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Friday, November 30, 2007
Internet marketers focus on the wrong things - again..!
Marketers always seem to be reinventing the wheel; no sooner do they come up with a "great new concept" than they ditch it in favour of some "good old fashioned" marketing. Perhaps it's just me - but I reckon marketing is pretty simple and straightforward stuff; it's marketers who appear to make it complex.
For instance, take the latest research from Anderson Analytics. This shows that marketers want to concentrate on things like customer satisfaction, customer retention, segmentation, brand loyalty and return on marketing investments. Don't they all sound grand? But when you buy something do you ever find yourself saying to your friends, "Oh, I only bought it because I am loyal to the brand and after all, I'm in the right segment which is why I am such a satisfied customer who is retained by the business."
Or do you say, "I bought this because I really liked it". People buy things because they like them or because they need them. Marketing is merely about making people aware of things they might like or they might need and then convincing them to buy them; simple. And when you ask people what influences them most to make that decision to buy, they always say "word of mouth".
So, why does this new research of 600 marketing "experts" show that "word of mouth" is one of the least important areas for marketing in 2008? Do these expert marketers know something we don't? Is the world going to change next year and we will all suddenly stop buying things because we no longer like word of mouth? No, once again it is marketers focusing on the wrong things, trying to make life much more complex than it need be.
The result is that anyone running an Internet business is infected by the "complex" which takes them away from the "straightforward". But take a look at the world's best marketing success stories - they all did it by being straightforward, having a focused concept and providing something people wanted or needed. Easy really. Labels: internet marketing, shopping
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Readers' Comments:
Graham,
I enjoy your newsletters but this is the first time I've found myself disagreeing with what you wrote.
"Oh, I only bought it because I am loyal to the brand and after all, I'm in the right segment which is why I am such a satisfied customer who is retained by the business."
Of course nobody says that, but I suspect people might say something like:
"I only ever shop at X. The service is excellent and they have exactly what I like."
or even:
"I've had 5 Mercedes now and I can't imagine owning any other car. Tony, the sales manager, always gives me a good deal and they even gave my grand daughter a cuddly toy when we went to pick up the 500SL."
Isn't 'word of mouth' an expression of brand loyalty?
I agree that marketing 'experts' tend to make things sound more complicated than they are but the industry is hardly unique in that. Every industry has people who thrive on stating the obvious in complex language.
Thanks for your comment. I agree, people do say many of the things you suggest. But it's about what goes on in people's minds that I'm getting at. They either buy things because they need them or like them. So in your example they need a car and they like the Mercedes. Tony and the cuddly toy, in your example, help the experience of liking the Mercedes get firmed up in their mind surely.
True, every industry has people who turn complex into simple. I remember a doctor once telling me that I had "upper respiratory tract complications due to infective rhinitis" - which means I had a bad cold....!
And by the way, I'm glad you find you had to disagree with me. Gosh wouldn't the world be boring if we all agreed with each other all the time?
Just read this on the website of a very successful ad agency. The quotation comes from one of their clients:
Give us a prediction for marketing in the next five years?
Key focus will be on 'how we can be invited into consumers mind' rather than 'how we can we break through'. Facilitation and empowerment. Hence more focus on deeper consumer insights and response.
Marketing to individuals/groups rather than to the masses.
E drive & technology as a more effective & efficient medium to make more direct communication with consumers on their terms - when they want to and how they want to.
Oh dear. The marketing industry is in trouble. Real trouble.
All this talk about word of mouth and marketing reminds me of something else that amused me recently.
I'm a tutor on the Chartered Institute of Marketing diploma course, and in one of the modules I teach, the examiner's report for a recent exam session criticised candidates for talking about planning word of mouth marketing as though it were an activity they could plan and book through a media agency like they would with billboards or radio!
The people taking this exam and making this suggestion invariably work in marketing already - what a depressing thought.
Maybe I should latch on to this and recruit a load of people to go round saying nice things about products and hire them out to ill-informed marketing people!
