Paid, Owned and Earned Media - Defining Digital Strategies

If you are familiar with the concept of Owned, Earned and Paid Media you understand that Google Pay-Per-Click (PPC) can play a colossal role for your Social Media seeding campaign.

But just how much is too much?

I thought it would be interesting to share with you a study from Wordstream.com which shows the most expensive keywords in Google AdWords.

The 20 most expensive keyword categories with the highest search volume and highest costs per click, thereby netting Google the most money, are:

1.     Insurance (keywords in this category include “buy car insurance online” and “auto insurance price quotes”)
2.     Loans (keywords include “consolidate graduate student loans” and “cheapest homeowner loans”)
3.     Mortgage (keywords include “refinanced second mortgages” and “remortgage with bad credit”)
4.     Attorney (keywords include “personal injury attorney” and “dui defense attorney”)
5.     Credit (keywords include “home equity line of credit” and “bad credit home buyer”)
6.     Lawyer (“personal  injury lawyer,” “criminal defence lawyer)
7.     Donate (“car donation centres,” “donating a used car”)
8.     Degree (“criminal justice degrees online,” “psychology bachelors degree online”)
9.     Hosting (“hosting ms exchange,” “managed web hosting solution”)
10.     Claim (“personal injury claim,” “accident claims no win no fee”)
11.     Conference Call (“best conference call service,” “conference calls toll free”)
12.     Trading (“cheap online trading,” “stock trades online”)
13.     Software (“crm software programs,” “help desk software cheap”)
14.     Recovery (“raid server data recovery,” “hard drive recovery laptop”)
15.     Transfer (“zero apr balance transfer,” “credit card balance transfer zero interest”)
16.     Gas/Electricity (“business electricity price comparison,” “switch gas and electricity suppliers”)
17.     Classes (“criminal justice online classes,” “online classes business administration”)
18.     Rehab (“alcohol rehab centres,” “crack rehab centres”)
19.     Treatment (“mesothelioma treatment options,” “drug treatment centres”)
20.     Cord Blood (“cordblood bank,” “store umbilical cord blood”)

When I am asked about ROI on Social Media I like to consider that if your Earned and Owned media presences have been created and maximised, you reduce your reliance on Paid media. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t sometimes also pay for some extra attention, but it certainly means you depend less on these paid channels. And, because AdWords and other programs like it are based on an auction system, competitiveness and costs for them will continue to be driven upwards.

Generating ROI based on traffic – a simple formula

Let’s assume you are in the Real Estate industry and you want to decide between the immediacy of Pay-per-click and the long term benefits of Social Media and SEO.

You consider investing in Pay-per-click and generate immediate traffic.

If you generate about 1,000 visits a month paying $50 this equates to $50,000/month

If you invest the same amount of money across your Owned media and start to generate the same qualified traffic you have built yourself a long term asset and you can therefore amortise the investment over time.

This is an easy way to start a polemic on ROI in Owned Media versus ROI for PPC.

Which side are you on?

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Google's new photo-sharing platform Photovine is now in beta.

Google recently launched the beta app and website for their forthcoming photo sharing service, Photovine. This new iPhone app and social media service will finally put them in direct competition with other fun and popular apps like Instagram and Picplz. Will it become the next big thing in photo sharing? I’m not so sure.

While info on Photovine’s development direction is limited, it appears it will have minimal to no connection with Google’s recent Social Media platform, Google+.  If this is true, I believe it to be a huge strategic error.

One of, if not the most important features of killer apps like Instagram and Picplz are their ability to post content simultaneously across a near baffling number of social media services. In just a few seconds I can take a photo, add a cool filter, caption, tags, and geo-locations then post it on my Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, and Foursquare.

This simple and quick functionality I believe is an important reason why so many Social Media platforms can survive and even thrive despite being in direct competition.

If it becomes more difficult to manage content on one of these social media platforms than others, there is a good chance it will fail as users are less likely to manually update multiple services or completely ditch the ones they are currently entrenched in. Right now, it’s Google+ and even the yet to be released Photovine that should be worried.

If Google can’t even properly interconnect their own social media services or support their own operating system (No Photovine Android app has been announced), how can we expect them to do so across our favourite 3^rd party social media clients or photo storage clouds?

As mentioned, the Photovine app is currently ONLY available on the iPhone with no Android app officially announced. This could be a smart strategy, targeting the most engaged and abundant audience for their service, however should the success of this one seemingly independent product really be put above the brand’s overall image as a company that follows through and supports its products/users long-term.

Whatever they do they better do it soon, because rumour has it Facebook will soon be announcing their branded Photo-sharing app. If true, this could for some users tip the scale of useful feature differences between Facebook and Google+, negatively impacting the growth of Google’s fledgling platform.

So, how do you engage in Social Multimedia and do you have room for one more on your electronic grapevine?

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If you are talking about Facebook yes it can. Welcome Facebook ads.

But how much is the cost of a friend for Facebook brands?

A study by social marketing and analytics firm Webtrends found that the cost of advertising on Facebook that encourages a user to become a “fan” on the brand’s Facebook page is $1.07  (1.05 AUD).

