1-to-1 Personalization Marketing

1-to-1 personalization refers to marketing strategies that are applied directly to a specific consumer.  There are four main steps in this process of interaction with customer such as identify, differentiate, interact, and customize (Dooley, 2013).  There are many companies that use personalized marketing such as Amazon, Nike, and Dell.  Identifying means that the customer’s concerns and needs become known to the company. The process involves standardizing the way companies collect and analyze customer information, understanding customer’s issues and concern that affect purchases.  All the information should be current.  Differentiating means that some customers are more valuable than others because some customers purchase more and high-margin products, they are worth a higher value. Differentiating involves separating customers based on their needs, purchasing patterns, and value. Interacting involves correct assumptions and understanding that affect the attitudes of both sides. Customization refers to quantifying advantages such as reputation, service, reliability, and quality. 1-to-1 personalization involves aligning the products and services with the needs of individual clients, understanding them, and interacting with them using current information.

Customer management is very important today because of the commodization, branding, and customer information. Commodization refers to distinguishing among similar products that are viewed as commodities, by price. Branding allows companies to distinguish themselves from the competition that allows companies to cultivate a following and strong long-term image. Branding also refers to efforts to build customer loyalty, turnover, and attracting new customers. Customer information is very important for marketers today because companies need to focus on the customer’s immediate needs and provide the fulfillment of these needs. Collecting of customer information happens through various ways such as location-based services, purchasing history, surveying, social networking, and many other.

Reference:  Dooley, K. (2013, Oct 23). “The changing role of customer relationships”. Customer Experience Insight. Retrieved from http://www.customerexperienceinsight.com/the-changing-role-of-customer-relationships/

Peppers, D., Rogers, M., & Dorf, B. (1999). “Is Your Company Ready for One-to-One Marketing?” Harvard Business Review. http://hbr.org/1999/01/is-your-company-ready-for-one-to-one-marketing/ar/1

 

User-Generated Content

User-generated content is the powerful tool in marketing that promotes a product or a service and does not require investments to produce.  It is free, creates a buzz among the users, and shares the content among the close friends of a client.  Consumers are less thrilled by the owned media that companies promote and 92% of them trust recommendations from friends and family (Grimes, 2012). 70 percent of users trust online reviews and a lot of respondents see paid online advertising as suspicious. User-generated content uses original words, thoughts, and images of the people who produce them.  An example of the user-generated content would be a poll on a Facebook page about a particular product (favorite product, etc).

Offering incentives to users and running contests are the tools that can attract customers to the brand and help spread information about the product.  For example, many companies may run a contest in which there is a prize that a select individual can claim, often determined by their participation (how many shares have been posted, how many of the user’s friends responded, etc).  Contests can be in a form of sweepstakes and content contests.  Marketers would also be able to reuse and recycle user content through referencing and further inclusion in their ads and campaigns.  One of the websites that relies on user-generated content is online retailer of electronics Newegg.  On Newegg, users rate the products and give rating based on 5 eggs.  A lot of people comment on the products bought and many purchases are made specifically based on the comments from other users.  Those people who buy trust other user’s comments more than a review of the product.

References:  Grimes, M. (2012, Apr 10). NIELSEN: GLOBAL CONSUMERS’ TRUST IN ‘EARNED’ ADVERTISING GROWS IN IMPORTANCE. Retrieved from http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2012/nielsen-global-consumers-trust-in-earned-advertising-grows.html

Retargeting (remarketing)

Retargeting (remarketing) refers to the process during which the user visits the content, leaves to another site, and is brought back to the original website.  Retargeting allows marketers to target potential clients who they can miss once they move through the original website (clicking banners, visiting links, performing searches, etc).  Google uses remarketing to tag pages that fall into certain categories that a business wants to promote and then redirect the users to the original websites if they are in the same category. This can happen using the AdWords campaign to show relevant messages – ads with special offers, discounts, etc.  Remarketing is a presentation of the content across similar websites. And if the brand or a company manages to hit the top in the lists among the similar items, then the ROI can be significantly improved. Combined with other marketing methods such as interest categories, demographics, and keywords, – retargeting is a powerful marketing tool.

