Ideas for Remarkable Online Marketing by @KunalKripalani

I previously stated that social media is one way to disaggregate your customer database so you're not completely reliant on email. 

Your customers' habits are changing. Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

This chart from Morgan Stanley shows that social networking usage has now surpassed email usage.  Disaggregation is important.

Source: Internet Trends 2010 by Morgan Stanley
Corroborating Source: 2009 Marketing Trends by StrongMail

Furthermore, with this shift in behaviour, comes a shift in marketing budgets. Forrester estimates Social media spend of US$3.1 billion by 2014 versus only US2.1 billion for email.

We are past the tipping point.  Social media can be more effective than email because:

1. You can offer seamless experiences that keep the prospect on one channel and medium throughout the sales funnel, thereby reducing friction.
2. Overcome the noise associated with email marketing and reach prospects through a channel of their preference.  People who ignore your emails may listen to your message via an alternative channel.
3. The perception of a brand on a social network, is a brand that listens.  a brand that cares about me. And that asset - that social capital will deliver you customers that are worth more than those who you are not connected with on social networks.
4. It's easier for a recipient to share your message within a social network, than from an email client.
5. It's faster and easier for you to create a brief (and more easily consumable) post rather than produce a much longer html newsletter.
6. There are more relevant targeting opportunities than was possible with email segmentation, at least in the early stages of the customer lifecycle.

What's critical to remember, is that the tone of social media communications and it's approach is starkly different to email messaging. It's typically shorter and contains more rich media.  It's also a more passive message,  entertaining and has a level of personalisation that is unseen in email marketing.  It's ideally suited for targeting a niche group of subscribers who are interested buyers and / or influencers who are likely to think your message is remarkable enough to share it with their friends.

Here's how you can start integrating social media into your email marketing.

We've all read that followers of brands on Facebook spend more money than consumers who are not fans:

Why do your Facebook Fans spend more?

1. Your brand is front of mind, leading to increased frequency of purchasing and therefore a higher annual spend
2. You have more regular, yet informal contact with the brand, which as a consequence, penetrates your subconscious mind.  We have a greater affinity towards things we are familiar with. ( I studied Neuroscience at university, so I take an interest in these things : )
3. As customers, we feel like brands on Facebook are really listening to us. Since they care more about us than their competitors do, we return favor in kind.

So when situations arise when retail therapy comes to the surface, your brand wins. Triggers for increased purchase frequency:

1. Indecisive moments where you might be thinking about where to eat.  I keep thinking about Giapo Gelato when it's dessert time.
2. Idle time when you might be tempted to make an impulsive purchase. You might be browsing your newsfeed and buy a pair of shoes online that were on sale.  You could be walking down the street and see a Facebook sign in the window of a store that makes a connection to something you saw online earlier.

The Emarketer article reporting on the Syncapse and Hotspex study

The Syncapse Whitepaper describing their research methodology

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How do you communicate with your customers? And how does this compare to how your customers want to communicate with you?  It's being available where your customers are, just like opening a new branch. When Second Life was in its hayday, US based multinationals and banks took to it like moths to a flame and opened virtual branches with transactional capability within second life that used the native currency, Linden dollars.

Today, with over 400 million users, Facebook offers the virtual experience of choice.  With a native currency, Facebook Credits, and full transactional capability, organisations are staking their claim with Fan pages and applications galore.  One example is 1800 Flowers. Another is Pampers, who cleverly used it for a new product launch. How can you get started? Kim Boatman offers a few suggestions over at Inc.com.  Also, there's an Australian based outfit, Moluko, doing good things in this space.

Starbucks keep coming up with intuitive Facebook integrations like their Starbucks Card application.  Useful online management functions have not only been imported into Facebook, but also tailored to fit.  For example, reloading a friends card.

Related Reading: Glenbrook's Model for Social Payments by @GP_Russ_Jones

All up, it looks like an open book that needs to be written.

Cheers, @kunalkripalani

Critical Mass and mainstream are words you could start to associate with social media. The bottom line is:

Your customers are embracing social media, making it an opportunity to build a community around your offering.

It's an opportunity to build rapport, loyalty and warm fuzzy feelings about your brand. Because of the context of the medium, you can afford to, in fact - you have to take a less formal tone than the typically corporate one size fits all corporate approach.

What is the new approach?
It's conversational. It's an opportunity to share what's remarkable about your product with people who are genuinely interested and turn them into evangelists that include their networks in the conversation also.

Engaging in Social Media is also a way to take back some control over your online reputation. For example, if someone leaves negative feedback on Facebook or Twitter, your monitoring and engagement means you can respond to the critisicm then and there.

Key areas of benefit are:

CRM: Communicate with customers through a medium of their choice, be it Twitter, a forum or Facebook. Because it's all public, understand that this is an opportunity to show the world that you genuinely care about your customers.  In the first instance, respond to the issue quickly and in a manner that ensures it does not spiral into a long public debate. Sometimes, when sensitve personal data needs to be shared, it's best to take an issue private using Twitter DMs or even back to email.

Sales: In it's simplest form: consider how can you repackage old marketing tactics?  For example, affiliate programs for lead generation on insurance policies can be made more social & conmmunity friendly.  Instead of a $50 commission to an affiliate marketer, you give that $50 to the favourite charity of your existing customer who gives you a new lead that converts.

Brand Visibility: Your presence on social sites will positively impact your visibility in Google search results, but more importantly, it puts you in front of eyeballs, and at a fraction of the cost of banner ads.

New Product Development Research: What better way is there to get fast and cost-effective feedback on new product ideas? What's working? What needs improving? Even what geographic location you get most interest from can be identified and perhaps used as a launch market.

Ultimately, you have an opportunity to have a conversation with every one of your customers, and win new ones.