“There are a lot of studies trying to say how much is a fan worth,” Justin Kistner, Webtrends’ senior manager of product marketing for social, “but the answer depends on the kinds of campaigns you are driving at that fan base.”

Many brands get too focused on the absolute number of their social media audience and don’t put enough value on target group relevance & engagement.

What my Social Media Team sees in the vertical industry is that a lot of them build a fan base on Facebook through discount offers and quick giveaways – but then they don’t get any brand amplification because their fan base is not looking for engagement therefore not LTV (Life Time Value). However, that’s where the real value lies, particularly when comparing CPMs for traditional online advertising with the cost efficiency of social media when done right.

With this on mind, are fans worth $1.07 each for brands?

The Wall Street Journal (Digits blog) sat down on camera with Michael Lazerow, the CEO of Buddy Media, a firm that sells software for brands that want to market on Facebook. Lazerow argued they’re worth far more. See highlights below.

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As my part of being Social Media Manager for ad:tech, I want to help my readers get the most out of the event. So I’m providing you with some tips to prepare yourself before attending.

There are many things you should do before attending ad:tech if you want to be prepared and make the most of the conference.

I’ve broken them down into three main categories for you: research, connect, and plan.

Research for ad:tech Sydney 2010

The very first thing you need to do is research.

You need to have a look through http://www.ad-tech.com/sydney/adtech_sydney.aspx to make sure you know the dates (16^th and 17^th of March), and have a look through the schedule to see which presentations you want to attend (I strongly suggest to attend Jeff’s-Cadbury case).

If you haven’t already had a look, you’ll see there’s always three different presentations running at the one time, so take note of the ones that interest you the most.

You should also have a look through the sponsors, exhibitors and speakers at the event. Have a look through some of their websites to see what you know about them, if they’d be of any value to you – i.e. a prospective client, or a coonection to a prospective client.

It will also be very beneficial for you to have an idea of who is going to ad:tech Sydney, and what they do.

And to do this you can use the hashtag I mentioned last week #ATSYD to search and you’ll be able to see many names – well Twitter accounts – of people attending or you can just head to the list on ad:tech Sydney Twitter list.

Then you can look through them to see if any of them could be beneficial for you to know or just to talk to at the conference. It’s always nice to know something about the person before you meet them, and they might be very impressed or flattered that you know just one thing about who they are or what they do because you’ve taken your time to read their blog or visit their website.

Similarly, I’d also recommend reading up on as much industry news as you can, the more you know about the latest digital marketing and advertising news, the more impressive you’ll sound when you’re networking at the event.

Connect

Connect or die.

Once you’ve found the people you think will be the best people for you to meet and talk to at the conference, start connecting with them through social media now.

A simple tweet to say hi breaks the ice a bit and you get to introduce yourself before meeting them. This means when you do meet them at the conference, they will probably have looked through your website/blog to find out who you are.

Another great way of making a small connection with someone influential in the industry if you’re not game enough to tweet (or e-mail, Facebook them etc.) is to leave a comment on their blog.

People will always read people’s comments on their own blog as they want to see what feedback and discussion they’re receiving.

If you leave a comment to engage in conversation with them, discussing their blog posting they’ll probably reply to you and you will already have started that connection. Then once at ad:tech, you’ll be able to tell them you’re the person who was having a discussion with them via comments on their blog. They will be very impressed by this – assuming you’ve posted intelligence comments with valid points on their blog – and you’ll receive a great first impression from them.

Plan

Plan

Think about how you want people to remember you. Think about and plan a little introduction speech, so when you meet people instead of introducing yourself in a monotonous boring way, think of something interesting you can say about yourself. This will help people remember who you are, instead of you becoming just a face of one of the many hundreds or thousands of people they meet over the course of the event.

Also plan what types of conversations you want to be having. This means you won’t be talking to someone and after the introductions have nothing to say, making it awkward for both of you. This is why you need to research as I mentioned earlier. It will give you ideas of good conversational topics you can raise with people.

You also need to make sure your business cards, website, and resume are up-to-date. The last thing you want to do is get there and realise you have out-dated, amateur looking business cards that you feel ashamed to be giving out. Remember, people will judge you on your business cards, because apart from anything you may have just said to them in the few minutes you’ve been talking to them, they have nothing else to judge you on yet – and we all know how important first impressions are.

Also think of technical issues that you may forget about later. i.e make sure you have extra batteries or power supplies for your laptop, remember to bring your phone and laptop charger. All the little things that are essential, but you may forget you need to write a list or pack them early.

Doing each of these three steps: researching, connecting and planning will give you the competitive edge.

People will remember you, you’ll create far more meaningful and powerful contacts, and you’ll get the most out of the conference.

Hope to see you there

Lucio

on Twitter

on Facebook

on everything else.

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1. ad:tech Sydney 2010 What are the advantages?
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However one of most important steps is most of the time forgotten – Landing pages.

This “little” detail may be the main reason you are losing money on your campaigns.

One of the most underutilised tactics in Internet Marketing is landing pages.

