2. WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THE WEB?
According to a study by Nielsen research, the average person in
the US spends over a fourth of his or her time online. Good thing
you have a website! Of the time spent online, however, 23% of
activities center on social networks and blogs. But you’re ok, your
business has a Facebook page and there is a company blog
somewhere in the interwebs. Hold on, almost 40% of those internet
users are consuming online content via mobile phones, and among
another survey of business professionals, 87% still prefer to use
email for sharing content. Your online efforts definitely need mobile
compatibility and you still can’t afford to be out of your audience’s
inbox. Oops, you almost forgot that there’s still Twitter, Linked In,
YouTube, Pinterest, and other new networks popping up every
day! Wait, aren’t you supposed to have an intern that’s handling
all this, or is it just you that’s supposed to make all this digital
magic work?
95% of Time Spent on
Social Networks is on Facebook
87% of Business Pros
Prefer to Share Content via Email
40% of Internet Users Consume
Content Via Mobile Devices
27% of Free Time
is Spent Online
23% of Time Spent
Online is for Social
Networks & Blogs
Overwhelmed yet? Don’t worry, it gets worse…
3. THE HARD FACTS
The audience you’re trying to reach isn’t passively waiting to be
informed about how great your product or service is. In fact, the
vast majority of people don’t even want to deal with you. Two
thirds of the US population is on the national do-not-call list. 86%
of people will do anything and everything to avoid TV commercials
(aside from maybe during the Superbowl,
but that air time is a little pricey).
Approximately 44% of direct mail
is never opened, and of the
remaining mail that isn’t lost or
Content misaddressed, who knows how
much actually gets read. Let’s
face it; your old marketing mix
Engagement
just doesn't cut it anymore!
Involvement Acquisition
Now, before you have a mental
breakdown, there’s a reason
we're barraging you with cold,
brutal facts – and it’s not to prepare
you for marketing Armageddon. After
all, we didn’t say your marketing mix is
dead; it’s just obsolete. You've just been running on steam power
while sitting on all the ingredients for jet fuel, and that’s a problem.
There’s still hope though! Your audience is willing to interact with
you, but on their terms, not yours. Your old marketing channels
and the new ones are still useful – you just need to know how to
tie them all together. You need to be more than just informative,
entertaining, trendy, or sexy – you need to be engaging, and for
that, you need an integrated engagement strategy.
4. INTEGRATED ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY BREAKDOWN
At this point, you’re obviously wondering, “what is an integrated engagement
strategy?” In short, an integrated engagement strategy from a marketing standpoint
is a focus on three key initiatives: content, involvement, and acquisition. The best
way to understand how these initiatives work together is to think of your strategy
as a living, breathing organism – there’s a body, a need for nutrients, and a role it
serves within its ecosystem. To keep things simple, here’s how it breaks down:
The Body The Nutrients The Niche Role
Whether it’s content, involvement, What do you want to happen from How does your engagement drive
or acquisition, this is the core of an online engagement? Do you your business objectives? How can
your integrated engagement want people to consume you use your engagement to build
strategy. If you’re a publisher, for information about your product or up a better body and consume
example, content would tend be service, do you want people to talk better nutrients – this is the most
the body of your strategy as it’s about you and drive traffic your complicated part, but it’s what
likely to be your main source of way, do you want to be liked on takes your marketing mix from a
revenue and the main reason for Facebook or mentioned in tweets? linear path to an-ever growing
your audience to engage with you. These are the things that feed your cycle.
For other industries, like online integrated engagement strategy
communities or support groups, and make it move.
it’s the interactions that drive
results. Still, in other industries like
sports franchises, it’s the overall
number of supporters you acquire
that matters most.
The Niche Role
The Nutrients
The Body
5. Content
Based on a study done by the Content
Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, an
average sized company allocates around 26%
of its marketing budget to content marketing,
and no company - whether it has 1000+
employees or less than ten – spends less than
21% of the total marketing budget on content.
Clearly, content is critical to the marketing mix,
but just churning out branded white papers,
videos, infographics, etc. isn’t what makes
content king (or queen). In fact, according to
Andrew Gaffney of DemandGen Report, only
around 5% of people trust content branded
directly from a vendor. However, when content
is endorsed, created, or reviewed by peers, the
trust level jumps to 53%!
One of the best examples of content which also happens to be a definitive guide on the subject was the
Content Grid v2 by Eloqua and Jess3. This infographic, which explains how certain forms of content fit
best for different stages of the sales cycle and interest levels continues to be a useful tool for marketers,
but also, because Eloqua markets to marketers, a compelling touch point for potential sales as well.
