How to Stop Begging for Customers - Distributed Engagement is Part 2 of the Next Generation Marketing Strategy Series

Stop hoping and waiting for web site visitors!  Today you can't wait for customers to visit your web site or online store.  You need to go find those customers where they are already hanging out online.  I call this "Distributed Engagement" marketing.

In a recent post I introduced the concept of "Product Presence" (which will be discussed more thoroughly in my next book).  Product Presence theory suggests that your web site is not enough. Today you need to reach out to customers into all of the niches where they hide online in today's Web 2.0 world. 

Distributed Engagement is the process of pursuing sales across platforms into the millions of small communities that Web 2.0 technologies have enabled today online.  Email newsletter marketing, blogging, Twitter, online forums, online PR/publicity, Facebook, podcasting - all of your online marketing efforts combine to "distribute" your "engagement" directly to these customers in a more diverse yet targeted way than traditional marketing ever did.  This is demonstrated in the figure at right.

Distributed Engagement is the process by which your Product Presence is spread.  It recognizes two important changes that Web 2.0 has brought to Internet marketing:
a) your branding and marketing is increasingly decentralized outside of your web site, and
b) your marketing is not simply one way but includes interactive engagement where your customers can talk back.

Communities = Opportunities
Today niche customer markets cluster around common interests that were often too narrow to market to cost-effectively in the 20th century.  But today these smaller communities represent potentially profitable targets for savvy marketers.  This is because although they may be smaller, such markets are highly targeted.  Delivering a correctly targeted offer at the right price to an audience pre-disposed toward interest in that offer can be very profitable.  Engaging that community on its own terms can also lead to rapid adoption and volunteer viral marketing evangelism by those targeted.

For example, offering a clever "go green" t-shirt to an online community of environmentalists, a gas-saving service to a truck drivers' email list, or an improved SAT test prep tool to college-bound Facebook users, can sell not only the direct recipients of your marketing, but also increase your sales from everyone they forward your marketing messages to.

Distributed Engagement is the opposite of 20th century broadcast marketing.  Back then customers were blanketed with one size fits all messages.  Distributed Engagement includes those techniques but also includes visiting customers where they congregate naturally, posting messages, soliciting feedback, creating content, running contests or promotions on social networks like Myspace and Facebook, via online blog or email publishing, or otherwise reaching out to interact with customers to extend your marketing influence (your "Product Presence") far beyond just your web site.  More importantly, this means that your brand's mind share and revenues are significantly larger, too.

What do you think?  Does this paradigm make sense to you?  What did I miss? 

Is interacting with customers a requirement for marketing success in the 21st century?

Does the graphic I created make sense and demonstrate these points?

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[This is Part Two of a 3 Part Series on Next Generation Internet Marketing Strategies - Please subscribe to this blog by RSS or subscribe by email to read my upcoming posts on "Next Generation Marketing Strategies" including my upcoming introduction to your company's "Reputation Cloud".]

Comments

[Linda Smith]

In answer to your question, yes this does makes sense. Marketing on the internet, "Web 2.0" - whatever that really means - can be a very confusing place. For instance a person could say Okay, I have a product, I have profiles here and there and I blog and write articles...but an integrated strategic online marketing plan would be very helpful. How and where do I find these specialized markets? How do I find and use online PR? I'm look looking forward to how you flesh this out. - Linda

[Scott Fox]

Hello Linda,
Thanks for visiting and commenting.
I'm glad that this is making sense. You'll see where I'm headed more in Part 3 which I'll post next week, and especially in my new book. (That won't be out until next summer, though, so feel free to comment with questions or suggestions.)
Best,
Scott

[Lisa Badalamenti]

Distributed Engagement is the process by which your Product Presence is spread. It recognizes two important changes that Web 2.0 has brought to Internet marketing. Your branding and marketing is increasingly decentralized outside of your web site.

[Scott Fox]

Lisa! Exactly!
You said it even better than I did. I guess what I wrote did make sense.
So glad to see your comment.
Thanks for stopping by.
Scott

[Eddie Lewis]

I agree with what you've written but would like to add a little something. By far, the best "distributed engagement" is from satisfied customers. Not from our own keyboards. We should be more concerned with satisfying our customers needs so well that they can't stop talking about our products or services in all of these places online. What is better, for me to write a blog about my books/music/lessons - or for my satisfied customers/clients/students to write about them for me?

I have actually cut back on just how much I am sharing online and it has boosted my business. Right now, I am trying to develop an online "community" that is linked to my offline business life - trying to connect the two. I've just learned PHP and I'm going to start offering articles to my students that require passwords so that only they can read the full article. The casual visitor will only be able to read the teasers.

The biggest lesson I've learned in the past ten years is that being well known accross the world isn't going to get me more students or gigs here at home. It's a wonderful boost to the ego and tends to make us want to post everthing we have to offer so the world can see it. But this actually has a negative effect on the local business because the customers leave the site feeling as if they have already acquired what you have to offer. It may be different for me because what I'm selling is my knowledge and tallent. So if they leave my site feeling "fulfilled" then they have no reason to hire my services.

This is my long about way of saying that it's far more important for our "online community" to speak for us. For me, by limiting the ammount of information I have made available through my online presence, I have created a greater interest in what I do and increased my business to ten times what it was ten years ago. My next goal is to find ways to get these satisfied customers to share their experiences which will reduce the ammount of work I have to do and will actually attract new customers better than any blog or newsletter I write.

That's another thing. My newsletter isn't freely available to just anyone. I only send my newsletter to my students. It's a perk - a priveledge - something that is designed to suppliment and enhance their lessons.

This model is working better for me than when I shared everything with everyone. I think it's a matter of supply and demand. But like I said, this may be different for me because what I share online is also the product I'm trying to sell....knowledge and information.

[Scott Fox]

Hello Eddie,

These are great points. Thank you for contributing them.

You'll actually see that customer feedback is a key factor in the next step of this series. I classify customer feedback as part of what I'm calling the "Reputation Cloud", not as part of Distributed Engagement.

The distinction is that DE is implemented by you ("from your own keyboard"), while RC is the resulting effect of your DE efforts. (This doesn't make your observation any less correct, just an academic difference in the way I'm breaking the theory into parts.) I'll put up that post later this week.

As for throttling back the content you make available online, that makes a lot of sense. Of course, it's different for every business but your thoughts on this strategy are well said. Even better, it sounds like they are based on personal experience/expertise. Thanks for sharing.

Best,
Scott Fox

[Scott Fox, Click Millionaires]

Hi Tingo,
Thanks for dropping by and especially for the detailed and helpful reference links you've posted.

I'm well aware of Web 3.0. Like you I work on the web all day, every day.

But most of my readers are not. This blog is designed to help people who are new to the web make the transition to the digital economy.

News of Flex, Air, and the evolution of application deployment is not actionable by folks who want to start a business and are just learning what a blog is.

Web 2.0 is still news to many folks, and someone needs to take the time to explain it to them so they can participate, too.

That's what I'm doing.

Best,
Scott