DCP Dialogue

Should Hospitals Use Facebook?

Hospitals are flocking to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter in order to attract consumer attention and to engage consumers in meaningful and ongoing dialogue. The attraction is obvious since millions of consumers turn to these internet communities to find information and local services. But special challenges are presented to hospitals on social media sites because of concerns about patient privacy and the limits participants have in controlling the dialogue.

In a recent white paper entitled "To Facebook or Not to Facebook: The question for hospitals today" the people at MyHealthCommunity Social Network, Inc. do a great job of framing the issues and offering sound advice for hospital marketers developing a social media strategy. You can download the white paper here.

In their conclusion, the authors offer a series of recommendations on how hospital marketers should proceed. One of the points that sticks out for me is that you should “use Facebook as a place to find your audience and direct them to the appropriate platform for communication.” Those appropriate platforms include the hospitals’ own websites. DCP helps hospitals build out sections of their sites where this more secure conversation can take place.

Omniture Survey Says…Online ROI Measurement is Important, But Hard to Implement

According to the results of the 2010 Omniture Online Analytics Benchmark Survey, the majority of marketers value the importance of measuring ROI from online marketing activities but 55% can’t effectively measure it. The survey results also reveal that only 14% of respondents currently use all three emerging channels (mobile, social media, video) in their marketing efforts.

I was surprised by these numbers! I expected that more marketers would be using emerging channels and would have systems in place for measuring results. Take a look at the highlights below or click here for more survey results. What's your reaction to this?

ROI
80% of respondents believe ROI from online marketing activities is important to measure, but only 31% of marketers can effectively measure it.

Social Media
69% of respondents are using social media in their marketing efforts however, 41% lack a mechanism to measure social media conversion.

Mobile
23% of respondents are currently using mobile in their marketing efforts. Of these people:

• 73% can measure if website visitors are coming from a mobile device
• 30% are able to measure their mobile app conversions

Video
43% of respondents are using online video in their marketing efforts. Of these people:

• 59% feel that post-video conversion is one of the most important video metrics, yet 70% are unable to measure post-video conversion.
• 40% are using online video lack a mechanism to measure video starts.

Conversion
86% of respondents think conversion rate from online marketing activities is important to measure, but 25% cannot effectively measure it.

Results of the survey included here are as of May 7, 2010.

Content Marketing Rises to $47 Billion in 2009

According to a new survey from the Custom Content Council (CCC), U.S. corporations spent a record $47.2 billion on branded content last year. The 10th annual industry “Characteristics Study: A Look at the Volume and Type of Content Marketing in America for 2010” includes the study of electronic and other forms of content marketing for the first time—which explains the significant increase in spending from 2008.

This year’s study reveals that 32% of the overall marketing, advertising and communications budget were dedicated to content marketing. This is the greatest-ever proportion of funds dedicated to content marketing in the 10-year history of this study.

What does this mean?

Marketing organizations recognize the need to communicate regularly with their audience and provide them with meaningful content. Marketing today is not as much about flashy marketing campaigns as it is about constant interaction and sharing of relevant information with a targeted audience. Since today’s consumers make highly educated decisions, marketing organizations need to play a key role in the transfer of knowledge and participate in their consumers’ decision-making process. The more valuable content an organization provides, the more likely they will build and grow a loyal customer base.

How are companies communicating with their audience today?

Custom Magazines/Newsletters Still Strong:

• In 2009, average circulation per issue increased to an all-time high of 48,162 copies per issue.
• The number of unique printed custom publication titles decreased from 1.9 in 2008 to 1.7 in 2009. That said, those titles published increased in both page count and circulation.

Other Forms of Branded Content:

• The most common other forms being used are website updates of articles, blog post and e-newsletters.
• The least common are mobile and e-zines such as flipbooks and interactive PDFs.

What marketing vehicles are companies expecting to add in the future?
While mobile content is not yet widely used, it does rank as the medium that most marketers believe they are likely to invest in next year. Beyond that, marketers plan to invest in video and audio.

Custom Content Council Executive Director Lori Rosen said, “As more and more companies explore custom content solutions across print and digital platforms, we will continue to see an increased financial investment. Things are changing rapidly—the data shows just how much change the industry has undergone in 12 months-and we haven’t even touched social media surface. Next year we will be measuring Twitter, Facebook and more. It’s an exciting time to be involved in content marketing in all its forms.”