6. The Content cont.
As wonderful as content can be, it’s no silver bullet. If you want content to be the hub
of your integrated engagement strategy you’ll still need to work in acquisition and
involvement tactics. You’ll also need to understand what you want to do with your
content, and whether your company actually has the know-how or resources to execute.
To make it easier, here are a few of the most common benefits from content and what
you need to achieve them:
Content Can: If You Can:
Establish Trust with Your Audience Give Value Beyond Your Product or Service
Make You Stand Out from Online Noise Invest Time and Energy to Produce
Quality Material
Drive Social Media and Overall Understand and Deliver What Your
Online Interaction Audience Wants
Power Your Marketing and Sales Pipeline Tailor Topics and Mediums to Interest
Levels from Top Funnel to Close
Create Valuable Relationships Involve Your Audience in the Process
Educate Potential Buyers Establish Yourself as a Trusted Resource
Drive Further Audience Acquisition Provide Incentives for Followers to
Involve Their Friends
7. Involvement
60% of people expect brands to respond on social media channels according to a recent study by Arnold
Worldwide. Clearly, involvement with your audience isn’t just a good idea, it’s required! What’s more,
having interactive components can drastically boost the effectiveness of your marketing initiatives. From
our own internal research, we’ve found that lead forms placed at the end of interactive content are
completed 65% of the time! As great as involvement is though, it can be hard to achieve. According to
the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute less than 1% of people on Facebook actually engage with a brand page. This
is why for many integrated engagement strategies, involvement plays a supportive role. If content is the
main focus, involvement centers around driving conversations, shares and subscriptions for that content.
If acquisition is the goal, involvement centers on inviting friends. Some companies, however, can make
involvement itself the keystone of their strategy.
Surprisingly, Figment, a major online publisher found that they gained more from driving involvement
first, then channeling that interaction toward their content. As you can see in this diagram, creating activity
on Facebook is the primary objective and content as well as acquisition are used in supporting roles.
Likes
Pin Pinterest Twitter Follows
Share
3) Increased exposure to social
channels increases social sharing
among existing users and attracts Facebook
new users
Website
Blog
SnapApps Sweet
Evil
2) Facebook is the primary channel
of engagement for figment Apps
are used to drive Cross promotion
driving results
1) Great content is leveraged across
Amazon
Leads every channel in engaging ways
Purchase
driving user outcomes
Authored content is highly
Apps are created and Multiple forms of acquisition are
leveraged and creates unique
Content Channels distributed cross-channel for Outcomes employed to deliver likes, leads
engagements to drive
maximum exposure and results and actual purchase events
promotion cross channel
8. What Involvement Can Do
When looking to implement involvement, here’s what you need to remember:
Involvement Can: If You Can:
Result in User Generated Content Surprise, Delight, or Provide an Experience
Worth Sharing
Fuel New Fan Acquisition Resonate or Connect with Current Fans
Generate Leads, Opportunities and Evaluate and Map Out the Most
Conversions Compelling Kinds of Interactions
Foster an Online Community Identify and Empower Brand Advocates
and Influencers
Accelerate or Increase Purchases Build Relationships Beyond Capital
Exchange with Your Buyers
Build Trust with Your Audience Communicate as a Peer NOT as a Merchant
Stand Out from the Competition Have a Unique Voice or Personality
9. Acquisition
Not all companies can be masters of content or interaction, but to foster utility out
of engagement, sometimes, all it takes is an invitation. Acquisition of new audience
members, fans, followers, etc. may or may not be your main business objective, but
of the three integrated engagement strategy components, it is the one piece that
can turn slow linear progress into sharp exponential growth. If content is the
foundation of your integrated engagement strategy, acquisition tactics like “share
this” buttons, “invite a friend” calls to action, or incentivized referrals can build not
only the amount of people your content reaches, but also the interactions your
content elicits. Similarly, if interaction is your focus, growing the amount of supports
connecting with you in
public or social media
forums can turn to more
back channel leads,
conversions, purchases
and post-purchase brand
advocates. Finally, if
acquisition is your primary
goal, your content and your
interactions are benefits,
but being a part of the
overall group is the biggest
benefit for your audience.
Take a look at the the 60 second snap shot of what people are doing online. All
this activity is happening , but without a good acquisition plan, you have no way
to tap into it all.
