engage your online community

ENGAGING your customersonline ‘dialogue’ marketing

About Me

Creative Director at Empirical

Successfully started a sold interactive marketing company

Been in the online game for 12 years

Produced 100+ websites, and hundreds of marketing programs

Blog @ www.whiteboarddiaries.com

Online Communities I engage in:Facebook, linkedIN, Twitter, MyBlogLog, Flickr, CreativeHotList, Technoratti, SlideShare, del.icio.us, digg

www.whiteboarddiaries.comMy Blog

Online Marketing 101

Make sure you have a website

What I’m not going to talk about today

Make sure you have a GOOD website• Up to date - should be able to be updated at an hours notice• Make sure any user can CLEARLY and QUICKLY find the info they need• Well designed and professional - impression counts

Have a customer database that you can act on• At the very least, you should be able to send email newsletters to registered users

Your URL (web address) is on every single piece of communication you produce

• ads, posters, tickets, emails, business cards, banners, videos, buttons, coasters, maps, programs, schedules

Agenda

Ideas about Engaging your customers

What I Am Going To Share Today

A sample integrated marketing program driven through online activities

Give you the floor to ask questions - even if they’re about the stuff on the previous slide

1. the internet is the CENTER of the Universe

Source: Stan RappFour Fundamentals of in the age of engagement

TV/Radio

Offlineadsbillboardsposters

Events

Word of Mouth

Internet

2. the EXPERIENCE is the brand differentiator

Source: Stan RappFour Fundamentals of in the age of engagement

3. the DATABASE is the primary marketplace

Source: Stan RappFour Fundamentals of in the age of engagement

4. the TECHNOLOGY is the explosive ingredient

Source: Stan RappFour Fundamentals of in the age of engagement

are you communicating with your customers like the individuals they are?you

are you communicating with your customers like the individuals they are?you

In the new free market, individual customers expect to be listened to.

They not only expect it, they demand it.

are you communicating with your customers like the individuals they are?you

Each and every customer expects to be treated as they are the most important.

are you communicating with your customers like the individuals they are?you

Each and every customer expects to be treated as they are the most important.

Expectation Shift

Customer

The new empowered customer believes that they lead the relationship

Customer

You

The new empowered customer believes that they lead the relationship

You better know who they are andwhat they want.

Customer

You

The new empowered customer believes that they lead the relationship

You better know who they are andwhat they want.

Another Thing

You’re not always invited to the conversation

Customers

Customers

You’re not always invited to the conversation

Customers

Customers

Customers You must find a way to authentically join the conversation.

You

You’re not always invited to the conversation

You

Customers

Customers

Customers Better yet, you need to be at

the center of the conversation

A huge amount of consumers don’t believe that companies tell the truth in advertising and marketing -- Yankelowich

76%

There is still one trusted medium left in the world

Their Friends

Their Friends

Me and My Friends

When forming an opinion of a company/product or service how credible would the information be from...

People Trust People

Edelman Trust Barometer - 2006

%

Academic 62

Doctor or similar 62

Person like yourself or a peer 61

Financial Analyst 58

NGO Rep 58

Accountant 53

Lawyer 36

Regular employee 33

CEO 29

Union 19

Entertainer 17

PR person 16

Blogger 15

People like yourself

Web 2.0It’s a free channel if you can find an authentic way to harness it.

What Really Distinguishes Web 2.0Systems that harness network effects to get better as more people use them

Web 1.0 Web 2.0

DoubleClick Google AdSense

Ofoto Flickr

Akamai BitTorrent

mp3.com Napster

Britannica Online Wikipedia

personal websites MySpace/Blogging/Facebook/LinkedIN

evite upcoming.org

page views cost per click

screen scraping web services

publishing content participation

content management systems

wikis

directories (taxonomy) tagging (“folksonomy”)

stickiness syndication

Image courtesy of David Armano

The Lines Have BlurredWe’re all marketers

Image courtesy of David Armano

Some mind boggling stats

200,000,000 blogs

> 100,000,000 Videos(65,000/day)

1,500,000 Residents

33,347,000 profiles

Almost 4,000,000 articles(10 languages)

14,463,346 auctionswww.ebay.com - Nov 21, 2006

Can users ENGAGE in your site?Dialogue

Company to Consumer: Shut up & listenConsumer to Company: Is anyone there?

