This document discusses the evolving landscape of organic marketing. Small businesses now make up the majority of businesses due to low barriers to entry. Most consumers now shop online and are influenced by social media recommendations and reviews. While digital marketing has changed how larger businesses market, most small businesses still use traditional methods and do not collect much customer data or focus on relationships. The document recommends that marketers integrate digital techniques like SEO, social media, email marketing, and events with traditional methods to better target audiences and measure results. Marketers should focus on education, automation, and measurement to help all businesses adapt to changes.

1. Organic Marketing
…an evolving landscape
Rutgers
2014

2. Our Goal…
Understand some of the primary
shifts in marketing and how to
leverage these changes to help
businesses better promote their
products, services, and brand.

3. The Company Landscape is Changing
• Small Business is the New Normal
o Low Barrier to Entry
-Domain name/template
-Incorporation certificate (and EIN)
-Branding (Vistaprint)
o Number of Businesses*
-Small employers (<500 employees): 5,717,302
-Large employers (500+ employees) : 17,236
-Nonemployers 22,110,628 vs. 16.5M in 2000
o Different Needs/Different work environment
-Funding, Operations, Marketing
*According to SBA.gov

4. A look at the market

5. How Consumers Shop
Online

6. How Consumers Shop
Social

7. Impact of Social Media Recommendations
7
• Social media plays an important role in
how consumers discover, research, and
share information about brands and
products.
• 60 percent of consumers researching
products through multiple online
sources learned about a specific brand
or retailer through social networking
sites.
• Active social media users are more
likely to read product reviews online,
and 3 out of 5 create their own reviews
of products and services.
• Overall, consumer-generated reviews
and product ratings are the most
preferred sources of product
information among social media users.
Source: How Social Media Impacts Brand Marketing – Nielsen and NM Incite

8. Facebook  Etsy
8

9. How Consumers Shop
Reviews

10. Power of Reviews
10
90% of customers say buying decisions are influenced by online reviews
Source: 2013 Zendesk survey. 1,046 respondents.

11. Influence of Online Reputation
• A 2010 study completed by Microsoft
revealed that 79 percent of hiring
managers and recruiters do google
applicants, and 70 percent of those
prospective employers have rejected
an applicant due to negative
information found online.
• In addition, the complete lack of an
online presence may prove
detrimental to a jobseeker or
company as today’s highly
competitive marketplace demands
immediate access to reliable
information from multiple sources
11

12. Email still reigns supreme
Email

13. The Power of Email
• 91% of consumers check their email at least once a day.
• 56% of businesses say they plan to increase their use of
email marketing in 2014.
• 42% of marketers use email service providers for services
beyond email broadcasting. This is up 12% from 2010.
• Email is the most popular activity on smartphones among
users ages 18-44.
• 64% of decision-makers read their email via mobile
devices.
• 32% of marketers do not have a strategy in place to
optimize emails for mobile devices.
• 66% of US online consumers, ages 15 and up made a
purchase as a result of email marketing messages.
• Over 70% of mobile purchasing decisions are influenced by
promotional emails.
13Source: Econsultancy. (2013, April). Email Marketing Industry Census 2013

14. Device Agnostic
14

15. Marketing Has Changed…

16. Most Small Businesses Haven’t Changed

17. HOPE Marketing
• Most small businesses still use paper and
pencil or primitive systems
• They collect very little information on
their customers
• They wait for customers to come to them
• Focus on transactions, not relationships
• Limited communication with past
customers
• Know little if anything about marketing
(new or existing)

18. Medium Sized Businesses Embrace Change
• Marketing by medium-sized
businesses is changing more rapidly
• More are experimenting with digital
marketing
• Others more advanced through in-
house marketing resources or agency
• Those transitioning still using a
combination of traditional marketing
and some digital marketing
• Constrained less by budget and more
by lack of expertise/knowledge

19. Large Businesses Become Sophisticated
• Using in-depth understanding of
customer base to test new media
• Understand acquisition costs/ROI
• Use integrated marketing to acquire
new customers and retain existing
ones
• Automate upsell and cross-sell
opportunities
• Getting better results from the
same advertising and marketing
dollars

20. Digital Marketing (new marketing)

21. Benefits of Digital
• An integrated marketing approach
• Ability to micro-target your audience
during purchase decision process
• Ability to control your marketing
spend
• Trackable/measurable
• Easily reallocated dollars to top
performing medium and campaigns
• Improve forecasting (ROI)
21

22. Some Examples – SEO/SEM
• Start with Google
o Dominant driver of traffic
o More search w/local intent
• Local search directories
o Google Places, Yahoo, Bing
o Foursquare
o Superpages
• Global search
• Paid search
o Google Adwords, Yahoo!,
Bing, RTB networks

23. Social Media
• Think strategically to create value
and build a following
• Focus on primary networks
based on your audience
o Facebook
o Twitter
o Google+
o Secondary: LinkedIn,
Pinterest, Instagram, etc.
• Use for viral impact
o Share coupons
o Announcements

24. Events/PR
• Consider online to offline:
(ex: events)
o Bring in existing customers
o Bring in new customers
o Increase exposure (FB)
• Public Relations
o Leverage local media
o Invite everyone
• Use for the development of
digital assets
Leverage social…

25. Email Marketing
• Marketing best practices still apply
o Message
o Offer
o Audience
o Timing
• The $ is in the list
o Customize/Preferences
o Promotions
o Ask for behavior (share/like)
o Test, track, refine

26. More Digital Marketing
• Media (ex: LinkedIn) – pay for
performance
• Affiliate – others do the selling for
you
• Creative – landing page
optimization, testing (ex:
Optimizely)
• Mobile – location services
• Video – highly engaging/ads
available
• Lead Gen – purchase leads directly

27. Our Job As Marketers
1. Always be Learning
2. Educate
• Focus on the benefits of marketing
• Focus on results, not on work
• Explain inbound vs. outbound
3. Automate
• Discuss ways to automate marketing
initiatives via new technology
• Leverage new forms of marketing (digital)
4. Measure
• Capture and provide metrics
• Replicate successes/learn from failures
REPEAT

28. Michael Fleischner, Big Fin Solutions | 2014
Thank You!
Want to get in touch?
mfleischner@bigfinsolutions.com
slideshare.net/mfleischner

29. A little about me…
Michael Fleischner
• 15 year corporate career in marketing
• Author and entrepreneur
• MarketingScoop, Marketing Blog, Scoop
Marketing Forum
• Founder, Big Fin Solutions
o Provide Search Engine Optimization
and Reputation management
solutions to businesses of all sizes
o SEO, local optimization, reputation
marketing, branding, lead gen, etc.