Data Alchemy

Obviously in a digital age, data is everywhere but for many non-specialist marketers it may not be obvious why it is essential.  In fact, a whole industry has grown up through the availability of data and the software that allows businesses to create databases, analyse and pull the data for targeted campaigns and customer relationship management. But what practical use does it have? One marketing fundamental that requires data is segmentation, and all good marketing is based on this.  Segmentation is the difference between mass spamming and targeted, effective efficient marketing. It’s so important that I’ll come back to that in another blog.  For now, I’ll refer to some insights that Mr Zarella revealed as a result of his mining data on Twitter use, aided and abetted by some funky software.

Data “alchemy” happens when we create insight from disparate bits of data – elemental facts about our customers, the marketplace and our business model.

For example:

Mr J Smith purchases product “a”   Mr John Smith purchases product “b” Mr and Mrs J A Smith purchase product “c”  – these are simply elemental facts that in themselves don’t allow us to do much. However when you can combine data with other data – say the address of one customer and the d.o.b. match -  you then know that you are dealing with the same individual. This is Information. 

Combine the first with the second and first of all you know you have a valuable customer in the Smith and armed with this, you can decide what to do. This is Insight and insight is knowledge.

That is the value of data to a business.  Knowledge allows you to make strategies and decide on tactics. Without it, your marketing is of the random, scatter gun approach that led to the situation whereby people used to accept that half their marketing worked – but they didn’t know which half!  A lot of expensive mistakes ensued.

A shed-load of data becomes available from all parts of a business – hence the term data warehouse which refers to the numerous depositary systems and databases that take feeds from data input from sales, finance, marketing, service etc.   The CRM and enterprise wide systems introduced during the nineties and noughties all sought to provide the holy grail of a single customer view (SCV) for businesses, one unique identifier that holds the key to calculating the current and lifetime value of your customers.  Of course, most long-standing organisations never make the investment to achieve this. For many of them, linking up their disparate operating systems, and creating ways for them to talk to each other has led them to huge investment in data projects and software installations that have tied them up in knots for years without yet yielding the promised ROI.

Start-ups Have An Advantage

While many start-ups I am sure are busy concentrating on bringing in new customers, they don’t necessarily appreciate the value of this exercise beyond list building.  My advice, for what it’s worth is to take your database seriously and build your CRM strategy from the outset. Armed with the insight they bring, you can really drive up the effectiveness and profitability of your marketing.

Data & Social Media – 7 Top Tips

In the rest of the blog I’m going to share how Dan Zarella has mined data from Twitter to provide some really interesting insights into making social media, more specifically Twitter more effective.  Right up front, he makes the point that you really have to be all over it -  in it, on it and on top of it to get any benefit and this where most small and growing businesses fall down.  This is also where Neontics can help you.  If you want specialist support to create and implement your marketing strategy and make the art and science of social media work, please get in touch by emailing Liz@neontics.com

Tip #1 Table Stakes

Whatever you do you must get this one right.  Twitter allows you to provide three pieces of biographical data telling people who you are, showing a picture of yourself and then a short 160 character statement describing you and what you do – this is the bare minimum, the table stakes to getting it to to work for you. Don’t leave these blank and do put some thought into what you say about yourself. It’s a really good discipline. Completing the profile thoughtfully and carefully can help you to recruit followers. (and for most of us it is about creating followers)

Tip #2 Make a good first impression

Based on Zarella’s analysis he determined that the most followed sites sound positive and authoritative in how they describe themselves.  They appear to have something of added value for followers.  They tell people why they should listen to you. Perhaps you have specialist skills, expertise, experience or something to sell that they want.  If you’re a best-selling author tell people that.

Tip #3 More is More

When it comes to being read and noticed you want your followers engaging in conversation but also sharing content in a viral way.  From his analysis of accounts it seems that the first magic number is to get over 1000 followers and then to be aiming for at least 22 tweets a day!  That’s a sizeable commitment for a small business owner who probably has to be doing the business, running the business and getting the next load of business in.  But according to Dan, anything less is going to be drowned out. So in this instance more is better – you simply cannot over-tweet it seems!  So the question is – who in your firm is going to do that?

