Three strategies to demonstrate the value of social media marketing

Mike HickinbothamSocial Media / Content Consultant. Formerly Head of Social Media, Westpac Group and Head of New Media, Telstra (CMO).

 One of the best business-related capabilities a corporate social media manager can have is demonstrating the value of social media marketing to internal and external stakeholders.

As long as social media is considered ‘opt-in’, social media managers have an uphill battle to attract sufficient resources that enable campaigns to scale at mass.

Here are three tips to help social media marketers build the case for business support for social media.

Understand the dynamics of the corporate structure

Social media managers must understand the corporate structure in which they are operating in to demonstrate the value of social media marketing.

In a decentralised structure, there could be little coordination and considerable crossover across the various business units and teams. It’s intuitive to want to pull together a corporate-wide strategy.

It’s a risky plan as the different business unit agendas can bring the pursuit of a corporate-wide strategy to a standstill, thereby delivering little in return for the time and effort spent.

Social media managers operating in a decentralised structure need to identify projects they can own from start to finish to demonstrate the value of social media.

By ‘owning your patch’ and generating positive results, you’ll (a) have an independent platform to speak from and (b) will likely earn interest from other parts of the business.

If correctly fostered, interest can lead to momentum. Momentum is a great way to counter the siloed mentality that can inadvertently dampen efforts to demonstrate social media’s broader value to the corporation.

Altimeter – Social Business Governance slide

In a centralised structure, it’s easier to get agreement on an enterprise-wide strategy. The challenge is attracting the resources to implement the plan. With fewer teams invested in social media, the centralised structure can act as a bottleneck to enterprise-level innovation and growth.

Social media managers should simultaneously develop an enterprise-wide strategy and the establish one-off trials that enable the various stakeholders an opportunity to participate in the success of social media.

To correctly implement this strategy, the social media manager must pro-actively reach out and work closely with the relevant internal and external stakeholders. While pitching the trial, it’s important to have the enterprise strategy on hand, because it gives context to ‘why’ one-off trials should be run. It also gives stakeholders comfort as to ‘how’ social media can support business objectives.

Assuming stakeholders support the strategy and directly experience the value of social media through the trial, the social media manager has increased the likelihood of unlocking additional resources and funding.

Know that ‘all politics is local’

The golden rule in politics is that all politics is local. In a political context, success is directly tied to the politician’s ability to understand and influence the issues of his or her constituents/voters.

Due to important local issues, like the NBN, the rural independents supported Labour.

Since social media marketing is primarily an ‘opt-in’ channel for most Australian corporations, it’s critical for social media managers to understand and influence the issues of their key stakeholders.

Without doubt, the social media manager needs to invest time in building relationships with stakeholders.

Even if the social media manager can’t get a lot of time (or any time) with the key senior stakeholder, it’s important for him or her to meet and work closely with the senior stakeholder’s team members.

The senior stakeholder will likely ask the team members for feedback on the value offered by social media. Their positive endorsement will help give greater legitimacy to the social media manager’s efforts to demonstrate social media’s value.

Leverage external subject matter experts

By arranging for an external subject matter expert to speak with your target stakeholders, the social media manager can indirectly reinforce existing strategies or introduce a new perspective that enables stakeholders to form a new insight in support of social media.

Bringing in a subject matter expert is significantly different from bringing in an influencer. Influencers have status and are recognised. Experts have the knowledge and can trigger a reaction.

When the penny drops for the stakeholders, they may have registered an important insight or for the first time configured some random concepts into a logical sequence.

With the subject matter expert being ‘external’, it can help the validity of the concepts championed by the social media manager.

The ‘external subject matter expert’ strategy can be easily integrated with the ‘all politics is local’ strategy. Social media managers who invest the time in building relationships through education and running trials can increase the probability of stakeholders getting more value from external subject matter experts.

Here’s my presentation on the demonstrating social media’s value:

http://www.slideshare.net/MikeHickinbotham/strategies-to-demonstrate-the-value-of-social-media?ref=http://mikehickinbotham.com/three-strategies-demonstrate-social-medias-value/

This post first appeared on MikeHickinbotham.com: http://mikehickinbotham.com/three-strategies-demonstrate-social-medias-value/

Written by

Mike HickinbothamSocial Media / Content Consultant. Formerly Head of Social Media, Westpac Group and Head of New Media, Telstra (CMO).

