Wispa » Marketing

Social Media: Who’s Responsible?

admin — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:17:24 +0000

With the massive growth and popularity of Social Media, professionals working in the marketing industry are now asking the question, “who is responsible for managing marketing and content initiatives in this new environment?” Does this sit entirely within the marketing department?

While the marketing team has traditionally managed the brand and promotional communications within a company, it’s now time for a more coordinated effort across the various functions within the business.

We live in a culture of participation and the opportunity for using Social Media to the benefit of the whole organization is huge. How does the HR team use this medium to attract, train and retain talent? How does the Operational Team use the medium to stay in touch with employees and maintain engagement?

How does the R&D team tap into new ideas and test responses to new products? How does the Merchandising team use the medium to test or seed new sample product?

With so many potential opportunities to interact with the necessary stakeholders, it’s important that an overall Social Media strategy be developed across the business. And who better to lead this, than the Chief Executive.

The next question is whether the CEO is up to date with the seismic shift in the way consumers and staff now interact with media?

Building a Mobile Website for Retail Purposes

admin — Wed, 20 May 2009 06:22:37 +0000

While mobile internet usage is still pretty small in Australia, it’s time we started thinking about shopping and buying over the mobile channel. It’s only a matter of time until this becomes common practice in our markets. As consumer behavior shifts and becomes more in favor of buying online, mobile offers yet another channel to access the Internet.

Mobile commerce is the next frontier for retailers and marketers. Consumers overseas are not only getting more comfortable browsing and shopping on mobile, but handsets are increasingly more capable of delivering those experiences.
So, mobile shopping and buying will become acceptable behavior, particularly with impulse purchases. Just as consumers expect the same experiences online as they do in-store – inventory, branding, pricing, product availability, customer service – so will they soon expect the same from mobile.

This opportunity creates a number of interesting challenges. Which industry sectors lend themselves to mobile commerce? Will simply repurposing the traditional ecommerce site do? How do we integrate mobile into the sales process and what is the role of SMS in driving store traffic?

So, some exciting challenges lie ahead for all marketers. I’d love to hear your views on this one.

Take Advantage of Digital Marketing in 2011

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 05:55:04 +0000

As companies finetune marketing budgets in 2011 to focus on programs that yield a higher return on investment, we thought it might be interesting to note that it presents a rare opportunity for marketers to take advantage of digital marketing to thrive in a difficult and challenging environment.

As consumer behaviour matures online, and the preferred inbox of consumers continues to evolve, there are some seriously powerful and affordable ways to reach new customers and build relationships with existing ones. Targeted messaging via the web, search, email, mobile and social networks can be highly successful tools in your marketing arsenal.

Let us know if you want further information or examples on how to market online or reach your existing database effectively and affordably?

How to Get Your Emails Read

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:50:34 +0000

These days, your email campaigns are competing with more than just the other email messages in the recipient’s inbox. Social Networking sites, Blogs, RSS feeds, and the Advertising running alongside your recipient’s email inbox, are all becoming more relevant.

The user is seeking out personalized content – demanding it, actually. Messages that are relevant to consumers’ interests are the ones that get read – and chances are you already have the necessary data to start crafting these emails.

They want what they want. Customers expect relevant communications today, and leveraging dynamic messaging allows for the delivery of information they want to receive.
They want to be unique. Email recipients like when a message “talks to them” and not the masses.
They are busy. Delivering messages that customers want saves them time and money.
They don’t like inbox clutter. Sending messages that are relevant to the recipients can greatly reduce the volume of email you would normally send, if there were no targeting efforts.

This is why the information you have about your customers is so crucial to the delivery of relevant messages. Making sense of the available data from multiple sources can be daunting at first, so try to have a clear understanding of what information you need to have in your database.

If you already have an existing database, take a step back and look at all of your data and determine what is important to the organisation and to your customer. Then take customer profiles and transaction history into account when crafting emails.

Engagement Marketing

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:47:53 +0000

With the rise of the Web, empowered consumers have unprecedented access to a vast array of product and company information, as well as control over the marketing messages they receive. The surge in social media use has given voice to millions of people who are freely sharing their thoughts and opinions through social networks, photo and video sharing sites, blogs, community forums, wikis and more.

It’s a now a new age in marketing, and one thing is clear: marketers no longer have exclusive control over brands, and they are starting to recognize this change. Buying decisions can no longer be influenced only by repeated exposure to the same content. Instead, they are built on information, education and discussions among influential communities of like-minded individuals.

This new world of marketing is called Engagement Marketing.

Engagement marketing listens as often as it speaks. It understands individuals, not just audiences, and it works to achieve anticipation over interruption. “Engagement” is now the cornerstone of savvy marketing. Utilizing Web 2.0 technologies that enable marketers to understand and communicate relevant messages, an engagement marketing strategy builds vibrant brands, legions of loyal customers and fans, and delivers ever-increasing revenues and return on investment.