Brands must take an integrated approach that starts with a deep understanding of their audiences and objectives, and incorporates each medium that may be effectively utilized to reach and engage customers. In the digital realm we’re talking about display advertising, demand generation, paid search, natural search, email marketing,  social media and mobile marketing.  As there is no silver bullet in marketing, you have to take an integrated approach. Allocating budget and assigning responsibility is a good start, but without integrated planning, management and reporting, you might as well be living on a farm.

Earlier this year I moderated a panel discussion at the Online Marketing Summit on “Integrating Your Marketing Mix”. While it may not be the sexiest topic (the Twitter session next door had many more attendees), it is a very important topic and is a common challenge faced by marketing executives today.  I’ll address it by tackling the two big questions: what to integrate and how to do it.

What To Integrate?
I think you have to look at integration at two different levels.  Before you try to integrate your broadcast, print, direct mail, digital and other channels, you should integrate those activities that take place within each discipline.  Many consider “digital” or “interactive” as a stand-alone marketing discipline, when in fact is a collection of sub-specialties are that are quite different, yet inter-related.  Because they each require unique skills and experience, there are often internal and external chasms between web design, development, paid search, natural search, display media, email, social media and mobile, not to mention analytics and measurement.  Because each discipline requires specialized knowledge, it’s common that a brand will have one agency for paid search, another for natural search, another for display media, and others for email marketing, social media and mobile marketing.  Before you start trying to get traditional and digital to work together, you need to make sure your interactive specialists are all on the same page.  Once you have integrated digital planning, execution and measurement, you have a much better chance of winning the battle to integrate traditional and digital marketing efforts.

How to Integrate?
While there is no silver bullet for integrating business activities and operations, I can share a few thoughts that may be of help.  First, I am not an advocate of selecting one group or agency that can handle every one of your needs.  There are simply too many disciplines and all of them require deep knowledge and experience to make them work effectively.  No one agency can be great at everything. If you want the best in the disciplines that matter, you are often forced to cobble together a network of partners to achieve it.  In these situations, you can realize significant benefits by doing the following:

1. Integrate reporting and measurement – even if you use different resources (people, agencies, etc.) you can still standardize how results are tracked, reported and analyzed across channels.  Rather than receiving one report from your paid search firm, another from your display media agency, and yet more from your SEO, Social and Email partners, take some time up front to define the key performance indicators for each channel. Then require each partner to provide the information you need in a common format.  As it relates to digital marketing, you should standardize on one reporting platform that will be used to measure impact of your search, display, email and social media.  When it comes to reporting, less is more!

2. Integrate planning – once your strategic objectives are defined, ask each of your partners to create a plan that will help you achieve those objectives.  Give them a common framework (planning template) so each partner’s deliverables are consistent.  Then host a planning meeting in which all partners are invited to present their plan to the group.  Once the plans are presented, discuss them as a group with the goal of identifying where coordination, collaboration and knowledge sharing between and among your partners are required.

• Case study: one of our clients hosted such an event and we found it to be very worthwhile.  Not only did we learn what the other groups were working on, but we also identified common challenges and solutions that could be leveraged across disciplines.  Most importantly, we realized there were many inter-dependencies between our groups, and that we all stood to benefit if we worked together and coordinated our efforts.  It was very eye-opening for us but no one benefited more than the client.

3. Integrate Execution – while integrated planning is a great start, the true value is realized through integrated execution. If you are a brand marketer, you need to do more than suggest that your team and/or agencies work together; you need to facilitate it to ensure follow through.  If you need an example of how to do this, look no further than the funny guy with the big head: Jack.

