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WDavis Inner circle 1276 Posts |
I've been thinking on the various types of marketing channels/types/how ever you wish to call it.
A possible MECE (mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive) bucket set would be: - Printed publications (print media such as magazines, brochures, flyers, etc) - digital publications ( similar to print but digital equivalent but also includes blog posts) - a/v media ( tv radio podcasts YouTube Vimeo etc) - interpersonal networking If I'm missing any major categories then lets add them. But if these are the 4 main buckets, I think a good thread would be to discuss the applications for marketing channel by performer type. I'm categorizing performer type by segment. Consumer and commercial. And within consumer I sub segment by market buyer. So that would be street, private party, restaurant (when paid primarily off tips), public event (when paid by consumer and not event). I don't think this sub segment is exhaustive but I lack knowledge on the various sub categories. Commercial would be trade, public events(paid by event), and company sponsored events. Again I'm sure there are many other possibilities for segmentation and if there are any I left off that are unique lets add them. Now that being said, lets discuss how each category can leverage the type of marketing. For example, I don't see how blogging a-la Wordpress helps the consumer performer. But I do see how using facebook helps. My reason blogging doesn't help is that it's purpose for marketing is to promote events or engage people to communicate. Doing individual parties and blogging about it becomes counter productive. Posting pictures of parents kids is a lawsuit waiting to happen... but if Facebook is posted by the family it's much easier for the consumer performer to tag it, link to the post, and drive promotion of his/her services. Why do I think this way. A blog needs to create exposure, Facebook already has it. Therefore consumer performer doesn't need to spend time creating traffic to his/her blog. To go back to my FLP analogy: Fish where the fish are. I may be off base because I'm not a consumer performer. In my work experience, I find the biggest bang for my buck has come from interpersonal communications- like networking events. Why because I meet many individuals and I can qualify or grow my referral base faster then screening a digital list and following up on that list and not having the face to face. I can keep going, but 1 don't want a long post and 2 I really want to hear other people's opinions on the types of marketing channels and how to best use them. So what's yours? And remember you don't just have to reply to my thoughts here, express your opinions on other marketing channels and performance segments too. Walter |
cafecheckers Regular user 126 Posts |
Interesting topic. I think the choice of marketing tools also comes down to ones goals, expectations, personal strengths and business model. Discussing marketing strategies without further clarifying some of these components limits the discussion value.
I have incorporated all of these types of marketing into building the business. Interpersonal networking is one area I am working to become more proficient at because it is the area I see as having the most potential of sustained impact as well as ripple effect benefits. I see media and the press playing a larger role in terms of image and allowing one to expand their entertainment services. Flyers can serve to provide attention to seasonal opportunities or updates to program content. |
WDavis Inner circle 1276 Posts |
Charlie,
I agree with you that at the end the final decision does come down to those goals and strengths. Expectations not so much, because I can expect to have a certain result but unless it's capable of delivering that expectation it won't ever happen. Business model is exactly where I wanted to take it. Business model within each segment will leverage certsin tools more than others. So the thought was to get others to talk about their tools and their models. This way we can have a useful resource as a group, see what works and see what doesn't. Unfortunately I don't see many responses, so I appreciate you jumping in. |
cafecheckers Regular user 126 Posts |
Walt- what I meant regarding expectations is that some may have modest income expectations, in which case They may use a marketing choice that is comfortable for them even if it has limited potential, but is relatively easy to implement. For example, in a smaller market, one may look towards SEO optimization to satisfy their birthday party requests. This could be done with relative low cost and effort, but the downside is that in order to have a high close ratio, one would likely have to charge relatively little.