If only these students had mentioned the web and the way that it can generate good word of mouth through blogs, forums, reviews, e-mail a friend links and so on. Maybe then they would be mentioned in the examiner's report for different reasons.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Social networking has "made it"
You know when you have "made it" when you are front page news - particularly if that front page belongs to the Wall Street Journal. Facebook is the subject of a major article on the front of the Wall Street Journal, arguing that perhaps we can let other social networkers know too much.
The article is based on a new application for Facebook called "Beacon". This can be linked to various shops and other online facilities. When you buy or download something from those other sites, a news item is added to your profile and distribute to your "friends" telling them about what you have just purchased.
The WSJ argues that this could be taking social networking too far. "Just how much do we want to share on social networks?" asks the article's headline.
However, what Beacon is doing is very little different to what we do at dinner parties or shopping in the High Street. As you walk down the street after a Saturday morning's shopping you carry bags telling people who have never met you which shops you have been in. Just by watching people walk past you can see who has been buying books, or CDs or jewellery, by looking at the logos on their shopping bags.
When you get home from your shopping trips and you have friends round for dinner, you may well play that CD you bought, or show them that new dress, or talk about the new gadget you bought the day before. In other words, we constantly "show off" our purchases. Beacon is merely the online equivalent of what High Street shoppers have been doing for decades. Labels: social networking
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Graham, I think Facebook will be around for years to come.
CNN, YouTube and the American People
I am sitting in my hotel room in the USA watching a fascinating CNN program which is a "debate" between the Republican leadership hopefuls. What is interesting is not what they are saying - usual political flim-flam that doesn't really answer the questions.
Rather, the interesting bit is what is going on with the way the program is being produced. The questions being asked of the Republican candidates by members of the public. Their questions were all submitted via YouTube. These videos are then being broadcast on CNN itself. Meanwhile, at CNN.com, the whole debate is being discussed online in a blog, as well as a rolling "ticker".
So "user generated content" has hit mainstream broadcast TV; and it is being used again to help produce a blog and further web pages. It is also creating a community of people whose questions have been chosen for broadcast, whose videos could attract more comment and answers than the CNN program can manage in just an hour.
The debate is likely to continue online in a multimedia way. Yet, will any of the old, grey-haired, wrinkled men (who are the candidates) get involved online? I doubt it - and that in itself probably tells us enough about their value as a president. Labels: social networking, user-generated
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Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Create an "Internet Marketing Kit"
Most people don't use Internet technology well. Fewer than 2% of people who access the web, for instance, actually subscribe to RSS feeds. In spite of environmental concerns, millions of emails and web pages are actually printed out, rather than read on screen. As for using social networking tools, or "widgets", well, they are so niche that almost no-one is using them.
The people buying products and services online still behave in rather traditional, offline, ways. They like to have things in their hands, to "feel" your service or products in some way. They want to "weigh by the pound" your company's abilities.
That means you need to let them have marketing materials that they can feel, weigh and read offline. The best way of doing this is with an "Internet Marketing Kit". This can be in the form of a PDF they download and print - or they can order one (free of charge) that you mail in the post.
The kit that you provide should contain a host of information (much of which will alerady be on your web site) that shows them you can do what you claim to do. For instance, try including the following items in your Internet Marketing Kit:
Annual Report
Latest Newsletter
FAQs
A presentation about your services/products
Articles you have written
White papers or reports you have produced
Copies of testimonial letters
Cuttings from media coverage of your business
Recent press releases you have issued
A list of your professional affiliations/memberships
Images of your products or your services in use
You can probably think of more. Your prospective customers will not read all this material; they will skim through it and literally weigh-up your potential. The more you have in this kit, the better since people believe that the more you have the better you are - strange but true.
Your web site may have all this, but people cannot see it all at once, as they can with a printed kit. As a result, your web site can be less impressive than you would like. Labels: internet marketing
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Even though your customer can download all the information themselves, I believe when you can take out of the equation themselves having to do anything, you will have more customers and more sales. Here is a great resource to take your business to the next level: http://portal-feeder-review.com
Internet marketing gets even more mobile
A lucky 500 Londoners have started taking part in a trial using Nokia phones to pay for tube journeys. Essentially, the phones use similar technology to the widespread "Oyster card" that many people in London use to pay their underground fares.
