Tag Archive for: Marketing

Google Survey: 39% US mobile users take their mobiles to the bathroom

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Google published a survey (in partnership with the independant marketing research firm Ipsos OTX) and present insights into how U.S. consumers use their smartphones. A video presents key findings from “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Consumers”.

The research, conducted at the end of 2010 among 5,013 US adult smartphone Internet users, was meant to better understand how smartphones are used in consumers’ daily lives and how smartphones have influenced the ways consumers search, shop and respond to mobile advertising.

Some of the key findings of the study don’t show special new insights. However it illustrates that we are not alone anymore in our bathrooms any longer. We are taking our friends, business partners and our social graphs to the bathroom… by using our smartphones like we used to read our newspapers or magazines in the past. Google states that 39% admit to having used their smarthone while going to the bathroom.

Some more findings…
– 93% use smartphones at home
– 81% browse the Internet
– 77% do search for information
– 72% do parallel use of smartphone and other media (over 30% like watching TV)
– 45% use smartphone to manage their daily lives
– 20% would give up their Cable TV for using their smartphone

Obviously, Google wanted to find out how smartphone users access search via their mobiles. And no suprise there as well. Search is the leading website type accessed (77%). It helps consumers access information like News (57%), Dining (51%), Entertainment (49%) , Shopping (47%), Technology (32%), Travel (31%), Finance (26%) and Automotive (17%).

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Spot On!
Interesting from a marketer’s perspective is that the report actually finds that mobile advertising is engaging. The research states that after seeing an ad (on print, online or mobile) 71% of users search on their smartphones. A remarkable 82% of users notice mobile ads, and of those 49% purchase (!), 42% click on it, 35% access the website, 27% contact the business. This shows the new power of mobile marketing for companies and that marketers should have a close look at mobile marketing opportunities in the future.

PS: And if 39% of people use their iPhones in the bathroom, I don’t want to know how many use their iPads to read the latest news or watch a video, and how this increases the average “bathroom staying time”…

My quote of the year 2011

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Every year, you create a quote that you use either to explain your business, to justify what you are doing or to establish some kind of heritage for those that you think are interested in what you are saying.

Last year my quote was “Talking is online, silence is print!”. Although, I have had many tweets and many likes on this, there was also some critics coming with it… which is good. It shows that people think about the value and impact of the quote… and they start conversations. That’s what we want to initiate in business… not only with our social media activity.

For this year the quote will be about social media strategy…

“Community Strategy and Social Media is NOT a discipline. It IS an attitude to strategy in business.”

And before you start asking… By “discipline” I mean departments (like marketing, sales, customer service, HR, or other) that are responsible for using, handling, organizing and planning the business tactics around the brand, product line or service offering of business relevance.

… and now start discussing!

Study: Search and Social amplify purchase decisions

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One thing leads to another. Today we could transfer this quote to: One search leads to another social activity, and vice versa. And this interconnection of web-strategy tactics amplifies the user’s purchase decisions.

A new study from GroupM and comScore states that 40% of consumers who search for products to purchase are taking a social activity as a next step to finalize their buying decision. And the activity can be seen from the other direction as well: 46% of consumers who use social media are searching for products to expand the basis on a product range to take a decision.

58% of users begin their journey to purchase with search. Company websites come in at 24% and social media by 18%. The opinion of “friends” on the purchase decision is highly rated in social networks and cannot be underestimated these days from brands and retailers any longer.

The study reveals interesting insights in the time period that make the essential change in the buying decision process. The “late kick” comes 30 days prior to purchase when brands and companies have to engage with their audience – and can leave search tactics behind. A difficult topic to handle in the B2C industry but for B2B very helpful.

“There are still many brands who haven’t figured out why they’re in social media. We still talk to brands that are trying to determine if they should be in social media. The data suggests the two most important subsets in social are user reviews and category blogs, rather than sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.” Chris Copeland, CEO, GroupM Search

Some important findings on how social and search are linked together…
– 86% see search engines important in buying decisions – Consumers use search in buying cycle as a pricing tool (research products and select purchase location)
– 45% use search throughout the buying cycle
– 26% use search at the beginning of their research and shopping process
– Social is essential in the consideration process
– 30% use social media to create a shopping short-list
– 28% say social media has a valuable impact in creating awareness for brands and products

Spot On!
The study shows the impact that the combination of social and search have on the purchase decision. The challenge for companies will be to understand in which way to balance their tactics between search and social in reference to seasonal sales timing, marketing opportunities while not destroying maximum margin, and customer loyalty programs to amplify brand buzz. Another study by econsultancy also illustrates how undervalued social media and search are from a sales perspective. The study says that Social Media “gets eight times less credit for its direct contribution to sales than it should” and “Generic SEO gets credited for 14 times less sales than it deserves”.

