6 MARKETING METRICS YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT

As marketers, we work tirelessly to move the needle on what often seems like a laundry list of metrics. We look at website visits, conversion rates, generated leads per channel; engagement on social media platforms, blog post shares, email click-through rates… and the list goes on and on. When the time comes to present the impact of your marketing efforts, you can’t present everything you measure.

While many people understand that a solid marketing team can directly impact your company’s bottom line, a lot of them don’t believe that marketers are focused enough on results to truly drive incremental customer demand. If the majority of executives think marketing programs lack credibility, it simply doesn’t make sense to bombard them with metrics that don’t indicate bottom-line impact.

When it comes to marketing metrics that matter to your execs, expect to report on data that deals with the total cost of marketing, salaries, overhead, revenue, and customer acquisitions. This document will walk you through the six critical marketing metrics you should care about.

1.      CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST

• What It Is: The Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is a metric used to determine the total average cost your company spends to acquire a new customer.

• How to Calculate It: Take your total sales and marketing spend for a specific time period and divide by the number of new customers for that time period.

• Sales and Marketing Cost = Program and advertising spend + salaries + commissions and bonuses + overhead in a month, quarter or year New Customers = Number of new customers in a month, quarter, or year.

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Formula:   

Sales and Marketing Cost / New Customers = CAC

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• What This Means and Why It Matters: CAC illustrates how much your company is spending per new customer acquired. You want a low average CAC. An increase in CAC means that you are spending comparatively more for each new customer, which can imply there’s a problem with your sales or marketing efficiency.

 

2.      MARKETING % OF CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COST

• What It Is: Marketing % of Customer Acquisition Cost is the marketing portion of your total CAC, calculated as a percentage of the overall CAC.

• How to Calculate It: Take all of your marketing costs, and divide by the total sales and marketing costs you used to compute CAC.

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Formula:  

Marketing Cost / Sales and Marketing Costs = Marketing % of CAC 

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• What This Means and Why It Matters: The Marketing % of CAC can show you how your marketing performance and spending. An increased ratio of CAC can mean:

a)      You are in an investment phase, spending more  to provide high quality leads and improve your sales productivity.

b)      Your marketing team is spending too much or has too much overhead.

c)      Your sales team could have under performed.

3.      RATIO OF CUSTOMER LIFTIME VALUE TO CAC

• What It Is: The Ratio of Customer Lifetime Value to CAC is a way for companies to estimate the total value that your company derives from each customer compared with what you spend to acquire that new customer.

• How to Calculate It: To calculate the Lifetime Value / CAC you’ll need to compute the Lifetime Value, the CAC and find the ratio of the two.

• Lifetime Value (LTV) = (Revenue the customer pays in a period – gross margin) Estimated churn percentage for that customer

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Formula:   

Lifetime Value / CAC

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• What This Means and Why It Matters: The higher the Lifetime Value / CAC, the more ROI your sales and marketing team is delivering to your bottom line. However, you don’t want this ratio to be too high, as you should always be investing in reaching new customers. Spending more on sales and marketing will reduce your Lifetime Value / CAC ratio, but could help speed up your total company growth.

4.      TIME TO PAY BACK CAC

• How to Calculate It: You calculate the Time to Payback CAC shows you the number of months it takes for your company to earn back the CAC it spent acquiring new customers.

• How to Calculate It: You calculate the Time to Payback CAC by taking your CAC and dividing by your margin-adjusted revenue per month for your average new customer.

• Margin-Adjusted Revenue = How much your customers pay on average per month

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Formula:

CAC Margin-Adjusted Revenue = Time to Payback CAC 

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• What This Means and Why It Matters: In industries where your customers pay a monthly or annual fee, you normally want your Payback Time to be under 12 months. The less time it takes to payback your CAC, the sooner you can start making money off of your new customers. Generally, most businesses aim to make each new customer profitable in less than a year.

 

5.      MARKETING ORIGINATED CUSTOMER %

• What It Is: The Marketing Originated Customer % is a ratio that shows what new business is driven by marketing, by determining which portion of your total customer acquisitions directly originated from marketing efforts.