10. Acquisition cont.
But if you’re thinking about making acquisition the base of your engagement strategy
consider the following:
Acquisition Can: If You Can:
Amplify the Effect of Your Communications Target and Engage Relevant People
Expand the Reach of Your Content Distribute Material to Active Users
Enhance Lead Generation Funnel Your Audience from
Multiple Channels
Diversify Your Audience Appeal to New Verticals and Demographics
Provide More Accurate Data Measure Trends and Behaviors
Build on Itself Document, Dissect and Duplicate
What Works
Establish Trust Serve as a Connection Between People
of Similar Interests
11. MAKING CONTENT THE CENTER OF YOUR INTEGRATED
ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
Good content produces great results. Companies with blogs generate around 67% more
leads per month than their blog-less peers. Businesses with forty or more unique landing
pages generate ten times more leads than those with five or fewer landing pages. What’s
more, 90% of marketers use some form of content marketing already. When it comes to
defining the body of your integrated engagement strategy, content may be the clearest
choice.
Making content work for engagement, however, isn’t always as easy as it seems. From our
own data, we’ve found that of companies who actively use Facebook, an astonishing 43%
report seeing little to no likes, comments, or shares for all the content they post. The trend
is also reflected on Twitter with 44% reporting little to no responses to posted content. For
blogs, the pattern doesn’t get much better coming in at 38%. These low results stem from
a very common mistake – the draw is never the content itself, but the experience people
have with it. For content to be effective the audience needs to be involved – there needs to
be some kind of interactive element.
Adding interactivity to your content, though, isn’t all that difficult or time consuming. It can
be as simple as including a question in a Facebook post, to placing a quiz or poll before a
white paper to involve your audience in the content itself. Even in old-school direct-mail
campaigns, new technology like QR codes can turn static pieces of paper into online games,
rewards, or other mobile interactions. Whether it’s through add-ons, questions, or apps, for
every form of content you can think of, there is a way to make it interactive.
When content and involvement are clicking, then it’s time to bring in acquisition. It’s not,
however, just about telling your audience to invite their friends. It’s about creating programs
and incentives that reward people for bringing in more members. Using contests or
sweepstakes, for example, where the likelihood of winning goes up based on how many
shares, referrals, or invites you send can drastically drive fan acquisition. Even simple trivia
games and quizzes can drum up numbers. Dorado Tacos & Cemitas, for example, saw a 50%
registration rate for their mailing list and a 35% increase in subscribers to their email list
simply through a quiz that their restaurant visitors could take via mobile phone.
12. MAKING INVOLVEMENT THE CENTER OF YOUR
INTEGRATED ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
95% of Facebook wall posts are not answered by brands, while 52% of consumers have
reported un-following a brand because of repetitive or boring updates. Nevertheless, brands
have seen up to a 65% increase in Facebook audience engagement by using interactive
content. Clearly, interaction can be a major differentiator online, and for companies who
can get it right, it can drive their whole integrated engagement strategy.
With involvement as the centerpiece of your strategy, content serves more of a supportive
role, and acquisition remains as an enriching aspect to the system. Whether it’s data from
a poll or a survey, constructive feedback generated through comments, or driving sales
through deals or sweepstakes, in this model, keeping your audience active is your primary
goal.
Consider this model for a major international sports franchise, AS Roma. As one of Italy’s
top football (soccer) teams, Roma’s goal is to keep the visitors to its site active and engaged
and in turn, more likely to make a purchase.
Game-play features drive
cyclical / attentive
engagement
Share
Trivia Timer
Each share action exposes
app to new audience
Maximize audience reach Multi- Progress
and exposure Language Indicator
Subscription Start
Opt-Ins Over
Incent with
Bonus Entry
Promote offers in lead gen
Leads
Bonus
Entry
SnapApp features enable brand
Apps are created and Multiple forms of acquisition are
to create an engaging
Features Channels distributed cross-channel for Outcomes employed to deliver likes, leads
experience for end users driving
maximum exposure and results and actual purchase events
business results
As you can see, Roma uses interaction, in this case a SnapApp quiz, to engage site visitors
and channel them into other desired outcomes. From likes, tweets, and other sharing actions,
you can also see how acquisition builds on the effectiveness of this quiz as fans share it with
other fans and even compete for pride or prizes. .
13. MAKING ACQUISITION THE CENTER OF YOUR
INTEGRATED ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
Let’s face it; sometimes it’s all about numbers. For fast moving sales cycles or highly
consumed products, more volume often means more conversions. In this case, beefing up
the numbers through fan acquisition is your best business option, and in turn, the main
goal of your integrated engagement strategy.