10 SEO Tricks to Get Found on LinkedIn

Brynne TillmanTransforming the Way Professionals Grow Their Business by Leveraging LinkedIn & Social Selling

Getting found by your buyers through online search is a powerful way to get in front of people you wouldn't even know were in the market. The key to people finding you is through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a web search engine's unpaid results — often referred to as "natural," "organic," or "earned" results.

But in order to be found, you have to know what words and phrases are being searched when looking for your products and services. So, step #1 is to identify popular keywords and phrases. Even though we are talking about being found on LinkedIn, using tools that help websites get more traffic is a great way to identify the right keywords and phrases that are being used and apply that to your LinkedIn profile. Your marketing department or website team should have a good list for you, and I would recommend that you start there. But if you don't have those resources, here are a few sites that you can use:

• Majestic SEO
• Find Keywords by The Business Growth Guys
• Word Tracker
• Keyword Planner by Google
• SemRush

When it comes to search, LinkedIn is looking at two things - how many times the words are used in your profile and then ranks them based on the searcher's network. So no search will be exactly the same, as no network is identical. Here are 10 areas to focus on so you can be found:

1. Connect with Everyone You Meet - Based on the fact that LinkedIn takes your network into consideration, the more people you are connected to too, the more searches you will appear - so connect with everyone you know.
2. Use Text in Your Weblinks - In your contact information section you have the ability to list 3 website links. By default it says "Company Website" but if you choose "Other" from the drop down and use keywords and phrases to describe where the link takes them. 
3. Headline and Summary - Make sure you use your keywords and phrases in your headline and summary naturally. Don't keyword stuff - like making lists of your specialties, but use them in a smart, conversational way.
4. Keyword Optimize Your Experience Section - Instead of simply listing your company name and job title in your experience section, take advantage of "edit display" next to Change Company and add keywords and phrases next to your Company Name and add keywors and phrases in your Job Title. This will also show under your headline on the top of your profile, so make it flow naturally not too forced.
5. Customize your Personal URL - It is a simple way to ensure that when people are looking for you personally, they find you.  This is particularly important for those with common names. Here is how:
   1. Hover over Profile at the top of your homepage and select Edit Profile.
   2. Find the URL link under your profile photo that may looks  www.linkedin.com/in/yourname-5173b211. Click the Settings icon next to it.
   3. Under the Your public profile URL section on the right, click Edit next to your URL.
   4. Type your name or keywords you choose in the text box.
   5. Save.
6. Add additional Sections - Simply by adding more sections, you can add more keywords and phrases that your buyers are using when they look for your products and services. 
7. Projects & Publications with Others - LinkedIn's Projects can be used for case studies, ventures or programs that you have been involved with. In many cases, you didn't do these in a silo - so include others on those Projects. You will then show up on their profile, and begin to leverage their network in search results.
8. Get recommendations - This is another place where your recommendations show up on the recommenders profile. While the testimonial alone is powerful, the fact that it can help you get found is a bonus.
9. Endorsements - Because this section was designed for recruiters to find candidates with the skills they were looking for, having the right keywords and phrases here is essential for maximizing your LinkedIn profile's SEO. Make sure that your skills are not limited to "customer service", Leadership or MicroSoft Office, but include those keywords and phrases. Then, get your friends, family and co-workers to endorse you, because in LinkedIn's Algorithm, size matters.
10. Promote Your Profile Elsewhere - As mentioned a few times in this post, the bigger your network the more likely you are to come up in a search. So, add a link to your profile on your email signature, on your Twitter profile, on your bio on your website even on your business card. 

BOUNUS #1: Name your headshot key words before you upload it, when people search for those phrases, your photo will show up!

BONUS #2: Another great way to get found is through publishing LinkedIn pulse articles. In addition to using those keywords and phrases in your text, name your pictures thoughtfully as well, as they are indexed by Google.

These are 10 SEO tricks that I use, share some that you may be using or know of in the comments below.

Want to Leverage LinkedIn and social selling better? Join us for our next free webinar this Wednesday! RESERVE YOUR SEAT NOW!

