I was asked this morning to provide a quotation and rationale to develop a client's website. All very normal you might think and with lots of scope to recommend some basic digital and social marketing gizmos to bring this puppy into the game, proper like...
Well no, not exactly. This client already has a pretty good website - it's built well, standards compliant and on a modern content management system (CMS) and the design's fairly nice too. Man, it even has a blog running so what could I possibly add to such marketing magnificence?
When you call your company SeeRM and the basis of the operation is to introduce digital relationship marketing to the good folk of Northern Ireland then I guess it's fairly important to have a working CRM system running our own business! The problem is, where to start – there's so many to choose from.
The CRM process is the bedrock of any modern-thinking business, recognising that being able to track and manage all aspects of the customers' interactions with an organisation is the key to long-term, loyal, happy and profitable relationships. Our view is that, really, all of the clever social media and website stuff is only ever a route into CRM marketing database – so there'd better be one!
I decided to think about it from the point of view of my own customers; what would they want? It needs to be low cost (if not free even), easy to use, fully functional and capable of allowing multiple administrative users. And so the hunt began...!
The established shape and role of the marketing communications agency is in the process of changing – massively, decisively and for ever. What are these changes and what can the traditional ad agency do to survive...?
Digital marketing has been widely described as either marketing via an evolving collection of electronic, interactive personal media channels and/or as a methodology to bring marketing communications to the users of those channels that taps into the way those channels are used. In truth, the use of these electronic channels is now so ubiquitous that they are no longer ‘new’ or niche but are now very much part of the everyday lives of all audiences.
The internet is no longer in competition with radio or TV, it is something that the audiences look at as well - and often at the same time. Indeed as what was traditionally called radio or television content is increasingly delivered over the internet via computers, games consoles etc and where traditional web content, games etc are being delivered and consumed via the mobile phone, there is now little or no distinction to be made in the various channels in terms of who can see what, where and when.
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I heard a discussion on BBC Radio 2 the other night between Simon Mayo and his guest Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist who proposed that the maximum number of people with which a single person can have a stable, meaningful inter-personal relationship is 150. That is roughly the population size of a neolithic village, at about the time that humans developed language, and occurs because of the limits in the human brain to recognise and relate to other people in the tribe.
Now, that sounds immediately a tad nerdy but is interesting in a business world waking up to the explosion of web-based network marketing. Basically it means that you don't need to worry about having thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook friends and fans, you only need to build a smaller network of deeper, closer relationships.
After 150 or so (according to Dunbar) the network stops working efficiently and becomes a waste of time and resources. If you don't actually know the person or feel that you can do business with each other, there's maybe no need to add them to your network? Less really can be more!
Adopting social marketing has the potential to bring huge amounts of chaos to an organisation as well as the obvious benefits and as marketers we need to find a way to ride the whirlwind and bring about genuine business benefits to our customers.
Most 'younger' companies will already be completely comfortable in a digital business environment where anything might happen. Organisations that dive into social media and let everyone tweet etc seem to be mostly unconcerned about anything that is said in order to get engaged with customers and will have open and transparent conversations about just about anything. Older more experienced people though are having difficulty operating this way. They will worry about the conventions, the technology, the legal implications and, frankly, the fact that many of their employees seem to be wasting an awful lot of time on the computer every day!
This is the truth man and everything you need to know. It's also why See RM exists, i.e. to evangelise this stuff. I read it today on the excellent clickz.com website and, while it's maybe more of a news item than a blog, I couldn't help lift the main points from the article because it's just everything I believe in.
1.Thou shalt not target customers with messages they don't want.
No matter how targeted the advertiser thinks the message is, it's still not targeted, relevant, or timely enough. There are far more effective and measurable alternatives to broadcasting general messages out to large audiences using one-way media like TV, print, and radio -- so the sun is setting on the era of big "push" advertising.
I remember presenting to a large corporate client not 6 months ago and part of my recommendation was that they should include a managed ePR strategy, including Twitter obviously, although the feeling in the room at the time was that there was no way this side of the next ice age that they would ever adopt something so ridiculous and childish.
Fast forward 3 or 4 months and that client now has multiple Twitter addresses, all merrily tweeting away with great authority on each of their specific topics! But, many little blue birds doth not a CRM strategy make and for me that’s only a small part of the bigger and as yet unappreciated issue – the move to Relationship Marketing.
For the first time in the history of the human race, individuals without any real power or title or wealth or special privilege can make their voices heard and their opinions known and, increasingly, those opinions are going to count as they help inform the tribes – influencing behaviour, determining choices, making a difference to what we all do, or are aware of, or prefer, or buy, or consume. That’s the power of the network, the wisdom of the crowd.
Next year I'd like Marketing to be given its true place by the companies and business leaders here in Belfast, Northern Ireland. I'd like them to understand how important Marketing is to the way they create and manage their businesses and that it isn't just that 'advertisingy bit' that you add on at the end when the production and accountancy are already done.
I'd love them to understand that Marketing is about finding out what they should be doing, or making, or delivering - and to whom, where and for how much - before they do or make or advertise or sell anything else.
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Tuesday, 18 May 2010 15:02 | 
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