• Case study: At the OMS panel mentioned above, Maria Brusaschetti, Media Manager for Jack In The Box, discussed how JITB not only encourages its agencies to work together – they require it.  They host all-hands planning meetings to make sure everyone is on the same page.  To ensure collaboration and cooperation, they tie agency compensation to feedback from peer surveys (yes, they survey their partners to find out how well their peers are cooperating).  If the agencies want to earn their bonus, they have to play nice with others.  I think this is a brilliant approach that can be also be implemented inside your organization.  If you want your departments to work together, offer the department heads monetary (and non-monetary) incentives to ensure interdepartmental cooperation.  Then make sure you follow through with execution.

In closing, integration is not a one-time fix.  As our organizations evolve, the ways in which we work together will evolve as well.  While mastering integration is far from easy, it can yield invaluable insights, efficiencies and synergy.  Or you can put on your overalls and fire up your John Deere.  The choice is yours!

Steve Latham
@stevelatham

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My presentation (embedded below) addresses these issues in today’s context, where results matter.  The contents include:

• How “above the line” and “below the line” are merging – digital goes through the line
• Challenges faced by marketers today
• How to translate online metrics into business results
• Roadmap for Measurement Success
• Online Surveys
• Attribution Analysis
• ROI Methodology
• Case Studies to demonstrate each concept
Closing the Gap on ROI Measurement – Steve Latham – OMS 2010
View more presentations from Spur Interactive.

As always, comments are welcome.  And feel free to share!

Steve Latham
@stevelatham

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Twitter Best Practices for Social Media Marketing (according to @stevelatham)

1. Brand Your Profile
Before you start tweeting, make sure your profile is appropriately branded.  Update your profile, including a tight summary of who you are and how you distinguish yourself.  Include your URL and use a pic that can be identified when viewing a stream on a mobile device.  You can now find personalized Twitter backgrounds for cheap so there’s no excuse not to have one (see ours here).

2.  Provide Interesting and Engaging Content
While Tweeting is easy, it’s important that you do it right, starting with a solid content strategy.  Content recommendations include:

• Based on approved content guidelines, create Tweets that are engaging and relevant to target audiences.  It should be easy for potential followers to see that your tweets are valuable and worth reading.
• Introduce your content.  People often provide links to articles without any explanation as to why it might be relevant to the reader.  I always try to provide my take on whatever it is I’m linking to.  I’d recommend you do the same.
• Write tweets that will be shared.  Rather than simply posting links, introduce links with compelling copy that encourage clicks.
• Allow time to pass between each tweet (at least 15 minutes) for several reasons: 1) no one likes to have their dashboard of tweets dominated by one account, 2) if someone is not watching they are likely to miss them, 3) spreading them out demonstrates consistency that yields brand benefits.
• Limit Tweets to 120 characters so they can be easily re-tweeted without exceeding the 140-character limit. See “120 is the new 140″ from @BrianSolis for more tips.
• Leverage real-time search by prominently including buzzwords that will picked up by Google, Bing and other search engines.
• For more on Content Marketing check out @juntajoe and his blog.

3. Remember! Engagement = Listening + Responding
Social media is about interacting, and you can’t do that if you’re not listening.  In addition to listening for your brand mentions, you need to keep an eyes on what your network is tweeting about and participate in the discussion.  Here are some tips:

• Use tools to track when your profile or brand is being mentioned on Twitter.  Tools include www.Search.Twitter.com as well as the SM monitoring tools mentioned previously.
• Use the native search feature in your Twitter management tool to follow topics that are of importance to you.  For example, I have a search column in Hootsuite for “Social Media Strategy“.  This is how I keep up to date on the latest tweets on this subject.
• When your brand is being mentioned in a positive way, RT the message, follow and recognize the person who tweeted about you.
• Acknowledge mentions.  Monitor when your Twitter account name is mentioned and RT to thank, and/or acknowledge those who are mentioning you.
• Build credibility and goodwill with your followers by re-tweeting (RT) posts that will be of interest to your audiences.  If you RT a follower’s post, they may acknowledge the RT to their followers, thereby promoting you in the process.

