By it’s very nature, the online world is a fast moving one. New technologies and techniques are constantly emerging and then evolving. Some of these are shaped by users into dominant forces while others fade away or are usurped by the next big thing. Understanding the relevance of these developments to your business places a huge emphasis on devising an overall strategy, underpinned by research, to consider the appropriateness of each area to your business activities, market and objectives.
Organisations that publish a website and put a big tick in the ‘done’ box on their to-do list, will quickly see its relevance and value diluted. It may even be that a single website isn’t appropriate for your business; corporate information doesn’t always sit comfortably alongside products and may confuse users who just want to place orders. Similarly, e-commerce isn’t applicable to every business but it does offer enormous opportunities and efficiencies to those businesses that can offer products or services online. Or it may be that just the provision of information saves valuable man hours by linking a website to your internal systems giving secure access to, for example, customer accounts or stock. Dependent upon the type of organisation and sector – and it’s all very much a question of relevance – brand or market sector microsites might be appropriate to deliver specific information to specific audiences, or to provide general information and become the voice of your industry online. Manufacturers and distributors can provide data feeds to their resellers controlling data integrity and strengthening relationships.
Websites need to be search engine friendly, otherwise it’s a bit like getting a phone line and not giving out the number; you want to make it easy to find. There are various techniques to achieve high ranking but success is affected by how competitive your sector is, which needs to be ascertained through research, before developing a strategy and action plan. It shouldn’t be forgotten that optimisation is an ongoing activity that requires constant attention to ensure that ranking is maintained or improved as Google specifically, is constantly refining its algorithms so affecting how well a site ranks. Relying on search alone though can be very dangerous as dips in performance or aggressive tactics by competitors can affect traffic and consequently sales. The instant and direct nature of email, which has become a fixture of daily business communication, can also help drive traffic to a site. A well designed and properly distributed email campaign is a very cost-effective way to inform prospects or customers and bring visitors via click-throughs. Emails can be tracked with comprehensive reports on numbers sent, opened and ‘bouncebacks’. In a business to business scenario, given a good quality database, we’re typically seeing around 20% of emails opened, compared to around a 2% average response in conventional direct mail.
The exponential growth of social media, which has seen Facebook overtake Google as the world’s most visited site, increasingly presents opportunities for business and, if managed as part of an ongoing strategy, can be very beneficial. There is a natural concern amongst businesses, of being too open or of losing control. However, whilst social media does fit more naturally for certain types of business than others, that doesn’t mean any business shouldn’t have a presence, it may just take more time to find its place in your overall marketing communications. Various social media platforms, including blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, can be used to listen to what people are talking about in your industry, then to engage with them and establish relationships. In turn, social media can help build brand reputation, consumer trust and generate referrals through direct dialogue with the audience. Social media platforms can enable businesses to be proactive in their response and establish themselves as a genuine voice. Any social media activities should align with the overall business and marketing strategy working to a clear set of measurable goals and be undertaken with a level of discipline.
Viral campaigns often raise similar concerns regarding relevance, especially in the b2b scenario, but the issue of appropriateness is again key. It should be borne in mind that successful viral campaigns can see the biggest return on investment – if videos, games, competitions or opt-in schemes are popular they spread like, well like a virus, because the promotion is mostly carried out by users. The online game we developed for retailer American Golf some years ago ultimately gained over 90,000 registered players, all golf enthusiasts, all potential customers, through a simple ‘challenge a friend’ prompt when finishing the game.
The evolution of mobile technologies such as smartphones, netbooks and ipads, coupled with 3G connectivity and the spread of WIFI brings internet access virtually everywhere. Your customers now want, and expect, to be able to access information on these devices creating a need to provide correctly formatted websites or even deliver functionality through apps.
One of the key benefits of e-marketing, in contrast to many conventional channels, is the ability to accurately measure performance. The analysis of this almost limitless and detailed data – numbers of visitors, locations, time spent on site, pages visited, exit points, click-throughs and ultimately orders and enquiries – should feed back into the ongoing process. The emphasis has to be on devising and refining an effective and coordinated ‘e-strategy’ that’s fully aligned with your business objectives, overall marketing strategies and brand. Most importantly, it has to consider, and research as required, each potential activity in relation to the specific target audience and ensure that it is always appropriate
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