Painting a portrait with data

Most people in marketing are familiar with the concept of a persona. The idea is pretty simple. Using known information, research and customer interviews, you create a detailed character that best represents your target. The persona has a name, a photo and a well-developed back-story that makes him more “real.”

While there are differences of opinion about how much data you need to gather to construct a useful persona, at its simplest level, you are taking an abstract representation of your target—female, 18-34, income greater than $30,000—and turning her into a “person” you can consider when developing marketing messages and new product offerings. Here’s an example:

Stacy Jones is 24. She recently graduated from college and moved to the city. She shares an apartment with two roommates in a newly gentrified neighborhood.

Stacy is working for a national retail clothing chain while she looks for a job in her field. She really enjoys the interaction with customers and gets a lot of satisfaction helping people fine-tune their style and create the perfect outfit.

Stacy is very social. She is constantly sharing photos with her 300-plus Facebook friends, but doesn’t get why people would waste time on Twitter. With limited income, Stacy also spends a lot of time online looking for the best deals on designer-label clothes.

Stacy likes trying new things and having new experiences. Even with limited resources, she feels it’s important to experience what life has to offer …

You should have as many personas as you do meaningful targets. You can get as detailed as you want. The idea is to identify relevant patterns that are present across your target audience, and flesh those out in a personal description.

Often times, the process of developing personas reveals important differences within a target group that allow for multiple, more meaningful segments to emerge. Armed with a persona, you can now consider how Stacy—rather than a “female, 18-24, income greater than $30,000”—would react to new ideas or product offerings.

Why use personas for social media content creation?

Marketers have been using personas for advertising and product development since the 1990s, but they have an important new role in social media. It is becoming clear that using social media to simply broadcast marketing messages is not an effective use of the channel. The key to success in social is to garner engagement from your customers.

Social media is online word-of-mouth. People interact with content that is interesting, funny, entertaining or helpful to them. It’s hard to create content that will resonate with someone if you think of that person simply as a customer or some other demographic segment.

What do “white-collar men, 35-54” click on and share with their friends and colleagues? It’s hard to say, but “NASCAR Bob,” who owns a manufacturing job shop in the Southeast and is always looking for ways to help his employees make metal parts more efficiently, would probably share a link to an online tool that helped him figure out how to cut aluminum faster.  He would also likely be interested in stories about companies using automated production processes to win business from offshore competitors.

Boost engagement or risk becoming invisible

On a more practical note, engagement is becoming vital to securing visibility in some key social properties. Facebook’s Edge Rank algorithm weighs interaction—clicks, likes, sharing, viewing—very highly when determining if and when your post will be visible in your fans’ news streams. Since 85 percent of people who “like” a company page never return, triggering interaction has become important for enabling ongoing visibility.

This makes creating truly relevant, share-worthy content for your customers and prospects more critical than ever. Evaluating your ideas against a persona can help your team come up with great new content that may not have otherwise occurred to them—content Stacy and NASCAR Bob will be excited to receive and share with others.

What about you? Are you using personas as a tool for creating more engaging, share-worthy content? I’d love to hear your success stories (or missteps) related to using personas for social media.

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

How new online tools and techniques can benefit from traditional direct response tactics

The marketing world has gone through some dramatic changes in the last decade. There are countless new tools offering incredible opportunity for marketers to reach their customers in new and exciting ways. But the opportunity comes at a price. PPC, SEO, CTR, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Orkut, StumbleUpon, Foursquare … nearly all marketing professionals have thrown their hands in the air at some point, and wondered, “How do we keep up?”

Did you forget something?

In an effort to stay out in front, we charge full-steam ahead—following this blog, watching that webinar, attending seminars and conferences—all to come up with our own strategies for integrating new tools and tactics. It’s exciting to be doing something new and different, but what is sometimes lost in the rush, is attention to the fundamentals— integration of the tried and true.

The power of an offer

When it comes down to it, most online marketing is good, old-fashioned direct response advertising. We’re trying to get someone to do something—to click, to buy, to join, to respond. If we want people to act, we need to give them an incentive. A compelling offer has always been a critical element of any successful direct response effort. It is important because it adds value and incentive.

Offer = Value = Incentive

Why should the viewer bother? Although money talks, the offer doesn’t have to be “20% OFF” or “Buy One Get One FREE.”  It could be membership in an exclusive group or access to something not available to the general public. The bottom line: If the target is going to act, he needs to feel there is something in it for him.

Turning up the heat

Another critical element of direct response is urgency. If your target feels the offer is available any time, then she has no reason to pull the trigger now. Maybe she’ll come back next week? Maybe next month? Maybe.

You’ve worked hard to get your audience’s attention. You have an offer they’re considering. The key is to make them feel that if they don’t do it now, they‘ll miss out.

While a short expiration is an effective way to instill urgency, there are alternatives. To give your offer time for proper exposure, perhaps you might provide the offer until the end of the month, but give potential customers a bonus for acting now—a free month of membership for a friend, for example (which would also serve as a nice viral referral mechanism). Or perhaps you advertise the fact that the offer is only available in a limited quantity. Whatever it is, potential customers must see the value, feel like the stars have aligned and be inclined to act now.