In a recent study released by Ipsos OTX, nearly a fifth of respondents would purchase an
item if it was liked by a friend. Factor in that the average millennial Facebook user (age
18-34) has around 319 friends and the average Twitter user has 126 followers, and you can
start to imagine the
compounding value of
building an online
audience. The dream, of
course, is having one fan
tell his or her 100+ friends,
and they tell their friends
and so on, but for that to
happen, your fans need
something to tell. In an
acquisition model, that
“something to tell” is rarely
your product or service,
however. Instead, it’s an
experience that they
couldn’t have gotten
outside of the network
you’ve created. Your main appeal, in this case is being a part of the audience itself, and
through content and interaction, you reward people for staying and inviting others in.
14. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
Now that you understand some of the ins and outs of an integrated engagement strategy
it’s time to bring it all together. This is where SnapApp comes in. As a platform, SnapApp
brings several of the necessary moving pieces of your integrated engagement strategy
together in one easy interface. Using SnapApp, you can structure content, involvement
and acquisition together to achieve your business objectives. By publishing quizzes,
surveys, polls sweepstakes, and other apps created through SnapApp you have all the
necessary parts to “snap” interactive functions on to your content, generate additional
content from involvement, or incentivize audience growth. By implementing an integrated
engagement strategy with SnapApp, this year alone, companies have averaged nearly
six times more likes for their content verses typical Facebook engagement standards,
an overall 89% app completion rate, and of the 1.2 million apps completed, 7% saw
additional sharing which helped contribute to almost 30 million total impressions!
What’s all the more compelling – and what makes an integrated engagement strategy
so vital – is that companies are leveraging all this engagement to drive real revenue!
Through a single campaign run with SnapApp, Magic Beans, a leading retailer of early
childhood products, averaged $.12 per unique lead over 113,318 total leads generated by
the campaign. In a similar campaign, the Philadelphia Eagles were able to generate an
average of $.10 over almost 10,000 total leads. By having an integrated engagement
strategy, these companies were able to directly leverage engagement created through
SnapApp to deliver a positive ROI.
Our goal at SnapApp is help brands unlock the real value of digital engagement across
all their marketing channels. Our platform makes these engagements possible, but having
the right strategy in place is what makes marketing efforts dramatically more profitable.
Wondering where your engagement strategy stands now? Feel free to test or re-test
yourself with our Engagement Grader app!
15. Resources
State of the Media: The Social Media Report, Nielsen:
http://www.nielsen.com/content/corporate/us/en/insights/reports-downloads/2011/social-media-report-q3.html
The Grande Guide to B2B Content Marketing, Eloqua:
http://www.eloqua.com/grande/Grande_Guide_To_B2B_Content_Marketing.html
120 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs – Hubspot:
http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/docs/ebooks/120-marketing-stats-charts-and-graphs.pdf
Social Marketing Rockstar Tour, Marketo:
http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-resources/category/best-practices/video-social-media
Andrew Gaffney, DemandGen Report:
http://www.demandgenreport.com/
Arnold Worldwide:
http://www.arn.com/
Generate More Leads with B2B Social Media [Infographic]:
http://socialmediab2b.com/2012/03/b2b-social-media-leads-infographic/#ixzz228DbGSRE
Content marketing on the Rise, Smart Insights:
http://www.smartinsights.com/content-management/content-marketing-strategy/content-marketing-infographic/
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
http://adage.com/article/digital/study-1-facebook-fans-engage-brands/232351/
It’s Not Me, It’s You: Why Are Consumers Breaking Up with Brands:
http://socialmediainfluence.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/infographic-its-not-you-its-me-full.jpg
72 Fascinating Social Media Marketing Facts and Statistics for 2012
http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/07/24/72-fascinating-social-media-marketing-facts-and-statistics-for-2012/#XSGUiDLrDme
qBvPT.99
Facebook: A Profile of its ‘Friends,’ Pew Research:
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2262/facebook-ipo-friends-profile-social-networking-habits-privacy-online-behavior
The Ripple Effect of Following a Brand on Social Media
http://www.public.site1.mirror2.phi.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009177#S83v3DXBpke2d4g4.99
Magic beans Case study:
http://www.snapapp.com/case-studies/magic-beans
Go –Globe Infographic:
http://www.sosemarketing.com/2012/03/01/every-60-seconds-on-social-media/
