The Future Of Digital Marketing, Search & Social Marketing

Digital Marketing The Future of Wolter Tjeenk Willink

INTRODUCTION

Wolter Tjeenk Willink, founder of Traffic Builders B.V.

Full service search engine marketing agency

Search engine advertising (SEA)

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Conversion optimization (web analytics, usability)

Outsourcing services

Consultancy / Training

Detaching / Aiding inhouse SEM teams

WHAT WE DO...

Search engine optimization for your excisting website or online shop

Aid you in concepting and the SEO-proof development your new site

Update your website frequently with SEO optimized content

Setup and manage your PPC campaigns in Adwords, Yahoo, MSN

Create low-cost, high-impact branding with Google’s site targetting

Optimize landing page performance through A/B or multivariate tests

Increasing online conversion rates through advanced web analytics

Tooling and advise on how to track cross-channel ROI contribution

Etc.

OUR SERVICE TO YOU MIGHT INCLUDE

TODAY’S AGENDA

IN THIS PRESENTATION…

Marketing challenges

Today’s statement

Online marketing trends, facts & figures

Integrated online marketing strategies for B2C and B2B

Social media marketing

Search marketing

Key take aways

Some of the challenges in marketing we face today:

Selecting the right media channels/marketing instruments

Making optimal use of those marketing instruments

Integrating channels for synergy and consistency

Tracking accountability of your marketing spendings

Dealing with short-term ROI focused management

Budgetting

MARKETING CHALLENGES

Marketers and management should focus on a long-term, integrated/holistic online marketing approach instead of a short-term, direct response driven ROI calculation.

STATEMENT FOR TODAY

ONLINE MARKETING FACTS & FIGURES

Internet is the second largest medium

Gaming outranks reading the newspaper in age 20-50

INTERNET VERSUS OTHER MEDIA Source: SPOT, June’08

Time spend online has doubled in just 2 years!

INTERNET VERSUS OTHER MEDIA Source: SPOT, June’08 Age group 20 to 65 years

Approx. 11 million internet users in NL

90% of those use broadband (cable/DSL)

INTERNET USAGE BY CONNECTION Source: CBS

Increased use of laptops: 44% in 2007

Increased use of mobile devices: 21% in 2007

INTERNET USAGE BY DEVICE Source: CBS

95% of the users communicate online through chat, forums, e-mail, etc.

INTERNET USAGE BY ACTIVITY Source: CBS

95% uses search engines regularly

Over 30% of internet users use Social Media

INTERNET USAGE BY ACTIVITY (2) Source: CBS

In 2007, approx. 70% of all users bought online, of which 60% within a period of 12 months

USE OF ONLINE SHOPPING Source: CBS

Travel, software/hardware and clothing remain popular

TYPE OF PURCHASE BY CATEGORY Source: CBS

Online sales expected to reach 4.8 billion euro

ONLINE SPENDINGS Source: Thuiswinkel.org

30% of Dutch internet users use social media:

Chat sites, like MSN

Forums, like Tros Radar or Vara’s Kassa (popular Dutch consumer forums)

Social network sites, like LinkedIn and Hyves

Bookmark sites like , Reddit, NuJij and eKudos.nl

Blogs varying from “Marco’s recipe site” to

RSS distributors like Feedburner

Mini-Blog applications like Twitter

RISE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Your target audience expects you to “socialize” (1):

60% of US internet users use social media

93% of those users expect companies to have social media presence

85% believes companies must interact using social media

56% feel a stronger connection and better served

WHY ENGAGE IN SOCIAL MEDIA Source: Cone Business 2008

Your target audience expects you to “socialize” (2):

43% believes companies should use social networks to solve consumer problems

41% feels companies should solicit feedback on their products and services: enabling co-creation

37% wants companies innovate in brand interaction online

25% even says companies should market to consumers

WHY ENGAGE IN SOCIAL MEDIA? Source: Cone Business 2008

Social media in The Netherlands 2008

SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE IN NL Source: Ruigrok | Netpanel 2008

The majority of your target audience is online,

searching for information,

interacting with your brand,

through multiple channels like search and social media,

buying your products and services online,

or offline...

But how do we respond in terms of marketing?

TEMPORARY FINDINGS

We’re shifting budget from outdoor and print to online

MEDIA BUDGET ALLOCATION 2008 Source: IAB

Whilst internet consumes 28% of our media attention...

...online marketing is still at a 19,1% budget share(?)

MEDIA BUDGET ALLOCATION 2008 Source: IAB

50% was spent on Search (9.6% of overall budget)

25% was spent on display advertising (4,8% of overall)

ONLINE MEDIA BUDGET ALLOCATION Source: IAB

We are shifting more budget to online.

We are following the crowd, thus:

We have to share the same inventory with more advertisers while the user attention span gets shorter ...

