Marketing

Marketing 

They say that marketing is the language of business. It is geared towards creating the customer’s needs and wants to sell a product, an idea or a service. It is a dynamic profession that entails ingenuity, innovation, and discipline. Marketing encompasses the entire business of a company and shepherds resources to meet the demands of consumers. After all, it is the consumer or the buyer who sustain a company’s liquidity. Sales strategies (direct/indirect selling, telemarketing, advertisements, promotions, etc.), business development and communications are set in place when the objectives of marketing are determined.

But what is marketing all about and what do marketing people do? Marketing is all about creating the selling point of a product or service to a targeted consumer. It creates the value on why consumers need a product and why it becomes essential to want it, have it or obtain it. It involves product viability and keeping up with consumer demands. With today’s market competition, marketing people have become more engaging and aggressive to pump in new or fresh ideas. They study market trends or behaviors, identify consumer needs, what consumers are satisfied with and how they can anticipate their ever-changing needs. All in all, marketing involves studying the consumer. Consumer behavior determines why, when, and how people are influenced on buying a certain product, idea or service. It tries to understand buyer decision making, their characteristics, behavioral patterns or variables, and assesses social influence (family, peer group, business associates, environment, etc.).

It takes a great deal of time, manpower and monetary expenditure to study consumers. Companies spend on marketing research and analysis. It is from this analysis that companies draw market segments which is essential to streamline company resources. Market segmentation determines specific consumer targets with similar wants and needs.

Marketing people also determine how consumers are influenced by the following:

• Advertising

Advertising creates product recall. It encourages the consumer consumption and/or repeat consumption. They come in different forms including search engine optimization pay per click, social media marketing,  print ads., radio and television commercials and leaflets/flyers, billboards, etc. Most companies make their advertisements distinct. There are a few kinds of advertisements: bandwagon and the testimonial advertisements.

• Product positioning

Product positioning or brand positioning is a marketing strategy that involves the creation of a certain image or identity of a product to influence the seat of thought or memory of the consumer through the following: appeal, perception, feeling and ideas.

• Pricing

Pricing plays a great role in consumer preference. Marketing people study market targets or segments to establish buying capacity of the consumer. Product positioning influences prices of a product and determines which segment revenue will be coming from. Companies put in place product base expenditures and competitive market rates before considering the costs of their product.

• Promotion

Promotions are created to entice the market and encourage repeat consumption or demand. They come in the form of special offers, discounts, new packaging , etc. It presents information to increase awareness of a product to consumers. Promotions, like advertisements, encourage consumers to purchase the products

My description of a “campaign” (vs an ongoing strategy) is that it must be:

·                     task-based, have a purpose, a declared target and an outcome

·                     finite, limited in time, bound by a start and end,

·                     maximises social tools to create an “interest spike” around the date of the campaign – interest leading up to, during and immediately after the event

·                     and of course have an ethical exit strategy. If it’s a game or competition, a known and obvious end date.

Campaigns give Corporate a chance to baby-step into social media. No, of course they are not your full social media strategy, but they offer an entry point, the opportunity to get one’s feet wet without alienating the shareholders and board of directors from the get-go.

These are the types of campaigns that I think are important – if not critical – to run in your community (with examples of stuff I’ve been involved in):

·                     Meetups, united purpose for coming together e.g. Australian Idol online pre-show chats, keeping brand awareness front and centre.

·                     Competitions, ask for content then community assesses content – submit articles about the online game, create a funny cartoon etc.

·                     Rituals, welcoming new members, anniversaries of longterm members e.g., Founders Clubs etc.

·                     Live podcasts, Q&A sessions, training, virtual conferences, interviews e.g. heaps – mostly developers, industry leaders, famous on the internetz. In the late 90s we ran modded main channels for official discussion, and a backchannel on IRC for the riffraff. Works well to promote a new featured product.

·                     Fun stuff, always make sure you campaigns are fun for both members and staff. e.g. In world Olympics (run through monsters, fastest one gets a gong).