Incentive + Urgency = ACTION

New online marketing channels provide more ways than ever to creatively reach and engage your target, but don’t make the mistake of thinking everything has changed.  Basic motivations are the same as they were 10 years ago, just as they will be 20 years in the future. People act when they feel there is something in it for them and they don’t want to miss out—online or off.

We want to know what you think. Have new online tools and techniques eliminated the need for traditional direct response incentives and calls to action?

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

Are your blog, Twitter feed and e-mail newsletters full of “important,” “relevant,” and “compelling” facts about why your products and services are better than your competitors? Do you make a great case? Lay out all the facts? Drive home the important messages?

You could be chasing away the people you are hoping to engage.

Like the creep at the cocktail party that can’t stop talking about himself, companies that have little to offer beyond traditional “Me, Me, Me” marketing messages are finding little audience and even less engagement in the realm of social media.

These days marketers are all abuzz about social media. They want to find ways to better utilize social media to “harness the groundswell” and “go viral.” The problem is most don’t deliver content that anyone would want to read, much less forward to a friend.

The truth is, most people don’t care that much about your products or your company. And why should they? People go online for information and entertainment – not a sales pitch. If you want to attract and engage their attention, provide content that will trigger their “a-ha” reflex, relieve a pain point or provide some form of entertainment.

In a recent post on CopyBlogger, Sonia Simone discusses how boring, self-serving content has “killed” e-mail marketing:

Self-centered content is dull… I get dozens of messages every day that are so boring and self-centered I can’t be bothered to unsubscribe. I just set up a rule to automatically throw them in the trash as they come in. Or I let them pile up in the spam filter until I feel like deleting 20 or 30 at a time without looking at them.”

Any marketer will tell you they understand the need to provide valuable information online. But what constitutes value? Unless someone is actively researching a purchase, a list of specifications isn’t going to hold much value. Besides, that information is already available on your website.

To be effective in social media, you’ve got to stop selling and simply provide information that offers independent value. Industry trends, interesting anecdotes, helpful tips, links to important content from other sources – anything that your target audience will be excited to read.

Providing content that is relevant but not a direct sales pitch, builds credibility and authority for your business. It creates trust and ongoing engagement. People want your content. They’ll wait for it, open it, read it and forward it on to others.

If you establish and nurture this type of relationship, then when they are ready to make a purchase, they know and trust you, putting you high on their list of potential solutions.

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

Scott LoSasso, President of LoSasso Advertising, answers questions from the audience and panel moderator Gary Slack of Slack Barshinger at Google offices in Chicago.

In an effort to help traditional advertising agencies understand how to implement search marketing strategies, Google invited a panel of agency experts to share their insights on how they have used search marketing and other online strategies to improve client and agency performance.

Scott LoSasso comments, “I was flattered to be asked to sit on the panel. The past few years have been such an interesting time of change in this industry. We continue to work very hard with our clients and staff to integrate everything we do. It requires a vigilant effort and a fundamental shift in thinking. This was a fun event and I was happy to share some of what we have learned.”

Google offers a full suite of tools for search management, and they are in the process of rolling out new support services to help agencies leverage their platform.

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

The Brunswick Wii-a-Day Giveaway has seen strong initial results from a push in social media sites like Facebook.

In a recent effort for our client Brunswick, LoSasso kicked off the Wii-a-Day Giveaway in September. This effort was primarily supported by the launch of a new social media presence for Brunswick on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, developed by LoSasso’s interactive division. While the giveaway continues, the response has been so strong, we couldn’t resist sharing a few key results to-date.

Our primary strategy for the giveaway has been online promotion, but point-of-sale materials in the bowling centers has worked alongside online efforts to boost participation as well.  Pre-registration promotion was sent through Brunswick’s Bonus Zone email marketing database. Communications promoted the coming contest and new social media pages, encouraging “fanning” and “following” to be in the know about contest details, winners and general happenings.

Since launching the program three weeks ago, Brunswick has amassed more than 11,000 active Facebook fans and over 100,000 entries into the giveaway. The program has also generated several thousand new opt-ins to Brunswick’s e-mail couponing program the Bonus Zone, more than 3,000 direct coupon downloads for immediate discounts on bowling and over 4,000 requests for more information on Brunswick’s new Wii Bowling Clubs – a core objective of the initiative.

The giveaway continues through the end of October, but so far results indicate that Brunswick’s first venture into social media has found a highly receptive audience.  If you are interested in learning more, here are a few links to check out – and while you’re at it, why not enter to win!

Brunswick Home Page
Brunswick Facebook Page
Wii-a-Day Registration Page
Brunswick Twitter Page

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

Photo by Timothy Morgan

With all that’s changing in marketing these days, it’s easy to get caught up in the technology. Easy to forget that, ultimately, it all comes back to the basics – like focusing on customer benefits. In a recent post on Copyblogger, Sonia Simone writes:

“Benefits are the little black dress of marketing: always appropriate…The insanely simple and direct way is just to put a bulleted list on your sales page under the title: Here’s What [My Product] Will Do For You. List out the seven most important wonderful things that your customer will experience as a result of doing business with you. Make sure this list can be seen “above the fold” on the screen — in other words, without the viewer needing to scroll.”