Barclaycard is launching a similar card that will pay for tube fares as well as other small cash items, such as newspapers and confectionery. However, the new Nokia phones go one further. They will instantly recognise the location of the person using the payment system.
This will mean they will be able to receive a range of location-based marketing initiatives, such as money-off "vouchers" for a local restaurant. And even though it is a trial, it shows that newer ways of delivering marketing messages are being found on a regular basis, it seems. Location-based marketing has significant potential because you are tapping into a ready market who are on your doorstep.
So, for many businesses, the challenge is to how to turn their existing products and services into something that could be provided via a mobile phone in restricted geographical locations. If you don't start thinking about this now for your business and planning for the inevitable arrival of such a possibility, then someone else will and your business could lose out. Labels: internet marketing
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But you must keep in mind to ask the customer for permission. Even if location-based marketing can be very effective to arouse somebody's interest in your products, it can also be effective in a negative way. Be sure not to spam people so they don't feel annoyed by you.
Julia, I agree. But the special phones are likely to come with a contract that says you agree to receive the location based advertising.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
Blogging can help your soul
Still, in spite of being around for ten years, people dismiss blogging as futile, unecessary or in some way "amateur". Far from it - some of the most successful web sites in the world are based on blog technology. Amazon, the BBC and Facebook are all derivatives of blogging.
But if you ever wanted to see the true power and benefit of blogging, read this blog by BBC journalist Paul Clabburn. It is a moving, personal account that no doubt helped Paul come to terms with the most appalling tragedy - the sudden, unexpected death of his teenage son in his sleep. But more than that, it is a blog entry that will help every reader think about life - and death in a different way.
If blogs do nothing more than help us think, they have achieved a great deal. And as Paul's story tells us, the Internet has enabled him to join a "club" that none of us would really like to be members of. If you read nothing else today, read this blog. Labels: blogging
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Graham
Totally concur with the gist of your post. My "Margate to Maasai" Blog, on occasions, wasn't easy to write
Where do blogs come from?
Bloggers often find it hard to locate information to write about. Indeed, at blogging workshops I run, people often say they run out of ideas for their blogs. Well, if newspapers ran out of ideas they'd soon lose money...!
So, where do newspapers get their ideas from? Other media - that's where. Take a look at any daily newspaper and you will see tell-tale signs of recycling content. Specialist reporters, for instance, check out the trade publications in their sector or professional or academic journals. For instance, you'll see phrases like "reported in this month's issue of the ABC Journal".
What trade publications or professional journals do you look at? Could you subscribe to particular periodicals that most of your readers won't see? Can you read academic papers and translate them for your blog readers? If you can do any of these you can find out plenty of material to "report" in your blog.
Many blogs simply report other blogs. The result is you read a blog, click on a link in it, to find another blog, that is merely writing about yet another blog. It just goes round in circles.
Take a different approach to provide new information to you readers - report on news and research published in little-read publications like academic journals. That way your blog will be unique and you will also provide a valuable service to your readers. Labels: blogging
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Monday, November 26, 2007
There's a recession coming? Not online....!
American commentators reckon there is a recession just around the corner. And one of the people quoted, economics professor Nouriel Roubini, believes that the financial difficulties could be greater than anything we have ever seen before.
Such prophets of doom make for great headlines, but they are forgetting one thing. All their economic models and "rules" were written in the pre-internet days. The whole basis of much economic modelling fails to take into account the way in which the online economy works.
It's now possible to make a living from serving miniscule niches, which were previously too expensive to reach. It's now possible to buy products and services at the lowest possible cost - and to use price comparison and auction sites to drive prices down. Plus, for the 500,000 people recently unemployed, the costs of setting up on their own are slashed nowadays to virtually zero.
The result is that any recession in the financial world, could well take place whilst those of us in the online business world happily prosper. One thing that's for sure is that many recessions are linked to previous talk and chatter that a recession is coming; in other words it is probably socially created, rather than financially produced. Online, the chatter is currently about success and thriving with more and more people spending record amounts on the Internet. If financial worlds are socially created, then online is likely to become a success, while the rest of the world slips into recession. Labels: internet
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Hi Graham,
Really interesting post. Presumably this means that an online-only recession is also a possibility sometime in the future?