• How to Calculate It: To calculate Marketing Originated Customer %, take all of the new customers from a period, and tease out what percentage of them started with a lead generated by your marketing team.

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Formula:

New customers started as a marketing lead New customers in a month = Marketing Originated Customer % 

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• What This Means and Why It Matters: This metric illustrates the impact that your marketing team’s lead generation efforts have on acquiring new customers. This percentage is based on your sales and marketing relationship and structure, so your ideal ratio will vary depending on your business model. A company with an outside sales team and inside sales support may be looking at 20-40% Margin Originated Customer %, whereas a company with an inside sales team and lead focused marketing team might be at 40-80%.

 6.      MARKETING INFLUENCED CUSTOMER %

• What It Is: The Marketing Influenced Customer % takes into account all of the new customers that marketing interacted with while they were leads, anytime during the sales process.

• How to Calculate It: to determine overall influence, take all of the new customers your company accrued in a given period, and find out what % of them had any interaction with marketing while they were a lead.

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Formula:

Total new customers that interacted with marketing Total new customers = Marketing Influenced Customer % 

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• What This Means and Why It Matters: This metric takes into account the impact marketing has on a lead during their entire buying lifecycle. It can indicate how effective marketing is at generating new leads, nurturing existing ones, and helping sales close the deal. It gives your CEO or CFO a big-picture look into the overall impact that marketing has on the entire sales process.

 

7.      CONCLUSION

As marketers, we track so many different data points to better understand what’s working and what’s not that it can become easy to lose sight of what’s most important. Reporting on your business impact doesn’t mean you should no longer pay attention to site traffic, social shares, and conversion rates. It simply means that when reporting your results to your executives, it’s crucial to convey your performance in a way that your C-suite can get excited about.

Rather than talking about per-post Facebook engagement and other “softer” metrics, use the six metrics we detailed to report on how your marketing program led to new customers, lower customer acquisition costs, or higher customer lifetime values. When you can present marketing metrics that resonate with your decision makers, you’ll be in a much better position to make the case for budgets and strategies that will benefit your marketing team now and in the future.

 

PDF AVAILABLE @ http://www.scribd.com/doc/138259173/6-Marketing-Metrics-You-Should-Care-About

CROWDSOURCING & CUSTOMER SERVICE – STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

While the growths of the Web, social media and online communities have dramatically changed how companies and customers connect the 4 fundamental drivers of business have not. Companies still need to:

a)    Build

b)    Market

c)    Sell

d)    Support their products & services

New technologies have helped to simplify processes and reduce the cost of those four drivers. To succeed in today’s competitive market corporations must now meet five new business imperatives:

a)    Do more with less

b)    Increase profits while dropping cost

c)    Implement systems for better ROI, and strategically…

d)    Inform, engage, enlist & reward your customers, making them active copartners in your business

e)    Become a “Social Business”

The conventional definition of “ROI” as “Return on Investment” is still valid, but the spread of social media and the adoption of new Social CRM tools, ROI should be considered as: “Return on Interaction”.

Analyzing this situation drive us to the following conclusion: by listening, observing, asking, involving, and interacting with customers (partners, and employees too), a truly social business could build better products and services, that are increasingly designed, sold, and even supported by customers.

Every day, more and more customers go to internal or external forums and online communities in search of answers from people like them.  Unfortunately, on virtually all of today’s online communities, the process of resolving problems and issues is poorly handled, if not entirely unmanaged.

In order to face this new challenge, companies need to integrate platforms able to listen, involve and interact with their clients in real time. The best way to reach this target at a minimum cost is to crowd source their own customers. If your company is not already crowdsourcing its customer service and support, it’s time to consider doing so. Why? Smart businesses are looking more and more for ways to help their clients.

 I.  What is Crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is using the “crowd” of users as the “source” to help other users. It allows the number of customer issues to be handled to grow without needs to incur in relevant additional labor costs. By letting users participate in the customer service and support process, it puts them center stage, engages them with the company, and increases loyalty.