What comes first when you take buying decisions? Search or Social? And how does it amplify your buying process? Interested in your thoughts…

Do we have to talk about "conversation"…?

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It’s the basis of humans living together. It’s the essence of people getting in touch with each other…, and finally doing business together. It builds the fundament of collaboration, of cooperation. It’s the breath of the age of social. What is “it”…? Well, it’s not rocket-science. And still it seems to be the never-ending challenge for companies, for brands, and especially for people who are running the business. It is… conversation.

“Often I wish people understood the word “Conversation” – To start a successful collaboration we must learn to lose fear of networking.”

Do managers really have to talk about “conversations”?
Yes, we do! Don’t you agree? And we all know why. We are getting sad about the way managers (don’t) encourage themselves to engage in conversations. How often do managers not respond to a written letter? How often did they not pick up your phone? How often have they not replied to emails? How often not shown any reaction to Facebook, Twitter and the likes?

Hello managers – wake up! There is somebody trying to have a conversation with you? You cannot argue what somebody wants before having listened to them, can you?! Ignoring is so easy and it happens so often. You can do better. You can participate. And your words have significance when you take part in a conversation.

How will traditional managers get new inspiration? How will they generate new connections? Yes, conversation is the answer…

Do brands really have to discover how to do conversations?
Yes, they do! They need to figure out what they want to be: person or economic construct. Active or passive conversationalists? Motivator or creator? Former sender or modern vendor? Brands might build a consitent dialogue but only value their opinion, playing according to their rules. Listening is where relevance brings brands back in the driver’s seat, and not making them sit still and beg that the driver (who ever that consumer is) knows the way towards to the targets.

Productivity, creativity, innovation, thought-leadership and ROI counts for brands. This M&M philosophy often goes straight against lose conversation. Brands have been shaped and formed around formal structures (organisations and meetings), planned grouping (= not Groupon but agendas), lead work-flows (step-by-step approach). In earlier years, conversations came with a coffee break, some biscuits, a cigarette on the floor. Conversation today comes with an email, a tweet, or a status update on LinkedIn at your desk. And they appear different in character and tonality, “the conversation mode is changing” as Eric Schmidt called it at the DLD11 in his augmented humanity speech.

How will brands find innovation in the future? How will brands get response to products and services? Yes, conversation is the answer…

Do companies really have to reinvent the human dialogue?
Yes, they do! Companies are made from (and made by) people. People always had not enough time in their lives. Conversations cost time. Time builds trust and drive efficiency. Email took us time, too. We had to learn how to communicate online. Not now anymore. We know how it works. It is just a different platform or technology every crucial department of your business will be using in the future, called Facebook, Twitter, Groupon, Quora or blogs. They will control our marketing efficiency, our sales opportunities, our upscale, our revenue sheets. And we won’t even know, when we don’t embrace and value the conversation on the social web.

Power to “processes, people, potential and possibilities” means opening up our mindset to a new way of conversation. A way that shows the value of starting the talk. A way that shows clients how companies rate their review, input and sharing of brand messages and product conversations. Customer just want to get the feeling that it is not a maschine out there they are buying from. They want to see the personal human touch that makes mistakes, laughs about themselves and answers when getting questions.

How will companies renew their strategy, their tactics, their visions…? How will companies build products that their customers want? Yes, conversation is the answer…

Spot On!
Conversations are the basis of your future business-strategy, as well as your web-strategy. This is nothing new, you knew it before. Companies have them multiple times every day. Brand can get engaged in them every minute on a day in the future. And you even more. Every minute you can have the chance to have conversations today. The only difference is that conversation is also happening online – not on the phone, not via fax, not via mail, not on the floor, or in meetings. You just have to embrace conversations… it is that easy.

Productivity! – Hardly working, or working hard?

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The main fear of C-level management is loss of control when it comes to the new media. The truth is the younger generation expects to have access to social media at the workplace and they use it, too.

Management wishes you are working hard, but you are hardly working? Management finds Facebook and their different derivats of social media are critical for productivity, and you are just eager after latest information and trends while you find the information needed through the latest technology better than years ago because people are less ego-centric? Management sees your distraction at work coming from Twitter but you were one of the people that helped the marketing, PR and sales department spread the message. Maybe they better watch out, that some of your colleagues are not playing PacMan in 2010 during working hours anymore?