Big Data coming to a store near you

Laurel Papworth talks about Facebook, Big Data and Social Media

Howdy, I wrote this email a while ago but didn't send it. But we have new News! Facebook has brought in a tool that let’s you advertise to, say, women in Canberra who have bought Cheerios, bananas and life insurance in the last 30 days. 

They do this by working with big data brokers Acxiom, Datalogix and Epsilon, who in turn have done deals to get frequent flyer, supermarket rewards and mastercard purchases into a database and match it to Facebook users. 

It means when you buy some vegemite you’ll get an ad for toast. Or something like that. The Facebook deal with Quantium (Woolworths), Axciom and Epsilon for Australian frequent flyer information, Everday rewards purchases and Mastercard etc was done a week or two ago (AdAge) and the datasets should be available to create Facebook ads against those buying behaviours soon. I heard a rumour it was August but hey, it was a rumour ;) 

How do you feel about your purchases at the Supermarket, or flights you take, being made available to advertisers to tell you of new or competing products? 

To understand Big Data, it’s a great idea to look at the four V’s plus a few more:

1. Volume (1.1 billion people on Facebook is 300+ petabytes of data). That’s a lot of status updates. Care to read them all? I can’t keep up with my Twitter timeline without tools!
2. Variety: being able to mash up unstructured metadata like location the photo of the new shoes were taken, the date, the device (iphone camera) with structured data from databases like credit cards and loyalty programs. New home prices with crime rates with school scores. Data is open and available and running free.
3. Velocity: if you have done my measurement courses you know that velocity is a key metric. How much and how fast? Big Data can mean Too Much Data :D But not just the speed of a tweetstream (we get 16,000 comments during an Ad break) but also speed of analyis.
4. Veracity: what is the truthiness of the data? if you run a sentiment analysis over thousands of updates/statuses can you really trust the “fully wicked sick” and “totes awesome” to mean what you think they mean?  Data Trust is an ongoing issue - how many of you sign up for stuff with a fake email address? ^^
5.  Variety: how do you cross check unstructured data? is it possible to mashup geo-location (phone is in Bondi) with a purchasing behaviour (buying breakfast, newspaper). How about crowdsensing - Foursquare tracks your friends and can predict where you will be with them in 30 minutes even if you haven’t met up yet.
6. Value: are you getting value out of the insights. For example, Facebook Lexicon clumps words together and then delivers content into newsfeeds based on Source and Engager and those keywords. Oh and Last Actor (the last 50 interactions) Knowing this helps you how exactly? Let’s not even start on data security, gaming algorithms and so on. Modeling, prediction, management.
7. Vision: I’m adding this one in as I think it’s the V that marketers want. To predict behaviours not only on the past behaviour of that customer but also based on the customers tribe & rituals. If 80% of a customer’s friends have become pregnant and that customer’s searching behaviours indicate nest building, well, send ‘em some help. :P

I know this might be a bit esoteric for early in the morning, but we need to address the what Big Data is before the elephant in the room - privacy and ethics - can be sorted out. I'm presenting on Big Data and Human Resources at the AHRI conference in a few weeks. I wonder what they'll think???!! When I presented Big Data and Social Media to the National conference of Chief Purchasing Officers last month, they were astounded! 

Hope you find this interesting!
Laurel

WWWorkshop – June 10, 2015

The Complexity of digital marketing continues to repel SMEs

This digital divide continues to widen

It’s fair to say that SME marketing giant Sensis has yet to master the online world as it struggles to replicate the once glorious domination of the directories market.

Certainly its former majority owner Telstra agreed or it would have been less keen to offload 70% of its ownership stake.

Whilst it earns no revenue from it, one digital initiative Sensis has got right is its continued auspicing of its excellent digital business reports, the annual eBusiness Reports and more recently the Social Media report.

In a market too small to ordinarily fund reports of this quality, Sensis’ investment in providing these reports mean that SME operators can get a sense of where they sit in the digital world and which trends might affect them.

SMEs abandon Social Media!
But those perusing this year’s Social Media Report might well have thought they were misreading graphs illustrating the adoption of social media by smaller Australian businesses.

Because despite the volumes of data illustrating increasing Return on Investment in business use of social media, adoption of the medium amongst smaller business actually declined in the last 12 months.