Today, customer loyalty is considered as a key element for the success of a company. It determines whether or not it is a prosperous organization and the growth of the loyalty customer base is becoming a more and more relevant KPI.

Why a client is loyal? The most important element for him to be faithful to a brand is the quality of the product or service provided to him and how the enterprise provides it.

II.        Main Challenges:

The biggest challenges companies are facing in customer service today are:

a)    The growing operating cost of customer service

b)    Providing quick answers to questions from many communication channels if not your customer will start to abandon you

c)    Monitoring social media where you customers speak about you

d)    Operating and extending the number of communication methods that your customer wants to use

e)    Distribution of product/service knowledge internally and externally

f)     Growing your customer loyalty base

 

III.        The Solution:

Developing a business solution that helps the company to improve the customer service and tackle the challenges of today is the only way and should be sustained by the following three pillars:

a)    Create an expert community to provide peer to peer support customer (crowd-sourcing) deflecting requests from internal customer service

b)    Settle forums you can control for discussions on your products and services

c)    Improve and reuse the knowledge gained from requests/answers to make them easy and accessible with the help of a semantic natural language search engine

IV.        Basic Rules:

• This platform has to allow the company to listen, monitor and engage with its customers on social communication channels from one single interface.
• Customers have to be able to choose to communicate from a portal or through a social channel and the answers have to be provided in the customer preferred channel.

V.        Secrets for Success:

The company needs to setup and align its peer-to-peer support with the already existing operation model to use or customize the flow that fits the preferred customer experience.

The community has to be animated and/or integrated to other communities. In order to boost peer-to-peer support, a reward engine has to be built in to motivate the experts

VI.        Key Benefits:

a)    Cost reduction of operation (Normally between -30 & -40%)

b)    Increased customer satisfaction and customer loyalty

c)    Improved knowledge distribution

d)    Higher customer retention

e)    Brand protection

f)     Being seen as an innovative company

VII.            Examples:

The following summary table shows examples of Key benefits of online service and support communities:

VIII.            Conclusion:

Crowdsourcing can reduce drastically the burden on the staff, save money, and engage customers.

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PDF AVAILABLE @  http://www.scribd.com/doc/132461479/CROWDSOURCING-CUSTOMER-SERVICE-STRATEGIC-ANALYSIS

Content and analysis of this post is drawn principally from an article which originally appeared on March 12, 2013 on the CrowdEngineering website titled “Crowdsourcing Customer Service: Top Biz Imperative” at http://www.crowdengineering.com/news/industry-news/crowdsourcing-customer-service-meets-top-biz-imperatives/ and also incorporates content and graphics from CrowdEngineering’s presentation at Crowdopolis 2013.

This content is posted here with the approval and consent of CrowdEngineering, Inc.

MOBILE APPLICATIONS: ACTORS & BUSINESS MODEL REVIEW

MOBILE APPS: ACTORS & BUSINESS MODEL REVIEW

Mobile applications are commonly made available through aggregators with online stores. However, due principally to the increased availability of smartphones and faster broadband on 3G mobile telecommunications networks, mobile applications are a major growth sector of the information and communications economy.

The mobile service business model has changed dramatically in recent years. In particular, the role of handset and OS providers has become more prominent, and the reliance of third-party developers on network operators for delivery of revenue streams has decreased.

Apps Stores revenue-sharing arrangements with developers, has led to other changes. They reshaped the revenue model with its 70/30 revenue split in favor of developers and the exclusion of network operators from revenue-sharing arrangements for mobile applications, attracting large numbers of new independents software developers (ISV).

1.    Developers

Developers are creators of mobile applications programs who do not work directly for the app store, device manufacturer or network service operator.

There are several kinds of third-party developer:

• Hobbyists developing mobile applications in their spare time for recreation and profit

• Professionals those developing mobile applications as a main source of income, either alone or as part of a business centered on mobile application development

• Contractors developing mobile applications on behalf of another entity or individual.

The number of third-party developers has increased significantly as the improved revenue arrangements and increasing client base attract more developers to app stores.