Dynamic Display Ads are ads that are created for specific audiences. This allows to keep ad content relevant and fresh, helps contextualize the ads, achieve creative efficiency gains, report and optimize advertising performance.  Contextualizing ads means producing ads relevant to the content of the page or users who visit it such as showing information in user’s currency and in different languages.  Dynamic Remarketing Ads let marketers to customize ads based on past interactions with the customer, where information is obtained from the items a user has viewed or based on the content of the abandoned shopping cart.  Measuring performance of the ads based on their content, layout, and style allows marketers to select which format works best.

“Above the fold” advertising determines if Google Display network campaign shows on user’s screen.  This allows to display the ads while the page loads and where the ad will show on screen. Display ads can help raise awareness about the product or a service during a brand campaign.

References:  Google. (2013). “Dynamic Display Ads”. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/dynamicdisplayads.html

Google (2013). “Retargeting”. Retrieved from http://www.google.com/ads/innovations/remarketing.html

Inbound Marketing

In some marketing resources, inbound marketing refers to marketing research and as a concept that describes interactions with the customers that allow to cross-sell and up sell products and services. One of the good examples of inbound marketing was the use of social networking websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms to assist Barack Obama during the 2008 elections. This campaign was led by Obama’s internet marketing strategist Chris Hughes. According to HubSpot (2013), inbound marketing is the best way to turn strangers into customers and promoters of the business that includes the following steps: attract, convert, close, and delight. The authors state that inbound marketing has been the most effective marketing method to do business online since 2006. Previous methods of marketing included buying ads and email lists to generate leads. What inbound marketing does is it creates a content that is able to pull people toward company’s products based on the content that appeals to customer’s interests. Marketers feel that the traffic towards the company’s should be natural that attracts people and keeps them interested.

Some of the major methodologies in inbound marketing include content creation that appeals to customer’s interests and needs, sharing the content widely, lifecycle marketing that recognizes the stages of customer interaction, personalization of messages, using multi-channels to reach people where they are, and integration in which publishing and analytics are connected to produce the right content at the right place and time. The attraction methods are blogs, keywords, social media, and website pages. Converting customers involves using calls-to-action buttons that encourage visitors to take action (download something, visit a website, attend a webinar, etc), using landing pages when action is taken, request visitors to fill out the form and submit their information, and keeping the track of leads in a centralized marketing database. Closing involves sending out relevant emails to those who took action, using marketing automation based on how customers interact with the content and what information they provide, and integration with the CRM system. Delighting involves real-time customer service via the social networking, using email and marketing automation to provide clients with information that they can share, and suing smart calls-to-action.

Reference:  HubSpot. (2013). “Inbound Methodology”.Retrieved from http://www.hubspot.com/inbound-marketing

Marketer’s adopt video at a fast pace

Marketing companies adopt video marketing at an increasing pace over the past several years. The Content Marketing Institute states that the use of video grew from 41% in 2010 to 52% in 2011, and up to 70% in 2012 (Handley, 2012).  The authors also stated that every social media channel has seen an increase in marketing. The most popular B2B tactics are article posting (79%), social media (excluding blogs) (74%), blogs (65%), eNewsletters (63%), case studies (58%), and in-person events (56%).

The adoption of video for marketing purposes is increasing due to the lower production costs and powerful publishing options that make it easier to make high quality videos. B-2-B marketing companies are very popular among business. The Forbes Insight survey revealed that 75% of business executives watch work-related videos. The study was done among 300 corporate executives (C-level and senior executives) at large U.S. companies (more than $500 million in revenues).  Executives feel that video advertising is reliable and trusted source, but text remains their preferred format. Older executives (50 years and older) also started to watch video materials often – from 41% percent in 2009 to 66% in 2010.  For example, when Continental Airlines was merging with United Airlines, the CEO and Chairman Jeff Smisek used online videos to keep employees informed on key developments and challenges. Executives not only watch these marketing videos, but are willing to take action after watching them. Thus, online videos have an impact on their behaviors and choices.  Most of them notice banner ads that run alongside these videos. Many of these executives visit the vendor’s website after watching the video. Younger executives are more inclined to share “viral” videos (interesting, important, or shocking videos). 54 percent of senior executives share work-related videos with their colleagues.  More than a half of executives said that they post links to work-related videos on networking sites. The main source of these videos is Facebook. The example of the company that is on the front to make marketing videos and spread them to businesses is Market America SVP. Many marketers record short videos to provide clients and other interested individuals with product updates and advance the brand.

