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PM Forum - New York
The next generation of online marketing
Internet marketing: Is it a trend or here to stay? The question attracted more than 40 Forum members and guests at the recent New York event.
Jeff Greene of Gold Group and Jenna Beck of Accenture launched the breakfast discussion by showing how two contrasting firms were shaping their brands through online media. Greene's case study involved a two-office law firm with 50 attorneys; Beck shared details of the global consultancy's "high performance" campaign, featuring Tiger Woods. Although neither addressed the morning's topic directly, each made a compelling case for online marketing as the new reality.
When Greene's client retained Gold Group, this conservative company had clear objectives—increasing business through cross-selling, appealing to Gen Y recruits, expanding thought leadership. The principals recognized the potential for online marketing to achieve these goals, and they knew their dated website had outlived its usefulness.
Tactics for realizing the firm's objectives included:
- Search optimization and keyword buys to promote a new, lead-friendly website.
- Creation of a Flickr profile to share photos of summer interns and associates at company functions, projecting youth and vibrancy while scoring search engine points.
- Launch of a podcast series that used RSS feeds for automatic updates as the firm released new podcasts.
- Use of social bookmarking (e.g., digg, del.icio.us, etc.) to promote thought leadership, influence content ratings.
Beck showed how some of the same tactics applied to Accenture, as the firm shifted from traditional to online media for precision marketing. In addition to traditional advertisements, news releases, media articles and special events, the corporation also used blogging, podcasting and RSS feeds to drive traffic to the new Accenture.com. The marketing strategy also considered the online implications of offline activities.
As one measure of the targeted campaign's success, Beck's team found that people who visited Accenture.com better understood the firm's core personality and were more likely to engage its services.
Other benefits of online marketing:
- The company can quickly see what works and what doesn't.
- Aligning campaign performance with key performance indicators helps "sell" Internet marketing to executives who feel more comfortable with traditional media.
- It's easy to align messaging with the targeted audience throughout the market lifecycle.
- "Always-on" nature allows people to find information at any time.
- These cost-effective messages maximize the value of offline tactics—or replace them altogether.
The presentations launched an active discussion on a range of issues, from securing executive buy-in and defining metrics for each tactic to solving the content-management challenge through a shift in corporate culture. And by session's end, no one doubted that online marketing is truly here to stay.
Mistina D. Bates
Market It Write!
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