Forrester's article, The Future of Interactive Marketing, provides valuable insight on how a company can utilize interactive marketing to establish positive relationships with their target market in an ever evolving Internet landscape. The article goes as far to introduce the CORE directives (Customize, Optimize, Respond, and Empower) that details the processes marketers can implement within their organization to streamline future interactive campaigns. However, it fails to mention potential pitfalls that EVERY organization will, at some point, encounter.
1) Predicting & Measuring ROI
The purpose for any marketing campaign is to add to the bottom line. Whether it be long or short-term it is absolutely necessary to provide substantial qualitative and quantitative goals specifically detailing how an interactive campaign will reach the target market, generate positive publicity, establish enduring relationships with customers, and ultimately increase sales revenue. Predicting and measuring these objectives for interactive social media is not only difficult, but setting up the necessary processes in order to do so becomes a giant obstacle.
2) Interactive Media Overload - From a Marketer's Perspective
As the article mentioned, the scope of interactive marketing is immense; ranging from live chat, flash ads, blogging, interactive videos, and social media. With so many options and limited staff, it's no wonder marketers feel overwhelmed. But it's hard to convince upper management to expand the department's budget when the return on investment is unclear. So what are marketers suppose to do in the meantime? While the Forrester article provides a basic road map for organizations skeptical toward investing in interactive media, it still doesn't provide a solid answer on where to begin. My recommendation is simple: firms should start with the most promising platform relative to engaging their target market with the goal of establishing a sales portal. Designing, implementing, and executing a single interactive marketing campaign is a daunting task, but it will enable marketers to review their forecasting models for ROI and adjust their strategy accordingly. Once marketers are able to define a clear model for ROI they can convince upper management to budget more resources for future interactive media campaigns.
3) Negative Publicity
Forrester's article states that it is absolutely critical for firms to develop fast response systems for their interactive media channels, but regardless of how well it's designed there is always the risk of garnering negative publicity. Take PayPal UK for example: a disgruntled customer hacked into their Twitter account (19,000+ followers) and posted false web links that redirected followers to paypalsucks.com, a site dedicated to "the nightmare of doing business" with the company. FoxNews is an even better example: a hacker collective took control of their Facebook and Twitter (3.8 million fans & followers) accounts to falsely post a story claiming President Obama was assassinated while campaigning in Iowa. Both organizations faced serious damage to their brand name and credibility that, quite frankly, could only have been prevented if they never delved into social media. These examples are not to say firms should shy away from external interactive media platforms, namely social media. Instead, if firms decide to embark on any interactive media campaign, they should establish guidelines of how to proceed in absolute worst case scenarios.
David, this was very insightful. I liked the way in which you critically analyzed the article, thereby disallowing yourself to submit to the article's relatively one-sided way of looking at the involvement of interactive marketing in the business place. Your analysis points out that interactive media is not fool-proof, which is common sense, but perhaps needed to be mentioned.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, great use of graphics, especially the first one. Very much enjoyed.