That’s right.  Smaller Australian business are increasingly dumping social media as a marketing tool, as illustrated here.

Source: Sensis Social Media Report 2015

So why are SMEs leaving this much vaunted new communications channel?

According to the report, the primary reasons were because it took too much time or did not provide a return on investment.

But if you read between the lines, it’s fair to say that for many, social media is just far too complex for the time strapped SME operator.

And who can blame them?  Even if you do embrace social media, which component of social media do you utilise?  Posting on your page, advertising, group participation, starting a group or a combination of these?

And which social networks are going to deliver the best ROI?

No Robinson Crusoe
Certainly, social media is no Robinson Crusoe when it comes to slow or poor adoption of ‘digital’ by SMEs. Proven digital techniques like websites, email marketing, Search Engine Optimisation and others have all experienced slow uptake by SMEs as they have struggled to get their heads around these new kids on the marketing block.

Lets face it, the smaller the business, the less resource it will have to dedicate to both marketing and technology.

Therefore it’s primarily left up to the business operator themselves to find time in their already packed day to understand, explore and finally master the digital world.

Time consuming content generationWhat’s more, as this blog has constantly surmised, even when the medium is grasped, you then have to find time or resource to generate the regular content required to make it sing for you.

Larger business is well accustomed to creating its own content for the various media to latch onto to and in turn promote the business.  

The Sensis reports themselves are great examples of this.  And this blog is a great example of the good publicity that ensues.

But smaller business operators aren’t accustomed to the demands of the creation and distribution of so much content.  Prior to websites, the biggest content project many of them have had to pull together was a quarter page ad in Yellow Pages or the local newspaper.

The baby or the bathwater?
Whilst the survey doesn’t drill into the specifics, it’s fair to say that another reason for the poor Return on Investment is because it’s been put in the wrong hands.

Often scared off by the cost of creating quality content, many smaller business operators assign the social media task to a well meaning PA or family member, only to obtain moderate results at best and sometimes even damage to their brand, as we discussed here recently.

Unfortunately, those business operators who end up with a bad experience as a result of putting their digital tasks in the wrong hands often throw the baby out with the bathwater and abandon the idea altogether, instead of simply allocating it to a more experienced person or organisation.

But all the news is not gloomy for SMEs.  One of the benefits of most digital communications tactics is that is usually unnecessary to be locked into any longer term agreements.  Most tactics can be experimented with without undue cost or commitment.

This means that business operators can afford to put their toe in the water with these media safe in the knowledge that they don’t have to throw huge sums at it to start generating results.

Given that most of their customers are enthusiastically embracing the digital world, it’s a bullet they are going to have to bite sooner or later.

In addition to being a leading eBusiness educator to the smaller business sector, Craig Reardon is the founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which was established to address the special website and web marketing needs of SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.  www.theeteam.com.au

5 Gems on how to use Facebook for Business

Great article by Michael Ruiz 

While many small businesses are entering into the fray, they are using it in a very ‘traditional’ or ‘push’ marketing way. They understand that Twitter has potential for them to connect with their customers, but they aren’t quite sure how to use it and how they can benefit from it. As a result, many fall off the map and end up wasting time and resources with little to no benefit. Rather than rushing into using Facebook without knowing exactly why, your business should consider a more strategic approach.

http://bit.ly/1HMf0I6

1. PRIORITISE YOUR BUSINESS OBJECTIVES

Every brand on Facebook is on Facebook for one reason – to (eventually) get more business.

Before you can get customers from Facebook, you need prioritised objectives and an engaged fan base that’s compelled to visit your website.

2. BUILD YOUR FACEBOOK AUDIENCE

To grow your Facebook fan base, you need to make your Page and your posts as discoverable as possible both online and off. No one can connect with you on Facebook if they don’t know you exist, so let’s talk about 5 ways to get noticed.

• Make sure your page is properly filled out with searchable information.
• Invite existing contacts to ‘like’ your page.
• Incorporate Facebook into your online and offline communication channels.
• Create value.
• Pay for new ‘likes’ (fans) using Facebook advertising.

3. DEVELOP & FOCUS ON YOUR OVERARCHING CONTENT & LEAD GEN’ STRATEGIES.

Focus first on your overall content and lead generation strategies. Then, repackage what you’ve already created for Facebook.

