Slowing Economy Means Accelerating Online Marketing

The weak state of the U.S. economy is directly impacting marketers’ choices. With the pressure on to deliver results from shrinking budgets, a distinct shift away from traditional media has accelerated digital marketing. The reason? Marketing professionals must demonstrate measurable results and digital media deliver that in spades.

A survey of 684 b-to-b marketers conducted in late January revealed that nearly 30% were undergoing revisions to original 2008 marketing budgets and plans. Of those, about half indicated print marketing was on the chopping block. Does that mean you should slash your spending on print too? Not at all. But it does mean you should weigh your options and explore new venues.

Search Yields Answers

Of online marketing spending, paid search continues to be one of the largest tactics. The $8.6 billion spend in 2007 is expected to rise to $11 billion in 2008 and account for 40% of overall online ad spending. The key to success is bringing search marketing and web analytics together. Using Google Analytics and Google Adwords, for example, allows great insight into customer behavior. You can instantly measure results and immediately act to capitalize or correct your efforts.

Happy Landings

A good search marketing campaign must bring visitors to landing pages that give them what they want. There is nothing more frustrating than clicking on what appears to be promising results and find you have been dumped on someone’s home page and left to sift through pages and pages to find the information you are looking for.

Worse yet are cheesy landing pages that demand your data in exchange for promised deliverables. We’ve all heard of voice mail hell but landing page hell is equally a turn off. Give visitors a way to begin communicating with you, opportunities to explore more and don’t ask for them to pay for dinner on your first date.

Just Push Play

Online video is an up and comer in marketing spending. Expected to increase by nearly 50% over the next year, this category will spur adoption by companies that never had a video strategy before because the cost of entry is so much lower than traditional broadcast. Video is particularly compelling for telling brand or product stories and is very useful for businesses whose products or services are complex.

Another reason to consider adding video to your marketing plan is its viral nature. Online video that is entertaining and enjoyable has a high probability of being picked up on social networking sites like YouTube and reaching broader audiences. Expect even greater results when you combine video with other tactics such as print ads and direct mail.

Can We Talk?

Email delivers sales at an average cost per order of less than $7. Compare that to nearly $72 for banner ads, almost $27 for paid search and over $17 for affiliate programs. Why? Because when executed properly, email can directly stimulate customers to buy and buy again. In fact, email tops all other online marketing tactics as the number one tool marketers use to stimulate direct response.

The key to effective use of email is targeting. This is one tactic that can easily be personalized and timed to move prospects along in the buying cycle. And your customers expect you to understand their preferences and communicate accordingly. A true relationship building tool, your email mantra should be “Less is more.” Sending more mail to more people just doesn’t translate into more revenue. Instead, focus on your best audience and cultivate a relationship that matters to both you and your recipient.

Socially Adjusted

And, finally, social networking. The battle is over and the winners are MySpace and Facebook, which together account for 88% of all visits to social network sites. Although MySpace has three times more visitors than Facebook, users actually spend more time on Facebook.

For business people, LinkedIn topped the 20 million member site, a mere third of Facebook’s 60 million membership. Another big social networking winner is YouTube with 66 million videos and success stories being reported by big corporate marketers IBM and JetBlue.

For those with the right target market, social sites offer a stickiness never before dreamed of. Spending on social network ads increased by 155% over 2006 and is predicted to grow by another 75% in 2008 to $2.1 billion. The key to success is understanding that you are developing a relationship, not delivering a message.

Choose Wisely

Choosing online media is guided by the same principles that build a successful marketing plan. Start with the business objective, not the tactics. Define your goals and your target market and then select the tools that will reach them both.

Got a solid list of satisfied customers? Use email to stimulate add-on sales. Introducing a new product or service? Try paid search ads. More often than not, though, a combination of channels that touch your target market in different ways will get the biggest results. No matter what you deploy, be sure that your message is consistent across all platforms to achieve certain success. And to help you get it right, use the experts in marketing strategy. Strategic Guru can help you make the right choices in media and messaging for marketing that gets results.

Source: BtoB’s Interactive Marketing Guide

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