 2.      App Stores

Applications Stores are divided today in the following families:

• Device manufacturers including Apple’s App Store, Nokia’s Ovi, and Blackberry’s App World. These stores can be used only by consumers with the appropriate manufacturer’s device and proprietary software.

• Operating system developer including Android Market and Microsoft Windows Mobile. These stores can be accessed by consumers with devices from multiple handset manufacturers via the proprietary operating system software (OS).

• Mobile network operator including Telstra, Verizon and Optus. These stores can only be accessed by consumers with service contracts with the network operator. Consumers can use multiple handset brands to access these stores.

• Independent including app stores operated as independent commercial concerns, or by developers such as GetJar and Mobango. Access to these stores is not dependent on the brand of device used, service provider or proprietary software.

The mobile applications market exhibits a number of common characteristics across all app stores, including:

• Low barriers to entry: Apple, Android and Blackberry all have development registration schemes with software development kits (SDK) offered free or at low prices with additional support mechanisms. Mobile applications can be developed with SDK for low fixed costs.

• Strong competition: there are a large number of sellers and mobile applications available to consumers (more than 300,000).

• Low barriers to exit with few sunk costs, developers may enter and leave the market quickly.
• Extended value chains with multiple players mobile applications delivered through various platforms complicate the supply chain to the end-user. The responsibility for aspects of customer service can consequently fall across several different organizations or individuals. This increases the complexity of the relationship between service providers and end-users.

• Global nature app stores are accessible from smartphones and other devices globally, and have a global consumer base, although most of the major market players have managing companies based in North America (Apple, Google, Blackberry, Microsoft Windows and Palm). As a result, there are associated cross border and trans-jurisdictional market implications.

• Unpredictable revenue the financial viability of mobile applications is variable. The top 10 per cent achieve about 75,000 downloads and there are huge successes, such as Tap Tap Revenge’s reported revenue of $1 million per month. However, 50 per cent of mobile applications achieve about 1,000 downloads and, after the app store has taken its cut, developers may expect to earn up to $2,500 on average.

Most people agree that Apple’s opening of iPhone to third-party developers via the App Store in July 2008 was a key turning point in the adoption of smartphones and the use of mobile applications.

By 2009, combined platform revenues were $4.2 billion; today, some analysts are expecting revenues to reach $29.5 billion by the end of 2013.

3.      App Stores Developers Programs

The majority of app stores provide programs and support to encourage third-party development in their platform.

There are a number of components to this support:

• Distribution of revenue is weighted to favor developers the revenue split in the largest app stores is 70 per cent to the developer and 30 per cent to the store
• There are no access restrictions or qualifications in place

• Developer support includes access to SDK in the native code (software language) of their app store, developer forums, developer guidelines and other support mechanisms

• Start-up costs are low three of the largest app stores provide developer support programs for $200 and under 21

• Marketing information and user analytics are also available

• Secure payment mechanisms are provided

• Access is provided to a ready-made customer base

• Advertising of the app stores to consumers is provided by device manufacturers and, in some instances, network service providers

• Advertising of individual mobile applications in an app store is also available for example; developers can pay a premium to have a mobile application placed in the featured section in the Apple App Store.

Third-party developers may also operate across more than one app store. This means that the mobile applications can either be written in the native code of each platform or written in a higher level software language, which can run on all platforms the developer is selling on. The choice of developing language is complicated by restrictions proprietary platforms may place on using programming tools or controlling certain device features and by fragmentation across device platforms.

 4.      Consumer Access Models

The concept of online stores for consumers to download software applications is continuing to expand. The devices used to access app stores vary, and the numbers and types of device used are increasing. App stores and other platforms can be considered access points that allow consumers to obtain and use mobile applications, distributed by multiple app developers.

Pre-installed mobile applications can increase the commercial viability of devices. Pre-installation of mobile applications from other commercial entities method for device manufacturers to defray production cost, and increase the attractiveness of their device to consumers. It is also a useful method of creating additional revenue streams for carriers who preload the device to consumers.