4. CHAMPION VALUE CREATION: WHAT CONTENT TO CREATE & SHARE ON FACEBOOK

To attract customers, you can’t just post sales-driven content.

INSTEAD, GENERATE LEADS IN TWO WAYS:

Directly. Generate leads by sharing content that links directly back to a landing page with a contact form on your website.

Share the landing page for a downloadable offer, such as:

• An e-book.
• A white-paper.
• A template.
• A checklist.

Indirectly. Generate leads eventually after sharing friendly, easy-to-consume content not housed behind a form.

Share:

• Photos
• Photo albums
• Blog posts
• YouTube videos
• Third-party content
• Event invites

Photos work wonders for your click-through rate and post engagement, so it’s worth spending the extra time sourcing or creating images for your posts.

Whether B2C or B2B, business is still P2P (people to people) - Post a variety of content types aimed at providing value – education, entertainment, etc.

5. MAXIMISE CUSTOMER ACQUISITION WITH ADVERTISING.

The people connected to your company on Facebook may not be your most qualified leads. The best way to reach them is with targeted ads.

Facebook has evolved to become more of a paid marketing platform than an organic one. A brand’s ability to reach their fan base organically has diminished as more brands and content compete to appear in users’ News Feeds.

If you’re trying to drive traffic, leads, and customers, you probably want to advertise posts that contain a link back to your website, but you can also create different types of ads depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

There is no one size fits all formula for using Facebook for business. Start small, experiment, post regularly, and actively strive to engage with your customer.

References:

http://offers.hubspot.com/how-to-attract-customers-with-facebook

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-use-facebook-business

Is your social media tail wagging your marketing dog? Part 1

WWWorkshop – April 8, 2015

 

 

Is your social media tail wagging your marketing dog? Part 1

Exhibit A – A local restaurant

 

In last week’s Blog post, I explored the ‘digital delusion’ of allocating digital work to IT Departments or people without consultation or collaboration with the appropriate marketing, operations, public affairs and other departmental professionals.

 

The ensuing result was a communication or application that might well be functionally perfect, but failed to meet its fundamental business objective.

 

This common occurrence display the ‘pendulum’ pattern of many developments involving change – a virtual disposal of traditional approaches in favour of a brave new way, only to find that actually some of the traditional fundamentals were quite sound before eventual settling on a middle position.

 

This week I wanted to provide a real life example of this effect at work.

 

What are your communication objectives?
The communication technique in question is social media.  Whilst this is clearly a digital technique from a technical perspective, its role within an organisation is usually to achieve an objective of:

-       Marketing (or promotion)

-       Publicity

-       Customer communication

-       Customer service

 

Therefore the person or supplier charged with executing the social media campaign or strategy should really be qualified in any or all of these disciplines.

 

Because again, without them you could end up with a technically proficient marketing failure.

 

In this case, the restaurant in question hired someone who claimed to be a ‘social media expert’ with the express aim of promoting the business to bring in both new and repeat customers.

 

The expert went to work and came up with a range of creative ideas to keep the restaurant top of mind with its (in this case) 434 Facebook ‘Likes’.

 

Tick for strategy
From a marketing perspective, the fundamental strategy was sound.  A well managed Facebook page is a cost effective way of promoting the business to customers new and old, particularly given that a quality restaurant is a ‘high passion’ business – one that is likely to attract willing participants in its ongoing marketing and communications efforts.

 

But whilst the posts were relatively engaging and helped keep the restaurant top of mind with its ‘Likers’ it fell down on some factors that could be described as Marketing 101 fundamentals – presentation and branding.

 

 

This murky shot of a tasty desert might be acceptable to come from the camera of a patron, but not from the restaurant itself.

 

Take the above photograph for example.  While its great that the restaurant is promoting one of its signature dishes, the image itself is murky and unclear, or essentially amateurish.

 

This illustrates digital delusion perfectly.  Whilst it achieved the technical objectives of creating an interesting post, it failed to do so in a way that was of a professional quality and in fact could even damage the reputation of the restaurant.

 

Isn’t Facebook amateur?
But aren’t ‘snaps’ like this the mainstay of Facebook?