While you may find the technique a bit too simple, the point is well made. List your benefits. Make sure they won’t be missed.

She wraps up her post with a link to another marketing “secret weapon” – your call to action. You’ve told them how your product or service will benefit them. Don’t forget to tell them to do something about it.

All too simple you say? Way too marketing 101? If your marketing has a tight focus on the basics, you’re probably doing better than a lot of your competitors. If you’ve gotten a little soft – or a little too self-centered – maybe a little 101 is just what you need.

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

I was recently in Seattle attending the amazingly informative SMX Advanced conference. It featured dozens of enthusiastic search marketing brainiacs with a lot of great information and ideas. The first session, Social Media & Search Marketing: Not the Same Old Stuff, offered many insights. Here are a couple of my key takeaways from the first presenter, Dave Snyder co-founder of the search marketing and social media firm Search & Social.

SMX Advanced 2009 in Seattle - Photo by Andres Andrew Larsen

The Power of Links is the Problem with Links

Historically, getting links to your site has been one of the most effective techniques for boosting results in Google. If other sites link to your content – especially if their anchor text includes your keywords – your content is seen as more important than pages on other sites without links. Sort of a link popularity contest.

Additionally, the concept of “trust,” represented by the age of the referring links or sites, meant that older more trusted links and sites would deliver higher rankings. This helped combat against new sites spamming links to improve their rankings.

That’s all great, but not without problems…

• If you weren’t already well linked, it was hard for others to find your content and link to it.

• If you needed to get the word out fast, traditional link building was too slow.

Legitimate new pages were at a disadvantage since they had little trust built up with Google. The result was that searchers looking for timely information were often bombarded with older, less relevant search results.

To address this issue, Google developed the Query Deserves Freshness or QDF Model. QDF says that if news and social media sites are publishing lots of new content about a topic, it should be given greater importance in results. QDF is basically a measure of global enthusiasm for a topic.

With the exponential rise in social media content, there is a huge source of new “social signals” that Google is monitoring to help deliver the most relevant results. Inbound links are essential, but Social Media provides new ways for “hot” content to leapfrog “trusted” results in Google.

• News coverage
• Blog coverage
• Viral activity
• Micro-blogging through Twitter
• Social networking activity on Facebook, Linked-in and others
• Social bookmarking on sites like Delicious
• Social news activity on sites like Digg
• Search volume – Google Hot Trends

Twitter and other social media activity sends important "social signals" and can help boost relevance in Google. Photo by Bobby James.

Google is Watching

The objective of Google is to provide the most helpful, relevant information to searchers. In order to sort through the mountains of information on the Internet, Google has increased the complexity of what they monitor to determine relevance.

On-page/On-site Analytics - if people are spending a lot of time on a page or site, the content is seen as more valuable.

Upstream and Downstream Data – where visitors come from and where they go after they visit – these signals affect relevance.

Link building to high quality, keyword-rich content is still crucial to organic search success, but Social Media provides new ways to attract the attention of the search engines an get important content out quickly.

In Part 2 of this series, we’ll discuss techniques you can use to increase your social signals and help Google find and rank your content when you are short on time and “trusted” backlinks.

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

Despite uncertainties in the economy and financial markets in 2008, trends in online advertising continue on an upswing. The latest report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP reports that online advertising revenues reached $5.9 billion for the third quarter of 2008 – up 11% over the same period in 2007, reports a recent post in Marketing Vox.

It comes as no surprise that despite a faultering US economy, online ad spending is up. Now more than ever, the increased measurability, targetability and direct path from online ads to trackable response mechanisms make search marketing and online advertising an attractive place to spend shrinking ad budget dollars. When things get tight, it’s nice to know if what you’re doing is working.

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

There are tens of millions of blogs in the world churning out countless posts every day – a tsunami of information. A good RSS feed reader can assist in keeping track of blogs once you find them, but with so much noise in the blogoshpere, finding the best blogs on the topics that interest you can be daunting.

That’s where Alltop.com comes in. Billed as an “online magazine rack” of popular topics, Alltop lists the 5 most recent posts for the top 50-100 blogs on each of the various topics covered. The searchable list of topics runs the gamut from politics to astrology – social media to fantasy football. You can click through to the full post or (delightfully more time saving) mouse over and read the first paragraph of each. This is why I can’t get enough of Alltop – it’s a remarkable tool for keeping up with the flood of information in a remarkably short amount of time. So simple, yet so useful.

If you already know about Alltop, you know what I mean. If not, it’s definitely worth looking into.

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)

Scott LoSasso, President of LoSasso Advertising in Chicago, discusses marketing planning for 2009. With marketers concerned about the economy, it’s important to make sure that you don’t stop evolving. Online marketing is essential to  positioning your company for growth coming out of the economic slowdown.

David Fabbri is Creative Director of LoSasso Advertising Inc., a Chicago based interactive agency specializing in content marketing strategies and customer acquisition for leading B2B and consumer brands. (See more posts by David)