Another individual pursuing the consumer market may look towards higher paying gigs that have more of a residual benefit, and they may be more willing to use more involved methods because their expectations are greater. |
Tim Friday Elite user 485 Posts |
The digital category can really be expanded, for digital here a few things to cover:
-website, there are different purposes for different business websites, in my opinion the purpose of a performers website is Lead Generation -SEO - Cafécheckers mentioned this one, it's a basic for getting your website set up -Adwords - you can have extremely targeted adwords campaigns -Social Media - there are two primary objectives for social media 1) build brand equity and 2) inducing additional purchases. In the case of a performer Building Brand Equity is the primary objective unless you are doing a public show in which case selling tickets could serve as inducing additional purchases (tickets). After these two primary objectives there are at least four secondary objectives. -Email list marketing - I just got an interesting email from Dan Kennedy recently where he talked about a high-end service from Disney that gives VIP tours through the parks and skips lines. He also said email list marketing gives the highest ROI. These are just a few but there is even more to digital marketing. |
WDavis Inner circle 1276 Posts |
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On Jul 25, 2017, Cafécheckers wrote: Thhose are valid points. We should discuss how these influence the tools used. When to use the tool or not. |
WDavis Inner circle 1276 Posts |
Quote:
On Jul 25, 2017, Tim Friday wrote: If a website serves a different purpose than wouldn't each subsequent tool be dependent on the choice of how the website is used? Since lead gen is your view of the website then I've a few questions regarding the remaining subsections you've posed: 1. It may be my limited understanding, but isn't SEO at its core is merely publishing content on Ones website to increase exposure thru a higher ranking on a search engine? While I'm not opposed to that idea, how does a consumer entertainer leverage this in a cost/time effective manner? Or a commercial entertainer? I can't speak for consumer, but in commercial, I see the website as more of a credibility/confirmation of choice tool rather than a sales generation tool. I see it this way because most will be driven to your website from other channels. Plus to constantly publish content to increase rankings or search out back links takes time and/Or money. 2. With social media, I agree with your two purposes conceptually but am confused how say a commercial entertainer would use it for add on sales? I can see it used as an incentive push - loss leaders or promo pricing to generate buzz. I can see point 2 of value for the consumer entertainer very well. 3. Adwords - no disagreement with you at all. But how does this fit with your view of lead generation for a websites purpose and the effort of seo? Doesn't the adwords campaign if specific targeting drive traffic while seo is a shotgun approach to capture a higher ranking in hopes of gathering clicks from whomever? Finally, with those two different tactics to drive traffic to a site wouldn't the site be better suited to show your credibility of their choice of clicking? Rather than getting just a name (lead)? I guess that final question is better said as "doesn't seo and adwords create the lead thru the action of clicking and therefore wouldn't the site be suited demonstrating your value to the lead and push them thru your sales cycle?" Conceptually, I can grasp the concepts your posing but think they could be cleared up from a role standpoint. Also, I think this approach can work well for consumer and commercial entertainers serving the small business segment. 4. I would agree email lists can generate the greatest return on investment, but dan kennedys Disney example would be a targeted marketing to an existing demonstrated value client base. Now as most performers are local and really are not having the portfolio of names size that Disney has- how can we leverage this concept to be of benefit to us? Btw thanks for posting. |
Tim Friday Elite user 485 Posts |
First let's start with websites. There are 7 types of websites.The purpose of any website is to drive conversions. Different types of websites have different types of conversions. Here are the 7 different types of websites:
1. Retail (eCommerce) - like Amazon, the conversion is people buy stuff 2. Lead Generation - like a website for a plumber, the conversion is to get a lead, to get a lead is to have someone call the plumber or fill out a form on the website so the plumber can call or email the prospect. I believe an entertainers website is a Lead Generation website, but look at the others, what do you think? 3. Search Engine - like Orbitz, the conversion is when someone books a hotel reservation or flight. Google gets a conversion whenever someone clicks one of their ads. 4. Media - like a newspaper site, the New York Times, their conversion is engagement, time spent on site, and subscriptions. They have display ads so time spend on site, views, and clicks are conversions for Media sites. 5. Social Media like Facebook, their conversion is when someone creates an account. 6. Affiliate Marketing - a site that sales other peoples stuff 7. Marketplace - like eBay or craigslist, a conversion is when someone posts something to sale or when someone makes a purchase. These are the 7 types of websites and their conversions. What would you say is the magician's type of site? |
WDavis Inner circle 1276 Posts |
Interesting perspective tim, thank you for sharing. Under your model I'd agree with you as for lead generation. It also helps clarify your term of lead, I would call it "prospect". As I view a lead as just a name and number, but if they are asking for a call then it's a prospect.
