Wildfire Tech PR Blog – Business and Consumer Technology Public Relations

It struck me recently that with all the focus and interest on social media and digital PR, we are giving short shrift to an aspect of ‘traditional media’ that I believe still holds a lot of value: the British newspaper.

Let me explain why.

The other half and I went blackberry picking at the weekend. We came away with two large tubs full of lovely juicy berries and popped them in the fridge, but we just couldn’t think of anything interesting to do with them outside of a crumble, blackberry pie or jam.

Then this morning I received a letter in the post from my mum (who I’d updated on our blackberry predicament). She’d cut out a summer pudding recipe from her local newspaper and sent it to me.

So I stuck it in the letter rack along with the other 14 newspaper articles she’s already posted to me this year, which range from restaurant reviews and ads for sofas, to recipes and health remedies, and even some articles on fishing.

You see, my mum actually reads the newspaper.  She doesn’t flip through the money pages and check the TV guide before turning to the crossword. No, she sits down with a cup of tea and gives the newspaper her full attention, with scissors on hand to cut out any titbits (she’s been doing viral marketing for years has my mum).

She’s not on Facebook, or Twitter. She probably thinks Spotify is some kind of illness. And she still prefers to go into her local travel agent to book her holidays.  My mum’s probably not the type of person any brand is going to reach with viral marketing or social media or banner ads or digital PR.

But if you’re looking to target a woman with time on her hands to really absorb a message, who feels compelled to proactively share interesting articles with friend and family, and has the purchasing power – and time – to take action if something catches her attention, then you could be making a mistake if you ignore print newspapers.

A recent experience with Amazon.com reminded me just how effective, and (on the face of it) simple, email marketing can be.

I went on Amazon.com recently to find a book for a friend (a Lee Child novel while we’re on the subject), popped it into my shopping basket but promptly abandoned my purchase when I realised I’d left it far too late to get it delivered in time for friend’s birthday the next day.

My fault entirely, so I left the website and resorted to taking my friend out for a beer instead.

But four days later, I received an email from Amazon, setting out lots of Lee Child novels at discounted prices, as they thought I might like to have one.  So I did.  Buy a book that is (let’s face it the token beer was a bit naff).

Why bring it up? Because I was pleasantly surprised by Amazon’s approach. They spotted I’d abandoned my shopping basket and reacted in a timely way with a very relevant, personalised message to try to change my mind about buying from them. And it worked.

Now I know that email marketing isn’t simple, not in the slightest.  As our client email service provider dotMailer will attest to, there’s an almost never-ending list of things to get right, like timing, renderability, content, legalities, design, subject line and coding.

But as a consumer – the one who receives the message in her inbox – I want email marketing to be simple. And I want to feel like the email I’m receiving is just for me.

And that’s where Amazon.com worked. They spotted my behaviour, reacted quickly when they thought they’d lost a sale and sent me a very clear, personalised email marketing message that compelled me to purchase from them.

For 70 handy best practice tips on getting email marketing right, dotMailer’s free annual benchmark study of email marketing performance is worth a read.

If one thing has become clear in the last few weeks, it’s that everyone loves the Old Spice guy.  He sprung out of nowhere, posted some clever YouTube videos and we all had a good time.

But social media was supposed to be about more than this.  It was supposed to make companies more transparent and usher in a new age of true public relations – it was supposed to save the world!

“I’m on a horse”

Instead, the old approach of pushing a brand into consumers’ faces, however entertaining, seems to prevail. Examples like the Old Spice man are typical ‘flash in the pan’ campaigns, disposable advertising that builds as much of a relationship with most viewers as ads ever have. Once it has run its course, P&G will be back to the drawing board for another idea.

This marketing will always have its place, it’s part of the mix and when done well, indispensable. But it’s a prime example of social channels being used the old fashioned way. Most importantly, it’s the advertising agency speaking to the viewer, not the business itself.

Talk to the animals

But we all know how brands can use social media to communicate externally, right? Get the customer service department stuck in!

All you need is a clever Boolean search for your brand name and you can wage war on negative sentiment, responding to your audience and making them feel loved.  What’s great about this is that it sets the right tone and the right priorities, namely independence and authenticity.

Interestingly, it’s also fundamentally quite old-fashioned with businesses communicating directly with customers based on intimate job expertise, not marketing credentials. It’s what people want, it’s how things used to be, and it’s as it can be again.