Tip #4 What is there to say?

The aim is to broadcast a lot of interesting content. This means researching your audience, the kind of content they are interested in, generating some of it yourself to add value and raise awareness and interest in your particular expertise, and then broadcasting it.  Pressing publish or tweet is the easy bit. Having the energy and ideas to keep generating ideas is a bit harder – especially if it isn’t really your forte. This may be where some external support comes in.

Tip #5 But Then Less is More

There is no marketing benefit, in terms of increasing your reach and spread, by concentrating on being in conversation. So while replying to messages is well and good – perhaps it supports customer relationships – but in itself, it doesn’t grow your business.   For this you are better off focussing on sharing interesting content that your audience wants to read.  The accounts that appear to generate are those that post 60-80% links (i.e. Tweeting and sharing links to interesting content) get more retweets so more spread of your name and content.  But be careful as once you approach 90% links you have to be careful not to get into the territory of spamming people.

Tip # 6 And About 120 is About Right

The maximum number of characters allowed is 140 – but think about it, if you are trying to get retweeted, then you should allow space for people to add in their own comment too.

Tip #7 But How Should I Say It?

If you are writing to be re-tweeted, then including at least one @……  ensures that one person will probably read it an potentially retweet.  Also including a hashtag or “#”means that people not currently following you can find you if they are searching for information on which you are writing or you are writing on what is trending. And going back to tip 3, links whether they are embedded photos, video, or an article you want to share can provide something of interest and value.

Finally – in social media, capturing attention in a short space of time, when we are already bombarded by data and information from all points is dependent upon our being interesting or different.  So the tried and tested communications formula of being in the right place at the right time (see above), crafty well crafted and often provocative headlines help differentiate you from the rest.

If you liked this post, please share it.  There I asked nicely – please do it NOW!

There Are No Shortcuts

That’s the trouble really – if you are going to be involved in it, it makes sense to use them well and there are no shortcuts – it takes time and effort over a sustained period of time.  It is interesting that many clients or prospective clients I meet have the impression that social media is free and therefore it is attractive to them.  Sure the accounts may be free but in reality, integrating and really using them to any effect takes time – and time is money, whether you are paying someone directly to manage your marketing communications, or doing it yourself. Think of it this way – if you are spending time on LinkedIn, Facebook or tweeting, there is something else you aren’t doing. That’s what the economists call an “opportunity cost”.

It’s A Question of Commitment

A lot of advice is around about how to use these channels and indeed LinkedIn have produced some best practice tips that you can check out here. However, the main tip is that you have to be active on a regular basis, to benefit. Since the busiest times for LinkedIn are mornings and around noon, Monday to Friday, if you want to catch attention this means potentially planning to be active everyday of the working week. Are you able to commit to that?

In a sense it’s a case of damned if you don’t and if you do but not properly! By having accounts and not making regular use of them, you are potentially putting people off your business.  What does it say about you to have a Twitter account with 4 tweets and 2 followers?  Either you are very new in the game – but people can see how long your account has been active; or you don’t have much to say.  What is the story you are telling?  Some recent research provides interesting findings. For example, when asked:
“What does it say about a brand if they are not involved with sites like Facebook or Twitter?” respondents said :
“It’s EXPECTED that a company have some digital face – whether it’s on FB or Twitter I don’t know – but they need a strong electronic presence or you doubt their relevance in today’s marketplace.” Female 50-54
“Either they are not interested in the demographic that frequents Facebook and Twitter or they are unaware of the opportunity to get more exposure in a more interactive method.” Male 35-39
“It shows they are not really with it or in tune with the new ways to communicate with customers.” Female 18-24.
“If they’re not on Facebook or Twitter, then they aren’t in touch with the “electronic” people.” Female 55-59

Of course you may tell yourself that those demographics are not your target market (at least not now?) but you know that’s just an excuse not to do anything.  In my experience, it is better to work one channel well than several badly.  It is however even better if you can integrate them all within your marketing system so that they create a virtuous circle of recruiting followers, spreading information, sharing, collecting insight and data and a basis for recommendation and referrals.  So how do we do that?

