Archive for September, 2009
Claude Hopkins
They say, “if you wait long enough, everything old is new again”. That’s certainly true of Social Marketing.
People are talking about Social Media Marketing as though it’s brand new. It seems that SMM and Inbound Marketing in it’s purist sense, dates back almost to the beginning of the study of advertising itself. In 1923, Claude Hopkins wrote “Scientific Advertising”, a highly regarded advertising how-to described by advertising notables like David Ogilvy and Gary Halbert as a “must read”.
So what’s the connection? While reading through “Scientific Advertising” I came across several stories of circa 1920’s salesmen and their door-to-door marketing tactics. They offered housewives free samples, gadgets and advice — and would not take any payment. That same salesman might visit again days later to ask the housewife about what she thought of the sample he left — still not selling anything or asking for payment, just being helpful.
Because the salesman had begun a relationship, and the housewife had the opportunity to develop some level of trust with the salesman, these prospects began ASKING to buy products and sales dramatically increased. As a matter of fact, Hopkins cites at least 3 examples of similar tactics where he says “such offers were reistless, and about nine in ten of the trials led to sales”.
Let me repeat that, “9 in 10 trials lead to sales”!
This 90% conversion rate is not nearly as surprising to me as the fact that these are the exact same basic principles that make Inbound Marketing so powerful today. By engaging with prospects in order to develop a simple relationship, the marketer was able to first create a level of trust, and create an interest or need where one may not have existed before, so when the prospect was ready to buy, there was no question about WHO she would buy from. The purchase decision was not about price, but about the relationship.
Now I ask you to imagine that story again, but now add in amazing reach and effectiveness of today’s social internet so your talking to thousands of these prospects at once, and combine it with the low cost of entry — like offering simple helpful information instead of actual free samples, and I think you’ll see why I was impressed.
I think the similarity to Inbound Marketing is unmistakable. It’s fascinating that while this proven marketing practice dates back to 1923, some marketers still think Social Media Marketing is a fad and deny it’s value as an effective marketing tactic.
We’ve all been to trade shows or similar events with rows and rows of exhibitors each with gimmicks, chachkas, and big bowls of candy and pens that exhibitors somehow think will attract qualified prospects. Then there is at least one person in each row that tries to draw you over with some cheesy line about how their product is just what you needed. And while you’ll usually find something of interest at these events, they’re usually very over stimulating, don’t provide me a great deal of business benefit, and cause my feet to ache while I carry around bags of literature that I usually end up picking through just before throwing out.
But now I’ve changed my mind! Today I attended Marketing Prof’s Digital Marketing World. An all day event jam packed with all the things I find interesting about these shows, but all from the comfort of my desk. Admission was free, there were far fewer and more relevant booths to navigate through, and all of the literature was downloadable so I didn’t dislocate a shoulder carrying them home.
Kudos to InXpo who provided the virtual event environment. It was one of the most seamless and well executed virtual events I have attended with intuitive areas for presentations, gathering literature, chatting and even business card drops for prize drawings.
As my cursor rolled over a booth in the main interface, a small pop-up quickly told me what the firm did. Wow! One click and I was inside the booth where I could get more info, see a video, or leave without being hassled if I wasn’t interested. A pet peeve at trade shows has always been seeing something that catches my eye, but not knowing what the company does — so it’s really hard to ask an intelligent question.
Just this week I was a show for the packaging industry. Booth after booth was filled with a variety of packaging samples, many for the cosmetics industry. Some exhibitors were printers, some made dyes and did color matching, while others made plastics used in the packages. The problem was that I couldn’t tell from their booths, who did what. Exhibitors can’t expect folks to walk into every booth to find what they’re looking for.
Two of my favorite exhibits at this virtual event were Hubspot, because of their ongoing suburb ability to engage their audience, and Emma because of the clarity and simplicity of their message, despite the volume of information they offered.
My favorite part of the virtual show was the fact that it was actually pretty easy to meet other attendees, something that I usually don’t get to do a lot of. There were chat rooms where you could meet folks with similar interests and get a peek at their profile….. if they filled it in.
Not every exhibitor took full advantage of the interactive or communication advantages available, but overall the experience was far less stressful and more rewarding for me than any “real life” trade show that I have gone to recently.
1. Traditional advertising can only talk. SM can talk, ask questions, and most importantly, listen.
2. People are likely to be more loyal to a brand when they can interact with it. According to a study by Anderson Analytics, 52% of social network users
had become a fan or follower of a company or brand.
