINTS FOR ENROLLMENT SUCCESS…


Digital marketing… “Insanely complicated”http://tiny.cc/71a6ew


Key recruitment requirements…• Critical first impression online…• Data to craft targeted advertising…• Simple online inquiry forms…• Immediate inquiry response…

• Telephone, email, or texting• Continuing response unless told to stop…


Content priority… Students decide• Academic program list• Net cost calculator• Dates and deadline calendar• Academic program details• Application process summary• Online application form

• Noel-Levitz, Mobile Expectations survey, 2012


Most underused strategy element…• Academic program interest of the potential student for competitive advantage• Online advertising for individual programs• Social media plan for selected programs• Inquiry and application options from every academic

program page… website & social• Use academic program interest from first response• Contact with students and faculty in academic

programs of interest• Academic content written for students, not faculty

and their friends


DIGITAL MARKETING RESOURCES


Pew Internet research projects…http://www.pewinternet.org/


“I Want Media” daily newsletter…http://www.iwantmedia.com/index.html


Social Media Examiner…http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/


Academic research sources…

University of Marylandhttp://www.rhsmith.umd.edu/digits/

Dartmouth Collegehttp://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/digital/


Integrating digital channels…An examplehttp://www.sitecore.net/Products/Digital-Marketing-System.aspx

http://www.sitecore.net/Products/Digital-Marketing-System.aspx


Big data in marketing campaigns…http://www.insightsone.com/


THANKS FOR BEING HERE IN CHICAGO!Bob Johnson, [email protected]

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Digital Marketing Strategy: Planning for Present & Future Success