Ben
Online businesses need to provide even more information
How many times have you ventured into an online store, only to find that you can't get as much information about a company's products or services as you would like? Only yesterday I wanted to know if my new video camera could take certain memory cards. Was that information in the instruction booklet? No. Was it on the product's web site? No. Luckily I found the answer to my question on an independently run user forum.
But if you run an online business do you want your customers having to get answers to their questions from user forums where the information could actually be incorrect? Equally, do you want your customers to know that you are the place to go for information on your products and services? Sure you do. So why do so many online businesses fail to give full information about their products?
It seems it's not just me worrying about this. A study by WebCollage has found that lack of information online infuriates potential customers.
"Customers want to know things like how a product works, its complete set of features and accessories and whether the product is compatible with products they already own," said Jed Alpert, Vice President of Marketing for WebCollage. "That's why manufacturers need to focus on providing their retail channel partners with complete product information, first and foremost."
In other words, if your online business does not become the centre for information on your products and services, some enterprising individual will take your place. Don't let that happen - make sure every scrap of information about your products and services is available at your sites. Often companies feel that by providing every last detail they may put off web surfers - but it seems the reverse is true. In order to attract people to your online business you need to be sure you have all the itsy bitsy details of your products on your web site, otherwise they will look elsewhere. Labels: internet
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Sunday, November 25, 2007
The future of Internet Psychology
My son Elliot was 8-years-old yesterday and today we had a big party for 26 of his friends. It was a Harry Potter theme party with a wizard magician who kept all of the kids "spellbound" for an hour...! So what has all this to do with Internet Psychology?
Well, this blog has been written every single day for almost 18 months. But in that time I've written while on holiday, while travelling and when my son was celebrating his birthday....! Plus, in the past 18 months, I've added even more web sites to my little "empire" and am writing more for other "outlets". So, the time has come to make a change to this web site and my daily articles.
The future of this web site is that I will now only update it during weekdays - at weekends I'll get a little more time with Elliot and my wife Cathy. However, I won't neglect you. Instead of updating my web site once a day, it will get two updates every weekday. So, far from cutting back the output - I'm actually increasing it, but taking the pressure off me during the weekends. Labels: future
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Saturday, November 24, 2007
Internet shoppers must be confused
Shoppers online must be a pretty confused bunch of people. After all, we clearly want to shop online - the graph for items purchased on the Internet is near vertical; we just keep buying more and more stuff online, day in day out. That is shown by recent research for the online retail organisation, IMRG. This shows that consumer confidence is growing rapidly.
Meanwhile, though, a study performed by Harris Interactive shows that 90% of online shoppers experience transaction problems. Hang on a minute, say that again. At the same time as consumer confidence is rising, nine out of ten of them experience difficulties in buying stuff online. Surely both can't be true?
After all, if such vast numbers of people have real problems in buying online, how can they be confident in Internet shopping? Clearly that's not possible. Or maybe it is.
Both studies show that the main reason for concern is lack of web site security. The IMRG research showed that consumer confidence rose because of increased faith in web security. In the Harris Interactive study, researchers discovered that the most important requirement for online shoppers was a secure web site.
So, if you run an online business you need to demonstrate your site is secure. You need at the very least an https address, which will show the on-screen padlock. You also need to remind people your shopping cart is secure.
However, that will only get you so far. You need to rigorously test your online retail system so that it is easy to use, confirms completion of sales and has an easily found help system. Doing so, it seems, will increase confidence even further and will also ensure your transactions are not problematic for your shoppers. By doing so you make it much more likely they will continue with the purchase - 37% of people give up at the final stage of buying from web sites simply because of shopping cart errors. In other words, people who want to buy from you decide not to give you their money for no other reason than your shopping cart system has not been thoroughly tested. You have been warned...! Labels: shopping
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Friday, November 23, 2007
Teenagers do not need our help online - we need them to help us oldies
Teenagers have been warned by men in grey suits to be careful online. According to the Information Commissioner's Office, teenagers stand a chance of ruining their future careers if they are not careful when using social networking sites.