...and online marketing gets more expensive

We are still pushing instead of pulling or interacting

New online marketing methods are adopted slowly

Let’s look at some example cases

TEMPORARY FINDINGS

EXAMPLE CASE 1: THE LONG TAIL Total search volume Number of unique search phrases Low High High High number of competitors and direct conversions per search phrase at high costs per conversion The Long Tail in search engine marketing Low number of competitors and direct conversions per search phrase, but high long-term ROI contribution and low cost per conversion

EXAMPLE CASE 1: THE LONG TAIL Motivation Longevity of buying motive Occasional Life style Permanent need Occasional need Temporary need Life Stage “ Mortgage quote” “ Buying a house” “ Having a baby” “ Carp fishing tips” “ Bicycle routes”

EXAMPLE CASE 1: THE LONG TAIL We should also be here (branding, long-term) Motivation Longevity of buying motive Occasional Life style Permanent need Occasional need Temporary need Life Stage We are here (transactional, short-term)

EXAMPLE CASE 2: TRACKING ROI Online advertisers Offline sales & cross-media Track effect of Search on offline conversions, ROI contribution within online cross-media strategies, etc. Branding & Customer Lifetime Value Track online/offline cross-media contribution to branding and ROI Online direct response / ROI Track views, clicks, CTR%, whitepaper downloads, online sales, etc. Direct reponse within the same user session or max. 30-day period.

EXAMPLE CASE 2: TRACKING ROI comScore study 2007 Direct response in Search Engine Marketing accounts for just 17% of total sales! Also: 30% of all internet users delete 1 st and 3 rd party cookies regularly!

EXAMPLE CASE 2: TRACKING ROI comScore study 2007 Calculating real conversion worth per euro based on attribution of Latent sales , Cookie deletion correction and offline sales . Tracked conversion worth Real conversion worth

INTEGRATED ONLINE MARKETING STRATEGIES

Long term (2 – 5 years)

Mobile marketing for ROI

Behavioral targeting (still a bridge too far for most of us)

Do use Mobile Search for branding purposes and keeping

up with mobile use in your branch.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Short term (1 – 2 years)

Invest in inhouse knowledge of Search and other online marketing channels that are vital for you

Create a separate online marketing department or job

Create a multi-disciplinary task force consisting of IT, online, offline, PR and management . Get them involved ; make them part of the process .

RECOMMENDATIONS

Short term (1 – 2 years)

Seriously invest in web analytics: increase conversion %

Split marketing budget into ROI-driven and Branding

ROI-driven budget should be flexible if possible

Take into account Latent ROI, Cookie deletion, Offline i/a

Invest in content-based marketing, especially in B2B

Share knowledge, not just information

Invest in social media in 2009: be out there

RECOMMENDATIONS

Need for an long-term, integrated/holistic approach to:

Search

Organic

Paid

Social media marketing

Affiliate marketing

Display advertising

And offline marketing

ONLINE STRATEGIES FOR 2009

Understand where search engines are moving into:

Personalized search experience

Social search

Universal search

Contextual brand mentioning

Other trends include:

Mobile search

Automated text translation

Voice based search / voice to text

SEO STRATEGIES FOR 2009

Personalized search

User preferred content ranks higher

Behavioral targeting of search results

SEO STRATEGIES FOR 2009 Step 1 Step 2 Step 3

Social search

Social bookmark sites gain importance

How does this affect your website, knowing:

Sites sharing knowledge will gain popularity over sites with information?

Sites that offer brand experience will gain popularity over product sites?

Universal search

Search results now include: blogs, video, RSS feeds, podcasts, images, books, shopping, maps, scholar, etc.

How does this affect your website, knowing:

Your site probably has little non-product/service related content?

And it’s probably not likely that fresh content will be added any time soon?

Contextual brand mentioning will influence organic rankings

Google is able to track where and in which context your brand or company name is mentioned

Google also knows yourdomain.com is the most relevant for “YourCompanyName”

1 + 1 = 3. How does this affect your company, knowing:

Your PR department does not take into account blogs, portals and other online authorities in your branch? Let alone SEO?

Nobody bothers to “socialize” online, responding to blogs

Due to Google’s improved Quality Score invest in:

Broadening your search phrases (in numbers)

Make use of different keyword match types like [exact]

Optimize your landing page:

to improve textual relevance

to decrease bounce rates

and ultimately increase conversion rates

SEA STRATEGIES FOR 2009

Think of Google’s network when considering branding

Improved content network for contextual ads

Reasearch indicates a 50% rise in brand awareness/association

Largest network of site owners/publishers in The Netherlands for low-cost, high-impact display advertising, video advertising, etc.

Exposure on YouTube

SEA STRATEGIES FOR 2009

Social media examples to help you get started

Business to business:

Actively engage in blogs or start your own, publish articles and have users ‘Digg’ them or add your RSS feed, publish video content

Basically: share your knowledge, interact, pull , don’t push

Financial:

Start a blog to answer consumer questions, enable user ratings for assurance agencies (coming soon), etc.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Social media ideas to get you started

Travel:

Have users rate accommodations, write reviews, recommend activities nearby, share their holiday pictures, give them the opportunity to send an holiday eCard with their own photo, etc.