Integrated EngagementStrategy

Content

Engagement

Involvement Acquisition

WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THE WEB?

According to a study by Nielsen research, the average person in the US spends over a fourth of his or her time online. Good thing you have a website! Of the time spent online, however, 23% of activities center on social networks and blogs. But you’re ok, your business has a Facebook page and there is a company blog somewhere in the interwebs. Hold on, almost 40% of those internet users are consuming online content via mobile phones, and among another survey of business professionals, 87% still prefer to use email for sharing content. Your online e�orts definitely need mobile compatibility and you still can’t a�ord to be out of your audience’s inbox. Oops, you almost forgot that there’s still Twitter, Linked In, YouTube, Pinterest, and other new networks popping up every day! Wait, aren’t you supposed to have an intern that’s handling all this, or is it just you that’s supposed to make all this digital magic work?

95% of Time Spent onSocial Networks is on Facebook

87% of Business ProsPrefer to Share Content via Email

40% of Internet Users ConsumeContent Via Mobile Devices

27% of Free Timeis Spent Online

23% of Time SpentOnline is for Social

Networks & Blogs

Overwhelmed yet? Don’t worry, it gets worse…

THE HARD FACTS

The audience you’re trying to reach isn’t passively waiting to be informed about how great your product or service is. In fact, the vast majority of people don’t even want to deal with you. Two thirds of the US population is on the national do-not-call list. 86% of people will do anything and everything to avoid TV commercials

(aside from maybe during the Superbowl, but that air time is a little pricey).

Approximately 44% of direct mail is never opened, and of the

remaining mail that isn’t lost or misaddressed, who knows how much actually gets read. Let’s face it; your old marketing mix just doesn't cut it anymore!

Now, before you have a mental breakdown, there’s a reason

we're barraging you with cold, brutal facts – and it’s not to prepare

you for marketing Armageddon. After all, we didn’t say your marketing mix is

dead; it’s just obsolete. You've just been running on steam power while sitting on all the ingredients for jet fuel, and that’s a problem. There’s still hope though! Your audience is willing to interact with you, but on their terms, not yours. Your old marketing channels and the new ones are still useful – you just need to know how to tie them all together. You need to be more than just informative, entertaining, trendy, or sexy – you need to be engaging, and for that, you need an integrated engagement strategy.

Content

Engagement

Involvement Acquisition

At this point, you’re obviously wondering, “what is an integrated engagement strategy?” In short, an integrated engagement strategy from a marketing standpoint is a focus on three key initiatives: content, involvement, and acquisition. The best way to understand how these initiatives work together is to think of your strategy as a living, breathing organism – there’s a body, a need for nutrients, and a role it serves within its ecosystem. To keep things simple, here’s how it breaks down:

Whether it’s content, involvement, or acquisition, this is the core of your integrated engagement strategy. If you’re a publisher, for example, content would tend be the body of your strategy as it’s likely to be your main source of revenue and the main reason for your audience to engage with you. For other industries, like online communities or support groups, it’s the interactions that drive results. Still, in other industries like sports franchises, it’s the overall number of supporters you acquire that matters most.

The Body

What do you want to happen from an online engagement? Do you want people to consume information about your product or service, do you want people to talk about you and drive tra�c your way, do you want to be liked on Facebook or mentioned in tweets? These are the things that feed your integrated engagement strategy and make it move.

The Nutrients

How does your engagement drive your business objectives? How can you use your engagement to build up a better body and consume better nutrients – this is the most complicated part, but it’s what takes your marketing mix from a linear path to an-ever growing cycle.

The Niche Role

INTEGRATED ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY BREAKDOWN

The Body

The Nutrients

The Niche Role

Content

Based on a study done by the Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs, an average sized company allocates around 26% of its marketing budget to content marketing, and no company - whether it has 1000+ employees or less than ten – spends less than 21% of the total marketing budget on content. Clearly, content is critical to the marketing mix, but just churning out branded white papers, videos, infographics, etc. isn’t what makes content king (or queen). In fact, according to Andrew Ga�ney of DemandGen Report, only around 5% of people trust content branded directly from a vendor. However, when content is endorsed, created, or reviewed by peers, the trust level jumps to 53%!

One of the best examples of content which also happens to be a definitive guide on the subject was the Content Grid v2 by Eloqua and Jess3. This infographic, which explains how certain forms of content fit best for di�erent stages of the sales cycle and interest levels continues to be a useful tool for marketers, but also, because Eloqua markets to marketers, a compelling touch point for potential sales as well.

