Different marketing disciplines are being driven together more quickly by two current trends: the social media rush and the economic crush. Expensive traditional marketing activities are being squeezed and marketing organizations are thinning. This creates interesting marketing/communications mashup opportunities, as previously siloed groups come together to meet goals with fewer resources. One concept I hope pops out of this is “direct social marketing” – a combo of direct marketing and social media.
Social media gets us closer to real conversations, ones that are more likely to leave an impression and have more value for both parties. But a lot of the marketing spend is still on one-way communication, most of which is still static (one-way and primarily text). People spend a lot of time with direct email (second after family and friends). But I have yet to receive anything, even from the media or technology providers that are at the forefront, t
hat is social email. It’s still mostly links somewhere else, where I might find something social, if I’m part of the tiny percentage that opens and clicks. (See MySpace Buzz email image).
Adding social media to direct marketing (microblogging, online video & audio, forums) just might increase response rates to all marcoms by making the content more engaging. Wouldn’t it be a tad more interesting to open an email (from a brand that you want to have a relationship with) and be able to play a video or follow a feed or rate a service from within the email? Those closer to email are starting to talk about this but I haven’t seen much in action. Social marcoms could apply to PR too, as we spend a lot of time on email with media, as well as traditional direct email campaigns or other IMC efforts.
Online ads are dynamic, use rich media and don’t appear to pose a security issue – let’s mashup direct email and online ads to deliver something new. (I spoke with iContact at Web 2.0 Expo last week and it appears that this is doable but there are concerns by email marketers of spammer abuse and staying off of ISP blacklists.) At minimum, let’s tap other marketing communications activities to drive growth of subscribers, followers, members, etc. One simple first step – add links to social media channels in direct emails.
Current direct email metrics include opens, clicks and traffic to landing pages. Let’s evolve this to focus more on social actions: comments, ratings and sharing. This will help shift our marketing activities toward conversations. Most traditional marketing activities can be socialized, which may unlock more value in existing investments and drive us all closer to our communications goals, whatever they may be.
Social media releases also have the potential to provide this functionality, as the press release has evolved into a multimedia direct online mail piece too, driving SEO and web traffic, in addition to delivering content to be reused by media, bloggers, analysts and all brand audiences (hopefully through UGC). Who will get there first to deliver social direct marketing among the technology vendors and agencies that provide email marketing, PR or IMC services? Is anyone already doing a good job?
{ 2 comments }
I think one of my big takeaways from this post is that PR firms in general have an opportunity to take a bigger role in clients’ marketing outreach. No more PR on one side and direct marketing on the other. There needs to be more integration between outbound messaging, and mechanisms / plugins that facilitate conversation.
The real tricky thing – IMO – is not creating social ghost towns. For all the hype around corporate blogs, for example, how many are actually widely read and commented on? For all the hype around social media platforms for web sites, how many have active participation (I often see these “audience growth” and “community platforms” relatively stagnate).
There are MANY new technology approaches for generating “social.” But I think that when they do not result in significant traffic and participation, they are more embarrassing and detrimental than they are good.
Good read.
Just got an example of non-dynamic email from Responsys. Standard HTML email with links back to their site. It did include a snapshot of a webinar with a “view now” button that took me to a landing page.
It also included a free paper from Forrester Research titled “Your Email Marketing Road Map For 2009.” Very little mention of dynamic or rich content, and the term “dynamic” appears to refer to automated messages sent based on a parameter (e.g., send another email three days after registration). Hmm.
Here’s the verbiage that talks about dynamic messages; full report available at Responsys’ site at http://budurl.com/c3gr/d:
“ESPs like Responsys and Yesmail created life-cycle campaign designers that help marketers set up dynamic messages to fire a certain period of time after registration or particular actions.”
“Email tactics like analysis, segmentation, and dynamic content work well with other emerging digital channels. Smart marketers will increasingly apply these tactics to communication in social networking sites, widgets, and mobile to boost results and customer response.”
Comments on this entry are closed.