See what affects productivity at the working desk…

Source: Good Men Project

So, my question would be: Is loss in productivity really coming from social media and social networking? Or what is your explanation…?

Evolution by Revolution – a phrase or a case?

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CFalk / pixelio.de

Yesterday, I came across a good post by Adam Singer that inspired me (as well as his comment to my comment) to finally explore a bit on the phrase: “evolution by revolution”. I don’t know whether this phrase is new, or invented by me but I would love to claim it as my invention. And as Google did not have any results on the phrase for me, I herewith put my trademark behind the phrase – maybe to make a case… “evolution by revolution”.

The phrase is one of these thesis I use for educational courses to discuss and leverage a modern social web world approach with C-level management teams in Europe. I have used it in many seminar or webinars when I was talking about the change management challenges that the Social Web, Social Networks and Social Media bring to live these days.

In the past of human kind, revolutions were often a way for the lower class or segments/departments in an organization to state their case. For them, the challenge to be heard, to get access to the higher education, to have enough food or to benefit from any other kind of wellness or upper (business) lifestyle was often only accessable by a revolution. Revolutions cost money. Revolutions are tough. Revolutions sometimes make sacrifices. Revolutions change habits, perspectives and … business objectives. And revolutions always happened publicly – via newspapers, magazines or even flyers in the streets.

Today revolutions spread faster. In our social web world today, the traditional print media opportunities are added (or replaced?) by new media formats that every individual can use to state their case. And sometimes it “pisses people off” as Adam would have put it. But it makes the case of the unhappy, unsatisfied and underdogs. Suddenly, somebody writes something that is not mainstream, not the evolution strategy of the leadership but becomes the new revolutionary fruits of growth for the management if these people listen, communicate and collaborate, if they pay attention – whether it be the clients, the partners or even employees that start the revolution.

Their voice might be found on all kinds of platforms, in a tiny revolutionary statement in a blog post, a comment in a LinkedIn group (think about the impact for B2B business) or in a Facebook fanpage. Think about it! No! Think about it! Rest…

Some companies put all their PR & marketing budgets in the effciency of search marketing but then forget about the power of blog posts, and what it could do to them. They don’t think of it as negative cases. Think positive! Think ahead! Think about how to leverage the power of social options!

Spot On!
This modern world of communication is all about humans – the past, the present and the future. Evolution follows every revolution (…in my eyes). Consumer or end user buzz for positive and negative business impact always starts an evolution whilst being embraced as revolution first. It changes the mindset. And evolutions can be positive and negative. It needs to be seen as a turn around opportunity, as a business review option, and as a way to think ahead to prevent revolutions.

“Evolution by Revolution” is a (business) challenge – not a phrase! C-level management should forget that… That’s my case!

What’s yours on this topic…?

News Update – Best of the Day

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The latest market outlook by Deloitte predicts that in 2011 social networks are likely to surpass one billion unique members and may deliver over 2 trillion advertisements. Although this sounds impressive, it is modest compared to other media, the CPM remains low and the market share remains at only 1% of the global online ad spend. The per member annual advertising revenue is approximately $4 which implies total 2011 advertising revenues of about $5 billion.

Will the publishing industry see a revival of print again? Everybody says social media is challening the print publishing industry. All of a sudden, the Content Marketing Institute has launched a media that is in some way a spin-off of the modern social web development, Chief Content Officer. The circulation is 20,000 marketers, with additional digital distribution. Yes, obviously there is a “digital spin” off as well…

Nike signed a big sponsoring agreement with the national football association of France (FFF). After years with Adidas, France signed a contract with Nike for their national football dress. And then they did this fantastic commercial with reference to my most admired work and poem from “Cyrano de Bergerac”, ending with the famous words “J’ai touche!”. Let’s wait and see what the French team will touch us in EURO 2012…

PS: At Starbucks mobile payment becomes reality. At least in the US where you can swipe your phone in front of a scanner that is checking your Starbucks account.

Why Check-Ins need to improve in the future…

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Early adopters show big interest (see study) in location-based platforms like Gowalla, Foursquare or Groupon and obviously Facebook Places. Though only 4% of the US internet users use it, and probably the number is even lower in Europe. Nevertheless, Check-Ins could become the pull mechanism for offers on location-based direct marketing campaign in the future.