As wonderful as content can be, it’s no silver bullet. If you want content to be the hub of your integrated engagement strategy you’ll still need to work in acquisition and involvement tactics. You’ll also need to understand what you want to do with your content, and whether your company actually has the know-how or resources to execute. To make it easier, here are a few of the most common benefits from content and what you need to achieve them:

Content Can: If You Can:

Establish Trust with Your Audience Give Value Beyond Your Product or Service

Make You Stand Out from Online Noise Invest Time and Energy to ProduceQuality Material

Drive Social Media and OverallOnline Interaction

Understand and Deliver What YourAudience Wants

Power Your Marketing and Sales Pipeline Tailor Topics and Mediums to InterestLevels from Top Funnel to Close

Drive Further Audience Acquisition Provide Incentives for Followers toInvolve Their Friends

Create Valuable Relationships Involve Your Audience in the Process

Educate Potential Buyers Establish Yourself as a Trusted Resource

The Content cont.

Involvement

60% of people expect brands to respond on social media channels according to a recent study by Arnold Worldwide. Clearly, involvement with your audience isn’t just a good idea, it’s required! What’s more, having interactive components can drastically boost the e�ectiveness of your marketing initiatives. From our own internal research, we’ve found that lead forms placed at the end of interactive content are completed 65% of the time! As great as involvement is though, it can be hard to achieve. According to the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute less than 1% of people on Facebook actually engage with a brand page. This is why for many integrated engagement strategies, involvement plays a supportive role. If content is the main focus, involvement centers around driving conversations, shares and subscriptions for that content. If acquisition is the goal, involvement centers on inviting friends. Some companies, however, can make involvement itself the keystone of their strategy.

Surprisingly, Figment, a major online publisher found that they gained more from driving involvement first, then channeling that interaction toward their content. As you can see in this diagram, creating activity on Facebook is the primary objective and content as well as acquisition are used in supporting roles.

SweetEvil

SnapApps

AmazonPurchase

Follows

Likes

Leads

PinterestShare

Pin

Blog

Facebook

Twitter

Website

Outcomes

Multiple forms of acquisition are employed to deliver likes, leads and actual purchase events

Channels

Apps are created and distributed cross-channel for maximum exposure and results

Content

Authored content is highly leveraged and creates unique engagements to drive promotion cross channel

1) Great content is leveraged across every channel in engaging ways

driving user outcomes

2) Facebook is the primary channel of engagement for figment Apps are used to drive Cross promotion

driving results

3) Increased exposure to social channels increases social sharing among existing users and attracts

new users

When looking to implement involvement, here’s what you need to remember:

Involvement Can: If You Can:

Result in User Generated Content Surprise, Delight, or Provide an ExperienceWorth Sharing

Fuel New Fan Acquisition Resonate or Connect with Current Fans

Generate Leads, Opportunities andConversions

Evaluate and Map Out the MostCompelling Kinds of Interactions

Foster an Online Community Identify and Empower Brand Advocatesand Influencers

Stand Out from the Competition Have a Unique Voice or Personality

Accelerate or Increase Purchases Build Relationships Beyond CapitalExchange with Your Buyers

Build Trust with Your Audience Communicate as a Peer NOT as a Merchant

What Involvement Can Do

Acquisition

Not all companies can be masters of content or interaction, but to foster utility out of engagement, sometimes, all it takes is an invitation. Acquisition of new audience members, fans, followers, etc. may or may not be your main business objective, but of the three integrated engagement strategy components, it is the one piece that can turn slow linear progress into sharp exponential growth. If content is the foundation of your integrated engagement strategy, acquisition tactics like “share this” buttons, “invite a friend” calls to action, or incentivized referrals can build not only the amount of people your content reaches, but also the interactions your content elicits. Similarly, if interaction is your focus, growing the amount of supports connecting with you in public or social media forums can turn to more back channel leads, conversions, purchases and post-purchase brand advocates. Finally, if acquisition is your primary goal, your content and your interactions are benefits, but being a part of the overall group is the biggest benefit for your audience.

Take a look at the the 60 second snap shot of what people are doing online. All this activity is happening , but without a good acquisition plan, you have no way to tap into it all.