None of these (except rituals) will be day to day events. These campaigns should pull old members back in, reinvigorate flagging general members, and often spotlight leadership members. They often lend themselves well to spotlight sponsorship, with co-branding campaigns doing well if the community favours both brands.

Marketing Campaigns on Social Networks share the following attributes:

Meets a business objective: First and foremost, any marketing campaign or activity should match with a business objective, regardless of the tools being used.

Supports Community Goals: Every community is different, and each has unique goals (from supporting products, to each other, or to just be entertained) the campaign focus should therefore meet the needs of the community, before the needs of the marketer. Effective campaigns will first understand the core drivers, interests, and rituals of the community and learn how to meet those desires. (Expanded by Laurel Papworth)

Encourage Member Interaction: The most successful social networking campaigns and efforts involve the audience.

Quickly scale: Social networks are designed for information to quickly move from member to member, so campaigns that lean on these capabilities perform the best. These attributes known as Velocity, Viralness, and Spread are key.

Utilize Media: In some campaigns, the best way to get members to return is to offer them media. Depending on demographics and community needs, this could be audio, videos, or demos

Foster self-expression or communication: Members in social networks like to communicate with each other, or self-express. As a result, campaigns should satisfy these needs with the appropriate tools

Offer a satisfying User Experience: This encompasses the overall experience of the campaign, the content and navigation items should be where expected, the language familiar to the audience, and overall look and feel of the site appeasing.

Provide longer term utility: Successful campaigns have a longer term value, rather than a short term ‘disposble campaign”. These campaigns add value by being a useful application to the members, rather than just quick dose of entertainment.

Enhance Value as Community participants: As more people contribute or interact with the campaign, the value is increased. This can be in the form of content that is created by the community, contests, voting, or games.

Integration with other marketing activities: Successful marketing campaigns aren’t single channel, in fact they utilizie multiple channels and mediums to enhance the overall activity. The same thing applies to marketing campaigns on social networks, those that are promoted from other locations such as (corporate websites, email newsletter, blogs, podcasts) outside fo the social network have a great chance for success.

Maintain agility during the campaign: Social networks are living, breathing organisms made up of real people connecting with each other. Marketing campaigns also should share these attributes and show be flexible to change in-flight, yield to legitimate requests or complaints of the community. Those campaigns that reflect the same dynamic behavior as human interaction have a higher chance to be interacted –and accepted –by the community. (Submitted by Graham)

Company Participation: In some cases, companies that participate in the discussions or conversations will yield to a more successful marketing campaign. Activities can range from recognition, company interaction, or attention to members perhaps from a community manager (Submitted by Whitney McNamara, Esther Lim, Crimson Consulting, Warren Sukernek)

Search engine marketing or SEO (Search Engine Optimization), should be part of your overall online marketing plan. Any website can benefit from a listing in a major search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

Search marketing all starts with keywords. It is vital that you use actual keywords people are searching for in the search engines. If you don’t then you site will not be found by potential customers.

It is a known fact that 90% of people when coming online and looking for something start with a search engine. After all people are looking for information more than anything. And keywords are what people type in when using a search engine. Get it right and you will be found.

There are many factors involved in search engine marketing, when trying to get high rankings in a search engine. But it all starts with keywords. Building effective back links is another very important method for obtaining high rankings.

Having many good high page listings in a search engine can take your website to new traffic levels. But what if you own a local business and only have a few pages. The answer is to build quality content pages with different keywords for your visitors and the search engines to find.

Content is king on the internet and can make all the difference for your website search engine marketing plan. But you must build quality content. You should never just slap up any old words on a page thinking you can obtain high rankings. Always help your readers first and foremost.

Search engine marketing can help your website be found by new customer prospects. It should be part of your overall marketing plan to increase traffic and sales for your business. Obtaining high rankings can take some time and effort but the pay off can be tremendous.

Just always remember to make your website content for your visitors first and foremost. Yes, you are trying to get visitors to your website with search engine marketing so, you want to keep SEO in mind. However, it is always about your visitor. They are your customer and should be treated with good content to keep them always coming back to your website.

Resources for this article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine_marketing

http://searchenginewatch.com/