In my view there are 4 types of websites: 1. Personal 2. Business 3. Informational 4. Search Engine/Directories Then with the types of websites, we look at the role provided. In our magician example, it's naturally a business website, but the role it performs can be different. For example, with 2 different magicians of the focus of the site can be different. One is to generate prospects to call back on from leads stemming from adwords and seo results, the other could be provide content to verify/support the claims made. In the latter example, I'll use myself, my website is not easily found, and those that go to it are directed there from my media kit after meeting me and a conceptual agreement has already been made. The people that go are usually hr or vendor management teams filling in paperwork for compliance. As you can see in the second example, it's a business site but it's focus isn't on lead gen |
WDavis Inner circle 1276 Posts |
Tim, another example of my stance on credibility sites would be whitelabeled websites for performers under contract with a management or entertainment agency.
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Tim Friday Elite user 485 Posts |
Quote:
On Jul 25, 2017, WDavis wrote: What do you mean by 'whitelabeled'? |
Tim Friday Elite user 485 Posts |
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On Jul 25, 2017, WDavis wrote: I'm curious, why couldn't you have a site that does both lead generation and provide credibility? It seems like if someone wants effective lead generation than they will need credibility content on the site. |
WDavis Inner circle 1276 Posts |
Tim,
You might be more familiar with the term private label. Where a product is labeled for exclusive sales by another as its own. The difference is that white labeling is the same product is sold by many as it's own. A classic example, is the generic Frosted Flakes product from the grocer and the General Mills brand are both produced by the same manufacture and sold thru different channels. The reason I said whitelabeled is the magician may sell the same service but thru different channels, direct or thru an agency. When selling thru the agency, most contracts will require the website not list the performers contact details but instead the agencies to prevent end running (getting cut out). To address your lead gen credibility combined question, it's more of a where in the sales funnel are we: If we simply the funnel stages of a buyer as: Lead Prospect Client If the lead and the prospect are generated thru non website means, designing a website to emphasize gathering a prospect list doesn't add much and could effectively take away time from the magician if s/he has to follow up on prospects and qualify them before walking thru the funnel as it's primarily offline. Additionally, the model design of lead/prospect is already passed by the time they acquired the website link, so adding a prospect capture feature might confuse the funnel process to the buyer. This doesn't mean one should or shouldn't have a capture feature but it brings up an interesting differentiation regarding business model and value chain design. Also, if by your framework as I you define it, one starts as a lead from seo/adwords and then is directed to the site, yes I agree credibility needs to be established for the conversion to a prospect. Here the site serves more as a sales tool before a proposal is provided. While In the offline model, a credibility is previously established and a proposal has already been made, so the site serves as a reinforcement of decision to choose or to fill in the boxes for the buyers vendor management. Thanks for engaging, this has been helpful for me to understand more of the modern web marketing terminology as it applies to sales. Maybe my age and upbringing but it seems a lot of terminology is old wine in new bottles that are less clearly defined then prior versions. |
Tim Friday Elite user 485 Posts |
I have been taking a class on digital marketing and it has helped me learn more about it all. The digital textbook we have been using has really answered and clarified a lot of my questions in this area.
From what you just described in the last post, if I wanted a webpage that serves as a reinforcement to my services, I would add a page to my site with only this reinforcing type information, without any lead capture form or lead capture language. And I would have it as an additional page on my site but not list it on the navigation menu. So I could send someone a link to that specific page, or give someone a business card with this url. Anyone else who comes to my site would not be able to navigate to this page because only people with that specific url could go to it. Then I would have my other main pages that are more focused on lead generation for prospects who are new to my website. The advantage to this is my site would get more traffic overall which will help my SEO. If I had two separate sites for the two separate purposes, the traffic would be divided between the two sites. The exception to this would be a site for agencies. Since you would not want an agencie's client to contact you directly it would be best to have a completely separate site without any contact info. If it were only a separate page on your main site, clients could still navigate to main pages and view your contact info. |
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