Businesses and marketers everywhere are rushing to put their brands online to capitalise on online marketing trends. Web tools like social networks, PPC (pay per click) and email have great appeal because they are affordable, customisable, measureable and wide ranging. At the same time, they can at times be deceptive – because they seem so easy and cheap to use, many marketers dive in without planning their online strategy or thinking about the platforms they should be using.
Like with any marketing endeavour, success only comes if you reach the right people in the right place and time. Failing to target marketing messages to specific consumer groups will only result in wasted budget, time and energy.
In the picture: Is your market share going up or down? Do your research before committing to a social media campaign.
The group you want to reach is your business’ target market – the people who your product or service is made for. You should define your target market in precise demographic detail – age, sex, location, income, race, religion and so on. Then you need to do extensive market research to discover what platforms these demographics use, and whether those platforms would be suitable and appropriate for your business.
No one would think of marketing a retirement home at a popular nightclub – in the same vein, it probably shouldn’t be marketed on networks like Twitter, but could succeed through PPC advertising. A popular teenage jeans brand is ideally suited to Facebook and MXit, where trendsetting youths engage, but won’t do well on a network like LinkedIn or as an email campaign.
Marketing
Since many of these tools are free, marketers may think there is no harm in adding it to the online marketing push. Unfortunately, this can harm a brand. Aside from wasting valuable working time and attention, it dilutes your online marketing messages, confuses customers and clutters your strategy. Using the wrong platforms can send a muddled message to your customers – after all, it “means” something specific to represent yourself on an online platform, the same way it does to appear in a certain publication or TV channel.
In addition, the more platforms you have, the harder it is to tailor unique messages to each one. And without tailored messages, most of what you say will not resonate with your target market. Every platform is suited to a specific style, tone and length of content – getting this wrong will make your brand look amateurish and will push away followers.
Finally, your interaction should be about your target market – their opinions, questions and desires. Put your fans and followers in the spotlight and they may become brand evangelists, spreading news about you through word of mouth; blast them with endless marketing messages and they’ll soon leave.
**To learn more about the importance and power of social networks, consider the University of Cape Town Internet Marketing course which starts on November 14, 2011. For more information contact Emma at 021 447 7565 or Emma@getsmarter.co.za, or visit www.getsmarter.co.za