eMarketing: a Strategic Approach

eMarketing, a strategic approachRob Stokes

Something to think about

South Africa has more internet users than:• Belgium• Ireland• Denmark• Sweden

In the UK, the internet is now the biggest marketing channel in terms of spend

Zappos will sell more than $1 Billion worth of shoes online this year

Are we giving eMarketing the respect it deserves?

So what is a strategic approach?

Strategy is about the bigger picture: goals, objectives and success criteria

Ultimately strategy is about the decisive allocation of resources

Tactics are the actions we take to achieve the success of the strategy

“Without strategy, tactics are simply the noise before defeat”

Sun Tzu

Understanding your customers and competitors is vital to not only guide your strategy, but also your relevant tactics

Once you’ve figured out your strategy

You need to establish which tactics are going to get you there

Here’s how they might all fit together…

But eMarketing is NOT just a list of tactics

It achieves its true potential when these tactics work together

And it’s NOT about “synergy”

The tactics need each other

They feed off each other

They are substantially less effective without each other

Currently this great site is a lonely island

• Integrate with FB page and Twitter efforts

• Channel the link benefit to the brand site for SEO

• Integrate send to friend with email marketing efforts

Let’s get back to basics…

It all starts with a website

A hub to drive traffic to

A medium through which you can communicate and build a relationship with your audience

But it can’t just be any old website

You MUST add value to your user’s experience. Before, during and after their visit

Websites are no longer just brochures

They should be built to attract, convert and retain customers

The average website has about 10 seconds to capture a user before they get bored

Is your website THAT good?

Our web development priorities

1. Usability and conversion oriented design

Understand the goals and priorities of your site and design for your users above all else

Make sure they can find what they want quickly and easily

Drive them towards YOUR desired goals

Copy style:

Allow the reader to get the gist of your message in a few seconds by merely scanning the page

Pyramid style writing

Break up text with bolding, bullets, highlighting, crossheads and contextual interlinking

Have consistent Calls to Action

Don’t make them think…

Tell people to take the exact action you want them to perform in order to get the best response

Keep navigation basic, consistent and standardised

Think about persuasive architecture

Don’t distract users with Christmas trees

• blinking images • flashing lights • automatic sound • scrolling text • unusual fonts

Using Personas for large sites

2. Search Engine Friendliness

Primary goal:Site must be fully indexable and optimised around a set of well researched key phrases

Blend 2 or 3 carefully chosen key phrases into a minimum of 250 words on each page

Also integrate keywords into your:• Meta tags• Title tag• Headings• Alt tags• Internal and inbound links

Other SEO Considerations for your site• The age of the domain

• Links to the domain

• Key phrases in URLs

• Add regular fresh content

• Text navigation is better than images

• Offer RSS feeds (AND RSS to email)

• Well indexed

• XML sitemap

Be remarkable - make your site a resource!

3. Look and Feel

Very important, BUT the least important consideration in web development

That doesn’t mean ugly sites are OK

Sites must look professional and demonstrate your credibility...

If these two goals are met, the user will be satisfied.

Remember, they are looking to achieve a goal – not look at a piece of artwork.

A quick review of a few of your sites

No attention focused on the menu or CTA

Not enough text formatting

Initial Observations• Place breadcrumbs higher up on the page

(currently at the bottom)

• There is no search function on the site

• Meta Data is identical for every page

• There is no .xml sitemap

• Canonicalisation is not set up

• More content-rich, optimised pages

Good attention drawn to conversion goal

Not enough attention drawn to menu

Move this higher up and state benefits

Logo should direct home

• There is no use of Meta Data & Title tags

• There is no html sitemap

• There are no breadcrumbs in place



• Needs more content-rich, optimised pages

• Error page not customised

Make this conversion goal more obvious

Logo does not redirect home

Place this higher up and state benefits

• The ‘Open an account’ link appears broken…

• Store locator map is not interactive

• No Meta Data and Title tags



• Needs more content-rich, optimised pages

• Error page not customised

No attention placed on menu

‘Sale now on’ appears to be a link but is not.

Logo does not direct home

‘Apply’ and ‘careers’ link broken

State benefits of the newsletter

• There is no user sitemap

• Some images/text appear to be links but are not

• Meta Data is not used at all

• Title tags are not used


• Duplicate sites running on different subdomains

Monitoring your website’s performance

Top stats to keep an eye on

Above all else, conversion rates!