 

When they are from patrons of the restaurant, absolutely.  Friends of the poster will understand that their Friend is an amateur photographer and find their shot quite acceptable to illustrate a great dessert.

 

But for this business, it isn’t acceptable.  Consumers have been treated to the highest quality of creative communications in the media for decades.  They expect a photograph to portray a dish at the highest possible quality to provide a sense of quality and professionalism – even if offered to them in a medium crawling with amateur pictures.

 

Business not pleasure 
A murky snap from a smartphone just doesn’t cut it – particularly with such a sensual (in the true sense of the word) product as food.

 

 

Another post contains a shot of a number of patrons enjoying their meal. 

 

Again, in the right hands, the shot could have been a great way to illustrate the enjoyment of the food the restaurant provided.

 

But in practice, a gloomy shot of half eaten meals just looks messy and ugly.  Is this what you want for your 'brand'?

 

 

Finally.  A professional image!

 

Context and quality
To the credit of the social media expert, they did find some professional images and posted these from time to time.

 

But the fact that they can’t distinguish a damaging image from an enticing one does only demonstrates their lack of experience and knowledge of professional marketing.

 

Why would you even bother with the amateur snaps when you have professional images at your fingertips?

 

Unfortunately, this scenario is an all too common case of the social media tail wagging the marketing dog.

 

It’s a practice your business should avoid if it wants to present itself in a professional manner.

 

 

 

 

In addition to being a leading eBusiness educator to the smaller business sector, Craig Reardon is the founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which was established to address the special website and web marketing needs of SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.  www.theeteam.com.au

 

 

Web help the Way you Want it…
The E Team provides a range of professional, affordable web design and marketing services designed especially for Australia's smaller business sector.  Find out more at www.theeteam.com.au or contact me today. 

 

* Follow Craig on:  Facebook    LinkedIn    Twitter

___________________________
From Craig Reardon
Managing Director
The E Team 
p 1300 735 943

Collaboration and Joint Venturing

Joint Ventures and Collaboration 

By Michael Ruiz

The term joint venture refers to the coming together of a number of industrial factors with the intent of carrying out a seemingly larger project. A good example of a joint venture would be to collaborate in a large construction contract. Joint ventures come with a number of characteristics.

The very first and foremost feature of a joint venture is the time frame. Joint ventures are directed towards a specific project and in most cases are limited to certain duration of time. As a form of illustration, the government may advertise a contract whereby they may require the construction of a given modern road or railway. One company or several of them may realise that if given the job to carry out alone, it may be too heavy for them. As such therefore, they may seek fellow contractors in the same field to join hands and take over the contract together. Of course the coming together of the two or several contractors does not make them permanent business partners. The purpose of working together is simply to perform the contract at hand and then part ways, unless they join hands again and carry out another contract together. Otherwise, from the legal point of view, the joint venture comes to an end as the contract comes to an end too.

http://onforb.es/1fCxWXw

The other characteristic of a joint venture is the ability of both or several parties carrying out all administrative functions of the collaboration together. Of course before taking up the contract, the contractors involved will normally have a contractual agreement where they will outline the legalities involved in their activities. The procedure that would be taken has to be agreed upon in order to avoid any future disagreements. Without this the performance of the contract may be hampered by daily disagreements where one party may complain that they are either left out on major jobs or that they are being given a bigger workload as compared to the other. Many at times will resort to sharing responsibilities.

In some situations, a joint venture may have to be organised in the form of a private limited company. In this case, the contractors that will have come together will be recognised as shareholders. The amount or shareholding will vary depending on each company’s financial contribution to the venture. In some situations the shareholding will be exactly the same whereby the rights and responsibilities will be shared equally. In some cases, the participants may take the direction of a public limited company whereby the shareholders will still pool their efforts together for the sake of the limited-time venture.

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The other more informal approach that may be taken by a joint venture as collaboration is the partnership. Some may choose to register the venture as such while others may simply take the approach but not really register it. Some legal jurisdictions will compel joint ventures to be registered however short the period of the venture may be. Of course this is for legal purposes in case of any future disagreements and for purposes of taxation. If registered as a partnership, the legal rules governing a partnership will come into play. The rights and obligations will be followed as set out in the partnership agreement.

