eMarketing: a Strategic Approach

eMarketing, a strategic approachRob Stokes

South Africa has more internet users than:Belgium

SwedenIn 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”

They are substantially less effective without each other

Currently this great site is a lonely islandIntegrate 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…

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

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

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

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

Have consistent Calls to Action

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 treesblinking images

unusual fontsUsing Personas for large sites

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

Internal and inbound linksOther SEO Considerations for your siteThe age of the domain

Text navigation is better than images

Offer RSS feeds (AND RSS to email)

XML sitemapBe remarkable - make your site a resource!

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 CTANot enough text formatting

Initial ObservationsPlace breadcrumbs higher up on the page (currently at the bottom)There is no search function on the siteMeta Data is identical for every pageThere is no .xml sitemapCanonicalisation is not set upMore content-rich, optimised pages

Logo should direct homeNot enough attention drawn to menuGood attention drawn to conversion goalMove this higher up and state benefits

There is no use of Meta Data & Title tagsThere is no html sitemapThere are no breadcrumbs in placeThere is no .xml sitemapCanonicalisation is not set upNeeds more content-rich, optimised pagesError page not customised

Logo does not redirect homeMake this conversion goal more obviousPlace this higher up and state benefits

The ‘Open an account’ link appears broken…Store locator map is not interactiveNo Meta Data and Title tagsThere is no .xml sitemapCanonicalisation is not set upNeeds more content-rich, optimised pagesError page not customised

Logo does not direct home‘Sale now on’ appears to be a link but is not.State benefits of the newsletter‘Apply’ and ‘careers’ link brokenNo attention placed on menu

There is no user sitemapSome images/text appear to be links but are notMeta Data is not used at allTitle tags are not usedThere is no .xml sitemapDuplicate sites running on different subdomains

Monitoring your website’s performance

Above all else, conversion rates!

Traffic Sources (and their conversion rates)

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…

Lots of volume, but why is this important?

Searchers are looking for what your are offering

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

So how do we make sure we are found?

SEM = SEO + PPCOrganic 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

Potential value per conversionThen decide where you want to be…

Make sure your site is optimised around your keywords

Then build plenty of high quality, keyword rich links

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

But first: Why you can’t ignore SEO:

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!

Don’t burn your budget early on: Test!

Look for long tail key phrases

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

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

Credibility itemsSearch 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

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 uniqueShort attention span: they get info served to themSelfish: ‘What will I get for sharing this?’Affluent and urban

There is someone Twittering about you

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?

… and the evidence lasts longer

Because peers are the most trusted source of recommendationEdelman Trust Barometer 2008

People are talking, are you listening?

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

eMarketing: a Strategic Approach

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