When your brand is being mentioned in a negative way, you can either 1) respond, or 2) ignore it.  If you choose to reply, consider the risks, given the nature of their tweet, their motives and their objectives. A confrontational response is rarely successful.  If you want to address a customer complaint, ask them follow you so you can then send a DM and take the conversation offline.  As mentioned above, ignoring the mention is often best.  You can inadvertently cause much greater damage if you engage in a public scuffle with a crazy person.

4. Building a network of followers
Without a network there is no reach, and without reach there is no ROI.  Contrary to most hopes and beliefs, networks do not build themselves; if you want followers, you have to work on it.  The good news is that with Twitter, the process is relatively easy.  When you follow someone, they will receive an email notification.  Currently, the normal etiquette is to respond by following the person who followed you.  Judicious tweeters will read your latest tweets to determine if your content is worth following.  If the content is good, most will follow you back – at least for a while.

• Start with your own employees, partners, vendors and community.  Announce your new Twitter account and ask employees to follow and share with others.
• Identify the top 50 influencers in your category on Twitter as these people can provide visibility and credibility for your brand among their networks of followers. Use www.TweepSearch.com, www.MrTweet.com and www.Twollow.com to find users with shared interests.  Look for those who have large numbers followers and are active in sharing their opinions with the masses (aka influencers).
• Follow people who follow your Influencers.
• Include a link to your twitter account in email, on your site, on all social networking sites and in all correspondence.
• Remember to maintain a favorable ratio of Following / Followers of +/- 1:1. While building your network, take time to check out who you are following that is not following you back at www.FriendorFollow.com.  For each person who is not following you, you can either: 1) stop following for good, or 2) unfollow and then re-follow.  If they do not respond on your 2^nd attempt to reach out, you may consider unfollowing them for good.
• Be careful with TwitterBots (AutoFollow) tools.  As you’ll quickly learn, building a network takes time.  If you are interested in using an network-building service, make sure  you use a credible tool or service that follows Twitter best practices. Failure to do so will result in suspension of your account.  While there are a lot of cheap bots that to avoid, there are some services that work (full disclosure: we offer one that works well).  Before you buy, do your homework and ask for references.

5. Managing Multiple Accounts
Many marketers maintain at least two types of Twitter accounts – one for their company and one for their personal tweets.   Twitter management tools (my favorite is HootSuite) allow you to manage multiple profiles.  Since many may follow your personal and work accounts, make sure you don’t tweet the same content at the same time.  Another common practice is to RT your company tweets from your personal account.  Remember that many will follow your brand and personal profiles, so make sure you space them out (no simultaneous tweeting!).

Common Twitter Mistakes to Avoid
Here are some common content mistakes many marketers make when Tweeting:

• It’s all about me!!!  Too many still use social media a megaphone vs. a telephone.  Success requires that you listen, engage and interact with others in the community.
• Using social media as a press release distribution platform.  While there are sites that are great for press releases, this should be the exception, not the norm.  As noted, conversations require an exchange of information.  If all you do it tell the world about your firm, audiences will grow tired of listening.
• Boring content.  You should always seek to include and introduce links to video, articles, audio and other media that will be interesting to audiences.
• Vague content. Doesn’t it bug you when someone posts a link with a cryptic introduction?  Make it easy for followers to see what you are presenting to them.  Introduce your links.
• Sharing information that is confidential, sensitive or not appropriate.  This is especially important if you work for a public company or in a regulated, hyper-competitive or litigious industry.
• Drawing unnecessary attention or being overly defensive when addressing negative comments.  Sometimes it’s best to ignore the haters.  If you respond, you may make something big out of a small issue, which may be exactly what they want you to do.

In Closing…
Again, this may not be all-encompassing, and I’m sure I’ve omitted a few important lessons.  That said, I hope these are helpful and that you find value in them.  If so, please COMMENT, SHARE and SUBSCRIBE to our blog.  Thank you for your feedback!