This is the true value of the webUser Participation

200 million + blogs

120,000 new blogs created today

1.4 new blogs every second

1.5 million blog posts today

Adult blog usage grew 163% in 2006

Blog or Be Blogged

If people are already talking about you online (and they are) you need a way to participate/respond to that conversation.

If you don’t add blogging to your marketing mix - you’re not even in the game.

What does this mean for you?The Blogospere is on Fire

Remember: People trust People

blogs are about user participation

Is there a way to motivate your audience to participate in your site - even if it is not a blog?

(joining the conversation - read the new book by Joseph Jaffe)

Blogs Are The Next Generation WebsitesDialogue

1 out of 5 adults will comment online

80% of all consumers read online comments/recommendations

75% do online research before making a purchase decision

1 out of every 30 comments is an employee discussing the company they work for

Jupiter Research

If Google says it is.....it must beWhy This is Important

82% of Google’s top result pages have blog/discussion posts

63% of Yahoo’s top result pages have blog discussion posts

You can’t control word of mouth (community), you can only guide it

Do you have the stomach to play in this game?

Who is participating?

A Crazy Statistic

Users with high-speed internet spend 48% of their spare time online

Why would they spend it with you?

Give them a reason (join their conversations)

Are You Worth Talking About - Online?

“Be Remark-able”

Seth Godin

Creating Remarkable Marketing Programs

Pick the Campaign, not the medium

Where does your market congregate?

What kind of message will resonate best?

What are my touch-points?

The medium is the facilitator not the differentiator.Remember: The Internet is the center of the universe

Facebook grew by 1300% this yearcan you make your content authentic and relevant in this (and many other) environments

Zazzle.com

WikipediaBlogs

FlickrMySpace

You Tube

twitter

Joost

MSN

diggSharkle

Shutterfly

Yahoo!

Technorati

del.icio.us

Friendster

Meetup

Windows Live Spaces

hi5.com

vimeo

Lavalife

grouper.com LinkedIN

Orkut

Stumbleupon.com

ning.com

Revver

dailymotion

gofish

Personal Blogs

AOL

dabble

clipshack

Outlook

MySpace

{ as of April 24th, 2007 }

a strategy is necessary

{ as of Feb 19, 2007 }

Do you have video on your site?Use the power of SYNDICATION and EMBEDDING

<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/BLdU8z1zMgw&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/BLdU8z1zMgw&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

This little piece of code is your best friend

It’s attached to every video on YouTube and its free

TIPBe proactive in enabling sharing and syndication

...optimize for user experience

TIP

Before you even think about optimizing for search engines...

Don’t be guilty of the ‘cart before the horse’ or ‘chicken and egg’ syndrome

I can take a blind man to see a mime, but chances are he’s not going to care

Final Thoughts

Remember its not about you - its about them

Enable the voiceless to have a voice because they’ll take care of each other - and you.

Program Idea

Obvservation

a large audience that congregates around a specific event

little or no relationship exists post event

word of mouth activity is not facilitated

no database is generated

no online follow-up

You Are Canadian

how are you going to bridge the gap?...and truly connect digital life and real life

You Are Canadian

Online - Mobile - Offline - Event

Image courtesy of David Armano

Image courtesy of David Armano

What’s the one thing that Amusement Park, Fair and Expo attendees usually have after attending?

Memories

Right now - that responsibility is left completely up to the consumer

What If...

Every entry ticket has a unique ID or a barcode

Camera’s/photographers photo opportunities placed throughout the event

All digital photos were captured and associated with that unique ID and uploaded to web-app at the end of the day

Enable quick and easy sharing and Syndication

Remember This?

Photos will be shared with friends and family who will be looking at them in YOUR branded, engaging environment

A Sponsor/Partner Opportunity?

Jeff BrennanApollo Ideas

Christina WodtkePublic Square

A

Andy HowardOnline Community Dude

Alain ThysMarketing3

Kim SheehanUniversity of Oregon

Laurel PapworthSocial Network Strategist

collaboration

Thomas Purves

Ben KellyCreative Director

ben.kelly@empirical.com

David ArmanoLogic + Emotion