But if you’re thinking about making acquisition the base of your engagement strategy consider the following:

Acquisition Can: If You Can:

Amplify the Effect of Your Communications Target and Engage Relevant People

Expand the Reach of Your Content Distribute Material to Active Users

Enhance Lead Generation Funnel Your Audience fromMultiple Channels

Diversify Your Audience Appeal to New Verticals and Demographics

Establish Trust Serve as a Connection Between Peopleof Similar Interests

Provide More Accurate Data Measure Trends and Behaviors

Acquisition cont.

Build on Itself Document, Dissect and DuplicateWhat Works

MAKING CONTENT THE CENTER OF YOUR INTEGRATED ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

Good content produces great results. Companies with blogs generate around 67% more leads per month than their blog-less peers. Businesses with forty or more unique landing pages generate ten times more leads than those with five or fewer landing pages. What’s more, 90% of marketers use some form of content marketing already. When it comes to defining the body of your integrated engagement strategy, content may be the clearest choice.

Making content work for engagement, however, isn’t always as easy as it seems. From our own data, we’ve found that of companies who actively use Facebook, an astonishing 43% report seeing little to no likes, comments, or shares for all the content they post. The trend is also reflected on Twitter with 44% reporting little to no responses to posted content. For blogs, the pattern doesn’t get much better coming in at 38%. These low results stem from a very common mistake – the draw is never the content itself, but the experience people have with it. For content to be e�ective the audience needs to be involved – there needs to be some kind of interactive element.

Adding interactivity to your content, though, isn’t all that di�cult or time consuming. It can be as simple as including a question in a Facebook post, to placing a quiz or poll before a white paper to involve your audience in the content itself. Even in old-school direct-mail campaigns, new technology like QR codes can turn static pieces of paper into online games, rewards, or other mobile interactions. Whether it’s through add-ons, questions, or apps, for every form of content you can think of, there is a way to make it interactive.

When content and involvement are clicking, then it’s time to bring in acquisition. It’s not, however, just about telling your audience to invite their friends. It’s about creating programs and incentives that reward people for bringing in more members. Using contests or sweepstakes, for example, where the likelihood of winning goes up based on how many shares, referrals, or invites you send can drastically drive fan acquisition. Even simple trivia games and quizzes can drum up numbers. Dorado Tacos & Cemitas, for example, saw a 50% registration rate for their mailing list and a 35% increase in subscribers to their email list simply through a quiz that their restaurant visitors could take via mobile phone.

MAKING INVOLVEMENT THE CENTER OF YOUR INTEGRATED ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

95% of Facebook wall posts are not answered by brands, while 52% of consumers have reported un-following a brand because of repetitive or boring updates. Nevertheless, brands have seen up to a 65% increase in Facebook audience engagement by using interactive content. Clearly, interaction can be a major di�erentiator online, and for companies who can get it right, it can drive their whole integrated engagement strategy.

With involvement as the centerpiece of your strategy, content serves more of a supportive role, and acquisition remains as an enriching aspect to the system. Whether it’s data from a poll or a survey, constructive feedback generated through comments, or driving sales through deals or sweepstakes, in this model, keeping your audience active is your primary goal.

Consider this model for a major international sports franchise, AS Roma. As one of Italy’s top football (soccer) teams, Roma’s goal is to keep the visitors to its site active and engaged and in turn, more likely to make a purchase.

Trivia Timer

SubscriptionOpt-Ins

StartOver

ProgressIndicator

Multi-Language

Share

BonusEntry

Leads

Outcomes

Multiple forms of acquisition are employed to deliver likes, leads and actual purchase events

Channels

Apps are created and distributed cross-channel for maximum exposure and results

Features

SnapApp features enable brand to create an engaging experience for end users driving business results

Game-play features drive cyclical / attentive

engagement

Each share action exposes app to new audience

Incent with Bonus Entry

Promote o�ers in lead gen

Maximize audience reachand exposure

As you can see, Roma uses interaction, in this case a SnapApp quiz, to engage site visitors and channel them into other desired outcomes. From likes, tweets, and other sharing actions, you can also see how acquisition builds on the e�ectiveness of this quiz as fans share it with other fans and even compete for pride or prizes. .

MAKING ACQUISITION THE CENTER OF YOUR INTEGRATED ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY

Let’s face it; sometimes it’s all about numbers. For fast moving sales cycles or highly consumed products, more volume often means more conversions. In this case, beefing up the numbers through fan acquisition is your best business option, and in turn, the main goal of your integrated engagement strategy.

