When it comes to seeking a return on investment, now is the time for companies to focus on the ‘investment’ side of social media and other long tail tactics.
When consumers are wary, it’s an ideal time to invest in content-rich, ‘long tail’ marketing tactics such as PR, events, search engine optimization and social media. The term long tail describes the strategy of building and managing of social networks and customer-centered communities as a means of reaching low-frequency and low-intensity consumers in a cost effective way.
Low frequency? Low intensity? Is there a better way to describe consumers in the current economy?
The goal of long tail tactics is to boost your company’s awareness and relevance to consumers at times when they’re not shopping for your products so that you’ll be top of mind when they shop in the future. It’s like shopping for consumers on the futures exchange…
In a thriving economy, long-tail tactics such as PR, events, search engine optimization and social networking are overshadowed by traditional mass media and paid advertising tactics that drive pending sales. HOWEVER, when consumers aren’t pending, the old marketing strategies fail.
Among long-tail tactics, social media holds the biggest opportunity for many companies. PR (push), and SEO (pull) drive relevance. Social media drives conversation — which is even better. Continual engagement with consumers provides a level of day-to-day relevance and fosters credibility. According to Forrester (2008), 29 percent of adults read blogs, 27 percent participate in online discussions, 26 percent participate on social networking sites, and 13 percent maintain their own web page or blog.
Social media tactics are especially effective for Gen Y (age 18-28). They seem to prefer doing everything online. According to Forrester, Gen Yers are twice as likely to listen to podcasts, read blogs and use social networking sites than other adults.
In a down economy, conversation with prospective and current customers is the best marketing investment a company can make. It fuels brand loyalty, innovation, product development and future sales.
Without long-tail strategies in place, a lot of mass media dollars are wasted. It’s not possible to create demand in a down economy using mass media (radio, TV, print) tactics.
About Troy Janisch