Mobile applications may be downloaded and installed by consumers in several ways:

• Via the device, consumers can directly access the device manufacturer’s store through a menu on the device Access may be enabled through 3G or Wi

• Via the internet, consumers can access the device applicable, the network provider’s and then download and install mobile applications. Access to the internet may be enabled through 3G networks or Wi applications Smartphones Tablets Multiple access points for the mobile applications market

Mobile applications may be obtained by end-users in two main forms as pre-installed applications or downloaded applications. Pre-installed mobile applications are selected by device manufacturers and usually include: calendars, alarm clocks, camera/photo apps) weather mobile applications, Google maps, a compass, a music, video, games) for example, web browsers, texting and voice installed mobile applications can increase the commercial viability of devices.

The mobile applications from other commercial entities on devices are a method for device manufacturers to defray production cost, and increase the attractiveness of their device to consumers.

Consumers can access the device manufacturer’s app store (or, if applicable, the network provider’s app store) via the web browser on their device, and then download and install mobile applications.

5.      Business Models

Prior to the introduction of smartphones, telecommunications network operators were the main suppliers of mobile services (and fixed-line services). End-users’ choices were influenced predominantly by network coverage, pricing, provision of handsets and value-adding services (such as voicemail, text, email and limited 2G web access via GPRS). Hardware and software component suppliers had only an indirect relationship with end-users, and third-party suppliers provided complementary goods and services.

While not all consumers directly obtained their handsets through their network operator, operators still controlled service subscriptions. Further, with the initial introduction of web browsing and email capabilities, network operators launched ‘walled garden’ application platforms to maintain their centrality in the value chain.

It has also driven the proliferation of non-network operator app stores as handset manufacturers and OS providers seeking to capitalize on alternative revenue streams.

Today network operators are no longer the primary source of revenue for app developers, and consumers of mobile applications are not reliant on the walled gardens of their network operator to access mobile applications.

The growing popularity of smartphones and tablet devices has continued to fuel this shift in the market, and access to third-party applications via a variety of devices is now being dominated by device and operating system manufacturers (through their app stores),

The Wholesale Applications Community (WAC), an alliance of 48 telecommunications providers, device manufacturers and sponsoring businesses (for example, Alcatel Lucent) has launched a wholesale app store. In response to the current success of non-operator app stores, the WAC model allows network operators to sell mobile applications to their subscribers independent of the device being used via an open platform, and charging them via their phone bill. Network operators capture a percentage of the mobile application purchase price as well as the revenue raised from data use.

At present, many network operators are only receiving revenue from data use for mobile applications or are reliant on partnerships with device manufacturers to obtain a share of mobile applications sales revenue.

The current contest for market share in the application market is now primarily between the opposing business models of operating system and device manufacturer app stores.

Operating system business models offer an open source system, with consumers able to access mobile applications from multiple sources. Device manufacturer models are closed proprietary environments limiting distribution of mobile applications to consumers via a single source their app store.

Mobile applications range in price, from free to over USD 999.

The average cost is under $10, with over 50 per cent of all mobile applications across all the app stores priced at $2 or less.25 Payment for paid mobile applications is made through one-off transactions or ongoing subscriptions in the following ways:

• Credit card; is the most prevalent method. The interface is established through a consumer account (for example, an iTunes account for Apple or a Google account for Android).

• Carrier billing; this method is common for mobile commerce transactions. Payment appears on a consumer’s bill or in the form of a call-credit deduction or charge. This is similar to current payment arrangements for mobile premium services. The revenue split in this situation may incorporate a percentage to the carrier. For example, Nokia’s Ovi store provides for a revenue split of between 40 and 50 per cent of the end-user purchase price to the carrier, with the remainder divided between the developer and Nokia on a 70/30 basis. For a mobile application costing $1.19, this would result in a distribution of approximately $0.59 to the carrier, $0.42 to the developer and $0.18 to Nokia.

• Voucher redemption; app store-specific vouchers are available at multiple commercial outlets. These may be redeemed for credit via a user account. Credit card companies also provide gift vouchers that may be used for the same purpose.

