Tag Archive for 'Interactive Marketing'

Interactive Marketing Gets Some Good News From Retail

Published
by
Tom Dressler
on August 4, 2008
in Branding, Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, Media Buying, Online Marketing, Social Media and Website Analytics
. 0 Comments

According to the latest information provided by Forrester…

Retail marketers are responsible for more than one-third of all interactive marketing spend: an expected $8.2 billion by year end 2008. As veterans in the interactive space, retailers will grow IM investments at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25% as they continue to refine existing programs to drive more online sales and also experiment with new media and richer display ads to boost brand awareness and customer engagement.

What great news…something that looks positive when reporting about the economy.

Some interesting facts:

  1. More than 1/3 of all Internet Marketing spend comes from Retail Marketers
  2. Retail Marketing is a veteran when it comes to Interactive Marketing
  3. Smart Interactive Marketers focus first to refine current programs to increase sales
  4. Experiment with new media to boost brand awareness and customer engagement

The lessons mentioned here make sense to me. Increase marketing when times are tough. Focus on channels that can be measured. Optimize existing ROI programs while testing other awareness opportunities.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated.

Facebook Marketing Strategies, Food for Thought

Published
by
Tom Dressler
on July 30, 2008
in Branding, Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, Lead Generation, Online Marketing and Social Media
. 0 Comments

Facebook Marketing Strategies, Food for ThoughtWe as Interactive Marketing professionals, consumer market research professionals, and eBusiness & channel strategy professionals look for solutions that meet the needs of today’s online environment. When posed with this question, Facebook comes up over and over again. So what should we do about it?

As described by Forrester,

Facebook is a media, community, and application platform that offers an existing thriving ecosystem, scalable growth, and quick word-of-mouth marketing. The ability to understand users, their preferences, networks, and helps web applications to quickly segment and rapidly grow.

WebsiteBiz FacebookWow, what does that mean? First off, as a community the opportunity to study your prospects are huge. Are they engaged on Facebook and/or Social Media as creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, or inactives? I find this information to be surprising at times. If your market is using Facebook it provides a targeted advertising platform unlike any we have ever seen before, the ability to provide messages segmented by location, gender, and/or preference gives us the ability to accurately market effectively.

Ideas to be considered when evaluating Facebook Marketing

  • Demographics and trend data
  • Word of mouth and viral growth using Newsfeeds and widgets
  • Groups, sponsored groups, and other community features
  • Harness personal and network information
  • Contextual and targeted advertising opportunities
  • Monetizing your efforts
  • Case studies of success and failure
  • Understanding costs, and strategies to measure ROI

While this can seem intimidating at first, proven strategies do in fact deliver positive results. But a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them, based on what they are ready for.

Please provide your thoughts and impressions of Facebook Marketing.