INTERNET MARKETING BLOG
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Both bad and good news for brands in social networks
The bad news is that brands fail to listen to what people want
Over half of consumers in the industrialized countries don’t want to engage with brands on social networks, says new global study published today by TNS / Kantar.
This survey among 72,000 consumers in 60 countries – TNS Digital Life Study – is the largest global study into people’s attitudes and behaviours online, suggest that many brands are wasting both time and money on the wrong strategies in trying to reach people online. Misguided digital strategies – fail to listen to what people want – by publishing tons of “Digital waste” on friendless Facebook fan pages to blogs that nobody reads.
“It’s harder than ever to win and retain consumers. The online world undoubtedly presents massive opportunities for brands, however it is only through deploying precisely tailored marketing strategies that they will be able to realise this potential. Choosing the wrong channel, or simply adding to the cacophony of online noise, you risk just to push potential customers away and damage its growth opportunities” says Matthew Froggatt, Chief Development Officer, TNS.
The good news is that fast growth markets are more open to socialising with brands
In a global perspective however, the study reveals, large geographic differences in how consumers want to engage with brands in social networks. Thou this fact, according to TNS underlines the risk of failure, if you as an international commercial brand chooses a “catch-all” strategy.
In fast-growing countries such as Argentina, China, Columbia, Prior, Mexico, Pakistan, Poland, Thailand and Vietnam, consumers are so much more open to commercial brands in social media than consumers in countries like USA, UK, Netherlands and the Nordic countries. Also, in the fast-growing countries you find the most eager consumers when it comes to shopping via social media, 48% of consumers do it and in India as high as 59%. In contrast to only one in four consumers in most western countries.
The TNS / Kantar study also looks at consumer habits and attitudes in a broader perspective, which shows that Asian consumers are far ahead of Europe when it comes to mobile shopping and group-buying (deals such as Groupon). 46% of digital consumers in China already use group-buying tools, while in Europe the adoption rates is as low as just 6% of Nordic consumers.
Summery
Fast growth markets are more open to brands on social networks than developed markets, which show resistance to both buying and engaging with brands in these spaces. Social networks can therefore put brands at risk of damaging their image in developed markets, and must be carefully approached. Get more key insight and findings from the TNS study at www.tnsdigitallife.com.
Google+ open for Social Marketing
Make your customers your buddies
Until now, Google+ has focused on creating contacts between people. By introducing “Google+ Pages” you can create relationships with all the things that mean something to you – from local businesses to global brands. And businesses, organizations and brands can now market themselves on “Google+ Pages” – by the opportunity to make contact with customers and fans with an interest in their brand.
Customers and fans can recommend the company by giving it an “+1”, add the company to their network to keep up and meet the people behind the company face to face. As a company, the only thing to do is sharing – and hopefully fans and loyal customers comes by to say hello. 4 features to think about on “Google+ Pages”:
1. Segment fans and members of the “Circles”
With “Circles” you can segment by geography, interest or the information that users choose to share with you.
2. Create engagement through “Hangouts”
With “hangouts” you can make video conferences with up to 10 people. Used it for everything from customer service, consumer panels and video conferences with colleagues and partners.
3. Follow your consumers
The Google+ administrator, can get alerts on who is active around your brand. So every time there is a “+1” or a mention of your brand, you get notified and have the opportunity to react.
4. Add your “+1” together
Sum up your “+1” from your website, your “Google+ Pages” and from your advertising to help users see their friends’ recommendations. Once you’ve created your Google+ page, insert a code on your website, and advertisers need to enable “Social enhancements” in AdWords.
On Google’s official page about the Google+ project there is a comprehensive description of the new features, which include how to share, promote and measure activity on “Google+ Pages”. Soon Google will release tools for measurement and analysis.
With new features i Google+, Google takes a huge step forward since the content from Google+ becomes visible in the Google search results – when you are logged in. This gives even more relevance in your search results, because you can now see what your friends have to say – features that can really boost companies’ interaction with their users.
Some brands are already on Google+, see Pepsi. To create your own Google+, start here!
What is Content Marketing?
On the internet customers rules
Customers can gather information with different perspectives about products and services from corporate websites, third-party websites, reviews, ranking and recommendations from friends, thus better informed about a companies’ products and services than the company’s salespeople, we go off to buy. How can companies react to this?
In this information pull-oriented internet world – would it not be smart to publish high-quality, relevant, engaging and valuable information to prospects and customers instead of just blast out information and bombard all the time? Yes, it make sense.
Content marketing is all about great content. Content marketing focus on communicating with customers and prospects without selling. Instead of pitching products or services – create relevant, valuable and engaging content to a selected audiences – that makes your customers more intelligent and thereby drive profitable customer action.
How does it work?. And do marketers use it?
The philosophy behind this content strategy is the belief that by educating the customer through consistent, valuable and relevant information, they ultimately reward companies with their business and loyalty.
Don’t shout out about your own products or services virtues – nobody believes you anyway. Share your resources and solve problems – inform and educate your target customers and prospects about key industry issues that sometimes involve your own products and services with the purpose to get brand recognition as a thought leader and an industry expert.
