Hilton Rose - My Brand Blog: through-the-line campaigns

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Measuring social media. Plus the story of John Wanamaker

Not many people have heard of John Wanamaker – and if you have, it’s unlikely his name was uttered in the same breath as social media. You see, Wanamaker came from a different era. He was an American businessman who died decades before the first room-sized computers were dreamt up and almost a century before you could buy your groceries online.

However, he’s most well-known for his quote. "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted,” he grumbled. “The trouble is I don't know which half." Now he was talking about print advertising, of which he was a pioneer, but as it turns out, nothing’s changed. Even in the land of social media.

Half of companies have no ROI figure for the money they spend on social media

You’re on the sites. But how exactly do you measure the efficacy of your presence? Here we offer up three viable options. None of them are perfect but they will get you a lot closer to how much buck you’re getting for your social media bang!

Metric Tools

Using a Facebook tool, or even better a combination of tools such as Conversion Measurement and OptimizedCPM, allows you to record the behaviour of those who click on your ads. You are then able to see click-through rate, purchase rate, and by targeting the right people, cutting your cost of new customer acquisition by up to 39%.

Interactions

“Likes” used to be the only way you could tell whether your audience could hear you at all. Nowadays, however, we can extrapolate this data further. Every photo, post, video or comment takes seven seconds for the average user to digest and appreciate while his or her close friends take five seconds to digest that ‘like.’”

By analysing how many likes were received, multiplying by how many friends of those likes witnessed the action gives you and your business a clearer idea of how far your message has reached.

Analysing Traffic

It’s not optimal to analyse your website in terms of how often people find your page through Facebook or Twitter, because it’s not always easy to tell what actions drove that traffic or how much that traffic cost. By analysing your website analytics against pay per click (PPC) campaigns however, things become much clearer.

Compare the average cost of PPC per person to how many visitors you get from free social media placements – and, abracadabra, you can put a rand and cent tag on each and every ‘Like’!

But let’s leave the final word on the subject to John Wanamaker

John Wanamaker really did make it in the American dream – and my guess is he went with his gut, challenging convention and never relying solely on any particular tool. Let’s sum it up in his words.
“One of you is right. The question is which one.”

Hilton Alexander Rose
Your Brand Agency | Director

Skype: hilton293

linkedin.com/in/hiltonrose

www.yourbrandagency.co.za

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Monday, 13 May 2013

Marketing trends. Coming soon to a medium near you.

What marketing blockbusters are on the horizon for small businesses? Here’s my little guide to what’s hot – and what’s not!

Social media 12

So your brand has been faithfully creating presences on every hot social media site, from Facebook to Pinterest. But guess what? There will always be a sequel. There will always be tomorrow’s hotter, sexier platform, with more special effects and better make-up. So realise that, just like any video store or cinema, not every movie on offer is good. What I do with our brands at #YBA is choose specific platforms that make the most sense for the brand’s that we manage and their audiences. By doing so, we see greater returns and less wasted effort.

Indiana Jones and the Hunt for Simplicity

Say goodbye to marketing, Gangnam style. Audiences everywhere, and their digitised lives, are exhausted with overloaded senses. Enough, they cry. So give them simplicity - whether it’s a simple idea in an ad, a product that makes their lives simpler or even making their customer journey less complicated. They’ll thank you for it.

Jurassic Campaigns

Sometimes through-the-line campaigns are great. But increasingly, they’re out of date. The very idea that one idea can work seamlessly across every medium from online to mobile to cinema to radio to in-store to TV to direct marketing is a delusion. Ideas need to be tailored to maximise the strengths of any given medium. Radio is theatre of the mind. Online is interactive. Keep your message consistent but don’t just transfer imagery. Harness the power of your medium.

The Colour of Money

Would you be surprised to learn that 73% of executives do not believe that marketing significantly ties to creating revenue? It’s true. But they’re wrong. Mostly because a lot of marketing, like brand building, can’t be measured. But as measurable returns of investment lead generation increase on the internet and below the line, we should see this incorrect perception corrected.

Cell Wars

Nowadays, more people are buying smart phones than PC’s. So marketers need to keep up. I’ve seen some great GPS–based mobile campaigns, I’ve also seen some stunningly simple mobile sites but there’s still room for better mobile strategies to make your brand more competitive. This is the year mobile comes of age – and grows up to take over the world!