Think bigger

But why would you bring this change to only one department in your business? At best, this displays a lack of ambition and, at worst, unappealing cynicism.

Those working with brands and social media in any capacity should do everything possible to help clients become socially aware, involved and ultimately, independent.

This is our best hope to escape the current “flash in the pan” case studies and move toward the more mature pedigree of what we’ve started to call sustainable social media.

A better future for our children

Just as the concept of sustainability elsewhere draws on ideas of self-sufficiency and a long game perspective, in social media, we need to be laying the groundwork for businesses to do the same.

Campaigns like Old Spice Man will always have their place and indeed, this is where I might expect specialists to come in and bring their creativity to the table.  But once we’re through this teething phase and clients are more social savvy than not, the potential of such campaigns will be truly phenomenal.

And our childrens’ children

Once brands are thoroughly social and working with intelligent and equally competent specialists in PR, digital etc, that’s when we’re going to start seeing the most consistently brilliant work. And that’s when the aspirations of social media will finally become more than collective ambition and over-exposed shallow case studies.

I popped into Internet World this morning to catch up with a couple of Wildfire clients. My very unscientific observations suggested that the show was back to its heaving best after what was a very recession-hit turnout from exhibitors and attendees alike last year.

In this digital age, it would be easy to think that there is no longer a place for trade shows – they are expensive (both financially and in terms of people-hours) and time-consuming for all involved. But actually the face-to-face interaction that goes on at shows like Internet World is fantastic and, for many digital and online businesses, absolutely invaluable.

Having said that, I do sometimes feel that exhibitors could do more to really make their presence stand out. This could be as simple as running one of the educational seminars that always seem to attract lots of visitors, or by offering something of value on the stand – e.g. an exclusive whitepaper or case study.

Too often, exhibitors seem to resort to softer, brand awareness techniques that don’t really cut above the noise, rather than really demonstrating expertise and offering value.

And it is important not to forget to link activities at trade shows with your digital or social media activities either. Do you have a Twitter account? Why not get visitors to your stand to give their Twitter IDs or if you really want to do something a bit different, why not try experimenting with Foursquare (a location based social network)? I checked-in a few times with Foursquare and was surprised not to have received any tips or hints from exhibitors or visitors.

From a PR standpoint, few journalists now have the time to spend hours and hours speaking to vendors at trade shows and, if they do attend, often prefer just to wander around. But shows are still a good opportunity for PRs to get a feel for what is happening in the industry, meet up with clients, spokespeople and their partners.

Rackspace did run a cute little marketing stunt – they had a group of actors/students outside holding placards demanding the abolition of servers. It was certainly getting quite a bit of attention (and therefore brand awarenss) for those on their way into Earls Court 2!

So, it’s good to see that shows like Internet World are beginning to thrive again after the recession, so now is the opportunity for brands to start thinking outside the box and developing some new, innovative ways to really capture the attention of visitors.

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“The great benefit of digital is that it is measurable”.

This old adage (yes, time moves fast in the digital world!) is the reason online marketers will tell you their discipline is far superior to offline equivalents. And it’s true: online campaigns produce vast amounts of data. Whether we’re talking click-throughs, conversions, downloads, followers… the list goes on and the numbers keep soaring.

This road is fraught with danger however. With these data points we end up quoting obscure, meaningless digits that only serve to quantify, but not qualify, end results. We measure without a purpose, without an end goal.

Beware measurement without an aim

Measurement for measurement’s sake is a waste of everyone’s time. It has to be focused and tied to an overarching goal.

For example, it’s great we can measure Twitter followers, but a thousand followers is a pretty meaningless statistic by itself. What lies behind the figures? Who are these people? What actions have they taken? Have they visited our website? Are they increasing brand awareness? Does the effort justify the business impact?

These are the questions that, no matter how many measurement metrics we are blessed with, are still difficult to answer – offline and online.

Decide goals and then decide what metrics meet these goals

The easy mistake to run into is failing to set and agree campaign objectives from the start. This renders effective measurement impossible and the efforts to achieve the impossible are a waste of time for everyone involved.

Having a Twitter profile, for example, should not itself be the key objective, but part of the strategy to achieving an overarching business goal. To truly measure its effectiveness, it needs to be tied to a particular anticipated outcome: user engagement, customer service, prospect nurturing, direct sales etc.

Measurement is an absolutely fundamental part of marketing. The web arms us with the tools to finally be able to prove (in most cases) that marketing efforts are making a difference to a business. But numbers alone won’t hack it.

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