Closed proprietary app store business models offer systems integration for consumers and a seamless user experience.

App store business models that use an open source operating system may not be able to offer as efficient systems integration due to the fact that multiple players may be involved in the provision of devices to access the App store. However, the open source operating system business model allows consumers more choice in terms of sourcing mobile applications and greater transferability of information between platforms.

Both business models have inherent advantages and disadvantages for consumers, who will ultimately choose which is more significant to them.

Meanwhile, network operators are seeking to offset the costs of increasing demands on their networks in terms of speed and resources from mobile applications. The WAC’s commercial app store is one method of doing so, as it allows network operators to once more access the mobile application revenue stream. The success of this business model is dependent on the experience it can provide for the user.

The different app store business models highlight the inherent differences in approach to access and control on different platforms.

In the longer term, the success of each business model may depend on consumer attitudes to these differences.

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Leave your questions and comments to:  herve@delhumeau.com

Top 10 Digital Trends for 2013

The web has been in a state of flux since its inception, and this year is no different. Here’s what trends are expected to take off in 2013.

1. Personalized Products for each Customer

Organizations will move towards involving the customer when creating their products as opposed to a “one size fits all” mentality. The key action to take here is to evolve from the now ‘traditional’ social media marketing activities of buying display ads and pushing products, to buying social listening research, with the goal of product development personalized for the ‘individual’ consumer.

2. Demographics is out, now it’s about Behavior

In 2013, it’s no longer about targeting an audience that you THINK has an interest in your product based on age, income, gender, education, historical data, etc… It’s about targeting the audience you KNOW has an interest in your product by focusing on a more niche area of interest such as fan groups, societies, cults, that already engage in your product/service.

3. Quality over Quantity.

Having large amounts of data is invaluable to a company, but in the process of having all this data, it creates a lot of pains in discovering insights and actionable items. Brands need to move away from tracking overall sales each month; instead they need to look at ‘live’ sales. Track them by time, SKU, location, retailer, attribute, etc… This ground up approach will give the real insights from a small to large scale.

4. Fall of the PC looks to Responsive Design

The purchase of desktop computers are on the decline, so what are consumers buying? Mobile devices, i.e. smart phones and tablets. A website built in responsive design basically figures out the resolution of the device it is being viewed on, and the images and fluidgrids will size correctly to fit the screen. This allows the website, no matter on what device, to have the optimal viewing experience – easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning and scrolling. The benefit – one website build, one seamless experience with thousands of screens.

5. Perceptive Media

Media, audio or video that adapts itself based on the information it has gathered on an individual user. Artificial Intelligence is the brain work behind this. The purpose is to provide media that target on a user-by-user basis. Imagine watching tennis on television with someone that doesn’t know the rules, perceptive media could show one user the detailed rules of tennis while showing the other user the current rankings of players and behind the scene footage. Creating democracy within the room by comparing the overall tastes of the group and reach the most compatible compromise.

6. Revolution of the 2nd Screen

•  80% of smartphone and tablet users use their devices while watching TV.
• 25% of U.S. smartphone and tablet users use their devices while watching TV multiple times per day.
• 51% of those who post on social media while watching

As consumers are engaging in one type of media, they are simultaneously engage in another. Imagine a consumer watching a television drama series, and at the same time shopping on the eBay app for the clothes that the main character is wearing. This revolution extends to mobile devices from the big screen, TV, and organizations are working to build on the relationship between screens.

7. Cloud Computing at the Forefront

Cloud computing is the storage of data online allowing access across multiple platforms simultaneously through consumer-based services such as email, social media, online file storage and corporate communication tools. A simple idea with a powerful effect, involving the fast growing mobile device Mobile cloud is a new way to create workflows. This will change the way we think about storage on our devices and instead think about storage in the cloud. Devices will then come with less storage, but be better equipped to access data.

