Technology Marketing by Tatum MarketingJust another WordPress weblog

Sometimes it helps to look beyond our own industries to discover what marketing tactics others are using successfully. According to an OMMA research brief, a recently published Forrester report, called Retailing Online 2009: Marketing Report, provides a good opportunity to do that. 

Amidst all of the data included in the report, two things have real significance for non-retail marketers.  Online retailers are using: 

1. Search engine marketing (SEM) for customer acquisition and 
2. Email for customer retention.

If you’re interested in the numbers, SEM is the marketing tactic most often mentioned as an effective acquisition tactic (83%). Search engine optimization is the second most frequently mentioned tactic (51%). And affiliate programs come in third (41%). Email is the most frequently mentioned successful overall marketing tactic (89%).

This is not terribly different from what we find successful in the non-retail world. While search engine marketing alone is rarely – if ever – the only tactic needed to acquire a new customer, it is by far the most effective and efficient way to start the process. Unless of course no one is looking for your product or solution, which is a different challenge altogether.

Business-to-business company owners and marketers often come to us torn between conventional lead generation programs – direct mail, email, or telemarketing – and online search or advertising programs. Our advice is nearly always the same: 

Start with search.

The reason is really simple. When people are actively searching for a product or solution like yours, you are relevant. You do not have to fight a bunch of noise for their attention. They are looking for you. Your only competition is the other marketers taking advantage of the search situation.

There is also a simple reason online retailers don’t find email marketing to be among the most effective customer acquisition tactics. When email is used for initial engagement, it faces a big list of obstacles. At the top of that list are delivery issues and competition from everything else in the prospects inbox. In the business-to-business world, this can literally be hundreds of other email messages. 

This is not to say that email isn’t useful. In fact, it often plays a major role in successful non-retail marketing campaigns. Not only can we use it for customer retention – as the online retailers do – we also need it for lead development. 

In the non-retail world, most purchases are multi-stage. You are not, for example, going to be able to use a search marketing campaign alone to sell an expensive software application or consulting relationship. We know that a high percentage of prospects (75% to 80% or more) are not going to be ready to buy when they first make contact with your company. Email is a great way to build and maintain an on-going relationship and turns those semi-interested visitors into real leads.

 So, you need both – search marketing and email – for an effective new customer marketing program. You also need a great website and consistent conversion optimization, but those are subjects for a different article.

Technorati Tags: seo, search engine optimization, conversion, customer acquisition, lead generation