Engagement Marketing The Importance of Monitoring and Measuring

Engagement Marketing Understanding the 3 circles of marketing: – The inner circle, controlled by the marketer, is the traditional “command and control” marketing program. – The outer circle represents “free marketing”: content about a company generated by customers and others outside of the control of the marketer. – The middle circle represents the opportunities for marketers to engage the outer circle and participate in and develop conversations.

So how are the circles changing?  The inner circle continues to shrink as customers participate more and more in social networks and use their peers as references for decision making.

So how are the circles changing?  The outer circle has significantly expanded with new social networking tools making access to the conversation more available to all.

So how are the circles changing?  And the middle circle continues to grow as marketers learn how to use social media tools to engage their audiences.

The Importance of Monitoring and Measuring

 Traditionally, marketers modeled consumers’ decisions as they progressed from awareness through consideration, preference, action, and loyalty — through what is called the marketing funnel (see Figure 1-1).

The traditional marketing funnel  Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

We must rethink the marketing funnel because …  #1 Complexity reigns in the middle of the funnel:  Awareness is still important; you need to know that a product or service exists in order to buy it. And the marketer’s endpoint is still a transaction.

We must rethink the marketing funnel because …  #1 Complexity reigns in the middle of the funnel:  The funnel’s consideration, preference, and action stages are the ones that marketers don’t control.

We must rethink the marketing funnel because …  #1 Complexity reigns in the middle of the funnel:  Because the funnel’s consideration, preference, and action stages ignore the forces that marketers don’t control. Those forces are recommendations from friends or family, product reviews, and competitive alternatives described by peers and have influence on individuals.

We must rethink the marketing funnel because …  #1 Complexity reigns in the middle of the funnel:  Rather than a clean linear path, the real process looks more like a complex network of detours, back alleys, alternate entry and exit points, external influences, and alternative resources (see Figure 1-2).

Complex buying paths  Source: Forrester Research, Inc.

We must rethink the marketing funnel because …  #2 The most valuable customer isn’t necessarily someone who buys a lot.  Why good customers can’t be identified solely by their purchases?

We must rethink the marketing funnel because …  #2 The most valuable customer isn’t necessarily someone who buys a lot.  Companies also need to track individuals who influence others to buy. For example, a customer who buys very little from you but always rates and reviews what she buys can be just as valuable as someone who buys a lot — her reviews might influence 100 other people to buy your product.

We must rethink the marketing funnel because … #3 Marketing complexity means that traditional metrics fail to capture the whole story.  Online metrics like unique visitors to a Web site, number of pages viewed, and time spent per page, and so on.  But these measurements don’t indicate the engagement of an individual; they fail to capture the sentiment, opinion, and affinity a person has toward a brand as manifested in ratings, reviews, comments in blogs or discussion forums, or likelihood to recommend to a friend.