Digital Focus | Friday, February 26, 2010
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Most Talked About, Least Understood: Social Media I attended the Online Marketing Summit in San Diego earlier this week. Online marketing experts presented information on best practices for websites, e-mail, and social media. I've broken down many of the ideas I overheard into three areas that can be used in Radio: * Ideas for selling more Interactive advertising * Ideas for better communication with your advertisers and prospects * Ideas for better online content and platforms to connect with listeners (you may want to forward this to whomever oversees your content) About 850 marketing professionals attended the conference. That's up from 50 attendees just four years ago. There were brand managers, marketing managers of all size firms from Fortune 100 companies to small businesses, agencies (traditional, digital and combined), and me. About half did marketing for B2B, the other half B2C. Before I get to the ideas, let me share some observations from attending the conference: * Social networking is the latest iteration of the holy grail of marketing. Everybody wants to do it, but few if any believe they have it figured out. * A strategic plan to achieve the objectives of your website, social networking, e-mail campaigns, and other digital platforms is a critical component to your success. Make sure you determine in advance what you want each digital medium to achieve. * The latest buzz words include "offline media," referring to traditional media. New media is referred to as "online media." * Another common reference was to "real time measurement." Online marketers have already moved past simple metrics. They are using complex metrics models to see what is working for them online. And they want them in real time so they can see what users are doing right now. Marketers will make adjustments immediately based on that activity. * Features and functionality is a big topic for websites and social media pages. * My hotel room had an iPod docking clock radio. No AM or FM. We still have work to do to get on every audio listening device. If your station is not streaming, I would not have been able to hear it. Ideas For Selling More Interactive Advertising * Contextual advertising creates more results...and happier clients who buy more advertising. Nothing new here, but many marketers have documented this. * Present to advertisers in a way that you are allowing them the opportunity to be on your site. And it's true: Being selective in the right advertisers that match well with your audience will be better for your audience as well as getting advertiser results. * Marketers agree, even direct results marketers, that if your brand is well recognized you have a better conversion rate. Remind your advertisers of the importance to brand their business through your on-air and online advertising. The big brand wins. Look at Nike Plus (www.nikeplus.com). They own the category. * Look at the metrics of the advertisers on your site. Which got the highest click-through? Ask your advertisers about their conversion rates. Which were the highest? Once you have identified who gets the best results on your site, prospect more advertisers from that category. * Specialty creative works best. Have your advertisers run custom creative that relates to your audience. For example: A News/Talk station's business news page might run an ad for MetLife: "You know your business. Do you know your life insurance?" * When online marketers talk about integrated campaigns, they mean integrating various new media (website, e-mail, social media, chat, blogs, podcasts...). Pure digital markets are not including traditional media in the integration. Our opportunity is to talk with traditional agency and buyers and add digital to the Radio buys. * Filter your listener e-mail lists so the advertisers in your e-mail are of interest to those listeners who receive it. Example: Listeners who like sports get sports- oriented advertising. * After social media, online video is of most interest to marketers. For example: Consumers like to know about a product before making a purchase and they like to get the information in the form of video. * In spite of questionable accuracy of metrics, you need to have some substantiation for your recommendation when presenting to advertisers. Ideas For Better Communication With Your Advertisers And Prospects * Create a separate website just for your advertisers to distribute marketing information. * Create LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter accounts to communicate with advertisers who opt-in to your social networks. Don't abuse them with sales pitches. Give them marketing information. * Create a whitepaper on marketing and advertising (not about your station) and make it available to advertisers to download. You will create the image that you are their go-to marketing professional for advice. * Prospect by finding advertisers who are on social networks advertising to consumers who are similar to your listeners. A good customer/listener match increases your closing ratio. * Use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. The better information you input, the more effective you will be in communicating the right thing at the right time with each client or prospect. * Watch trends: What are consumers buying and when? Then match your prospecting with those categories. * Create a blog for advertisers. As long as you include valuable information for your advertisers in a blog you can include features and benefits of advertising on your station in this format that is unique. You will likely be able to get the information across to advertisers in a way you may not be able to otherwise. For example: A salesman at Boeing started a blog that provides information, but also sales points for Boeing. Advertisers subscribe. Check it out here. Ideas For Better Online Content And Platforms To Connect With Listeners * Have a documented, written content strategy for your website to go along with your station's overall marketing strategy. * Make sure your website content is relevant, consistent, and compelling. * Who is the targeted audience you want for your website? Just listeners? Non-listeners? Both? How are you going to get non-listeners to come into your site? Search Engine Optimization (SEO), blogs, social networking (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter...)? * Ask your listeners how they want you to communicate with them. Social networks? Blogs? Podcasts? * Use metrics to see which areas and stories are most read on your site. Provide more of those. * Is there a niche market or gap in your market that you can serve? Maybe this can be an area of your site, or maybe an additional site. For example: The Seattle News-Intelligencer created a separate site called seattlemoms.com. It reaches women who make most of the consumer decisions in households and gives sales a new product to sell. * Everything on your site must be consistent with your station content strategy...your station voice (the feeling they get on the other end). It's all about trust. Users come to your site for something specific. Do not confuse them with a variety of voices. Core values, language, and attitude are all critical. * Do all of your personalities have Facebook, Twitter, Flikr, YouTube accounts that drive Friends to your website? * Does your station have a Facebook page and a Facebook Fan Page? Use the Fan page to drive fans back to your station website. * Track what people are saying about your station in social network sites. Free services include: Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts), Twitrratr (http://twitrratr.com), BackType (www.backtype.com), and Yahoo Pipes (www.pipes.yahoo.com). * Radio has always had a community of listeners. Extend the community to social networks to create stronger relationships. * What's the next big thing? Mobile and geo-targeting mobile campaigns (using GPS). (Source: John Potter, VP/Training, Radio Advertising Bureau) Click here to add your comment about the article. Click here to email to client
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