Facebook’s IPO will be the largest in the United States in terms of market value at the launch. As many analysts have pointed out the IPO seem to be heavily overvalued as Facebook will be valued at over 100 times last year’s profit. By comparison, Apple and Google are valued at about 14 or 19 times earnings, (Reuters). Only time can tell if the share is overpriced or not but fact remains that Facebook really need to drive significantly more revenues via their ads and adhere to a viable business model that is attractive for marketers and concurrently mange to deliver an excellent user experience without the distraction of too noise adverts, a marriage that can be difficult to nurture. On this note Business insider posted a report that pointed out that the conversion rate from Facebook ads (0.051%) actually are less than average expected conversion rate of online ads (0.1%) and far worse off in comparison with Google that has a whopping 0.4% conversion rate. The question is why a marketer should choose Facebook over Google for their marketing spend? Although the worries about the yield from future the Facebook ads the FB share is anticipated to sky-rocket during the introduction today as demand is very high. In the slip stream of the introduction about a 1000 of Facebook employees will become dollar millionaires.
Today I read an interesting article reflecting upon the somewhat overconfidence in social media as the main driver for brand awareness where everything should happens nowadays whereas this doesn’t mirror the reality as the TV as brand building media by far is the best media to build brand awareness as this is usually where the everyday discussing about brands origins from. With this not saying that one should neglect this channel rather embrace it but be cautious about the expectations as building a brand is a far more complex methodology that is a continuous process that should be engaged collaboratively via all your touch points. The essence is that we sometimes rush off without truly considering the message and target audience also who the big influencers really are (not often the core customers but rather outsiders that can influence and “objectively” associate your brand with positive feelings).
However the benefit of today’s social media drive together with mobile and other fast moving communication channels is that we can bridge the gap between offline and online hence let the discussion continue and build a brand across different platforms. Obviously this is generally speaking and all businesses are different and the main driver for branding depends on the context, your main field of business, where and how you are established (online/mobile/offline), resources and target audience but that goes without saying.
Most mobile development of businesses today is centred around customer facing services with great emphasis on either entertainment and pleasure to gain brand awareness and introduce the company to the mobile arena or either as core product extensions enabling offerings via mobile as an additional channel. Many companies though miss the idea of actually taking advantage of the fundamentals of the mobile, its mobility and accessibility meaning that companies need to consider what can mobile equip us with and provide our customers with that other channels perhaps can’t.
Forbes published an article on this subject with the relevant question why so few companies aren’t utilising the mobile for services that will facilitate the customer interaction and internally equip employees with customer facing tools for purchase, order monitoring, establish customer databases etc which certainly is great foo for though: http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2012/05/07/your-business-checklist-a-website-a-phone-number-a-mobile-app/2/ It’s time to take a firm grip within this space if you’re serious about mobile really making a contribution to your business as of today this will definitely distinguish your company relative competitors.
Since the introduction of QR codes in advertisements and overall greater focus on mobile marketing campaigns it’s fair to say that we’re seen numerous of intriguing and successful mobile campaigns but probably even more bad examples. On this topic there are a couple of basic steps to follow when working elaborating on your next mobile campaign. The guide is straight forward and honestly in line with general marketing best practice and common sense. However marketers often seems to deviate from sound marketing principles hence always good to remind yourself especially when it comes to a marketing channel where communication and education goes hand in hand as the target audience many times are still in the learning phase to get accustomed to the media.
1. Describe the incentive
Clarity – Visualise and articulate why the receiver should scan that QR code or click that icon.
2. Eliminate potential user-error obstacles
Is the campaign contextual, does it fit in and work properly in the environment it’s presented (for instance mobile marketing campaigns aren’t suitable where reception is bad) The same way as you adjust the message to the target group you need to consider the context it’s presented in. Do you grasp the message and procedure at first sight given an intuitive flow?
3. Optimize for mobile user experience
Is the user experience optimised? Can the user access and trigger the campaigns from any device? Are there additional opt in options to circumvent obstacles? If I opt in via mobile can I later pick up and continue via desktop? Also remember to include T&C’s and legal notice to build trust and be transparent.
4. Think through a compelling user flow
Make sure to outline the entire customer journey and the key steps of the sales funnel. Remember that every drop-off further down the funnel is a greater loss percentage wise when it comes to conversion rate. Do not underestimate to assess and optimise the sales funnel from impression to purchase and adapt accordingly.
5. Find a personality (for your brand)
Is it always clear what brand is the sender and is this consistent throughout the campaign’s sales funnel?
New year and time to revise your mobile marketing strategy. In order to get your minds buzzing please find some inspirational reading and great resources:
About 2 years ago I had a rather brief presentation about the future of online and mobile marketing what were the marketing trends and what shone upon us is in the very frontier of marketing? As a marketer you want to intrigue you customers, make them curious and upon that trigger excitement around your products and ultimately persuade them to purchase. Obviously all marketing channels and tools that enhance this interaction would be of interest if they are commercially marketable. One of those very engaging technologies and something I predicted to be used frequently in regards to my forecast is the usage of augmented reality in marketing and I believe that we’re just in the breaking point of augmented reality to become an everyday marketing standard or at least not very far away. Just have a look at this video where it’s very evidently showed how mobile augmented reality could be used for marketing: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/30292.asp
If having a few minutes to kill when commuting I can tip you about downloading SiteVisibility’s Internet Marketing podcast. Some of the content is really good food for thought whilst other is a bit too simple and evident. However it provides a good checklist, especially for start-ups and is easy to digest.
There’s nothing new about celebrity endorsement but today we’re experience new means of expressing it. Celebrity endorsement is considered to be a good way to influence customers especially if the celebrity has been carefully selected in regards to his/her relationship with the brand (trustworthy spokesman/spokeswoman and has a natural relationship with the endorsed brand).
The ad agency “Ad.ly” is utilizing the concept of celebrity endorsement tailored to online marketing and social media by incorporating Twitter in their celebrity endorsement marketing strategy. This enables them to act quickly on a broad scale and bespoke celebrity endorsement campaigns after customer and brand using their network of more than 5,000 celebrities.
There’s a great deal of trend forecasts circling the online marketing community theses day, so what trends do we see for 2011?
Smartphones will continue to evolve but there will be even greater focus on tablets (that actually are suitable for more advanced processes and work related tasks in comparison with a mobile/Smartphone) taking advantage of ever-present networks in order to connect and carry out work and casual stuff on the go. Within the field we will also see more standards being established (and agreed among manufacturers) making us portable and connected wherever we are regardless of software environment and platform usage.
On the same subject there will be continued focus on developing intelligent, useful and fun apps that engage people with each other and brands but businesses/providers have also realised that it’s very time consuming and requires more resources to create apps for various platforms (iPhone & Android amongst others) so instead we can see a shift towards development of webpage adjusted to the mobile community including web-based apps accessible for all Smartphones and tablets.
Augmented Reality (AR) will take a leap and become more frequently used and integrated in the society. Moving forward AR will be a word of the daily language and by the end of 2011 it will reach a greater mass than only the minds of early adaptors. By the help of augmented reality, services such as Facebook places, integration of location-based advertising in general, extended use of QR codes and similar techniques (by interpreting offline codes via mobiles) the gap between offline and online will decrease. We will find ourselves in a situation where we suddenly are working with marketing in a more consistent manner across the offline and online community without boundaries (integration of online and offline data) in a way that until now hasn’t been satisfying enough in order to fully capitalize on it. However more is to come within this field, progress will be made and new interesting creative marketing and business opportunities will rise because this is the year online and offline integration will gain momentum.