Social Media Marketing: Not the Leading Marketing Tool

The title of a recent Junta42 Content Marketing blog entry caught my eye--“Five Reasons Social Media Marketing Comes Last”. When every other blog entry, email subject line, whitepaper, and webinar advocates the high priority of social media marketing, it was refreshing to read something different.

Based on an excerpt from Shama Kabani’s new book, The Zen of Social Media Marketing, this blog entry explains why social media marketing should come last in your marketing plan, yet why it must be there.

The main distinction Shama makes is that social media is a consumer platform, not a marketing platform. With a consumer-owned platform, you can listen and you can participate in the conversation but you don’t control what or how much is said. You still need a marketing platform—a one-way communication vehicle that enables you to deliver your marketing message to the consumers you want to reach.

Since social media is where your customers are, you have to be there. But don’t forget that while social media provides a great place to meet and greet customers, you still need traditional marketing platforms (i.e. advertising, websites, email, e-newsletters, PR, webinars, special events, catalogs, etc.) to communicate your comprehensive marketing message.

New Director of Marketing at Diablo Publications

Diablo Publications is pleased to announce that Dave Reik has joined our management team as Director of Marketing. Dave will be leading the marketing efforts for both Diablo Magazine and the Diablo Custom Publishing (DCP) division.

Dave was previously with Penton Media, where he held the position of Director of Audience Marketing and Business Development for Mix, Electronic Musician, Remix and Music Education Technology magazines, as well as their online properties and events. As a key member of Penton's senior team, Dave led the marketing and business development activities for both the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sectors.

We asked Dave four questions relating to what he hopes to accomplish at Diablo Publications and how he intends to get up-to-speed in his new role. Here’s what he had to say…

Q: First, what intrigued you to join Diablo Publications?

A: One of the many compelling reasons to join Diablo Publications for me is their continued commitment to excellence from Diablo magazine, as well as DCP's extensive and impressive list of prestigious customers.

As an active member of the East Bay community for over 10 years, I’ve admired this high-profile publication and wanted to be a part of it. Now I look forward to getting involved with our readers and business community and sharing Diablo Publications’ message more broadly to help fuel the company's continued successes. I’m thrilled to be leading the next stage in the comprehensive marketing strategy for Diablo Publications.

Q: What are the initial steps you took to get acclimated as the new marketing director?

A: I started off by meeting with the strategic management team to understand each of their needs and to get a sense of the company’s 30+ year history. My goal was to get a true, firm understanding of the company’s business model. Then I reviewed the existing marketing collateral with the sales team and filled some gaps. After reviewing the internal systems, I was able to make a few quick efficiency enhancements to our web programming processes. I also researched the competitive environment for Diablo magazine and for custom publishing. My intent over the past six weeks was to get a sense of where we’ve come from and identify where we should be going.

Q: What do you see as your biggest opportunities in the near term?

A:  I can envision many ways to expand our customer base by targeting local companies that have a need for custom publishing and for building awareness of their brands. I anticipate there will be a variety of public relations opportunities with local media that will help us get the word out about Diablo and DCP. And our team is working diligently on providing extensive online applications to help our advertisers and partners achieve higher ROI. We plan to leverage new forms of media (i.e. video, podcast, social media, mobile devices) to discover new customers, as well as help our clients communicate with people they haven’t been able to reach.

Q: Where will you focus your marketing resources to achieve the greatest gains?

A: To start with, I plan to leverage our third-party partners. I’m exploring ways to get the most out of our existing relationships and I will be looking to form new partnerships that will help us quickly expand our new media offerings and provide our clients with a broader set of services.

Enhance your targeting with smart Twitter searches

Since one of the biggest benefits of Twitter for business marketing is tracking what people are saying about your organization and your industry, honing your Twitter search skills is essential. Plus, smart Twitter searches can uncover prospective customers.

That’s why you should read this article “7 insanely useful ways to search Twitter”, written by John Jantsch. You’ll learn how to get the most out of Twitter’s advanced search functionality and how to combine Google and Twitter to find out not just what’s being said but sometimes more importantly, the characteristics of who is saying it.

These seven tips provide an effective way to stay current on who is talking about your business or industry and what they’re saying. You’ll also learn creative ways to search for Twitter users who could be prospective customers. I highly recommend it!