Steve Latham (follow me on Twitter)

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Many marketers also fail to understand the pitfalls and shortcomings that can prevent them from achieving their social media marketing goals, including:

• content that is overly promotional
• content that is not engaging or relevant to target audiences
• a one-way outbound approach to communicating (it’s all about me!)
• failing to build a network (without reach, there is no ROI)
• one-off isolated efforts vs. an integrated approach

What many lack is a comprehensive social media strategy.  To address this growing need, I developed a new presentation entitled “Social Media Strategy” you can view below or on slideshare.

The goal of the presentation is to help marketers understand the opportunities, challenges and pitfalls of social media marketing while providing a framework for developing a social media strategy.

“Social Media Strategy” includes the following:

• 5 point business case for social media
• 7 common pitfalls of social media (and steps to avoid them)
• 10 point outline for a social media strategy

This presentation provides the information you need to craft a social media strategy.  If you find it valuable, please feel free to comment below and share with others.  Enjoy and good luck with your social media strategy!

Steve Latham
Follow me on Twitter

Related posts and presentations
Business Case for Social Media
New Media Toolkit
Social Media: Shiny Object or Killer App?

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Don’t get me wrong – I’m a huge fan of social media and I believe it is a killer app for many companies. This is especially true for professional services firms like mine.  At the same time, I frequently see a lack of planning, coordination and understanding of how to best use social media to achieve marketing objectives.  So now let’s go back to the opening question…

How do we use social media? We work in an industry where the cobblers kids (sans shoes) run rampant.  And for the most part this is fine; we can be great media planners and campaign managers, even if we don’t do a lot of advertising ourselves. However, when it comes to social media, I believe we have to lead by example.

If you are reading this, you may know that I blog, twitter, slideshare, facebook, link in, stumble, digg and tag things that are delicious.  Yes, it takes time, but I enjoy it. But above all, I do it because it creates value for my personal and agency brands. Through my investment in social media, I’ve expanded our network of partners, booked speaking opportunities, built awareness for our brand and generated several new client opportunities.

Social media can be a great platform for most businesses.  But as a professional services firm, social media offers some additional benefits that one could argue make it a killer app for marketing purposes.  In my world, the #1 benefit of social media is that it provides a platform for demonstrating thought leadership.

It’s important to remember that social media is a platform, not a message.  While awareness and visibility are great benefits of social media, they don’t build your brand.  You can get great visibility with a flurry of self-promoting posts and annoying solicitations for your services, but you aren’t building credibility.  You can use social media to connect with business acquaintances, recruit employees and show the world that you are a forward-thinking firm, but it probably won’t matter to clients. In my opinion, the true value of social media for professional service firms is the ability to demonstrate thought leadership on a large scale that gets even bigger if you have something unique and valuable to say.

Here’s another way to look at it: any firm can hire a web site copy writer to create a compelling message that says who you are, what you do, how you differentiate and why clients choose you.  While this used to be a key factor in engaging visitors, clients do not make decisions based on your home page. Case studies are great but we all know they present an air-brushed image of the results you produced for a client. On the other hand, a blog or tweet stream provides a relatively unfiltered view into how you think and how you act.  If you routinely produce strategic insights, unique perspectives and practical knowledge that are perceived to be of value to your clients, you can establish credibility and thought leadership in their eyes.  Clients hire consultants, agencies, bankers and lawyers because of their people.  Social media enables you to build your brand by showing off your greatest assets in a way that is much more transparent and authentic than it used to be.

In the past we relied on the static html, flash intros, polished copy and powerpoints to educate clients on who we are and how we can help them.  Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, LinkedIn and others now offer us a much more effective and efficient means for demonstrating thought leadership, regardless of your size, budget or location.  It’s not often that those of us in client services can point to a competitive advantage that we enjoy over other types of businesses.  But in a world where clients are seeking knowledge, insight and trusted advice, the social web gives us a unique opportunity to show them what we have to offer.

I’d love to hear from other service providers on this topic.  Comments are welcome!