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http://bit.ly/1d5RqbR

Another characteristic of a joint venture that cannot be overlooked is the management. It may be necessary in some cases for the venture to appoint a management body that will cater for the management of the venture. The management body will definitely have to represent the participants involved. Management personnel may be brought in from all sides in a certain percentage. Some ventures will find it necessary to appoint an independent management body that is not composed of any of their employees. Of course they have to agree on which one to go for since they will have to pay for the body’s services.

Establishing a joint venture with a participant from a foreign platform has always had some advantages. It helps the local one to gain an international market and increase the prospects of getting newer and more customers. The strategy here is the business network creation.

Have you thought about collaborating or forming a JV (joint venture)?
Care to share your experience and/or expertise?

Click below to attend our "Marketing for SMBs" event: 31st March 2015 EVENT

Digital marketing checklist for manufacturers and wholesalers (revisited)

WWWorkshop – November 26, 2008

10 Digital marketing factors manufacturers and wholesalers need to be across

This week we continue our revisit to digital marketing recommendations made via this blog some six years back – this time those made to manufacturers and wholesalers.

In the recent past, manufacturers have fundamentally differed from most other businesses in that they predominantly did not deal directly with end-customers, instead tapping into wholesale and retail markets to disseminate their product.

But like many sectors, the internet has provided unprecedented opportunities to alter the value chain and, if strategically viable, put manufacturers directly in touch with end-customers.

Many have chosen to stick to the conventional path and leave the end-customer relationship to intermediaries, however many new manufacturers have ignored convention and chosen to deal directly with them – for better or for worse.

So are manufacturers better off looking at these newly enabled marketing or sticking with the tried and true?  Or should they cultivate a middle ground?

Whichever strategy is chosen, the following provide a useful guide to what their customers expect of their online presence.

1 - We are not biting the hand that feeds
2008: Before any manufacturer embarks on a web strategy they need to understand its impacts on current or future sales channels.  Your retail clients will be rightly miffed if all of a sudden you start promoting and selling the very same product they have been happily and loyally buying from you for years and in turn representing successfully to end-customers.  On the other hand, if you think your web strategy is robust enough you could go direct to consumer and earn some of the margin you have been hitherto giving away.  Either way care needs to be taken because burnt bridges can be very difficult to re-build.

2014: Nowadays the notion of a manufacturer or wholesaler going direct to the public is quite commonplace.  Many have decided to cut out the middle man and go direct after realising just how cost effective and convenient the online channel is.  At the same time, the growth in adoption of eCommerce by retailers since 2008 – whilst still slow compared to other sectors, may mean that its not necessary to go direct to the public.

2 - We have arranged professional photography of all our products
2008: This absolute no-brainer is not practiced by countless manufacturers.  Why go to the all the trouble of researching, producing and improving world class products if the shots of them on your and your intermediaries websites are poorly lit, out of focus and standing in some shadowy corner of a warehouse?

This is one of the biggest blunders on the web today.  The equation is very simple.  Unless your product looks enticing and as good as it possibly can, online customers will simply ignore it.  And that goes for your retailers’ sites too.  Spend the money, provide them with professional shots and watch as both your online and offline sales increase.

2014: While the professional photography penny has dropped for many, it still remains one of the biggest oversights by all of manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers.  Small retailers in particular struggle to grasp the importance of professional images and should really have them provided by the manufacturer or wholesaler.

3 - We provide as much professional product information as possible
2008: Another simple equation.  The more product information you provide, in as many media as possible, the closer you will take customers to the sale.  Online consumers hate delays.  If they want something, they want it now (or at least arranged now) so they can spend their precious time doing other things.  So give them as much information as humanly possible and make it available as photography, video, testimonials, lab tests, pdfs or any other evidence that will get the customer over the line.

2014: Again, whilst theres been steady improvement in this area, there is equally as much room for improvement from others.  The other factor around this that has become more critical is the search engine optimisation benefits of high quality content.  Put simply, the more optimised content you have on your website, the more prominent it will be in search results for your keywords.



4 - We have a Content Management System
2008: Given that your website is going to have to change constantly to keep up with new and improved products, customer service questions and technical information, you don’t to have to be charged an arm and leg every time you need something changed.  An easy to use ‘CMS’ will put your website back under your control to make changes whenever you need to and saving a bundle in the process.  Just make sure you follow the ‘styleguide’ your designer established for you though.

