Your Customers, Blogs and New Participatory Marketing

By Robin Hopper

Until recently, online marketers relied on a combination of action, reaction and transaction (ART) to generate sales. The action, a promotional message, delivered to the user in an e-mail message or banner ad, was expected to yield a reaction, or a click-through, resulting in a sales lead, a transaction. But companies did not have the ability to interact conversationally with consumers about their experiences of a product, and as a result, the effectiveness of online marketing has been unclear.

With subscription and click-through rates declining--thanks in part to spam--the ART philosophy of targeting a message to the perceived "right" audience is failing to deliver the results companies desire and need. Further, its relatively linear tools and techniques do not take into account the potential of the web as a dynamic medium of speed, spontaneity and customization.

But today, this is all changing with advancements in online technologies and the explosion of user-generated media offers tremendous opportunity. The numbers of users reading blogs is multiplying at exceedingly fast rates, indicating a growing user interest in online communities connected to personal interests and values.

In response, well-known companies, including McDonald's, the New York Times and Cannondale Bikes, are using corporate blogs to engage more directly and consistently with their customers, increase sales and build brand loyalty. Marketers now are able to exploit the web to connect with individuals who use the medium as a seamless, active aspect of their daily lives.

THE MISSING 'PART'
This new marketing--active, customized, specific, and most of all, participatory, is taking hold on a massive scale, allowing real, dynamic engagement between a brand and consumers. This new combination is characterized by participation, action, relationship and transaction (PART). First, a company and customers participate in a discussion. Then, a targeted series of actions, or messages, are communicated between the company and customers based on the topic around which they participate, and a relationship is formed. A transaction then takes place and the customer inspires his or her circle of peers to do the same.

Naturally, profitability, measurability and accountability remain critical for online marketers. Blogs offer a unique way to monitor campaigns, respond immediately to customer praise and criticism, and generate community. Blogs also represent lucrative sales possibilities, and fit into current trends of word-of-mouth marketing and social media. Additionally, blogs present marketers with a method for staying relevant with audiences.

Participatory online marketing is fast becoming critical for audience relationship building. As increasingly large numbers of online users choose their own content and dictate in what forms they want to be marketed to, these nascent and powerful mediums offer new strategies to forge strong and lasting customer relationships.

Robin Hopper is CEO and founder of iUpload in Ontario, Canada. He can be reached at (905) 681-5334.