Oh dear - here we go again - another set of adults trying to tell children what to do. Gosh isn't it dreadful, those social networking thingies and how you can reveal all sorts of details about yourself? Well guess what - that's what teenagers do.
Revealing your personality and your intimate details are part of growing up. We all do it - it helps establish our identity. It is a necessary part of becoming an adult. The trouble is that lots of adults in high places seem to forget that they were kids once.
The people who reveal too much online are adults - not teenagers. I've worked with several groups of teenagers and I've been amazed at how aware they are for the potential for fraud or identity theft. The people revealing potentially dangerous details are not the teenagers, but the grown ups - including people who should know better like those who work for HM Revenue and Customs....!
And besides, there is a huge danger for today's children if they DO NOT take part in social networking online. Clearly, their working future is going to rely heavily on online social networks. If they don't engage in them now, they will be less of an employment prospect in the future.
So far from finger wagging at today's children, the authority figures should be encouraging them to take part in a host of online activities. Perhaps the people advising today's teenagers need some lessons themselves in social networking - from those very teenagers. After all, most adults need lessons from children in how to work the video. It's about time we trusted children online - they know more about it than us. Labels: social networking
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I'm maybe one of the first decade (just) of people who made some of their mistakes growing-up online. I think more recent forums have a sort of time-limited feel and more access barriers that older ones lacked. In ten years, when today's facebookers are going to serious jobs, facebook may have vanished or its archive been moved off-line or locked to registered users only, taking their old silly messages away from public (and search engine) view. Meanwhile, my Usenet errors will probably still be archived on multiple sites for all to see...
On the other hand, it means I have to be basically honest in my work, as far too much is online about me already.
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Internet users need symbols of identity
American Psychologists have discovered that we need to "get the T-shirt". In an interesting group of different studies, the researchers from New York University found that in order for us to really feel we are part of a group we have to show that we are in that group. We need physical items to demonstrate to others the group to which we belong.
What this means for your web site or your online business is that you need physical items to help engender a feeling of community within your users. Some online groups, such as Ecademy or NRG have button badges, for instance. The research also shows there is considerable group value in having a physical "home" - people associate the property with the group as well.
For your business - and mine - it is therefore important that your clients and your web site readers have some physical attribute that helps them feel they "belong". There is a symbolic value in physical items that help people show they are part of "your world".
In the coming weeks you will be able to get a range of physical items to show you read my articles. I'm also going to be setting up a "home" for my readers - a building they can associate with me and the group of readers. Strange how these things work isn't it? I remember years ago working for several newspapers whose buildings were part of their identity. A small graphic of the "HQ" was printed within the title of the publication. It clearly helped the community of readers identify themselves as being part of that group. The designers probably thought it just looked good; this new research shows it had a real purpose though.
So, what physical items can your Internet users associate with your business? You clearly need something to engender that feeling of belonging. Labels: internet psychology
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Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Email marketing has yet to achieve anything
British consumers would rather receive traditional direct mail than an email marketing campaign. That's the conclusion of new research conducted for the Institute of Direct Marketing. Less than one in five people surveyed wanted to receive marketing material via email - they preferred to get it in the post.
So why is this? Well, take a look at traditional, postal-based direct mail. Usually it is easily identifiable as such; it does not appear the same as a "normal" letter. Direct mail is often bright, colourful and in an unusual size. It catches our attention.
Because it stands out, it makes it easy for us to deal with traditional direct mail quickly. We can chuck it in the bin without much effort. Unless, of course, something really does make us stop for a second. Direct marketers know that much of their material is thrown away, but they use sophisticated targeting techniques and creative design to get past our human "junk mail filters".
With email marketing there's a problem. There's no easy way for us to identify the marketing from the ordinary messages. Everything that comes into our inbox looks the same. That means it takes us longer to sort it out - hence we don't like it. Also, there are few really creative email campaigns. Email marketers appear to spend much less time and effort on creativity than their colleagues who work on printed direct mail.