Steve Latham
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UniLever CMO Throws Down the Social Media Gauntlet
Takeaways from speech recently made by UniLever’s CMO about the importance of Social Media to brands. Includes his “5 New Rules of Marketing”. Great to see one of the world’s largest companies embracing social media.  I hope they can make it work!

Facebook Overtaking MySpace
Facebook is now the most trafficked global social network. Claiming 200 million users, it now reaches all demos and ages. Now it needs to figure out how to make money in a way that doesn’t infuriate its large and vocal community.

Facebook Grows Up Fast!
Glad to know that my group (26-44) accounts for 41% of all Facebook users. But surprised to find women over 55 are the fastest growing group on Facebook. Will being friended by your mom make you leave Facebook? Maybe… or maybe not. I think the new design is a bigger risk.

Teens on Social Networks
This just in: teens are heavy users of social networks! Okay you may know that. But did you know that 60% acknowledged that the things friends wrote in their profiles could harm their careers and that 38% said they regretted some of the items that had already appeared on their pages. Hopefully they will learn from public examples of how your personal views can blow up in your face… Like it did for this chucklehead!

Mommy Bloggers On the Rise! (AdWeek)
At the “Meet the 21st Century Mom” event, BabyCenter.com released results from a 25,000 person survey showing that 63% of women reported being active on social networks (vs. 11% in 2006).  Women with new babies cut back on media consumption by as much as three hours, with print taking the biggest hit. According to the report, 49 percent of respondents claim to read magazines less after giving birth, and 46 percent said the same about their newspapers.

How Edelman Manages Mommy Bloggers (AdAge)
Great interview with Edelman Chicago’s senior VP for consumer brands social media, Danielle Wiley on how they manage 2.0 digital (aka Social Media) practices and strategies for big name clients. I especially like their views on refusing to pay bloggers to write favorable reviews of their clients’ products.  I wish more agencies upheld the same standards.

Twitter Soars, but Does It Stick? (AdWeek)
Pop quiz – how many users will be on Twitter by 2010? Answer: a lot! The good folks at eMarketer report that 18 million of my closest friends (10% of Internet users) will be on Twitter by 2010 (read the article). If Ashton Kutcher has 1.5 million followers and Oprah is gaining ground with 700,000, the number may actually be higher. However… the jury is out as to how many will actually stay on Twitter. Nielsen recently reported that Twitter’s audience retention is only 40% – meaning more than 60% of its users fail to return the following month (read the article). So will Twitter last or is it a flash in the pan? I believe you can make a case for either outcome.

7 Marketing Mistakes to Avoid on Twitter
Good article by Rodney Rumford (hola So Cal!). Or you can eliminate the “don’ts” and learn 7 Tips for Succes on Twitter. Either way it’s a good way to learn how to use Twitter as a branding channel.

Be Careful What You Tweet!
You can’t help but laugh at the irony of this story. A social media consultant may have ruined his career with one errant tweet (if you haven’t heard about the FedEx / Memphis story, click the link above). The lesson: be careful what you tweet. Anything and everything you write is public, and it may be taken out of context.

All for now folks! Please share your thoughts, questions or comments. Just keep it clean and constructive. And if you like what you read, please share it with others!

Steve Latham
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First, it’s very apparent that digital is not immune to economic downturns. While there are instances where some brands are following through and spending more online (at expense of traditional media), most have scaled back on display and other “advertising” channels, focusing on media that rings the register (e.g. search) and social media.  Generally speaking, when the pie shrinks, everyone’s piece gets smaller. And while some small shifts did take place, they were overshadowed by the rapid deterioration in results from online campaigns. Q4′08 and Q1′09 were tough times for DR-centric online marketers – when consumers stop buying it’s hard to keep your clients happy (even if you are outperforming other media).

