We Can Solve Your Marketing Problems

Panel Lee Stephens, CEO, Aegis Media Pacific Dicken Doe, Managing Director, Beyond Analysis Australia Peter Hunter, Managing Director, iProspect

Mark Hadley asks: “ We are the web presence of a very established, traditional brand, trying to market ourselves to a younger clientele. Part of our problem, however, is the perception of conservatism associated with our brand. What are the key elements to focus on in addressing such a situation?”

Provides a personalised experience and reason to return – great recruitmernt technique We can see who you are but we don’t get an immediate idea of what you are – a key requirement for establishing repore with new visitors. Ie “The meeting place for Anglicans” Clarify your purpose upfront. The news “format” works in providing a sense of authority and tone however are we promising too much? What do your young readers want and where is this reflected? Great sense of headline and personality in the syndicated content however If your site had a job description – what would it say? Get this right and every other decision becomes easy!

Recommendations

Ask your audience. What do they really want from you?

Write a job description for the site. Clarify what the site needs to do for you and prioritise those needs. You need it as a framework for deciding what stays or goes. Are you the meeting place or the destination? Are you an aggregator or a source of information. Does your opinion count to young people? If so how should you present yourself?

Ensure you have the right tone and signposting to reflect your objectives. Audience testing your site will help clarify this and identify which aspects of your member relationship suit digital and which do not

Avoid the distraction of technology - you’re unlikely to win over your audience with the latest gizmo.

Rob Antulov asks: “ Brands want to be a part of the (social media) conversation, but there’s a beautiful irony - the harder they try, the more they are likely to fail, particularly if their attempts to be a part of the conversation are seen to be fake. So, how do brands best demonstrate relevance and be genuine in their engagement, and how do marketers then use these social communities to benefit their brand?”

Peter asks: “ We currently use email to reach many of our customers - reseller partners - with promotions and news. We have started talking about RSS. What do you believe is the most appropriate use of RSS and when should we stick with email?”

Your Questions

Aaron Fuller asks: What is the best applications and/or processess to shift the current business model of selling personal insurance (car & home for eg) via telephone and branches to on-line. currently in Oz, less then 10% of insurance is purchased on-line, despite the web being the first point of research for potential customers? In the UK and US, the people buying insurance online is closer to 50%. How then, would you advise on increasing this number in Oz, and in doing so, does the business lose any benefits from personal selling, such as cross sell & service?

Doug Garske asks: “ Myspace usurped by Facebook, Friendster is huge in Asia… twitter growing out of control… Do we need to be at the cutting edge of Social Media… throw budgets at all new concepts where people gather? Or do we stand back and let the dust settle and then get involved? I’m an advocate for the new way for B2C communication - the conversation from Push marketing to Pull marketing is exciting … but… if I’m controlling a budget… should I be controlled in by dive into the social media world?”

What do you think? a) likely to succeed b) not likely to succeed c) not sure