Leading To Action

Models of marketing communications theory describe a process of leading prospective customers through the buying process by focusing on content and communication that moves them from a state of “unawareness” through to “action”.

• “Unaware”  they don’t know you or your products

• “Aware”  they know who you are, have heard of you

• “Interest” you are on their radar and there is an increased commitment to hearing from you

• “Desire” you are tapping into the right messages and their motivation to buy

• and finally “Action” at which point, they are ready to buy from you.

It’s actually a question of engagement. How do you boost engagement with your followers?
The answer is not rocket science but is a matter of making each marketing channel work for you. Ensuring that you promote your LinkedIn page on your website, through your Twitter account and Facebook page, directing and pointing readers to each of these helps increase traffic and so awareness and followers.

Customer comments and reviews you receive and put on your website, can be linked to from Facebook, directing people to the landing page and vice versa directing people from your LinkedIn page to your website.  Potential customers these days are far more persuaded by what real customers say and think of you than they are by your marketing spiel. And it goes without saying that you need to have a prominently displayed button to enable people to sign up to each of your channels, on your website and your social media pages, making it as easy as possible.

It’s Really Just Good Marketing

Most of what follows relates to specific facilities on LinkedIn but much of it can also be applied to Facebook or Twitter and it really is just a good scientific approach to marketing.  As part of your normal scanning of competitors ( you do that right?), LinkedIn can be very useful and convenient to see not only what competitor companies are doing but also their (and potentially your) customers. Who is active in their company?  What is their background and what groups are they in, what discussions are they participating in?  Of course if you can link in to them then do but developing a relationship with them then depends on you hitting the right buttons and appealing to their interests.
So what are your customers or those with a similar company or role profile spending time talking about?  What are the topics and discussions that they are engaged in?  For example, LinkedIn groups have managers, and manager’s choices to show topics that are getting the most attention. Apart from participating in the discussion yourself to raise your profile, you can tell a lot about the ideas and subject matter to include in your own stream. Using the search facility helps you to search by topic to see what’s going on and you can see what level of response you get from people to your comment and use this as an indication of interest to what you might add to your own company stream.
The group profiles are rich in information about demographics, job titles, geographical location and so on. This profile of your potential target market can be used to refine your messages, channels and campaign targeting.  Examining the trends (via Activity and the archive links on LinkedIn) you may see patterns in the topics and level of interest that suggest seasonality, which can help you to time your campaigns and plan your messages.

Timing Is Everything

As was said above, the peak times for LinkedIn are in the morning and at mid-day but that doesn’t mean to say that these are the only times that you should plan to post.  Of course other people will be checking in at other times, and even in other time zones, so it is worth tracking what works and when your target audience is active.  And of course there are tools that can be helpful in scheduling your posts for you – so you can write and then schedule to post them later. This helps you to maintain your presence without making you a slave to the process. Or in “always on” mode.

Be A Stand Out

The name of the game is creating interaction and as part of that you need to deploy tactics that help you to stand out from the crowd.  Using images, generating responses through competitions and polls and questions can help.
When you read or write something interesting, make sure you share it through links or updates that you specifically target towards groups or categories of followers.  If you have posted something on your own blog, you can get a lot of feedback from seeing who clicks through to read it, what else they look at on your site, and ideally any comments they leave.  The more targeted you are, the more likely you are to create followers who are of the right quality.  Better to have fewer good leads than many inactive, disinterested ones.
Of course there are many more paid for features that you can utilise once you are in the swing of it. There are no shortcuts – it takes time, effort a mix of the art and science of marketing. However if you persist and follow these principles for long enough, the stats suggest that you will be successful.  And if you don’t personally have the time to do it yourself, why not talk to us at Neontics?  We’d be happy to help you out.