How Social Media influences Consumers

Companies can now create critical new brand assets (such as content from customers or insights from their feedback), open up new channels for interactions (Twitter-based customer service, Facebook news feeds), and completely reposition a brand through the way its employees interact with customers or other parties.

Companies diligently establish Twitter feeds and branded Facebook pages, but few have a deep understanding of exactly how social media interacts with consumers to expand product and brand recognition, drive sales and profitability, and develop loyalty.   Recognizing the speed and diversity of social media feeds and how to measure the cost benefit of a media campaign remain critical factors in managing through the quagmire of how senior leaders can harness social media to shape consumer decision making in predictable ways.

In order to demystify social media,  we have identified its four primary functions—to monitor, respond, amplify, and lead consumer behavior—and linked them to the journey consumers undertake when making purchasing decisions.   Being able to identify exactly how, when, and where social media influences consumers helps executives to craft marketing strategies that take advantage of social media’s unique ability to engage with customers.

E-marketing: Painless profit for endless gain

Step 4: Maximize the Impact of Paid Search & On-Site Banner Ads in Driving Customer Engagement?

Innovative e-marketing can create painless profit with endless gain.  Companies are realizing the importance of creating a strong online presence not only in the organic search results but also in the paid advertisements that appear alongside those results. 

According to Mediative, organizations can significantly enhance their digital presence and move customers from awareness to purchase through on-line banner advertizing.

The measurability of pay-per-click ads enable marketers to monitor the traffic generated by the listings, and the performance of their online advertising campaigns.  However, paid search isn’t just about driving additional traffic to a website.  It can also have significant effects on branding metrics such as brand affinity and recall, message recall, and purchase intent.

Top ads have much stronger click-through-rates (CTR's) than ads on the right side.  Buying intent also increases with top ads and this holds true amongst brand name and private labels.

According to Eric Morris, Mobile Lead of Google, there are three trends to embrace: Get your website to Google page one through proper website design complete with tags. You should:

1. Measure everything on your website and even cross brand yourself with Google Search.

2. Use sight, sound and motion to attract and retain your customer.

              3. Make sure your website is adaptable to Mobility recognizing the new world of constant connectivity.

E-marketing: Painless profit for endless gain

Step 3: Advertise across Multi-Media.  How is New Media changing the Marketing Landscape?  .   Social media enables targeted marketing responses at individual touch points along the consumer decision journey.  

Out-of-Home Channels (OOH)

• Billboards and transit ads, followed by ads in shopping malls and restaurants, have the greatest reach among OOH channels.

• Ads within medical clinics, health clubs, bars, and on campus can be effective in reaching specific demographic and lifestyle targets.

• Each month 7 in 10 visit a mall, 6 in 10 a restaurant, 1 in 4 a gym, 1 in 5 a medical clinic, and 1 in 6 a campus.

• On-the-go consumers can use their mobile phone to interact with OOH posters to download coupons, view product demos, enter contests, obtain samples, compare product information and make a purchase.

Mobile

“Canadians are embracing mobile technology and using their Smartphones more in store aisles,”

• There’s a huge increase in Smartphone penetration among Canadian consumers with 37% of Canadian shoppers owning a Smartphone, up rapidly from 24% reported last year; however still below the 50% penetration among American shoppers in a more competitive mobile market.

• A third of shoppers own an iPhone or a Blackberry device, while 21% have a phone running Android OS.

• Over 50% of planned purchases are for iPhones, while Blackberry and Android phones each account for 20% of planned purchases.

• On the tablet front, 14% of shoppers own an internet-enabled tablet, but an additional 20% say they plan to purchase within the year.

• The role of Smartphones in retail is growing with 60% of shoppers interested in using their phone to download or scan coupons and over 50% using them to store their shopping lists. 40% are willing to make instant purchases using their phone.

• 88% of Smartphone owners are aware of quick response (QR) codes while 40% use it and new technologies such as Near Field Communication (NFC) are gaining popularity.