In a recent study released by Ipsos OTX, nearly a fifth of respondents would purchase an item if it was liked by a friend. Factor in that the average millennial Facebook user (age 18-34) has around 319 friends and the average Twitter user has 126 followers, and you can start to imagine the compounding value of building an online audience. The dream, of course, is having one fan tell his or her 100+ friends, and they tell their friends and so on, but for that to happen, your fans need something to tell. In an acquisition model, that “something to tell” is rarely your product or service, however. Instead, it’s an experience that they couldn’t have gotten outside of the network you’ve created. Your main appeal, in this case is being a part of the audience itself, and through content and interaction, you reward people for staying and inviting others in.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Now that you understand some of the ins and outs of an integrated engagement strategy it’s time to bring it all together. This is where SnapApp comes in. As a platform, SnapApp brings several of the necessary moving pieces of your integrated engagement strategy together in one easy interface. Using SnapApp, you can structure content, involvement and acquisition together to achieve your business objectives. By publishing quizzes, surveys, polls sweepstakes, and other apps created through SnapApp you have all the necessary parts to “snap” interactive functions on to your content, generate additional content from involvement, or incentivize audience growth. By implementing an integrated engagement strategy with SnapApp, this year alone, companies have averaged nearly six times more likes for their content verses typical Facebook engagement standards, an overall 89% app completion rate, and of the 1.2 million apps completed, 7% saw additional sharing which helped contribute to almost 30 million total impressions!

What’s all the more compelling – and what makes an integrated engagement strategy so vital – is that companies are leveraging all this engagement to drive real revenue! Through a single campaign run with SnapApp, Magic Beans, a leading retailer of early childhood products, averaged $.12 per unique lead over 113,318 total leads generated by the campaign. In a similar campaign, the Philadelphia Eagles were able to generate an average of $.10 over almost 10,000 total leads. By having an integrated engagement strategy, these companies were able to directly leverage engagement created through SnapApp to deliver a positive ROI.

Our goal at SnapApp is help brands unlock the real value of digital engagement across all their marketing channels. Our platform makes these engagements possible, but having the right strategy in place is what makes marketing e�orts dramatically more profitable.Wondering where your engagement strategy stands now? Feel free to test or re-test yourself with our Engagement Grader app!

Resources

State of the Media: The Social Media Report, Nielsen: http://www.nielsen.com/content/corporate/us/en/insights/reports-downloads/2011/social-media-report-q3.html

The Grande Guide to B2B Content Marketing, Eloqua: http://www.eloqua.com/grande/Grande_Guide_To_B2B_Content_Marketing.html

120 Awesome Marketing Stats, Charts and Graphs – Hubspot: http://blog.hubspot.com/Portals/249/docs/ebooks/120-marketing-stats-charts-and-graphs.pdf

Social Marketing Rockstar Tour, Marketo: http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-resources/category/best-practices/video-social-media

Andrew Ga�ney, DemandGen Report: http://www.demandgenreport.com/

Arnold Worldwide: http://www.arn.com/

Generate More Leads with B2B Social Media [Infographic]: http://socialmediab2b.com/2012/03/b2b-social-media-leads-infographic/#ixzz228DbGSRE

Content marketing on the Rise, Smart Insights: http://www.smartinsights.com/content-management/content-marketing-strategy/content-marketing-infographic/

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute http://adage.com/article/digital/study-1-facebook-fans-engage-brands/232351/

It’s Not Me, It’s You: Why Are Consumers Breaking Up with Brands: http://socialmediainfluence.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/infographic-its-not-you-its-me-full.jpg

72 Fascinating Social Media Marketing Facts and Statistics for 2012http://www.je�bullas.com/2012/07/24/72-fascinating-social-media-marketing-facts-and-statistics-for-2012/#XSGUiDLrDmeqBvPT.99

Facebook: A Profile of its ‘Friends,’ Pew Research: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/2262/facebook-ipo-friends-profile-social-networking-habits-privacy-online-behavior

The Ripple E�ect of Following a Brand on Social Mediahttp://www.public.site1.mirror2.phi.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1009177#S83v3DXBpke2d4g4.99

Magic beans Case study: http://www.snapapp.com/case-studies/magic-beans

Go –Globe Infographic: http://www.sosemarketing.com/2012/03/01/every-60-seconds-on-social-media/