Week 7: Social Media Analytics

SEM & Landing Pages

When it comes to tying together the components of this class in relation to search engine marketing, I think Scott (2015) describes this perfectly by saying we start with our buyer personas, then we develop content specifically for these personas, and ultimately deliver this in a way that they prefer (p 396). Once all is said and done, we’ve developed key terms and phrases that resonate with our buyers. Once these content pieces or information are available on the web, they’re available to be seen through search engines.

Credit: RecoveryClasses

It’s possible to dive deeper into this and determine the best way to optimize these keywords, or in a broader sense, optimize one’s SEO. Scott (2015) explains this as the science behind ensuring one’s website appears or ranks higher on search engine results (p 396). Tying search engine marketing into the components of this class are simple, and when thinking of this, my mind goes back to one of the first chapters we read from Scott’s book. The new way of marketing is about staying away from interruption and throwing marketing messages at a buyer when they aren’t ready to see them. By developing personas and content relevant or helpful to your buyer, and putting them on the web, you’re setting yourself up to be seen (via search results) at a better moment when the buyer is more likely to buy.

Credit: HubSpot

The company I currently work for has recently incorporated landing pages into our marketing funnel. I find these very effective as it’s a great way to measure which channels are bringing in the most traffic, and a more efficient way to set up a dedicated page where you’re able to tie in quick information, along with an opt-in form, to generate leads.

I’ve landed on a few decent ones myself, but usually, I don’t stay for long as it’s a best practice to keep landing pages as simple and concise as possible. Lindsay Kolowich from HubSpot, gives an example of a landing page from Cigital, where they recommend actually removing the navigation bar from the top of the page (para 11). They were able to do an A/B test and determine there is a higher conversion rate when you provide less opportunity for your potential lead to leave the page. 

References:

Kolowich, L. (2016, November 02). 12 Great Landing Page Examples You'll Want to Copy. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/fantastic-landing-page-examples#sm.00000oabetro6dezeu0k8691iwd1m

Scott, David M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing and PR (5th ed.). Wiley.

Week 6: Social Media & Privacy

All About That Privacy

Security and privacy seem to be the leading concerns these days when it comes to social media. I tend to look at this two ways: from a personal perspective (only using for non-work related reasons) and a marketing branding perspective.

When it comes to apps that allow users to see your location, I think from a marketing branding perspective it’s important to understand the positives. Beckland (2011) says you can target your customers at the most important moment in their buying cycle by knowing their location (para 3). It’s important to look at geo-targeting for what it can provide to a brand’s marketing strategy.

Source: NuSura

Incorporating geolocation tagging into social media marketing efforts can be a fun way to interact with your target audience. From a local business perspective, encouraging customers to share their location when interacting with your brand can generate a large amount of awareness. Brands like Starbucks utilize location sharing by enabling mobile moments. Starbucks owns plenty of moments while customers are in the store or near a location and can send them notifications through their payment app.

Kerpen (2015) described a negative scenario to knowing a customer’s geolocation by mentioning a time when he was pinged outside of Macy’s in New York for an awesome offer that Marc Jacobs was promoting (Likeable Social Media, p 172). After promoting this offer to friends and approaching the desk to receive the offer, the employees had no idea of this happening. They couldn’t honor the special and instead, sent the unhappy customers away with only fragrance samples and a broken promise that someone would be in touch. This is a great example of how utilizing one’s geolocation, when not handled correctly, can lead to a very bad brand experience.

Source: TechieSprout

When utilizing Twitter from a branding perspective, it’s clearly important to not create a private account. There is a risk of not allowing others to see your tweets when trying to build a following on Twitter. It’s just not possible! How can your customers begin to get to know your brand or interact with you? With that said, it’s also important to follow the advice given by Robert Siciliano, to make sure the information your brand puts out is reliable.

References:

Beckland, J. (2011, April 04). How to Use Geolocation in Your Marketing Initiatives. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-use-geolocation-in-your-marketing-initiatives/

Siciliano, R. (2013, January 27). 15 Social Media Security Tips. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from blogs.mcafee.com. 

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable Social Media. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Education.

Week 4: Social Media Plans

Credit: DecidedlySocial

As the week 4 discussion leader, I moved from our lesson on social media strategy to developing a social media plan. In The New Rules of Marketing and PR (2015), Scott says millions of people use the web for conducting research on products and services, expressing their opinion, and joining various groups based on hobbies or their passion (p 55). If this is the case, in a sea of millions, how do we prepare to interact with the right customers?

You need a plan!

In defining social media, Scott (2015) says “social media differs from mainstream media in that anyone can create, comment on, and add to social media content” (p. 56). Since social media isn’t a part of old-fashioned marketing tactics, it’s important to make sure one has a plan before diving right in.

1. What are your organization's goals?

It’s easy to define marketing goals as being so specific, like how many clicks on an ad or a number of unique visitors to a site. It’s important to not continue this trend and instead align your goals with your organization’s goals of generating revenue or new customers.

2. What are the buyer personas you should be targeting?

Credit: Woodst

Once your goals are defined, the next step is identifying who your buyer personas are. These should be detailed and can help determine how to target via different marketing channels. According to Scott (2015), an organization needs to learn as much as it can about their buyers by making sure they’re asking themselves the right questions (p. 166). Personas should be as in depth as they can be, acting as more of a background description rather than just information on their job.

3. Identify the best way to reach your personas

It’s important to understand the way your buyers speak and the phrases that they use. Scott (2015) recommends using interviews when identifying your personas (p. 166). This is helpful in all online marketing efforts and specifically for search engine marketing tactics in order to effectively reach your audience.

4. What content should you serve with the message you want buyers to believe?

Credit: blog.speedwell.com

The next step in a marketing plan is defining what messages to send out to potential buyers with what you want them to believe about your organization. Scott (2015) says to ask, “What is each buyer persona really buying from you?” (p 175). A helpful tool in figuring out what content to serve and when is an editorial plan. Scott states “As you keep your publisher’s hat on, consider what other media your organization can publish on the web to reach the buyers you have identified" (Scott, 2015, p. 177). This could mean developing different pages on your website tailored to each persona, different whitepapers, or videos.

All of these initial steps can be tied into an overall marketing strategy planning template to bring everything together. In The New Rules of Marketing and PR (2015), Scott gives a template example that is helpful to use for those who don’t know where to start (p 180). 

Credit: blog.communicarium

Questions for this week's discussion:

1. Scott (2015) mentions that successful online marketing efforts are successful because they start by identifying one or more buyer personas to target. Why do you think it’s so important to identify buyer personas?

2. What could you incorporate from Scott’s recommendations to help improve your organization’s social media plan?



References:

Scott, D. M. (2015). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.