Lecture 4

Interactive Marketing Communications

Questions for marketers

• What are the new types of interactive marketing i ti t l I ?communications tools I can use?

• How do their characteristics differ from traditional media?traditional media?

• What are the strengths and weaknesses of these promotional tools?promotional tools?

• How do I choose the best mix of online and offline communications techniques?offline communications techniques?

Options available in the communications mix for increasing visitors top ga web site

Characteristics of interactive marketing communications

• From push to pull

• From monologue to dialogue

• From one‐to‐many to one‐to‐some and one‐to‐one

• From one‐to‐many to many‐to‐many

• From lean‐back to lean‐forward

• Changes in nature of marketing communications

• Increase in communications intermediaries

• Integration

Differences in advertisingg

Old media New media

Space Expensive commodity Cheap, unlimitedTime Expensive commodity Expensive commodityTime Expensive commodity Expensive commodity

for marketers for usersImage creation Image most important Information most important

Information is secondary Image is secondaryCommunication Push, one- way Pull, interactiveCall to action Incentives Information (incentives)

Source: After Janal (1998).

Google™ search engine results page for keyphrase ‘car insurance’Google™ search engine results page for keyphrase car insuranceSource: Reprinted by permission of Google, Inc. Google™ search engine is a trademark of Google, Inc.

Google™ search engine results page for keyphrase‘cheap car insurance’cheap car insurance

Source: Reprinted by permission of Google, Inc. Google™ search engine is a trademark of Google, Inc.

Search engine indexing

Stages involved in creating a search engine listing

Online PR

• What is it?‘the management of reputation the planned and– ‘the management of reputation ‐ the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisationand its publics’and its publics The UK Institute of PR (IPR)

– ‘the managed process of communication between one group and another … (it) is the method of defining messages and communicating them to target audiences in order to influence a desired response’.

Public Relationships Consultants Association (PRCA)

Key E‐PR activitiesy

• Communicating with the media• Link‐building• Blogs, RSS and Podcasting• Managing how your brand is presented on third

party sites• Creating a buzz – online viral marketing

Link‐buildingg

• Monitor by:G li li k < >– Googling: link: www.<name>.comor www.<name>.com –site: www.<name>.com

– Googlealert service: www.googlealert.com– News services www.newsnow.co.uk, etc

• Facilitation– Online submission services

• pressbox.co.uk, prweb.com, webwire.com

Assess roles of Communities blogs and RSS– Assess roles of Communities, blogs and RSS– Use a PR agency who ‘gets it’

Blogs

• What is it?An online diary or news source prepared by an– An online diary or news source prepared by an individual or a group of people

• Marketing purpose:– Engage audience with up‐to‐the‐minute insider– Engage audience with up‐to‐the‐minute insider

information for audience– Show expertise

• Examples:• Examples:– www.marketingvox.com– http://weblogs.jupitermedia.com/meckler

t i i d t– www.trixieupdate.com– www.davechaffey.com

Really Simple SyndicationRich Site Summary

RSSRich Site Summary

What is it?What is it?

RSS is an XML-based summary of a web page

RSS ‘feeds’ provide RSS content for:1. Syndication on other sites.y2. Access by end users in RSS ‘readers’

See www.bbc.co.uk

Software reader: www.rssreader.com , Web reader: www.bloglines.com, E-mail reader: www.attensa.com

Promotion technique Main strengths Main weaknesses

Search engine registration Large online reach – used by high proportion of web users. Visitors are self-

Works best for specialist products rather than generic products e.g. insurance.

selecting. Relatively low cost, but increasing.

Cost – search engine optimisation is continuous as techniques change.

Link-building campaigns Relatively low cost and good targeting. Setting up a large number of links can be time-consuming.time consuming.

Affiliate campaigns Payment is by results (e.g. 10% of sale goes to referring site).

Further payment to affiliate manager required for large-scale campaigns.

Banner Main intention to achieve visit i.e. direct response model Useful role in branding

Response rates have declined historically to banner blindnessresponse model. Useful role in branding

also.to banner blindness.

Sponsorship Most effective if low-cost, long-term co-branding arrangement with synergistic site.

May increase mind-share, but does not directly lead to sales.

E-mail marketing Push medium – can’t be ignored in users’ in-box. Can be used for direct response link to web site.

Requires opt-in list for effectiveness. Better for customer retention than acquisition? Message diluted amongst other e-mails.

Viral marketing With effective creative possible to reach a large number at relatively low cost.

Risks damaging brand since unsolicited messages may be received.

PR Relatively low-cost vehicle for PR. Many alternatives for innovation.

Offline PR may give higher impact and reach.

Traditional offline advertising (TV, Print, etc)

Larger reach than most online techniques. Greater creativity possible leading to greater impact.

Targeting arguably less easy than online. Typically high cost of acquisition.