Content marketing can achieve different business goals: thought leadership, lead generation, increasing direct sales, improving customer retention and brand loyalty. And online take form of newsletters, digital content on websites or microsites, white papers, webcasts, webinars, podcasts, videos, blog posts, email and on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn group page…
Two studies gives a picture about information consumption: Research conducted by Focus found that 90 percent of B2B buyers prefer to consume information online. And according to the Roper Public Affairs, 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. 70% say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, while 60% say that company content helps them make better product decisions.
Other studies shows the use, form and goals of content marketing: According to research from American Business Media and the Business Marketing Association, nine out of 10 B2B organizations now market with content. Most use social media (excluding blogs) (79%), articles (78%), in-person events (62%) and eNewsletters (61%). The report by, B2B Content Marketing: 2010 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends, is perhaps the most comprehensive survey about content marketing with more than 1,100 North American B2B marketers, and the results show that:
• Content marketing supports multiple business goals, led by brand awareness (78%), customer retention/loyalty (69%) and lead generation (63%). The least widely employed goal for content marketing is lead management/nurturing.
• B2B marketers allocate approximately 26% of their total budgets to content marketing initiatives. More than half (51%) expect to spend more money on content marketing in 2011.
Summary
Customers are no longer reliant upon your company for the information they need to solve problems. In response, more and mores companies are using content marketing to connect with prospects and customers by creating great “content, content and content” – that is relevant, valuable and compelling to attract, acquire and engage them in ways that build brand awareness, loyalty and leads.
More Resources
From the Content Marketing Institute:
Creating Valuable Content: An Essential Checklist
Using the Valuable Content Checklist: A Step-by-Step Guide for Different Content Types by Content Marketing Institute is a good way to start with your content marketing
White paper library about content marketing
Case study from marketingsherpa:
Content Marketing: Effort reduces cost-per-lead 90% and achieves 30% clickthrough rate on barrier page
Please share your thoughts, critique and additions via comments. Thank you!
Call for Entries – 2012 Internet Advertising Competition Awards
Enter your best online advertising and win the recognition you deserve!
The Web Marketing Association have announce the 2012 Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards and the competition is now open for entries. The Competition Web site is located at www.IACAward.org and the deadline for entry is January 31, 2012.
The Internet Advertising Competition Awards are open to anyone involved in the process of developing Internet advertising. Your work will be judged on creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting, use of the medium and memorability.
You can participate in the following categories:
Social Media Campaign
Online Ad (including banner, pop-up or interstitial)
Rich Media Online Ad
Email Message
Online Newsletter Campaign
Website (including microsites and landing pages)
Integrated Ad Campaign
Moble Apps
Online video
Ads The Client Did Not Choose
Click here to checkout the winners of the 2011 Internet Advertising Competition Awards!
Keep up the good work!
Lenovo and YouTube launch teen’s science project into space
Lenovo have launched one of the most ambitious YouTube campaigns to date – so far, with more than 6 million views on YouTube – a great online youth science competition called “The YouTube Space Lab” launched by Lenovo and Space Adventures in cooperation with NASA, ESA and JAXA, where teen’s can submit a space experiment idea with the chance to win out-of-this-world prizes: the two winners will get the chance to attend astronaut training in Russia and have their experiments performed aboard the International Space Station, and streamed to Earth, of course, by YouTube.
Teen’s – the countdown clock ticks, get your idea into space… Also get info on YouTube Space Lab launched with Lenovo.
Please share your thoughts, critique and additions via comments. Thank you!
The Virtual Revolution by BBC
The above video is the introduction to The Virtual Revolution.
A must watch: The Virtual Revolution
The Virtual Revolution is a four part series by BBC – that examines the impact of the world wide web, the story of the web and how the web is remaking our world – from how the network was created as a byproduct of the U.S. military research during the Cold War, further developed to the first internet site in 1991 and finally how it became the dominant arena for communication and commerce that the Internet is today.
The Virtual Revolution interview key people who have worked with the development of the internet. Some of those involved is the creator of the first Internet site, Sir Tim Berners Lee, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, as well as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore. The series describes not only the creation and development of the internet, but also discussing how it has affected us and come to change our lives fundamentally. The commercial forces takes more into our private spheres in order to identify our spending habits and thereby threaten the original idea of a free Internet. Social media like Twitter has affected the global policy by its users instantly disseminated information about government abuse in particular Iran to the international press. The series visit Africa where we get a glimpse of how the internet has contributed to a different kind of development compared to the old industrial countries.
All 4 episodes is available on YouTube.
All 4 episodes is available on YouTube.
Source: The Virtual Revolution
Please share your thoughts, critique and additions via comments. Thank you!
Google+ offers an all-in-one package
Google+ aims to make sharing on the web more like sharing in real life
Compared to other social networking services like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, Google+ hopes to bring the “nuance and richness of real-life” online. One of the unique aspects of Google+ is the ability to separate friends into different “circles,” and then selectively choose what information is shared with them – like we do in our day-to-day lives.
