Marketing with Social Media
Here is a case study in how to pull off a “Web 2.0” virtual presence and a strategy to reach a “Niche Market”. Today “Mass Marketing” is dead, “Broadcasting” is dying. No one wants to reach everybody anymore, who can afford it, what’s more is why try? When the Web has given us the tools to reach a Niche that is a perfect target for our goods and services. Currently the buzz is, how do I identify my “Niche”? And then, how do I reach my “Niche”?
Permission based marketing is in, it’s not enough to just reach the right people with my message, because the people in my Niche are a part of a “Niche Community”. To succeed I have to engage the community by permission and become a viable part of their community. To demonstrate this, let’s look at one company attempting to reach its niche as a member of their online community, enter, www.LoveFoundAnew.com
Love Found Anew is a perfect example of a new generation small business that has built itself around the web 2.0 modicum. The company is a small direct web retailer of its original line of clothing. The clothes are designed to target a niche demographic of young culturally relevant buyers.
The management is young, aggressive, creative and comfortable working in the online community.
Operating in the web 2.0 is not an adaptation for this company it’s in their corporate DNA adapting marketing strategy to better reach their niche market is not a sacrifice it’s a preferred method for a modern businesses. A big part of their Brand is the ethics of the company; Quality American made and “sweatshop free” clothing, and 5% of all sales go toward charity. All of this makes Love found Anew an active part of the community they are targeting.
Primary Website
Love found Anew’s primary web presence is their main website. It’s where they display their clothing and make their sales. So the main focus of all web presence is to drive customers to their main website. This is not the place to talk about their website design, but it’s a very good website design and it’s up to date and culturally relevant. Having a functional website that is designed with the niche demographic in mind is “Job One”. People in your niche community have to be able to navigate your site and stay engaged long enough to make a sale, if not you are losing sales. So the cornerstone of any marketing plan and the one item with the biggest return on investment is a good functional up to date website.
Web 2.0 (Insert catchphrase)
Now let’s talk web 2.0 strategies and how it applies to Love Found Anew.
What are they trying to trying to do, what are their goals? It’s simple, to drive people to their website. But not just any people, they want the target demographic of their niche community. You don’t need everybody to come to your website, but ideally those who are a potential part of your community. If you know who your niche is or better yet, who’s in your niche, then you can save yourself a lot of grief and effort by tailoring your brand and your efforts to reach that community. To be an effective web 2.0 player, you can’t just target a community, you need to become a viable member of the community, then your customers will support you because you are a community member… Now let’s talk strategy.
Strategy
There are several tools you can use to establish yourself in your niche and drive people to you. These strategies will also establish you as a bona fide member of your community and enhance, and support your brand and branding strategies.
EBay
The first strategy to consider is EBay. Even if EBay is not a part of your normal sales strategy it should be, for this reason. Listing your products on EBay opens the door for millions of customers to find your products and website. Of course EBay can be a legitimate sales outlet, and the internet is full of tips on how to sell your stuff and make millions on EBay. But here we are focusing on EBay as a part of your marketing strategy. It’s worthwhile to list one of your products on EBay, even if at a loss because EBay aggressively publishes its listings to search engines and has click through ads spread across the net that you can piggy back onto for just the price of listing your product. Remember your not trying to sell, just be seen, so make sure you design your listing in a way that your customers will find your main website.
Free Classifieds (Builds Links)
The next strategy is listing on community related websites and sites such as craigslist, these listings are free and can build traffic and re enforce your Brand.
Social Websites (Builds Links and Community)
Another great free marketing tool is Social websites like MySpace, Facebook,Yahoo and Twitter by posting a page on these sites you provide a way for your community to talk back through comments and enhance your position as a real member of the community, your niche. One thing to mention is you can’t be a poser here you have to engage your community and provide fresh content on a regular basis and respond to your communities post and comments on your pages. If you or someone in your company cannot maintain your page your marketing company should handle this or find you someone out there who can “pimp” your page and provide relative regular content, but make sure you keep up with what’s going on with your page to make sure it relevant and remember “Content is King” if it’s not real your community will see right thru it.
YouTube
Another social website that is almost free is “Youtube.com” YouTube can generate literally millions of links to your website if you are smart about listing a funny video with links to your website. The video doesn’t have to be related to your genre of product but have the ability to be shared because it’s funny or relevant and the only cost is preparing the video. You can even use other peoples video and add your links to them just be fair and tasteful when you borrow video. This is also a great place to invest in original programming either funny for a viral campaign or a legitimate video to highlight your brand or in the case of Love found anew to report on their charity work and connect with their community.
Podcasting
Podcasting on ITunes is another great free window to the world, for the relatively low cost you can leverage the power of iTunes to reach your niche and again build your brand. Participating in the media of your niche sends a message to your community that your company is an active member.
Now an exciting tool available that has been underused but is continuing to grow in popularity is Podcasting, started in 2005 it is still fresh enough to provide you with the stigma of “Cool high tech” early adopter. Podcasting leverages the popularity of ITunes and the apple community and makes an incredible return on investment. Unlike a blog a little podcasting goes a long way. Even if you can only invest in one podcast it provides you a presence and makes you a player.
Since you have to host the media files on your server you can also provide links for the rss feeds directly on your page. Possible podcasts topics include; product news, product catalogs, reviews, tech info, niche topics, and Humor.
But don’t overlook the effectiveness of this powerful tool. You can use the time you invest in your blog to develop content and record it on video or audio. Then it’s relatively simple to post on both ITunes and your page.
Branding a Blog…
Before we discuss blogging lets revisit branding, branding is the conscience declaration of who you are, what you stand for and why people should be a part of your brand. In other words what are the benefits to your customers? Now consider that every piece of your marketing that comes into contact with your customers must conform to your branding scheme.
Blogging
There is one more tool of the box of basic web 2.0 marketing tools. Web log, Blog, it’s a micro website.
Having a blog gives your customers a two way communication tool and for many is an end to itself. Blogging provides a voice and human face to your company. Members can respond to you. In the comments section it give your customers a place to connect and provide valuable feedback. But more the Blog is the catalyst for the connection or bond you make between your brand and your customers. It gives them a place to participate in the brand that is you, what you sell, and your mission!
In addition to the Blog providing another platform to get your message out, it also increases your visibility on the internet and increases your ranking on search engines like Google which will help drive people to your site. The Blog is not the place to sell, remember content is king. Your Blog is where the ethics, strategy, company and product news is brought to light. This is a chance to connect with your community over issues that motivate them. Think of it as image building with a link to your site.
Link Building
If your content is good, other bloggers will find it and link to it thus building the back links to your site. Google ranks your page based on the number of quality links to your content and to your site. This is important because when potential customers in your niche search the higher up you’re ranked the more effective traffic to your site. If you have the resources such as expertise among your staff have them create blogs that link to your blog and website.
Finally paid ads on search engines like Google will increase traffic with ads linked to niche keywords.
Ad and banner exchange within your niche will strengthen your visibility in your community. You can trade links and ads on websites that reach your niche, or use programs like Ad Exchange.
Can you see how a combined approach provides you a presence that’s an impressive virtual public face? This approach is akin to having an impressive building or a retail window for a brick and mortar operation. But is just what the Doctor ordered in this “niche driven” and community conscience environment. This combined marketing approach gives your Brand that important Identity and connection to your community and build customer loyalty by giving them the opportunity to participate and connect with your Brand. While this two way communication is going on you can tell them the directly or by action the Ethics and Value of your Brand, and they will tell you and other customers what your brand means to them, and validate you as a member of the Niche community.
