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Strategies to creatively market online companies.
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Creative Marketing for Internet Companies 2012
Overview
ü Buying users is becoming too costly and the overall quality of traffic is decreasing • We must reduce our dependence on pure purchasing of users
from Google and Facebook • It is critical that we provide better interactions and experiences,
facilitating increased conversion rates while users are interacting with our sites, apps, or teams
• Overall, this will improve long-term quality of members ü In order to prepare this deck, research was conducted from various
sources, including friends and portfolio companies of Lakestar
2 © Lakestar 2012
Contact Manu Gupta [email protected]
Potential Levers
1. Game Layer 2. SEO & Related Technologies 3. Visual Impacts 4. Trust Components
5. Content Is King 6. Social & Mobile Interactions 7. Public Relations & Partners 8. Testing 9. Providers List
3 © Lakestar 2012
1. Game layer
ü Provide Achievements / Create Levels • Badges, rewards, rankings based on user actions (ie.
Foursquare) • Users take actions to avoid decrease in rankings • Loyalty programs (ie. Punchd)
ü Time / Quantity Based Techniques • Expiring deals and countdown clocks, limited quantities • Creation of optimistic urgency (ie. Groupon, Vente-Privee)
ü Build Momentum With Super Users • When users become more active, the system becomes more
active with the user • Release data / gifts in small parts to keep people active
4 © Lakestar 2012
1. Game layer
ü Define Social Goals • User goals are made known to the entire group and community
members support achievement (ie. HeiaHeia.com) • Competition among users (ie. WordsWithFriends) • Create leader boards / rankings and thereby building envy
ü Emotional Benefits • Leverage emotive tokens to illicit desired response • Build sense of exclusivity (ie. restricted areas available upon
achievement) • Make users feel part of the family (ie. Stella & Dot) • Leverage graphic imagery or create a vivid story around the site
(ie. Kony 2012)
5 © Lakestar 2012
1. Game layer
ü Free vouchers / lotteries • Use free vouchers or gifts to attract users (use targeting
technologies to reduce churn of these users) • Viral compensation (but ensure that both sides are compensated) • Create a lottery to win something online (ie. buyers in X month
entered into lottery) ü Create ownership
• Provide users sense of owning something online (ie. users create own style online, own shop within shop, own collections)
ü Guide the user on a step-by-step path • Create an action plan for the user with a clear path to
performance (ie. cover the night campaign)
6 © Lakestar 2012
2. SEO & Related Technologies
ü SEO considered by many the most important factor in online marketing • Leverage SEO experts for all strategies in backlinking, link
exchanges, tagging, etc. • Lakestar can provide references to SEO experts upon request • Performance increases typically high (ie. query conversion rates
can be up to 5x higher from second page to first page of Google) ü Use retargeting technologies (ie. Criteo) ü Leverage Affiliates (ie. Commission Junction, Zanox)
7 © Lakestar 2012
3. Visual Impacts
ü User interfaces are critical • Unique is always better (ie. Apple.com, Fab.com, discovercircle,
gogobot.com) • Add large visual graphics throughout site • Build user convenience factors (ie. mipso.me) • Save preferences, likes, habits, and reduce user clicks
ü Continuous use of video • Create fun opening video on how company works (sailogy.com) • For every category sold, create an introduction video (ie.
joyus.com) • For every product, show a video of usage (ie. Asos, Net-a-
Porter.com) • Use humor (ie. dollarshaveclub.com)
8 © Lakestar 2012
4. Trust Components
ü Use trust badges, symbols, etc. that provide users immediate comfort throughout the site • Professionalism and “slick” site user interface give impression of
quality • “As seen on” logos for respected news publications • Letter from CEO / management team • Very detailed “About Us” page that shows strong backers,
advisors (confidence company will be around long term) • Add insurance components (ie. AirBnB) and provide guarantees • Add user testimonials and real experience case studies
9 © Lakestar 2012
5. Content is King
ü Attempt to build longer engagement with users via content • Creation of a blog / topics surrounding the site (ie. Net-a-
Porter.com) • Creation a story around each item sold or provide high amount of
detail • Provide a detailed history of the company or show a video on
how the products are made
10 © Lakestar 2012
6. Social & Mobile Interactions
ü Leverage Facebook • Create shopping tab within Facebook (note: FB conversion rates
remain low for most companies polled) • Allow users to “like” individual content • Allow users to connect with friends or see which friends “liked”
which products • Pay at checkout for inclusion into Facebook feed
ü Create Pinterest / Twitter Feeds ü Mobile / iPad Apps
• Research shows that earlier the better, even if only for building familiarity / brand awareness
11 © Lakestar 2012
7. Public Relations & Partners
ü Get into the blog hype spiral • Make friends early at Techcrunch, Uncrunched, DailyPando,
Business Insider, GigaOm
ü Write / Blog • Create new, original thought pieces and submit to various blogs /
twitter feeds / news publications ü Let Partners market for you
• Leverage multi-layer marketing techniques (ie. Stella & Dot) that allow users to make money themselves
• Seek out-of-the-box B2B relationships that can help build scale (Amex, resellers, etc.)
12 © Lakestar 2012
7. Public Relations & Partners
ü Out-of-the-Box Public Relations • Provide facilities tours • Offer CEO Dinners for special power users / influencers • Walk and Drive marketing (ie. decals on management team
automobiles)
13 © Lakestar 2012
8. Testing
ü Survey • Surveymonkey links at the bottom of pages / emails / after
purchases • Rapid fire questions – ask only one question, but filter these type
of questions throughout the site or based on user actions
14 © Lakestar 2012
9. Providers List
ü A full list of useful providers is available upon request
15 © Lakestar 2012