So what does this mean for businesses engaged in email marketing? It suggests that you cannot rely on it alone. Mix it with direct mail and you might achieve more. But being more creative is certainly necessary - particularly with subject lines. You need to get your message across in five words or less. And that takes effort and time - something which few email marketing campaigns appear rich in. Labels: internet marketing
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Readers' Comments:
Graham
I couldn't agree more about the dearth of quality subject lines. E-mail marketing is essentially very similar to Direct Mail, in that writing both of them is a very 'sequential' process.
Poor Direct Mail practitioners still read the whole of their mailing as one single piece, and if it reads OK to them, in its entirety, they run with it, but they miss a very important point. People hardly ever read it in its entirety, they will read it (and judge it) in stages, and only read on if they think it's worth their while to.
On the other hand, a good Direct Mail practitioner knows that the message on the envelope has one purpose - to get it opened. Then the headline has one purpose - to get you to read the next paragraph, and so on to the end, maybe even a 'PS' at the end. Good writers can link one paragraph to the next and keep more readers interested than a poor writer can.
For me, a key reason that e-mail marketing hasn't fulfilled its potential is that people have missed this important point. That, and poor/lack of personalisation seem to be the most common offences. I know that Direct Mail and e-mail are different beasts, but it's as if people have thrown away all that we've learnt from Direct Mail over the years, when a lot of it is still relevant. Granted, some of the universal truths about Direct Mail don't apply - it's a different medium - but good personalisation and good writing technique do.
This all sounds so obvious doesn't it? But I'm guessing that you've posted this blog entry because like me, you've seen loads of bad examples! People just need to ask themselves what the first thing is that most people do with an e-mail (probably view the subject line and sender), then the next thing (probably view it in a preview pane, so why not have a compelling relevant message high up the page?) and so on. They should write in such a way as to tackle each of these barriers in turn. Not easy, but very important.
I'm pleased to say that your daily updates are safe from my "human junk mail filter"!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Five ways to engage people with your blog
There are over 100 million blogs in cyberspace now and the rate of growth is phenomenal. Indeed, if blogs continue to grow at their current pace there will be more blogs on the Internet than people on the planet, by 2010. If your blog is amongst all that noise, just how can you engage your readers so they return to your blog, ignoring the competition?
Here are five sure-fire ways you can get engagement with your readers:
1. Make your blog topical. Refer to something that's in the news or connect your blog with a current theme.
2. Ensure your blog is relevant to your specific audience. Don't write too generally, make it interesting to your audience. Don't aim for large numbers of readers, aim for the type of people interested in your information.
3. Make your blog unusual. Have interesting facts, alarming statistics or information that makes people go "wow". Don't be too ordinary - make people think.
4. Avoid being "ordinary". Have a viewpoint and be prepared to stir up some trouble. Controversy, conflict and turmoil will all help.
5. Write about people. The more you make your material human interest, the more engagement you will get.
If you take a look at these five ways of engaging people, they form a handy mnemonic to help you remember.
T - Topical
R - Relevant
U - Unusual
T - Troublesome
H - Human interest
So, just tell your readers the "TRUTH" in your blog and you will engage them. Labels: blogging
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ma.gnolia
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said…
Graham Jones said…
Graham,
I enjoy your newsletters but this is the first time I've found myself disagreeing with what you wrote.
"Oh, I only bought it because I am loyal to the brand and after all, I'm in the right segment which is why I am such a satisfied customer who is retained by the business."
Of course nobody says that, but I suspect people might say something like:
"I only ever shop at X. The service is excellent and they have exactly what I like."
or even:
"I've had 5 Mercedes now and I can't imagine owning any other car. Tony, the sales manager, always gives me a good deal and they even gave my grand daughter a cuddly toy when we went to pick up the 500SL."
Isn't 'word of mouth' an expression of brand loyalty?
I agree that marketing 'experts' tend to make things sound more complicated than they are but the industry is hardly unique in that. Every industry has people who thrive on stating the obvious in complex language.