Social Media and Inbound Marketing Impact on Business Strategy

August 23, 2010

The video above can appear overwelming and scary due to the rapid pace.  Change can be difficult and business is tight, but your instincts and mounting evidence tell you that figuring out the right programs for social media and web 2.0 needs to be a top priority. Forget the buzzwords and the latest tools; for many companies, sustainable competitive advantage or extinction hangs in the balance. Something is dying - traditional media and something is being born - new media.

Executives today are realizing that social media is not a fad or yet another marketing channel, but a new inbound marketing and public relations approach to filling the top of the sales funnel with new customers and responding to those customers faster, with greater transparency, and garnering greater loyalty en route.

Social media marketing is just that: marketing. Social media online communities such as Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube are merely "touch-points" whereby you can effectively convert conversations into leads, sales and quality improvements with remarkable content and compelling calls to action.

Forget the tools and tactics for a second and take a fresh look at the strategy as part of an integrated strategic marketing plan.  Content development costs and time are the main bottleneck to finding ROI from social media campaigns.  This is where workflow automation and internet tech. are so key to business.  Overstock.com and Zappos.com understand this which is why they are winning.  Search engine marketing and social media are merging.  This is why Activate has focused on the most powerful content - video and the most scalable technology to eliminate the content bottleneck. Activate Media Group is an innovative digital media company specializing in strategic video marketing solutions. Activate’s turnkey, automated solution produces premium quality, custom product videos, manages the content delivery platform, and syndicates videos to social media video portals at the highest scale and lowest cost in history.

The unique advantage of Activate's video marketing solutions is the quality, scalability and cost efficiency of our video content coupled with its search and social media optimized workflow. Activate creates strategic advantage for clients in sales effectiveness and marketing efficiency by flipping the digital marketing advantage from media buying power to the power of the existing product portfolio.


When we truly grasp the ability to define action and measure it, we can expand the impact of new media beyond the P&L. We can adapt business processes, inspire ingenuity, and more effectively compete for the future of the fashion and apparel business.

Tags: inbound marketing , social media , social video portals , video social media

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Marketing Communications ROI Analysis: Calculating the Total Cost Per Qualified Lead

February 22, 2010

The use of online marketing and social media channels such as blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter are becoming key tools in generating new leads according to a new survey.

With marketing staff and budgets tighter than ever become, it is time to think about new strategies for connecting the dots and marketing more efficiently.  Lead generation via search marketing, social media, content marketing and PR should be considered under one integrated marketing plan to maximize effectiveness and business value.  Traditional, outbound marketing is largely broken and news to be considered in the context of overall cost per lead.

 

The use of online marketing and social media channels such as blogs, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube are becoming key tools in generating new leads according to a new survey.

A recent survey, 2010 State of Inbound Marketing, by HubSpot revealed some staggering results and the growth of inbound (online) marketing.

• Average cost per lead for outbound (traditional) marketing was $332. Outbound marketing includes trade shows, direct mailers, cold calls, etc.
• Average cost per lead for inbound marketing (social media sites, blogs, SEO, etc.) was $134. - 60% less
   
• Social media sites and blogs are the most cost-effective ways to generate leads out of all marketing activities (trade shows, mailers, telemarketing, etc.
• 63% of respondents estimated that these tools were ”below average cost” for lead generation.
• 88% of those surveyed are either maintaining or increasing their inbound marketing budgets in 2010.
• 61% of respondents reported that they publish a company blog compared to 48% a year ago.
• 85% of respondents rated company blogs as useful or better in 2010.

The survey by HubSpot not only reveals that companies are using online marketing tools but they are seeing results (i.e. lower average cost per lead). In the apparel and fashion industry, the use of online marketing tools
(social media sites, blogs, SEO, etc.) is growing but traditional forms of marketing still dominate the landscape in our industry. Unfortunately, traditional marketing techniques – including direct mail, print advertising and trade shows – are becoming less effective. Buyers are not only finding ways to tune these messages out (do-not-call lists, TIVO, email spam filter, etc.), but more importantly they now have the capability to evaluate the products and services they need on their own.

As more data such as the HubSpot survey becomes public knowledge, we expect online marketing to become a key element in marketing campaigns.  There are some companies that are expanding their marketing efforts to include social media tools.  The opportunity is there for companies in our industry to leap-frog their competition using online marketing tools (social media sites, SEO, ebooks, white papers, etc). The question is – who will make the commitment to online marketing and establish themself as a clear leader in our industry?

Tags: channels , inbound marketing , marketing communications , survey

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