Unique users (not HITS)

Traffic Sources (and their conversion rates)

Engagement Metrics

Bounce rate

Repeat users

Pages per user

Time spent on site

OK, now we have a site that looks good and hopefully converts its visitors, but how do we get these visitors?

There are many options, but the most important is…

Search Engines

1 Billion searches each day

Lots of volume, but why is this important?

Searchers are looking for what your are offering

They WANT to find you!

And if they don’t find you, they will find your competitor

Some data insights…

So how do we make sure we are found?

Search Engine Marketing

SEM = SEO + PPC

Organic and Paid

You don’t need to be a guru to get the basics

Firstly make sure you select the right keywords

Select keywords based on the following:

• Search Volume

• Competition

• Propensity to convert

• Potential value per conversion

Then decide where you want to be…

Search Engine Optimisation

Make sure your site is optimised around your keywords

Then build plenty of high quality, keyword rich links

And this isn’t easy

The best sites inevitably win

So grow links organically

Build a website that offers so much value that people talk about it and link to it naturally

Pay Per Click

But first: Why you can’t ignore SEO:

www.quirk.biz

You choose how much you want to pay per click

And how much you want to spend per day

If you manage your campaign properly, you can’t lose money!

www.quirk.biz

Don’t burn your budget early on: Test!

Look for long tail key phrases

Geotarget your adverts

Have a solid call to action in each advert

Don’t send your traffic to your home page, use highly targeted landing pages

Test, test and test these landing pages

Conversion optimisation

The process of making your website and eMarketing activities as efficient and effective as possible resulting in a direct increase to your ROI

Test individual pages and paths

Things to test:

• Colours• Calls to action• Font size• Headings• Text length• Copy style and tone• Offers• Pricing• Credibility items

Search marketing will bring a lot of traffic to your site, but you can’t stop there…

You should be looking to build communities around your business

Social Media can play a big part in this

But what is Social Media?

A few tips…

Be strategy lead.

The medium is not the message

How will social media deliver on your business goals?

Push for critical mass quickly

Discover and target influential individuals and communities

Identify and fill content holes – don’t echo

Consider social media’s impact on your other eMarketing tactics

Write with your keyword strategy at your side

Create a social media culture internally, it will reflect externally

Remember: social media influencers are unique

• Short attention span: they get info served to them

• Selfish: ‘What will I get for sharing this?’• Affluent and urban

There is someone Twittering about you

Customer service?

And employee motivation

Are you making the most of it?

12 million people search for “Ryan Air”

A Ryanair employee comments on a blog…

Followed by the official response

Then the online community got hold of it

Then the newspapers got hold of it

These powerful sites often linked to this site…

And we know how important good links are…

“ It takes 20 years to build a reputation, and 5 minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you will do things differently. ”

Warren Buffet

How is online reputation different?

It spreads faster...

… and the evidence lasts longer

Why is this important?

Because peers are the most trusted source of recommendation

Edelman Trust Barometer 2008

People are talking, are you listening?

What to track?

Brand names

Important staff

Names of specials/packages

Track outgoing communications (PR) by monitoring a piece of unique text

Use the data you gather to build profiles of influencer’s who you can target for future campaigns

Monitoring your online reputation helps you…

… avoid a reputation crisis by informing you quickly… discover quick and effective new marketing opportunities… improve customer service through engagement … understand your customers’ needs and wants better … identify powerful influencers to target with WOM campaigns

OK so you’ve got a good site with lots of traffic and a thriving online community. What’s the most effective way to build long term relationships with these people?

Email Marketing

Use it to build relationships

Not to acquire them

Successful long term customer relationships are built on mutual trust and respect

Do your email newsletters foster relationships?

Or do they treat customers like marketing targets?

Firstly, get personal!

But go beyond the name

An email newsletter should be a totally customised experience

Allow users to manage their information and subscription preferences

…and then personalise accordingly

Rather send less often with more relevant content – people will be more likely to listen

Nurture your in-house list

But make it easy to unsubscribe

Optimise your subscription touch points

• Benefit statements

• 2 stage process

• Don’t gather too much info

• Confirmation pages and emails

And make sure it actually works

The biggest challenge: Deliverability

Bottom line:

Ask yourself what YOU would want from the newsletter as a reader

Does it speak to you?

Or does it speak AT you?

In conclusion: eMarketing fundamentals

• Get your website right, make it remarkable!

• Drive qualified traffic to it.

• Optimise the conversion of that traffic.

• Build a relationship with your audience.

• Test, test, test.

Thank Youwww.quirk.biz/foschinigroup

eMarketing: a Strategic Approach

Business

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