8. Digital Convergence – Pulling it all Together

Forget about remembering where you left off in Season 2 Episode 3, 25 minutes and 32 seconds of The Walking Dead, think more about registering for an account via online cloud services and it’ll remember where you last left off and continue when you log back on via any compatible device. To give you even more, these services can make recommendations based on the content you have previously viewed. Nowadays, it’s not about finding the video, it’s about how fast your internet connection is so you can stream the video without lagging. Apps like HBOGo, UVideos, and HuLuPlus not only stream content to the consumer, they can measure the consumption, know the device used, connection speed, viewing history and purchase history; with this data they are able to personalize the ads, content and product recommendations a consumer sees.

9. All things Internet

It’s inevitable, and has been coming for a while – everyone will be able to connect to the internet via more and more devices – the refrigerator, the television, the car, etc… Everything will be automated. Companies like Ford have already begun opening up their APIs to developers to create new applications to use via computer systems in the vehicles. Computer chips installed in traffic lights connecting to GPS systems will provide the shortest travel distance with live data. One day we’ll live in a world where the toast is hot and ready on a plate the moment we step into our kitchen. It’s not really any stretch of the imagination, if you think about it.

10. Location, Location …..

2012 started this up, and now in 2013 with more and more mobile devices being produced (e.g. Sony recently released a competitor to the iPhone 5 and Samsung Galaxy 4 – the Xperia Z), in conjunction with privacy being loosened by tech giants such as Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc, this means that locations of users by default will be tracked, provided users don’t disable the functionality. But at the same time, growing social relationships are encouraging friends to share their location for rewards, namely applications such as Foursquare, and also social recognition of having visited various locations via networks such as Facebook Places.

3 STEPS TO AN EFFECTIVE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

 

Step 1: Assessment:

Start with a single question: “Why social media?” The answer will dictate everything you do in this first phase. Assessment is to evaluate where you are, where you want to go and what the wins will be along the way.

a.    Put Your Audience First

First things first: You need to clarify your audience’s needs, wants and challenges not to mention where they’re spending time online. Use tools like Survey Monkey or Google Docs to quickly and inexpensively survey your customers.

Each time I want to learn more about my audience’s behaviors, I create a quick survey and post it on my social networks to go straight to the source.

The five major benefits of knowing your audience are considerable:

1. Laser focus: You can create content that resonates instantly.
2. Break barriers: Confront pain points head-on to build trust.
3. Language: Increase engagement by being a person your audience relates to.
4. Empathy: The more you listen, the better you can respond to specific needs.
5. Positioning: You can become the go-to source in your niche.

b.    Define a Guiding Theme Strategy

Since you’ve identified your audience, the next step is to ask yourself what you want them to do.

What’s your theme? It’s usually one of three things:

• Awareness
• Sales
• Loyalty

Loyalty and awareness can both lead to sales, of course but stick to just one overarching goal for your strategy. Consistency and simplicity are key here.

Now it’s time to get really specific. This might be the hardest piece in the assessment process, and yet it’s critical to your success. Ask yourself, what does my business actually do? What do my fans say when they’re happy? What is at the core?

Talk it out with your team. Together you can hone in on your “One Thing” the heart and soul of your brand. Your “One Thing” will affect every content and posting decision you make.

As an example, if Disney = magic and Apple = innovation, what do you equal?

Your “One Thing” is the voice of your strategy across every network.

c.    Identify Metrics and Monitoring

How will you measure your strategy’s success? Depending on your theme, the metrics may change.

For example:

• If your theme is awareness, you’ll want to measure growth, engagement, brand awareness, sharability, likes and subscribes.
• If it’s sales, look at click rates, social e-commerce sales and conversion rates.
• For loyalty, look at engagement, sentiment and influence (Klout and Edge Rank Checker are good sentiment-measuring tools).

It’s useful to monitor some overall trends too, like mentions of key people at your company, your company name, brand names, product services, competitors and industry keywords.

And if you’re new to data measurement, take baby steps. Start with a simple free tool like Google Alerts.

d.    Put It All in Writing

Don’t wait for an emergency to nail down your communication policies. For example, what happens when there are negative comments? How should the company’s social sites be used? Are there guidelines for what fans and followers can post to a company Facebook page?

