Online Clarity

Online Word-of-mouth

What is your business’s main online marketing objective – to increase awareness or improve acquisition? The answer to this question will determine whether the focus of your online strategy lies in online advertising or word-of-mouth marketing.

But first, what’s the difference between the two? Online promotions and advertising does an excellent job in increasing a consumer’s awareness of a business’s product or service to a limited audience. However, if it’s acquisition that is important to your business, then nothing is quite as successful as a carefully targeted word-of-mouth campaign. Personal referrals and recommendations are far more influential when it comes to a consumer’s purchasing decision making process.

While it’s important to realise that you can’t force consumers to speak about your brand, you can strategically create something unique as a part of your brand’s off- and online marketing campaign. It is having an understanding that plants a “This is different. I want to share this with the people I know.” seed in the consumer’s mind.

Businesses today succeed mostly because of the relationships they build with their customers. Word-of-mouth or viral marketing allows businesses to create an environment that stages a unique beginning to this relationship. Instead of falsely advocating a brand, businesses can now rely on starting to communicate with current and potential customers in a more natural fashion.

Viral marketing can be tailored to specific brand goals too. Whether it’s to create a buzz about a product launch that ultimately leads to a new lead or a direct call-to-action promotion, viral marketing gives marketers a creative way to meet these objectives in a way that reaches a wider audience when compared to ordinary online advertising presents. To succeed in this, though, is to come up with an idea. And that’s where all the fun lies; in coming up with an idea that your competitors have missed out on.

Competitor and Demographic Analysis

As a professional online marketing strategist who consults with many corporate companies in the area of online marketing and media, I am pedantic about the importance of competitor and demographic analysis. But what is this?

Briefly, competitor analysis involves the careful assessment of current and potential competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. The main process involves determining who your main competitors are and profiling them and what media plans, both traditional and digital, these competitors are making use of to penetrate the market. Demographic analysis determines who your key customers are and what benefits they expect from your product and subsequently from your online exposure to them.

While many small businesses can’t afford the services of a professional research firm, I tend to insist that research be carried out in this manner when working with bigger brands. Smaller companies can conduct their own market research by recruiting a college student but many often find that the insight that gets delivered far outweighs the expense of a professional market research company. In my opinion, this information cannot be priced. The word “invaluable” comes to mind.

With this information on hand, I begin a crucial part of the online marketing strategy; I analyse the information to determine current industry market share, marketing strategies, and, most importantly, to identify the business’s competition's strengths and weaknesses.

To have a competitive advantage over your competitors and to improve your online marketing efforts you need to understand your customer’s needs and exploit your competitors and industry weaknesses. Your competitors might not like you, but your clients, online users and investors will.

Online Marketing Defined

As an online consultant specialising in online marketing, I am often asked “what is online marketing?” This post is geared towards trying to answer that question.

The main focus of online digital marketing is building brands online. How we do it is through the aid of various techniques and methods that have been proven to provide a positive return on investment. Gone are the days where banner advertising and search engine submissions made up these methods. Internet marketers are employing more sophisticated techniques that deliver cost-effective distribution, personalisation, and higher response and tracking rates.

Unlike traditional media such as television, radio and print, online marketing focuses on delivering content in a innovative fashion to a carefully researched target market that will help build awareness of a brand or business in more personal fashion using internet technology as a backbone. Online Marketing includes banner ads, pay per click advertising, opt-in or permission based email marketing, search engine marketing including search engine optimisation, blog marketing, viral marketing (word of mouth), RSS (really simple syndication) marketing, affiliate marketing, and article or press release marketing.

The aim of any good online marketing campaign should be to close the loop of other communication channels such as telemarketing, advertising, promotions, and direct-mail. Furthermore, online marketing can include a focus on other aspects of managing a brand or business other than sales. This includes information sharing, customer service and public relations.

Some Basics in Online Strategy

The aim of a business online strategy is to improve a business’s flow of communication, create a compelling online experience for users, and to build relationships with customers and improve loyalty.

To get this right, you need a deep understanding of what drives your business. What are your business’s goals and objective? How is your brand currently projected in the marketplace? Furthermore, what trends are happening in your industry? These are some of the questions that will help in identifying opportunities that will take your business forward, online.

Online marketing takes time and effort to customise and get right. What makes it hugely exciting is that, unlike traditional media, online media allows for the easy molding of a solution to a particular business.

Having said this, any sound business however does not follow media hype. The same applies to online media. Sometimes online marketing does not fit in with a business’s overall picture; all mechanics that a business uses must point to the same, predetermined goal. It is through a thorough examination of your business, its competitors, and its customers that, together with a specialist, you are able to define your online strategy.