Landing pages have been discussed since Internet marketing started with emails and display ads. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things that people talk about and write about more than they actually do.

For the sake of this article, a landing page is defined as the web page that a prospect “lands” on after clicking on a link – any link – from an email, a CPC campaign, search engine result, inbound link from another website, newsletter; you get the idea.

In essence, every landing page you develop (in fact, every website page) should have a specific goal (inspired by Seth Godin):

-          Get a visitor to click (to go to another page, on your site or someone else’s).

-          Get a visitor to buy.

-          Get a visitor to give permission for you to follow up (by email, phone, etc.). This includes registration of course.

-          Get a visitor to tell a friend.

-          Improve your Market Position in the visitor’s mind.

-          (and the more subtle) Get a visitor to learn something, which could even include posting a comment or giving you some sort of feedback

As Gavin Heaton once wrote – “Every page is sacred, EVERY page. You always need to consider the upstream and the downstream”

A great competitive advantage.

I cannot understand why marketers don’t spend enough time and energy in building the last, and probably most important, step in the Internet marketing process.

Most websites create their landing pages as their campaigns launch, and they leave them alone until they collapse under their own weight.

As more companies find out about the advantages of Internet marketing, and fighting for places on SERP’s or a better position on PPC campaigns increase in competitiveness, testing and improving your landing pages help you to optimise your ROI converting more visitors for less cost.

Loveday and Niehaus, the authors of Web Design for ROI, discuss some unique issues for landing pages, which I’ve summarised below:

* They have to essentially perform the entire sales process.

The landing page (remember what Gavin says) must offer a product, service, or information, capture your visitor’s attention long enough to pique his or her interest and ultimately want to convert, and entice the user to take action (fill out a form, provide payment, etc). Basically, your landing page has to act as your best salesperson. That’s a lot to ask of one little page.

* They have to capture attention very quickly.

People skim, scan, and scoot. Your landing page has only a few precious seconds to keep your visitor from hitting the back button.

* They’re viewed by a lot of new eyeballs.

A lot of new visitors see your landing page compared to your built-in audience. These new people probably aren’t going to know what your site’s about or whether it’s representing a reputable company.

Below you can find a list for guidelines:

1.Establish credibility.
2.Make sure your design looks professional to your audience and is industry-appropriate.
3.Include positive resources and testimonials when necessary or useful
4.Make sure nothing’s broken eg. links to a YouTube video.
5.Simplify and separate.
6.Reduce or eliminate navigation.
7.Minimise your branding.
8.Think of your landing page as a continuation of your ad.
9.Don’t make promises you can’t (or won’t) keep.
10.Re-iterate your ad’s call to action.
11.Use consistent graphics and images.
12.Keep the language consistent.
13.Segment for different audiences/customers.
14.Personalise for your visitor.
15.User fewer but better graphics.
16.Make sure the medium is what’s best for your offer.
17.Speak the customer’s language, not yours.
18.Emphasis benefits, not features.
19.Weed out all but the most essential points.
20.Cover all your bases.
21.Be intelligent about how you display your information.
22.Provide a clear call to action.
23.Consider providing a secondary call to action (don’t overdue it – it can cause a paradox of choice)
24.Provide offline alternatives.
25.Don’t request more than the minimum information necessary.
26.Make your buttons look like buttons.

There are different tools available (Google optimizer is a great free one) that help you to test.

Before releasing Internet Marketing Academy, my team ran more than seven variations of landing pages. There were variations with and without clients testimonials, videos and other combinations. We learnt a lot!

One of the combinations gave us around 200% more conversions, just by changing few key elements.

Only testing will tell what is better for your website. The more you test, the more profitable (useful) your website will become.

Once you have evolved a combination producing profitable results, you then have your new “control” level and you can start testing new ways to beat it.

It will cost you more time, but it will also increase your ROI.

In this case more is more.

(Obs I originaly publish this article on Digital Ministry website)

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Each section also features a marketer profile with brands such as Deloitte, Dell, Commonwealth Bank, Jaguar, and Subway.

On the Search and Online Marketing section it couldn’t be better, real guns Julian Persuad, Phil Duffield and more.

I couldn’t be happier to be part of the “around the Table” on Search and Online Marketing section. Good work and thanks to Sean and Kate.

Read the edition and be prepared to 2011.

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Apparently Leo Laporte doesn’t like it when you question his integrity.

Earlier today on the Gillmor Gang show Leo Laporte cussed out Mike Arrington (the founder of TechCrunch) when Mike questioned Leo about receiving a “free” Pre from Palm.

Leo basically said “Fuck you – piece of S***” and turned off the show…

This is Michael Arrington’s response on his blog:
“I agree i was too aggressive, and he didn’t have context on the story brewing in the background about the possible shadiness around the launch. Part of the aggressiveness is just how the Gillmor Gang goes – it tends to roll that way with the personalities that Steve puts on the show. Part of it was because I totally thought he was joking.
But like I said above, I apologize to Leo. This wasn’t about whether his opinion was being influenced on the device. It was just about being up front with the audience on the conflict of interest.”

Ladies are back in terms now.

Lucio Ribeiro

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