Drill down on the answers in a written editorial guide tailored to your business, team and goals. A good guide will address:

• Who is your team? Who is responsible for what?
• What’s the point? Identify why you’re using social media, and what you want to track.
• Where? Identify the networks you want to focus on.
• When? Be as specific as possible; e.g., blog at 8 am, post it to Facebook at 10 am.
• How—identify team tools and platforms. Including examples is great, especially when it comes to formatting of content. Your guide should enable anyone new on the team to know what’s going on.

Step 2: Implementation:

Next up: execution. The implementation phase is all about zeroing in on the details and day-to-day tasks you and your team are now responsible for.

a.    Create a Content Calendar

Now that you have an editorial guide, it’s time to translate policy into concrete actions preferably on an editorial calendar. The more information and detail you include, the better you can measure effectiveness. Consider:

• What is the theme or essence of your content?
• Who will create it?
• When and where will it be shared?
• How often will you create content versus share third-party content?
• How will you deliver content—as eBooks? Blogs? Video? All of the above?

b.    Have a Step-by-Step Plan for Promotion and Growth.

There are literally hundreds of ways to get your team promoting and sharing on the key social media sites you plan to use. Here are a few to get you started:

• Integrate social media on your website with plugins and icons.
• Run contests and promotions or offer rewards.
• Drive traffic by offering webinars, training programs, interviewing experts and create blog.
• Promote your networks consistently.
• Add networks to letterhead, email signatures and business cards.

c.    Identify Core Sales Campaigns

Visible social media icons and social plugins are some of the easiest ways to drive traffic to your social media networks.

Yes, social media is about relationships first. But the fact is, once you’ve built solid, genuine relationships online, you’re going to want to use your influence to grow your business. That doesn’t mean shoving it down fans’ throats or putting sales above the relationship. It simply means that you can and should promote what you offer to the people who believe in your mission.

Establish an action plan for the core campaigns you’ll use to collect and nurture leads, like:

• Outline promotional policy what is acceptable, and what is not allowed?
• Identify and implement opt-in opportunities like a custom welcome tab on your Facebook page.
• Determine where to direct leads for example, will you create an ecommerce platform on Facebook with a custom tab, or sell only on your site?

 

Step 3: Monitor, Measure and Get Momentum

After about two months of running your brand-new social media strategy, it’s time to hunker down with your team, evaluate your progress and fine-tune the details.

a.    Schedule an Evaluation Session
Don’t put off analyzing your results. Schedule your first evaluation meeting when you start phase one. I recommend scheduling a meeting about two or three months out from your start date. That’s just enough time to start seeing results and identifying weak spots.

Make sure you or your team members bring numbers and data to the table and are prepared to discuss them. Metrics, no matter how simplistic, will help you figure out what’s working and what’s not. Include time for brainstorming new ideas, too.

b.    Take Advantage of the Momentum

If you’re seeing traction with your strategy at this first evaluation milestone, consider mixing it up and adding some more advanced strategies into your plan. You have momentum building run with it!

Here are ideas for some “next steps” to take:

• Facebook ads are a good, inexpensive way to grow your fan base, increase engagement and collect leads. Try mixing up different ad types and destinations.
• Run a multi-level contest integrating multiple channels (like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube). Use a promotion, event or reward that will resonate with your audience. Word-of-mouth is a powerful way to leverage momentum.
• Live Q&As on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ hangouts.

Ultimately, everyone’s social media strategy will look different—and will get very different results. To be effective, know your business and the metrics that matter to you. A consultancy might need just 100 high-quality fans, whereas a company that sells a product might need several thousand to see financial results.

Does your business have a social media strategy in place?

What tips do you have for someone putting a strategy together for the first time?

 

PDF DOCUMENT AVAILABLE @ http://www.scribd.com/doc/130421364/3-STEPS-TO-AN-EFFECTIVE-SOCIAL-MEDIA-STRATEGY

 _______________________________

Contact :  herve@delhumeau.com

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