References:  Forbes. (2012). Video in the C-Suite: Executives Embrace the Non-text Web. Forbes Insights. Retrieved from http://images.forbes.com/forbesinsights/StudyPDFs/Video_in_the_CSuite.pdf

Pulizzi, J. & Handley, A. (2012). B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends.  Content Marketing Institute. Retrieved from http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/B2B_Content_Marketing_2012.pdf

Hershey Brand Marketing

One of the recent marketing news at Hershey Co. is the digital marketing manager, Jeff Sommer, presentation Future shows in Boston. Hershey’s Chocolate World is engaged in correlating its weekly 37 percent increase in sales with a particular digital marketing interactive experience campaign at its in-store Hershey’s Chocolate World Time Square store (Nicastro, 2013). Hershey’s measures its year-over-year sales inside New York’s Times Square store – the campaign that allowed sweet lovers using touch screen interactive to design their ultimate peanut-buttery treat experience. Such a direct communication with consumers is a beneficial experience for both parties. The clients of the company are able to affect the company’s line of products by providing suggestions using interactive touch-screen display.

At the same time, Hershey’s announced a new line of confection in the United States, called the Lancaster that features a line of caramel soft cremes that will roll out nationwide in January 2014, including retail and convenience stores (Vending Marketwatch, 2013). This is the first in the company’s history that a new brand is presented that is not brand extension or acquisition in the past 30 years.  It is possible that the interactive response from customers who used the interactive display, played a significant part in creation of such a caramel marvel. The Lancaster Soft Cremes provide a modern caramel taste experience to meet a growing consumer demand. This brand line would be available in three flavors such as caramel, vanilla and caramel, and vanilla and raspberry. Hershey’s marketing approach indicates that customer input and introduction of innovative products would be able to answer the increasing demand for Hershey’s products.

Reference:  Nicastro, D. (2013, Oct 17). “Digital Marketing Files: Social is Sweet, But For Sales? #FutureM” CMS Wire. Retrieved from http://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/digital-marketing-files-social-is-sweet-but-for-sales-futurem-022850.php

Vending Marketwatch. (2013, Oct 15). “Hershey’s Introduces First New Candy Brand For U.S. In 30 Years”.  http://www.vendingmarketwatch.com/news/11191648/hersheys-introduces-first-new-candy-brand-for-us-in-30-years

What’s Content Marketing?

Everyday more people using search engines and social media to search for content and socialize on the web.  In order for business to succeed you need to do something to these people to use your website.  But how?  Which content marketing you can built source of traffic leads and sales.  Best of all, with the right system for less than other forms of marketing.  So what’s content marketing?  Basically, it centered around the creation publishing and promotion of custom content placed on carefully designed and tested landing pages all done on regular basic.

So how does that work?  It all starts lots of content but not just any old content.  In order to get people stop by your website you need to create unique interesting content, engaging that helps people solve their problems and answer their question.  Something that will capture people attention and also using a specific key words.  Content marketing help you develop your site interesting so  your visitor coming back often and stay longer.  Good content marketing makes a person stop, read, think and behave differently. 

Affiliate Marketing

I have read and heard a lot of people make money online by affiliate marketing.  So i decided to write about affiliate marketing blog.  This kind of online marketing people can earn money.  Affiliate marketing is a marketing and selling method by selling a product or service through a link on the website.  Basically, you have to enroll as an affiliate and you promote or sell their product to other people.  Some of the most popular affiliate are Amazon and eBay.  These affiliate give you promotion or commission for what product you sold.  Some companies give you points where you can reimbursed for an item like desktop or cellphones and many more.  Now a day a lots of sites who offers this kind of service for their marketing strategy.