Sameerah Siddiqui, Marketing & PR Manager at Teradata Pakistan, gives you something to think about!
These traditional, institutionalized goals for marketing investments have driven corporate growth strategies for decades. And depending on the coordination and cohesiveness of marketing campaigns, conventional techniques such as direct mail, print advertising, radio, and telemarketing have enabled organizations to be successful in achieving them.
It’s a challenge that many find dizzying, given an array of emerging approaches, techniques, and technologies. In essence, the definition of multi-channel as a simplistic choice of a print or electronic medium no longer exists. Internet-driven practices classified under the umbrella of “eMarketing” are as far from one-dimensional as possible. Consider the variety of techniques within a multi-faceted, Internet-driven marketing campaign as the cusp of possibilities:
• Direct email marketing
• Search engine marketing, both paid and “organic”
• Personalized Web landing pages
• RSS-driven content distribution
• Event registrations, interactive surveys and forms
• Rich media advertising including video and podcasting
• Social media advertising within Internet communities, blogs, and wikis
In an emerging market such as that of Pakistan, it has been noticed that software companies are still in the process of building their image in the country. Often small companies do not have large marketing budgets, which makes marketing of services and in-tangible products is relatively difficult. Such companies end up using two approaches for their marketing strategy.
Marketing & Advertisement Approach:
•Evaluated different marketing techniques and advertisement mediums.
•Started with Most traditional approach: Advertised in print media
•Participated in Exhibitions and trade fairs
•Invested in promotional giveaways
•Non-conventional approach: Advertised through Bill Boards (not done by software companies)
•Generated leads and business but ROI was approx 30%
This is where eMarketing came in. eMarketing is the practice of utilizing all the versatility the internet offers, and is as much a strategy as it is a compelling set of technologies and practices. The goals are clear and universal:
• Targeted lead generation
• Maximized lead conversion
• Consistent retention for upsell opportunities
• Precise analytics for effectivity measurement
• Continual, closed-loop improvement
Herein lies the problem, however – the allure of intriguing, new Internet marketing techniques, impossible to ignore, are all too often implemented in a disconnected, department-centric fashion. Lacking cohesiveness between marketing, sales, and customer service processes, many eMarketing campaigns result in a glaring ROMI (Return on Marketing Investment) void.
As a result, the opportunity to definitively measure which methods work and which do not is significantly compromised. Optimizing, automating, or expanding any particular method becomes mere speculation when budgeting marketing dollars to enable projected revenue increases. The ROMI void grows exponentially when companies have multiple Web sites. The good news is that coordinated and cohesive eMarketing programs have the potential to target, entice, and personalize conversations with specific global audiences in ways that conventional marketing techniques cannot. On the other hand, the promise of new profitability channels predictably increases pressures for tangible results and accountability. Corporate expectations for tangible ROMI have steadily increased from a dull roar to a consistent, piercing demand.
The following are the results of the use of eMarketing through Google by local Pakistani software companies:
•During the first month the company was able to make sales and recover whole costs for two months
•Amount spent and revenue generated was small but the result was encouraging
•Earlier, Bill board advertising was giving approx. 30% ROI, but in this case the ROI was around 200%
•Sales is based on continuous reminder to the prospective customer and eMarketing is extremely cost effective way of doing this
• No of leads which are being generated are lot more than achieved through other advertisement means.
•Website traffic has increased and website appears in general search results at a better position
Web Analytics: Understanding What Works and What Doesn’t
The Web Analytics Association defines Web analytics as “the objective tracking, collection, measurement, reporting and analysis of quantitative Internet data to optimize Web sites and marketing initiatives.” For many marketers, achieving this goal has not been a viable reality based on available and affordable technologies. If analytics was possible at all, it was usually implemented by home-grown systems designed, implemented, and controlled by IT resources.
In essence, marketers have lacked a business user-friendly environment to understand visitors, traffic patterns, and eMarketing campaign effectiveness. This situation has now changed dramatically, as Web CMS-driven eMarketing platforms fuse analytics with technologies such as centralized content management, search engine optimization, and integration with CRM/SFA systems.
Web analytics brings a number of powerful capabilities to the table when fully integrated with a Web CMS-driven eMarketing platform, including
• Consistent KPIs (key performance metrics)
• Predictive, scenario-based capabilities based on keyword and phrase analysis
• Automatic campaign tracking
• Accurate current and historical data on lead conversions
• Dashboards that enable ease of understanding and spur collaboration
• On-demand reporting
And most importantly, tracking the lead source to the sale. For those relying on direct email marketing for lead conversion, integrated analytics is a must. Direct email is a compelling example because of its immediacy and ability to deliver results in the shortest possible timeframe. One of the most widely-used eMarketing techniques today, the Direct Marketing Association believes that direct email delivers the highest ROI of any technique.
The influence of the Internet has forever changed the marketing industry. Its continued evolution compels organizations to re-evaluate lead generation and conversion strategies from a people, process, and technology perspective. Understanding how to efficiently “get the job done” with the human, content, and structured data resources at hand is imperative. Welcome to the new world.
