Performics is a Publicis-owned company that focuses on digital marketing optimization including assessments of how consumers talk about brands on the social web. It conducted an online survey of U.S. consumers who access at least one social network regularly and determined what kind of impact social networking has on the purchase process. 34% of social networkers had taken action on an ad they had seen on a social networking site by doing a further search on the product, while 30% had learned about a new product while on a social networking site. One quarter of respondents were making product recommendations while social networking.
Both consumers and the media are obsessed with social media. Popular social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube, are experiencing unprecedented growth and inspiring marketers in new and exciting ways. Smart companies—large and small—realize that the opportunities presented by social media are too good to pass up.
The Web continues to evolve from a one-way communications medium to a two-way conversational medium, giving consumers greater control and increasing marketing complexity. Not only can individual and business buyers easily research all available choices from suppliers and vendors, but they can also dialogue with experts and other consumers. They can easily ignore irrelevant marketing communications and turn their attention elsewhere instantaneously. And they ultimately make the purchase decisions that give them the best solutions to their problems—and the best user experiences.
Consequently, to influence purchase behavior of individuals and businesses, we marketers must keep abreast of how our customers and prospects use new and rapidly changing forms of digital communications. To be effective, it is critical to have up-to-date information about where our customers are on the Web, what will get their attention, and, in the end, what drives their buying decisions. In order to develop our marketing plans and implement go-to-market tactics, we must stay current on rapidly changing benchmarks, metrics, and trends in the customers’ use of interactive media.
Roy Young
President
MarketingProfs
What is a Goal?
In simple terms, A goal is something that a site/business wants to achieve. So for instance, If its a E-commerce website, one possible goal can be the orders or sales that take place online. For a consultation firm, the goal can be to get the contact information of the client and so on.
In a typical buying process, a buyer actually goes through a series of steps to complete your goal. These steps, in traditional marketing are often referred to as AIDA model. AIDA stands for Attention > Interest > Desire & Action.
Goal Conversion Funnel
So basically in order to complete a Goal, a prospect will often go through these 4 steps or in other words will go through a sales funnel. At the top of the funnel, you will often find a lot of prospective customers who are probably paying attention to your market & also probably interested in your product, however as they go deeper into the buying process, many of them feel disconnected and lose their desire which results in them taking no action (no purchase/order/sales).
Goal conversions are the primary metric for assessing how well a site fulfills business objectives. IE: Quote Request submissions. Use the graph’s to identify conversion trends for any one of your goals or for your overall conversions and conversion value.
At each stage, you can see how many people enter at that stage, how many people are continuing in the funnel from the previous stage, how many people leave at that stage without completing, and perhaps most importantly, where they are going.
You can see where people are dropping out and this can easily highlight problematic or broken forms and links or long-winded pages that people simply give up on.
Inbound Marketing helps your business get found on the Internet by the right prospects, and convert more of those prospects into qualified leads and paying customers.
Today's buyers can no longer be reached with traditional approaches to marketing. The cold-calling, the trade shows, the trade advertising, are all more expensive, and less effective than just a couple of years ago. To get found by qualified prospects today, your company must be visible on blogs, social media platforms, and in search engine results pages. You'll also need solid lead tracking, lead nurturing, and marketing analytics to get a true picture of your entire closed loop marketing program.
Social media management company Vitrue has released a free tool today, the Social Page Evaluator, designed to help marketers get a better understanding of a Facebook Page’s value.
Just submit a Facebook Page URL and the app will come up with a valuation based on factors like number of fans, number of posts per day, number of interactions and so forth.
It’s a cool — if not completely scientific — way to gauge the potential value of your Facebook Page to advertisers. The formula used by the Social Page Evaluator is related to the formula that Vitrue released last month to estimate the relative value of Facebook Fans to big brands.
The tool, which was built over 63 hours in a Startup Weekend-style project, is adjustable and interactive. For instance, the base rate of Earned Media Value (or CPM in more traditional terms) is $5, but this can be adjusted to a higher or lower value depending on the brand in question.
Likewise, there is a “Fan-tasize” section that lets you manipulate other features like number of posts per day, engagement level and Fan count to see how that affects the valuation.
Facebook Page Evaluator
You can also compare a Facebook Page with up to three other brands at a time and view a Page’s value history. In addition to the valuation data, there is also a list of best practices for getting the most out of your Facebook Page.
So how accurate is this tool? It’s difficult to determine, as it is based on a formula that, while derived from a study of large brands, is obviously not going to be applicable to all companies. Still, it’s a fun, easy way to get an idea of the factors that impact a Facebook Page valuation. It’s also a good stepping stone for marketers to start thinking about the potential advertising power of a Facebook Page.
What do you think of the tool? Let us know on Chase The Web's Facebook Fan Page!
[ credit: Mashable.com]