2014: CMS are now far more commonplace than they once were as designers and developers have finally yielded to the demands of their clients to be able to alter their own content.  Better still, costs for these once exorbitant capabilities have reduced to virtual petty cash.


5 - We have a password protected area for our retailers
2008: Websites can be a brilliant tool to communicate special information to your intermediaries.   Providing this will also increase productivity as they can help themselves rather than take up the valuable time of staff.  Password protected areas (or extranets) are now a common and affordable way of providing this product information on demand.  This can be given even more value by pointing to it with a regular eNewsletter.

2014: Like most things technological, these capabilities have improved many times over in six years, with capabilities like individual pricing and drop shipping management now commonplace in even the lowest cost systems.  They should now be standard for most manufacturers or wholesaler but alas, still aren’t.


6 - We are prominent on search engines
2008: Don’t let your competitors get the jump on you.  Make sure you are prominent for all relevant keywords so that you increase your chances of providing the information they need and in turn making the sale.

2014: No change to this critical item.  Search engines are now more entrenched than ever and should now be a mandatory priority for any manufacturer or wholesaler.


7- Our site is ultra professional
2008: As for 2 above, why go to all the effort in creating a great product only to be let down by its online representation.  Professional websites are now well documented as providing excellent returns on your investment so don’t let yourselves or your customers down by providing a substandard website – particularly if you appeal to a web savvy younger audience.

2014: If the demands of both business and consumer shoppers were high back in 2008, they are much higher now.  The good news is that the cost of professional websites has continued to drop steadily so these days a high quality website is well within the financial reach of manufacturers and wholesalers.


8 - We invite feedback at every opportunity
2008: One of the great benefits of a website is allowing customers and other stakeholders the opportunity to comment on your product.  Instead of blocking their attempts to give you this gold, use your website to warmly and openly invite them to do so.  A great example of this is practised by coffee giant Starbucks at http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/

2014: Whilst the need for this capability hasn’t diminished, the way it is done has.  Social networking has fundamentally altered the way customers provide feedback both to a business and its customers direct.  Nowadays a social media presence within relevant networks is a critical component of your marketing and customer communications strategy.


9 - We have a strategy for Web 2.0 marketing
2008: While most of us were sleeping, Generation Y took over the world wide web.  They did this by transforming it from the monologue ‘one to many’ modus operandi we were so familiar with thanks to traditional media, to a living, breathing organic dialogue which makes them as loud as wealthy manufacturers and brands.  Call it heresy, call it what you like, but its not going to go away any time in our lifetimes so we all better get used to it and work out how to deal with it.

Outspoken US eMarketer Marta Kagen tells it how it is with her landmark presentation ‘What the F**k is Social Media’ which can be found at www.slideshare.com .  Show it to your staff at your next marketing meeting.

2014: Probably the biggest change to this area is what we call it.  The term Web 2.0 didn’t see much light of day beyond the digital industry, having been replaced by the more specific ‘Social Media’.  But much of the revolution predicted back then has in fact occurred, with social media fundamentally altering the way customers, particularly younger ones, communicate.


10 - We constantly provide new product news and information to our customers
2008: The beauty of the web is that for the first time, you can communicate with literally millions of potential customers for the fraction of the price you once had to find.  Every single piece of news about your products and company should be dispersed to this ready and willing market at every opportunity.  What was once fodder for your Media Release is now a multi-channel, multi-media approach that makes word of mouth sound like a vinyl LP on the wrong speed.  Do your research, investigate how your child, niece or friends kids go about communicating online and you’ll soon see the light and adjust your strategy accordingly.

2014: This piece of advice has proven especially salient as both of eCommerce and Social Networking have exploded in the eight years since.  Any business not practicing it by now will be behind the pack or may not even be around anymore!

Any business who practiced these 10 ‘commandments’ back in 2008 is likely to be an old hand at them now.  Still many are yet to embrace let alone master them and should make doing so a priority for 2015.

Craig Reardon is a leading eBusiness educator and founder and director of independent web services firm The E Team which provide the gamut of ‘pre-built’ website solutions, technologies and services to SMEs in Melbourne and beyond.  www.theeteam.com.au