3. Companies learn a great deal from the direct feedback they get from their customers.
4. Audiences are increasingly more fragmented making it harder to cost effectively reach them.
5. People are tired of being interrupted by ads and are largely ignoring or avoiding mass advertising
6. New ideas can quickly and inexpensively be tested before committing to expensive mass advertising production.
7. Traditional advertising is a time limited event. When it’s done, it’s done. Social media is ongoing and often takes on a life of it’s own.
8. SMM can address negative word-of-mouth before it becomes a rebellion or destructive to your brand.
9. Traditional marketing ROI can be difficult to measure. Lessons learned from social marketing can be used to guide traditional efforts.
10. It’s hard to get a sense of belonging from a TV screen or magazine page.
Now tell me what you think.
Go to the comments on almost any social media blog and you’ll find two opposing opinions emerging.
One says that to be truly “social” in social media, it’s inappropriate to even attempt to deliver any type of marketing message. Social media is all about being helpful, authentic and human and about people connecting on like-minded topics. It’s not about selling or marketing and corporate messages of any kind should be rejected.
On the other hand, since marketing is the beginning of the sales process and social media offers the perfect opportunity for any business to find, attract and inform new prospects, businesses naturally want to be involved to make sure their brands are part of the conversation. If the chatter about their brand turns negative, they want to be there to address the issue quickly.
Marketers know the social media creed: to be part of the conversation means they have to be honest, authentic and personal and not push any sales message — or risk the consequences. Most brands recognize the value in social media, are willing to forgo any sales push and play by the rules. Actually, most of the companies I have spoken to, embrace the honesty social media offers and feel it fits well with their own corporate philosphy. They benefit from the exposure, interaction, relationships and idea swapping they share with their community.
So why do some social media purists balk when the words “social media” and “marketing” are used in the same sentence, and then cringe at the thought of measuring it’s value? Don’t social media community members benefit from corporate involvement with the addition of trustworthy information, valued entertainment and worthwhile resources? How many social media venues would exist if not for corporate participation?
Even if a business does their SMM entirely in-house, it takes the investment of time, knowledge, overhead and creativity to do it well, and those things equate to money. So, despite what some may think, social media is not free and therefor from a business perspective, needs to be measured against return, just like traditional marketing.
So why do some social media purists still reject the notion that a business involved in social media, is actually doing social media marketing?
Tell me what you think. I’d like to know.
By Rena Bernstein
In a recent article at SmallBizTrends.com, Lisa Barone asked if it was “appropriate to hire outside people to be social for you”. I thought it was a terrific question, but there were several major issues that weren’t addressed so I thought I would discuss them here.
I personally feel that if you’re a small business owner that either doesn’t have time to engage in social media or who, is not familiar enough with the medium, then the best solution is to bring in a consultant that can get you started, help you form a strategy and organize a program as well as execute and or train others in you organization to manage your social media efforts.
Too many small business owners think that starting a Twitter account and having someone tweet the company web site a few times a day, is social marketing. Guess what? It’s neither Social or Marketing!
Very often full time employees either do not have the time or interest to get involved. For many, even if the interest is there, after a short while the novelty wears off and your social presence becomes abandoned — a fate worse than never have begun the process at all.
Honesty is still paramount in SMM if you want to gain trust, however there is no reason at all that you can’t hire someone to represent you authentically. Remember though, there are a few strings attached….
1) The person should be a pro. A professional inbound marketing consultant knows the ropes, will get the businesses complete background before beginning, will understand your market as well as the medium and can represent your company in the best and most authentic possible way.
2) A reputable social media consultant will be honest in terms of their name and will present themselves as a representative of the firm just like any other employee should, and not some made up alias. In the interest of full disclosure, I am a certified inbound marketing consultant so I admit that I am biased.
3) They should be completely familiar with your business, customers, products and any issues before going online. Anything they do should dovetail with all of your other marketing and branding efforts as well.
The biggest mistake that any small business can make is to hand over their social marketing responsibilities to an employee with little available time and no experience or knowledge in the medium. Worse yet, is to give the responsibility to some intern or low level assistant with too much time, insufficient knowledge of the audience, business or medium, and little long term vested interest in the outcome.
At very least, I suggest to clients that they bring in a consultant at least to get them started, organize the program and make sure that everyone involved within the firm is onboard and marching to the same drummer. They can also work with a few designated employees to train them in the appropriate and most effective SMM techniques.
Those are my thoughts. Now tell me what you think.
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Advertising Today focuses on combining the benefits of social media and online marketing with traditional advertising, collateral, promotion and event marketing.
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