Smart Goal Setting for 2010
This post proves that setting “SMART” goals is always timely. To ensure success and empower ourselves to achieve both our professional and personal goals, goals need to be specific, measureable, attainable, relevant, and fit within a defined time frame.
When It Comes to Brands and Content, Simplicity Matters
The practice of using simple language to engage and connect with a target audience has always been an important part of solid communications. However, this is often easier said than done – especially for PR professionals working in specialty fields where communicating complex information is the norm. Few people have little patience for jargon and pretentious language. And this is equally true for journalists and bloggers who are often working under tight deadlines. This post reflects on several questions savvy PR professionals must ask themselves before pitching “Aunt Edna” and “Uncle Walt.”
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and I’m here at the Bulldog Media Relations Summit. I’m joined by Sally.
Sally, will you please introduce yourself?
SALLY FALKOW: Hi, I’m Sally Falkow from Press Feed, the social media newsroom.
BURKE: And, Sally, you’re doing a session tomorrow about social media strategy. Can you please share the two big things that whenever anybody is trying to develop their social media strategy for their communications and their public relations – what are the two core things that they absolutely have to keep in consideration?
FALKOW: Only two? We’re only allowed two?
BURKE: Only two for the purpose of this quick video.
FALKOW: OK. Well, first and foremost, I think you have to listen. Before you even start doing anything else, you have to listen to the conversations. We heard a lot this morning in the first session from people saying how much conversation and discussion there is out there, and that the role of PR people is changing from managing news and getting our news out and working just with mainstream media to actually participating in and shaping and directing what was discussion or conversation. So you need to know what is being said, you need to listen.
And the second thing, I think, is you need to really understand how you fit into the business and what the business goals are. And you can’t measure if you haven’t set a measurable goal. So you need to know what it is you’re aiming for, and then you can figure out how to get there.
BURKE: Sally, always great insights from you. Where can people find you in social media?
FALKOW: On Twitter, sallyfalkow. I’m pretty much just sallyfalkow, all together, one word, lower case. If you search that, you’ll find me pretty much all over.
Retargeting – when online targeted advertising is delivered to consumers based on previous Internet actions that did not result in a past conversion – has become more importunate (persistent) as we continue to increasingly use the Internet to shop, order food, book travel, monitor the news or for pretty much anything you want to do without leaving the house.
It is also becoming more widely used within the advertising arena. With so many similar brands in the market it is hard to differentiation yourself from the other guy, and this form of remarketing can help to successfully convert those lost opportunities.
Oddly enough, after reading Learmonth’s post I was having dinner with my friend Nancy who was “weirded out” by a similiar experience. Ever since she booked a room at Loews Hotel ads for the hotel began appearing on every website that she visited. She is a sales trader so PPC (pay-per-click), Twitter, retargeting, and cookies are not really in her vocabulary. So I thought it would be interesting to research if retargeting is as effective as marketing and advertising professionals believe and how it actually works.
According to Criteo, a company that specializes in scalable personalized retargeting, more than 90 percent of website visitors leave before converting (i.e., making a purchase, downloading a white paper, etc.) Other research has shown that it can take at least seven follow-up emails or phone calls with prospects to actual convert them to a sale. If we are only tracking those visitors that convert on our physical websites, we are simply losing out on a possible sale down the road. Websites these days are optimized for search and have the technology to place cookies on each visitor’s computers to measure the site’s true audience size, but that is only capturing IP addresses most of the time. Then they have us, until we remove all our cookies and empty our cache.
So how do these retargeting customized ads work? When a prospect/client browses your website they become tagged with a snippet of code, which tracks which products they have shown interest in. When they leave the website and begin visiting other pages that’s when the retargeting begins. Banner ads customized to their search on your site start appearing on sites all over the web, from news, social networks, blogs, etc.
Companies that are using retargeting firms, such as Fetchback, in their marketing strategy have seen a 592 percent increase in ROI and conversions up by 94 percent. There are many other benefits to this form of behavioral marketing. It helps streamline all of your campaigns and the frequency of the ads helps keep your brand on the top of prospects minds. (Most services have an integrated feature that allows you to place a limit on the frequency at which the ads appear, so you don’t bomb your potential clients and “creep” them out because everywhere they go they see you.)
Plus, your ads are not static on a particular site related to your industry, which usually does not yield a lot of traffic because that market is already saturated and are either already your clients or know who you are. With retargeting your ads you are only reengaging with new prospects that have already shown interest in your brand; you can focus on what their needs are and manage your ROI.
In short, retargeting helps build your brand and online presence, while increasing the chances of reengaging your audience. It is not going to convert all on its own and has to be used with traditional marketing tactics to be effective. So don’t eliminate your current strategies. It is also important to measure the effectiveness of your retargeting campaigns, ensuring it is worth the investment and that your conversion rates are higher.
This article from Inc. Magazine highlights a retargeting success story involving Scottevest and its partnership with firm AdRoll.
There is one downside to the growing popularity for converting leads more efficiently via retargeting and that is the possibility that people may have the choice to opt-out (a do not call list for the Internet) of all behavioral targeting ads. What does that do for brands that are following the rules and not hunting down prospects on the web? We lose the opportunity to generate qualified leads for our sales team and revenue for the company. If you do use retargeting make sure you limit your reach frequency because when people begin to feel harassed and stalked by brands they will opt-out; I would.
