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Bill Daring, KMP chief executive

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1:00 am, August 18, 2008
Smiling in the face of a depression

Digital marketing is booming amid the credit crunch

By Joanne Birtwistle

The recent proliferation of traditional marketing and public relations firms starting up digital divisions — Golley Slater, Peppermint and RMS PR all made recent announcements — is proof positive that businesses are waking up to the digital revolution.

As a marketing channel, digital has relatively low costs, which is a big benefit and current market conditions and some see this as the big opportunity for digital marketing sector to become mainstream.

“This depression is the greatest opportunity that digital marketing has had,” said Simon Wharton, managing director of Manchester-based agency PushOn. “We're finding we're snapping up business because of tight budgets. Clients want every penny to be accountable, and you can do that with digital.”

Fast-moving

But the digital world moves at quite a pace. A distinction should be made between traditional digital advertising — such as Google Ads or banner ads, and more recent social media marketing through sites such as the ubiquitous Facebook.

Banner adverts are a literal translation of a print advertisement. According to David Bird, course leader for the MSc in digital marketing communications at Manchester Metropolitan University, they are most effective when used alongside other forms of advertising like print or TV.

“People are bored with banner ads. But they may have been engaged by a TV ad — they can't act on it straight away — but if they are surfing the next day and click — it can be a good gateway,” said Bird.

Pay per click appeals to businesses on a budget. The ads shown on the right hand bar of Google are relevant to the viewer's search words and you only pay when someone clicks on your link.

Users can limit their daily budget, so once a site has had 50 clicks in a day, for example, Google won't place the ad again until the next day. “But a click does not guarantee a sale,” said Bird.

Pay per click advertising gives data on who has clicked on what and what people are looking for. “If you have paid a lot for use of a certain key word, you can see if it's working and refine the thread,” added PushOn's Wharton.

Online social media has brought about a whole new set of marketing rules and advertising: the biggest being transparency.

“Social networks are a place to play so intrusion by business can be quite offensive,” said Bird. “These people who have put fake identities on Facebook and then started discussion groups — dropping in the company name, do get outed, and the public backlash can be bad.”

Companies or brands can set up pages so that people can join as fans but shouldn't use the space to actively sell, according to Bird.

“Businesses should see social networks as a communication tool. So if someone starts an anti page about your organisation, look at why,” he said.

Blogs are one of the best ways to communicate with clients and should be seen as conversations, not for broadcasting information one way. They are an opportunity to showcase business expertise and address any issues clients may have.

“The best blogs are the ones that allow unmoderated comment,” said Bird. “It exposes the business but you can't afford not to do it.”

Content distribution

But this sort of marketing takes commitment. If a company is going to blog, it needs to do so regularly and clients would much rather hear from the managing director or chief executive than the marketing manager.

Company websites without blogs are usually fairly static but if information is changing regularly, people are more likely to visit.

Bill Daring, chief executive at stockport-based interactive marketing company KMP, emphasised the importance of making a company's website more than just brochureware. “It's about content distribution, not content holding,” he said.

One way to increase awareness of your business and drive more traffic to your website is to disseminate content across other platforms, he said. So if one of your blogs is a piece of video, for example, post that on YouTube to reach a larger audience. If you have images, upload them to Flickr as well.

KMP has done this for Chester Zoo. Its homepage now has a tab where visitors can upload their own pictures of the zoo animals as part of a competition. It also has a tab on the home page which takes viewers to a Flickr page where people can scroll through and comment on all the uploaded pictures. The page has attracted attention from wildlife photographers.

“It's about creating these communities in social networks,” said Daring.



COMMENTS? jbirtwistle@crain.com