Ready For Some Upbeat Marketing News, For A Change?

Are you tired of all the negative business reports from 2009? “Marketing budgets are slashed.” “Print is dead.” I’m sure you’ve heard them all.

Read these two brief articles for some very encouraging news regarding the record growth in the custom media business.

• Minonline: Custom Content Has Best Year Ever
• Publishing Executive: Custom Media Spend Rises to an All-time High

The bottom line is marketers invested more money in branded content in 2009 than ever before (two times as much as in 2008) and 51 percent of that money was used to create print publications, according to a recent survey.

So let’s celebrate the good news and look forward to a prosperous 2010.

It all starts with content strategy....

This blog posting from "A List Apart" authored by Margot Bloomstein came to me this morning via an email newsletter I subscribe to form Junta 42.  In it, Margot talks about the importance of content strategy.  While she's primarily focused on content strategy via website design, the importance of content strategy has been something we've been talking about since long before the web became a critical marketing challenge for our customers.

The idea that all great marketing starts with a content strategy (or a messaging strategy) should come as no great epiphany to anyone (I hope)!  But taking the concept from the "big picture" to the nitty gritty of marketing planning requires spending some time to dig into some of the questions that Bloomstein raises along with some others.

Unfortunately, for many of our clients, by the time a project gets green-lighted, there is often a hard deadline that requires shortcuts at the outset and the thing that often seems to get short-changed is the content strategy discussion (at least at the level that the project deserves).

It all starts with content strategy....

Is There a Quick and Easy Way to Build Quality Email Lists?

Over the past several months, I’ve noticed a considerable surge in the number of emails I receive from people trying to sell me email lists. Today I received five. I’ve been encouraged, thinking that perhaps this intensified marketing effort is a sign that there’s new data supporting the viability of purchasing email lists. Wouldn’t it be great to buy a list of email addresses and suddenly multiply your avid subscriber base without much effort? So I decided to do some investigating.

What I found is that nothing has changed, only email list marketers have become more aggressive. Unfortunately, it’s still true that you can’t simply purchase subscribers. But I did come across several articles that provide useful tips on how to build your lists.

In the Bionic List Building Guide from Lyris we’re reminded, “Although there are many strategies for list building, the main thing to remember is that the possession of an email address does not mean you have the owner’s explicit permission to market to them via email. By law, you must get them to opt-in.” This guide goes on to provide a useful list of techniques to convert raw names into opt-in subscribers. You can subscribe to download it.

In his article Email Address Lists: Buy, Rent or Leave Alone? Mark Brownlow discusses the benefits of list rental compared to the risks of buying a list. This article is not new, but the content remains relevant. In reference to buying bulk email lists, Brownlow says, “At best, your messages to that list just elicit a poor response. At worst, you’re labeled a spammer, which has numerous practical consequences—all of them bad—for your brand, bottom line and ability to do business over the Internet.”

The challenge is to take a list of raw names, presumably people who are interested in your company’s products and services, and get their permission to send them regular marketing communications or newsletters via email. To summarize, the main tips are:

• Ask for opt-ins at every chance you get—in phone calls, newsletters, social media, home page of website, email signature, trade shows, direct mail, etc.
  
• Partner with complementary organizations to attract their subscribers to opt-in to your list.
  
• Offer incentives to motivate people to subscribe.
  
• Ask your subscribers to share the word and forward your message to a friend.

The bottom line is, there is no substitute for building your own email list of people who have expressed an interest in your company's products and services.

How To Measure ROI From Social Media

With all the hype about Facebook and Twitter, we marketers get that social media is the place to be. We’re repeatedly warned that if we’re not taking advantage of these new channels, we’re missing out on precious marketing opportunities. But with tight budgets, we need to prove that social media pays off before we can dedicate too many resources.

In his article Measure Social-Media Efforts to Grow Revenue, Lists and Leads, Dan Miller* boils this measurement process down to five manageable steps:

1. Set your goals (i.e. revenue, lead-generation, email-list-building, conversion goals)
2. Figure out how to measure your goals (i.e. what specifically are you going to track?)
3. Establish a baseline of activity
4. Create URL tracking parameters
5. Measure, study, analyze

It sounds easy enough, but you’ll need to read Miller’s article to get the details on specific ways to track activity and measure results.

*Dan Miller is professional services and sales engineering manager at Lyris.