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In the push to engage web users and reach niche markets, online media outlets seek to capitalize on personalized content. Target audiences now expect content to cater to their specific interests, and to be available whenever they want it. Large portions of marketing budgets are spent enhancing the aesthetics of materials and messages that work to get consumers to take action. However, it’s difficult to produce a behavior when, amid the overload of messages and materials, promotions talk at consumers, rather than resonate with them.
Marketing has changed drastically due to the latest shifts in online experience. The old marketing world was based on traditional roles: We, the brands, will communicate with you when we want to, in the format we like most, and with the message we think is appropriate, timely, etc. You, the customer, will receive our messages when we say you are ready. The new roles in marketing revolve around customers who are telling companies, “I don’t want to hear from you unless it is relevant to exactly what I want, in the format and channel that I choose, when I am ready to receive it.”
All target audiences have a common bond, defined by their shared experiences, goals and ideas. Social networking sites and other sites that require user registration offer marketers a window into the interests and topics that are important to each user. Looking at this data as a whole helps marketers recognize patterns among the individuals who share an affinity for something and discover where and when they come together. They can then use this data to help unite similar visitors through message boards and groups, and also offer a personalized experience based on each users’ interests. Messages should also then be tailored to those personalized experiences.
The following key elements support the growth of an online community where users feel they share a common bond with other users, but maintain their own unique experience. These fundamental key attributes can help marketers to personalize a consumer’s experience.
Customer Relations Management (CRM)
Determine the best way to recognize your customers at every point of contact with your brand and take appropriate action. The key here is the appropriate action, which requires first collecting good customer data. The most effective customer data comes from any information obtained through registration processes, and any other recorded information from a point of contact with the consumer that can be used to push relevant content. CRM is a fundamental re-engineering of the organization. If you want CRM to work, get the basics right, make it customer-centric, then worry about the technology.
Data
Are you data-rich or information-poor? One thing the Internet is good at is giving you loads of data, but where most organizations fail is in their ability to understand that data and act accordingly. Gather data through surveys then interpret it in a way that can be understood within your knowledge base to determine its relevance.
Channel convergence
Ensuring that communication channels are all operating together in the same voice can be a challenge. Customers can be bombarded with marketing messages through e-mail, sales calls and even direct mailings. How do you make sure that your brand is not over-communicating? Also, how do you guarantee that your brand is being recognized in the method preferred by your key audience? Channel data integration and consistency are paramount to both. Every channel has a different footprint, and the presentation of your marketing messages should be relevant to the target audience that uses each media outlet. Also, keeping illustrative materials branded, avoids confusion between messages in different venues.
Privacy
Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM, once said, “Privacy is about being able to make a choice about your relationships with others and the value you derive from your engagement with them.” You wouldn’t walk up to a complete stranger and go from “pleased to meet you” to a marriage proposal in the first meeting. It’s the same for online interaction. Rather than a time-consuming registration process, it is better you ask a few questions and build intensity to widen communication over time. Obtaining a prospect or customer’s permission to communicate ensures that every communication is both recognized and welcomed.
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 is simply a phase in the evolution of the World Wide Web. The overarching characteristic of this phase is that the Web is no longer simply about information—it is now about interaction. For marketers, the underlying issue is that consumers are becoming more sophisticated, engaging in longer-term relationships, and maintaining greater control over their online experiences.
Web 2.0 provides new ways of reaching consumers with unique and valuable content, peer-to-peer communication, user contribution, user “authorship,” user-to-expert communication, personalization and customization. The following tactics are only some of the online vehicles that lend themselves to helping create effective online marketing experiences for consumers:
- Blogs build relationships with consumers. When developing content for your blog, it is important to know how consumers get to a blog and what activities they pursue during and after their visit.
- User reviews provide consumers with peer-written product guides, and establish your organization’s web site as a resource for researching products. Gauging readership of reviews shows which reviews draw new visitors and lead to sales.
- Wikis allow individuals with special knowledge to contribute to a data set. Determine whether content on wikis influences conversations online and track whether content is picked up by search engines to increase site traffic.
- Forums develop relationships with consumers. It is important to gauge the popularity of discussions and track whether the content generates more traffic when picked up by search engines.
- Social networks identify and advertise to targeted groups of individuals. Determine the number of links to your brand’s site as well as the click-through rate and conversion of visitors going to your site through social networks.
- Ajax is a technology that makes web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server so that the entire page does not have to be reloaded each time a user makes a change. It delivers more user-friendly business applications and contributes to a richer audience experience. Determine its effect by measuring improvement in audience experience, conversion and process completion.
- Video/multimedia conveys content in an interactive and rich format. Its success can be gauged by the amount of times content is viewed by audiences and for how long, and by the impact it has on online conversations.
- Mobile web enables users to access content anywhere.
These are only a part of the wide variety of Internet technologies that actively involve consumers with personalized and customized content. Brand loyalty exists online, and it is important to have a better mechanism than your competitors to communicate with your audience. When a product is incorporated with interactive activities and content, consumers will focus on the dynamic content rather than lose interest in a static advertisement.
David Gorodetski is the COO, co-founder and executive creative director for Sage Communications, a full-service marketing communication, advertising and public relations agency in the Washington, D.C. metro area. David previously served as vice president of interactive services worldwide for Ogilvy Public Relations, and is also a senior interactive and online marketing, corporate training and development consultant for Frost & Sullivan. |
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