Social Media Needs Accountability Measures Like Direct Mail

May 3, 2010 by
Filed under: Marketing List Broker 

Interactive marketers….

Need to start holding social media accountable.

Direct marketers have always been under close scrutiny to at least break-even for their direct mail campaigns.

The return on investment occurs from the back-end, through renewals of magazine subscriptions, memberships.

Many times, interactive media marketing professionals become impressed with the technology or traffic potential without considering the potential for return on investment instead of taking an analytical approach that will ultimately facilitate its development.

Set Simple and Clear expectations

Too many social media marketing programs lack clear and specific objectives and define the purpose.

Every program that leverages the social Web should have a defined call to action that can be evaluated against a specific outcome, whether a purchase, subscription or other track-able action.

Many times blogs or mobile campaigns include strategies to penetrate social media followers of prospects.

The call to action must also be assigned a value that is well defined. Increasing my number of Twitter followers is only a valid objective if you first define the value of the fan.

Once calls to action are clear

Be sure the program offers transparency into the number of conversions driven by social media.

This is the number that will support future investment in new channels.

Positive Reinforcement

The real opportunity on the social web in 2010 is turning customers into affiliates. Marketers can no longer rely solely on direct programs to deliver their message to prospects.

The message should be seeded with incentives to act as affiliates within their social networks. Marketers must test relevant incentives and determine what motivates their best customers to recruit new ones on their behalf.

Don’t Get Lost in the Hype

It is easy to get excited about social media’s potential, but too much excitement can create false hopes about the real potential that prevent you from accurately identifying strengths and weaknesses as a marketing channel.

By outlining key performance indicators, you can identify points of weakness and optimize for enhanced performance.

Reach:

When an advocate shares, how many people do they engage, how many emails do they send, how many posts, etc?

When a marketer shares, how engaged is their network and what are the click-through rates from invitations?

Monetary Contribution:

Watching metrics closely will allow your organization to optimize programs and ensure continued investment in social media.

Holding social media channels accountable will enable them to become an integral part of the direct marketing arsenal.

Social media must rely on us for expectation setting, incentive development and analysis/optimization – only then can it be as transparent as other channels and garner a larger portion of the marketing budget.

Until next time, here is to your continued success!

.

About the Author:

Tim G. Little has a BS in Business Administration, and has worked in the magazine publication and circulation management for the past 20 years. As an Internet Publisher and Entrepreneur, he has developed a website to help small business entrpreneurs find the best mailing list and marketing programs ps: I would like to recommend a tool to you to help find Boost Sales… Gain Market Share.. . With Focused List Selection, Tips and Tools for Finding the Perfect List. Once you e-mail segments, track how they differently they react to messaging options. Free 100 leads from InfoUSA from your neighborhood or across the country you choose or call me for more details buy mailing lists Guaranteed and a 100 free leads if you open an account today!>

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