We also learned Digital is often at a disadvantage because big advertisers can’t just cancel their contractual media commitments to traditional vendors. The downside to having an on/off button with your media is that when budgets have to be cut, it often represents one of the few areas where spend can immediately be paused. It’s not a good business practice, but by now we know that marketers don’t always do what is best for their brand (job preservation will always prevail over doing what’s right for the company).

However, I’ve always felt this recession would offer a silver lining for interactive and it’s starting to come true. Budget shifts are taking place, and even though it may take 6-12 months for the mix to change, we’ll see a higher allocation to digital in 2-3 years than we would have if not for the downturn. It’s hard to make big changes when things are status quo. One of the benefits of a recession is it forces brands to take drastic action, that is often required to make meaningful change.

This is the thesis behind my article “Silver Lining for Interactive“.  I believe my predictions will hold true and that the near term setbacks are going to be a blessing in the long term.

As always, I would love to hear what other marketers (traditional and digital) think, and how they view the changes that have taken place since 10/08. I hope to hear back from a few of you!

Steve Latham

http://twitter.com/stevelatham

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Online Media Funnel

Last week I spoke at the Online Marketing Summit’s tour stop in Houston on Demand Generation.  I was scheduled to speak in Dallas and Austin as well, but an unexpected foot injury / surgery sidelined me from travel.

At OMS I unveiled a new presentation that addresses the #1 objective of most marketers: generating leads, sales and other measurable results from online media.  The presentation “Online Demand Generation: Strategy and Metrics” is embedded below for your viewing pleasure; you can also find it on slideshare.  I started by defining “demand generation” (broader and more upscale than “lead gen”), the components of a demand generation program and various roles of online media. I also introduced engagement paths and the importance of defining the right metrics for success.

Also included is a practical methodology for measuring ROI and indexing performance against the market.  As a bonus, I also included my view of the 10 worst and best practices for managing campaigns (would really like your feedback on these!)

I hope you’ll take this information and use the insights to take your business or agency to the next level. And as always, comments are welcome!

Steve Latham

http://twitter.com/stevelatham

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I recently spoke to a group of business executives about how companies are using (or planning to use) social media, and how to build a business case for it. In my presentation I also included some new data on how the Inc. 500 is using social media, 5 reasons to pursue it, and a methodology for measuring ROI.

You can view the presentation below or find it at slideshare (note: sorry for some of the formatting issues caused by slideshare conversion).

I hope it’s helpful and that you’ll provide some feedback for improving it. And if you have any good data points to support the case, please send them my way!

For more info you can use, view our blog. And for updates follow me on Twitter!

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First, this recession has forced advertisers to scale back on all forms of advertising and it’s widely reported that display advertising (banners, rich media) has been hit much harder than search, leaving a lot of unsold inventory.

Second, while Cost Per Action (CPA) deals are still competitive (maybe even more so today given the increasing focus on accountability) there is a lot of unsold inventory that is price on Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM).  Consequently, it has created a big opportunity to buy cpm media at much lower rates than in the past.  This has also been documented in recent months by many sources.  The price of display media is faling faster than the bubble teams in the NCAA.

Third, the drop in demand for display ads allows those who are advertising to have a much larger share of voice, and receive much more attention than in the past.  I don’t have any stats to back this up, but it stands to reason.  If you are the ONLY bank or car maker advertising, you have a pretty good chance of delivering your message now that there is much less competition and clutter.

Fourth, display media is cheaper and you now get greater visibility with your ads, you should see better performance.  It may not translate into immediate leads or sales (remember we’re still in a dark and scary place) but those who are in the market today and tomorrow are more likely to be influenced by your ads.  And that is the reason you advertise.

So if you are maximizing ROI from search and need more reach to make your numbers, look at display advertising.  P.S. – if you add display on top of search you’ll see a 20-30% improvement in conversion rates from Search.  So make sure you account for that when you are doing your display media planning.

Comments…. Questions….?  To quote the beloved Kramer (Seinfeld, not Mad Money) “Am I crazy or am I so sane that I just blew your mind?”

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