Is your organization taking on the strategy of retargeting advertising? If so, how successful have you been with campaigns and reengaging lost prospects? Do you think we should have the right to opt-out of all behavioral targeting ad campaigns or just the irritating ones? Please share your thoughts and ideas with me and the BurrellesLuceFresh Ideas readers.
JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and I’m here at the PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference in Aspen, Colorado. And I’m here with Doug.
Doug, will you please introduce yourself?
DOUG MacKENZIE: Good morning, Johna. I’m Doug MacKenzie. I’m the president of the travel and tourism section of PRSA, and the director of communications at the Greater Phoenix Convention and Visitors Bureau.
BURKE: Greater Phoenix, indeed. So, Doug, will you please talk to me about what some of the trends are that you’re seeing in the industry right now?
MacKENZIE: Certainly in the travel and tourism PR industry, the trends are certainly enhancement of our social media tools, really a lot of interactiveness, and also there’s a good development of digital storytelling.
BURKE: Great. And then, you know, amongst that of your members specifically, are they talking to you about things that they would like to see as far as future programming and developments there?
MacKENZIE: I think the tools that certainly track and measure the social media arena, certainly an easy interface where they can certainly message and story tell to the best ability, and to really work with different communities and show the spirit of their destination.
BURKE: Great, Doug, and thanks so much. Is there a blog where people can find you?
MacKENZIE: You know, at our visitphoenix.com site we have the Hot Sheet blog which gives all sorts of good tips on visiting Phoenix.
Influence marketing is beginning to showcase itself as an effective tool in social media strategies. Companies such as Starbucks and Virgin America have partnered with Klout , a startup that measures influence on Twitter, to identify influencing social media users. The criteria used to identify key influencers include more than 25 variables used to measure “true reach,” “amplification probability,” and “network score.” Klout’s website explains that, “The size of the sphere is calculated by measuring True Reach (engaged followers and friends vs. spam bots, dead accounts, etc.). Amplification Probability is the likelihood that messages will generate retweets or spark a conversation. If the user’s engaged followers are highly influential, they’ll have a high Network Score.”
The examples of Starbucks and Virgin America shows how companies are reaching out to find influencers to (in the words of Frank Sinatra) “start spreading the news” or share their valued opinion on a product or service. However, it can be just as important for the company to be the influencer, especially in B-to-B marketing. Being an influencer means you need to create a following (True Reach), have smart and interesting things to say (Amplification Probability) and connect with other shakers and movers (Network Score.)
This article, appearing on The Drum, offers some tips for effective influencer marketing, among them:
Focus on the Influencer.
Focus on Transactions.
Focus on the Story, not the pay-off.
Measure what counts.
If want to become an influencer then scoring high in these areas will pay off for your sales and retention efforts. If people come to know and like you, they will want to buy from you. Co-founder of influencer marketing company Pursway, Ran Shaul states,“The fundamental marketing challenge today is more strategic than tactical. Numerous studies all draw the same conclusion – the majority of people buy based on the conversation and recommendations of trusted friends, family members, colleagues and, increasingly, online reviewers.”
He then goes on to cite Nielsen’s latest Global Online Consumer Survey, which revealed that out of over 25,000 Internet consumers, from 50 countries, “90 percent of consumers surveyed said they trust recommendations from people they know, while 70 trust consumer opinions posted online.” Incidentally, 70 percent of consumers surveyed also indicated that they “trusted brand websites completely or somewhat.” With 64 percent listing that they trust “brand sponsorships.”
How does this translate to sales and retention efforts? Becoming the influencer (directly or indirectly) gives you direct connection to potential clients who will remember you when they are looking to buy. These types of relationships increase brand awareness and prove you are a trusted advisor through thought leadership. Potential clients plugged into the industry chatter will know who you are and what you are about. Social Media has made it incredibly easy to share information. You no longer have to write a book to be considered an expert or impact the community.
As an example, I loved watching the phenomenal initiative; “Help A PR Pro Out” (HAPPO) impact the PR community. The campaign partnered together “PR Pros” with recent graduates looking for jobs in this tough economy. It may not have been the intent of the co-founders, Arik Hanson, ACH Communications, and Valerie Simon, BurrellesLuce, but they instantly became industry influencers to the young generation of PR professionals. You better believe that the college graduates will look to them for future partnerships and will one day become influencers themselves, not to mention the group of current PR influencers HAPPO was able to group together. I think the HAPPO campaign hit all of the “high scoring” variables used by Klout on the head. They created a strong following of PR pros and college graduates, gave out incredibly valuable information and gathered together the PR industries current and future influencers.
Do you know of any influence marketing campaigns where the influencer is the actual company? What are potential pitfalls to a company striving to be an intentional influencer?
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*Bio: Emily Mouyeos joined the BurrellesLuce account management team with a background in nonprofit communication and development. Her background and current experience with BurrellesLuce allows her to effectively address client needs and consolidate feedback for senior management. To Emily, nothing feels better than helping others achieve their goal, whether it’s professionally or personally. By focusing on client management through the Fresh Ideas blog, she hopes to evaluate new client management trends, as well as provide insight to the pros and cons of current practices. She looks forward to connecting with the readers of Fresh Ideas for new perspectives and dialogue on issues that affect overall success. LinkedIn: Emily Mouyeos Twitter: @BurrellesLuce Facebook: BurrellesLuce
brands in the market it is hard to differentiation yourself from the other guy, and this form of remarketing can help to successfully convert those lost opportunities.