The big advantage with Google+ over other services is its promise of being an all-in-one package. Many shuttle between different websites and programs to accomplish different tasks – going to Facebook to post on a friend’s Wall, Twitter to post a link, email to write a personal message etc. With Google+ everything is collected in a handy toolbar at the top of the page – from Gmail, Picasa, Calendar, Documents, Photos to Google search engine, all just a click away.
Top 5 features of Google+
+Circles: share what matters, with the people who matter most
People in fact share selectively all the time with their circles,” says Google. +Circles allows users to share selectively by choosing people to form different circles – a picture shared among a particular circle will not be available for people from other circles, even though they will be members of your larger social circle.
+Sparks: strike up a conversation, about pretty much anything
The +Sparks feature is somewhat alike Twitter. +Sparks will deliver a “feed of highly contagious content from across the Internet. On any topic you want, in over 40 languages. Users can add their interests, and they will “always have something to watch, read and share – with just the right circle of friends,” claims Google.
+Hangouts: stop by and say hello, face-to-face-to-face
A fresh experience to online socializing is the “Hangout” group video chat. “With Google+ we wanted to make on-screen gatherings fun, fluid and serendipitous, so we created Hangouts. By combining the casual meetup with live multi-person video, Hangouts lets you stop by when you’re free, and spend time with your Circles. Face-to-face-to-face,” says Google.
+Mobile: share what’s around, right now, without any hassle
The +Mobile feature allows users to seamlessly upload photos from any device. “While you’re snapping pictures, and with your permission, Google+ adds your photos to a private album in the cloud. This way they’re always available across your devices-ready to share as you see fit,” says Google.
+Huddle: group messaging, what’s going on, right this second
“+Huddle” is a real-time, group-messaging feature which helps coordinate with friends and family to catch up with everyone’s ever-changing plans. “Phone calls and text messages can work in a pinch, but they’re not quite right for getting the gang together,” says Google.
+1 button
Like Facebook, Google+ has its own version of the “Likes” button. It’s called “+1″ button, and has already found its way to a million websites, and it spreads rapidly.
Google+ has the advantage over Facebook by being a more adult experience. Many consider Facebook a teen phenomenon. If Google+ does come through on its promise, many will say farewell to their Facebook friend lists and create Google+ circles.
To setup a Google+ account, click here.
Source: Google Blog
Tesco: Virtual shopping via app in Korea
Tesco – A new business models for shopping via app
Tesco have introduced a new shopping model in Korea – the Homeplus Subway Virtual Store. It’s a shop where all items in the “shop” are photos of items with a QR code. The shopping is done through a app – you scan the goods you want to buy, pay online and the goods gets sent home afterwards. The store is located at the underground station where posters hung up. Maybe the future of shopping?
Please share your thoughts, critique and additions via comments. Thank you!
How to market your blog by Chris Penn
Watch this video by WhatCounts Director of Strategy, Christopher Penn, as he walks you through digital marketing basics on how to market your blog – Christopher Penn focus on how email marketing can build traffic, how to find blog audience from various social channels, how to loop content, link building, SEO tips, why building a social network, retargeting, use of advertising, use of pop-ups, discussion forums and blog analytics.
To get Christopher Penn’s mindmap shown in the video (high resolution pdf), click here.
Great presentation Chris, Thanks!
For information on how to measure a blog’s success click here.
Source: WordPress.tv and Christopher Penn.
Please share your thoughts, critique and additions via comments. Thank you!
Why use heatmaps
Eyetracking, mouse movements and clicks
There are 2 different types of webpage heatmaps based on different visitor activity – eye tracking showing how visitors “read” a web page or their mouse movements and clicks can be tracked to understand which sections of the page generate the maximum mouse activity. Note, that the two visitor activities – eye tracking and mouse click tracking – might not show the same map.
Heatmaps shows a visual depiction of visitor activity – a graphical representation of how visitors behave on a web page. Heatmaps use different colors to chart this activity – red color denotes areas and sections of the highest visitor attention and blue color the lowest.
Heatmaps can be helpful in developing a webpage layout, analyze and optimize the success of your current webpage or advertising:
1. Improve website conversions and visitor satisfaction by testing webpage changes through heatmaps and thereby make critical usability changes that have a positive impact on conversions/satisfaction.
2. Evaluate ad placement and brand recognition by seeing if users are looking/clicking at your branding ads.
3. Analyze the performance of every link on your web pages and find out what links you need to improve.
4. See how far down the users have scrolled on your pages and find out if important website elements are viewed by enough users.
You can test advertising, homepages, landing pages, registration/checkout/shopping cart flows, call-to-actions or any other critical webpage.
According to a Jakob Nielsen study: Eye tracking visualizations show that users often read web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe. The study included three different types of web pages: corporate website “about us” section, e-commerce site “product page” and search engine results page.
There are several online companies offering heatmaps, but two are GazeHawk offers eyetracking heatmaps and Mouseflow offers heatmaps based on data from mouse clicks.
This should be enough impetus for all serious marketers, developers and designers to make a heatmap for their webpage or advertising campaign.
Please share your thoughts, critique and additions via comments. Thank you!
