Marketing Relevancy in the Social Age!
How Relevant is your Marketing Message?
A while back, I read an article in the Wall Street Journal that mentioned several success stories of companies utilizing different forms of targeting in their advertising. In the past, companies relied on focus groups and sometimes outdated customer surveys to provide information for their ads. Now, with the plethora of online tools, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, blogs, website comments, etc., companies have current information to be able to tailor their messages and increase their response rates. By utilizing this technology, companies can design their direct mail piece, online ads, magazine insert or emails to be more relevant to what their customers are looking for.
Technology now exists to scan various sites where your customers are browsing and commenting, and extract that info, so to speak, and have companies like Advantage / MOV Digital Media create the cross-media campaign to target the customer’s wants and needs.
The article went on to describe Harrah’s Entertainment (now Caesars Entertainment) garnering feedback from consumer reviews on travel site TripAdvisor.com. They also began scanning reviews and comments on social media sites to get a better understanding of their guests’ opinion of their properties and the offerings at each property. Harrah’s was then able to change pictures on their website to reflect a view that was more important to their guests. They also discovered that their guests had interests in hotel offerings such as spas, restaurants, etc. They changed their marketing messages to reflect their gain in knowledge. As a result, there was a double digit percentage increase in their online bookings.
The important takeaway here is Marketing Relevancy. The more relevant your message is to your customer, the better response your marketing piece will garner. Marketing is moving in many different directions. It is important to keep up with everything and be able to apply it to your customer base, without alienating the percentage of the population that is still used to traditional means of marketing and advertising. Therefore, a mix of modern technology utilizing social media and networking, and closing the loop with traditional print and direct mail will provide you with a cross section of the population as well as an increase in your responses. With an increase in response rates, we can only hope that that translates into a higher conversion rate and a lower cost per acquisition.
Cara Cohan
Vice President, Strategic Sales