Mastering the Art of Online Marketing

The Online Marketing Process

Now, back to Erik: What should he do?

Step 1 – The website.

As a medium-sized business, it’s imperative that Erik’s House of Custom Bikes has a website that allows it to conduct business. This includes:

• Mobile adaptability – Most modern sites are fully adaptable to mobile
• Contact form – The form must gather information that allows Erik to build a database as well as pre-qualify the person
• Information – Needs more prominent rental/reservation window on the rental website
• Blog – There is a blog on Erik’s page. However, as of September 2013, the last entry was in December 2012. The blog needs to be updated
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest feeds – These should be included for higher engagement but aren’t necessarily urgent concerns.

 

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Step 2 – Some customer insight

The second thing I would recommend is that Erik begin getting insights from his customers and would-be customers. This would include:

• A quick online survey to get a handle on their media habits
• Some personal one-on-one conversations to not only understand customer media habits, but also gather information that would allow him to leverage these habits (e.g., the use of Twitter so his customers can get continuous updates regarding the progress of the construction of their custom bikes)

 

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Step 3 – The integrated communication model

Based on Erik’s information from Step 2, he would want to construct an integrated model that takes into account:

1. The three different “customer buckets:” full custom-bike buyers, Boss Hoss and other similar buyers, Royal Enfield buyers
2. Bike renters: national and international
3. How people get information, decide on a course of action and then follow up
4. Business acquisition, retention and referral

 

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Step 4 – Developing creative executions

Once a media map has been laid out for each “bucket,” creative execution must be developed for each media vehicle:

Step 5 – Sequencing

Not everything happens at the same time.

• There must be metrics implemented at each step to decide whether a particular stage is successful and whether to launch the next one
• There must be some overlays of straight media, promotional activities, events and other actions

 

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Step 6 – Controls

• Each media vehicle must have response devices
• Each response must be fed into a single database that’s then used to track results and evaluate return on investment (ROI)

 

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So what does a real-life strategy look like? (Remember, this is only one approach and that there are many different ways to approach any problem.)

1. Determine what services and/or products you’ll feature

In our case, no one buys a custom bike (or even a semi-custom) off the website (or least, it doesn’t seem to be a primary vehicle), so we’ll concentrate on four areas to generate quick sales:

Click to enlarge

Together, these four areas account for about half of sales but, more importantly, they represent ongoing sales that could see quick increases.

2. Determine your targets

We’ve already discussed these previously, so there is no sense in repeating them again here, but we’re dealing typically with young men with bikes.

3. Integrated communication model

Let’s take motorcycle rentals as an example:

• It’s the one that could most benefit from growth
• It’s a very straightforward sale