However, the check-in technology is still not completely evolved. People can still log-on from places around a building (though often not in the building…) -like we check-in on our airlines for flights today from all over the world- and still earn their “check-in credits”.

Some months ago, I wrote about loyalty cards and how the intelligent use of Social Media at point of sales, i.e. cash points at retailers or in shops, could make our purse loose some “plastic weight”, and make loyalty cards a thing of the past.

Now, combine this thought with the new location-based technology and think where we could be if these platforms could embed loyalty programs in their technology/apps. Automated check-in via apps. No second hand-over from loyalty plastic cards. Quicker engagement and upsale opportunities for companies and brands. Brave new world!?

This presentation by the DASH7 Alliance looks at the state of location-based check-ins in the past, today and the need for a global standard for check-ins (and check-outs) in the future.

The Future of Check ins

View more presentations from DASH7 Alliance.

Absatzwirtschaft über "führende Werbeblogger" in Deutschland

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Das Marketing-Magazin Absatzwirtschaft, eines der deutschen Top Marketingblätter, hat vor ein paar Wochen für seine Printausgabe die “führenden Werbeblogger” Deutschlands interviewt. Für mich war die Tatsache eine Ehre, das man neben “Indiskretion Ehrensache” und “Off the Record” auch The Strategy Web zu einem der “führenden Werbeblogs” in Deutschland zählt, sowie zum Interview bittet.

Natürlich hätte ich gerne mehr über die Bloggosphäre gesagt, aber eine grundsätzlich diskussionwürdige Stellungsnahme ist sicherlich das Zitat:
“Es ist ziemlich verworren, was zurzeit im Bereich der Webstrategien abgeht! Markenverantwortliche träumen von Bloggern und Followern in ihren Diensten, doch die modernen Socialmedians verhalten sich anders.” Es verdeutlicht, was derzeit die Marketiers wollen, aber die Bloggosphäre meiner Ansicht nach, oft noch nicht bereit ist zu vollfüllen.

In den nächsten Tagen werde ich das ein wenig mehr ausführen, wenn ich meine dreiteiligen Reihe “Insights 2010” veröffentliche. Der Beitrag “Spaßgetrieben” kann im PDF-Format nachgelesen werden…

Book Review – Marketing in the Age of Google

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When somebody used to work for Google there is a lot of knowedge to be shared. And I thought, I could learn more about SEO techniques and tactics. Vanessa Fox did work for Google (apart from inventing Webmaster Central), and so I thought, I need to read the book Marketing in the Age of Google. As a web-strategist I should know the secrets of ranking high on Google for my clients.

Getting Vanessa’s inside view on how Google and their search technology operates, gives an aggregated insight on the evolution of search topics. It is saving time and presumingly more efficient than following or reading many SEO experts thoughts. And then let’s help clients to optimize their site fropm a SEO point of view.

To write a review is a challenge. As I follow some of the most interesting SEO cracks, I knew some content topics already. But there is much more quality thoughts and knowledge in it that makes the book worth reading. If companies want to optimize their top rankings, the book offers good tactical approaches and a clear structure how to start and evolve your content strategy as well as how to conquer the top positions in Google. 

Having said this, the book is based on the theory of having a web-strategy in place that is aligned to the company’s business strategy. If your company has the consumer approach understanding the needs, desires and motivation why consumers go online to evaluate products and services, then the book is a must read.

The way people used search engines has changed in the last years as the web has become mature from an information platform to a consumer generated content base. It is not about what the company spreads but what the users are looking for and the content they share and create. People hear something about a person, a brand or a campaign and instandly start going to search for more information. Not seldomly they are finding consumer input. And often the initial search entry point starts with offline marketing, PR or customer service conversation – in print ads, TV commercials or an wallpapers.

Business that know how to connect offline and online efforts will succeed in the future. Happy that this was my main claim when I started this blog and thus gets now backed up by a Google specialist… Thanks Vanessa!
 
Spot On!
The amount of input the book Marketing in the Age of Google offers is probably only handable for a SEO specialist. And this person has to have the buy in from the C-level to manage the online strategy accordingly. A lot of the strategy is based on content creation and content framework which is a PR, marketing, HR, R&D and Customer Service topic in the future in my eyes. These departments need to learn how to place content effectively in the search world. It will affect the way peope perceive the business strategy of a company and the way the companies and brands interact with their clients, partners and employees. What I missed was the effect taxonomies and social tagging might have on search in the future but maybe this comes with the next update.