Revenue Architects Blog

Five Tips for Capturing Online Viewers with Video

sarah.fay@gmail.com (Sarah Fay) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:30:12 +0000

Video on the web is white hot.

As the network TV market continues to fragment, and marketers seek to engage consumers across multiple platforms, budgets are being directed to broadband video, as a new way to deliver compelling creative. Consumers are already there, and they are open and responsive to watching advertising online. A couple of years ago, the Online Publishers Association released a study showing that video is the most powerful online creative format. The study found that more than 40% of respondents watched online videos on at least a weekly basis and over 70% watch at least monthly. Of course, these viewer rates have increased and will continue to increase. As marketers, our new challenge is to capture the consumer’s attention and hold it with video that works on the web. We can, and do, gain value from running the same (or shortened) spots that are produced for TV. But, there is an opportunity to take broadband video to a higher level of performance.

Who Reads Anymore?

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 18:09:07 +0000

Creative digital video should be in your media plan

Recently, Jim Schwantner and Amy Hunt joined the Revenue Architects team. Amy and Jim are highly experienced creative marketers - their specialty is creating creative digital video to drive communication and brand velocity. This blog post blends our collective thinking and suggests the mandate for building creative video into your digital marketing and PR strategies.

Marketing Automation - Sounds Too Easy

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:54:37 +0000

Is "Marketing Automation" is an Oxymoron?

I like the term "Marketing Automation" - sounds great.... This is going to automate my world of Internet visibility, demand management, lead generation - fantastic. I will simply plug in a trusty CRM tool like Eloqua or Marketo, hook it into my salesforce.com application... and - like magic - next week, the leads will start to poor in. Right?

I don't think so....

10/15 iMedia Financial Summit - Agenda

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:59:06 +0000

Check the iMedia Financial Summit Agenda here. If you are in New York on October 15, you may want to attend to learn about digital marketing in Financial Services. I will be joining an agency team to discuss a case study targeted at increasing the human touch for a fictional bank that has successfully used the online channel, but now faces churn and market share erosion. My focus will be on how Banks can begin using telepresence technology both within the branch and through the online channel to increase relationship value. Slides here:

John Stone IMedia Financial Summit Oct 2009

View more presentations from John Stone.

iMedia Connection: Financial Marketing Summit '09 - Agenda

Description

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Use Digital PR to expand Public Relations Impact

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:24:09 +0000

Digital PR takes advantage of the viral web to expand visibility and syndication across traditional media, new media and the end audience.

The traditional PR approach is focused on direct media relationships to drive exposure opportunities and influence brand/message awareness. Typically the approach targets known relationships within traditional media. An effective traditional media program remains a critical engagement strategy - particularly in highly regulated industries where compliance and regulatory constraints limit the full adoption of social media and internet outreach. However, the traditional approach is no longer adequate. With the advent of digital, we see a fundamental shift in media and news consumption. We are moving from information push to information pull. Information consumers can now use search engines and RSS readers to filter, manage and control the content they see. To succeed, today’s PR leaders must engage both traditional media influencers and the new influencers like bloggers, forums and communities across social networks.

An effective PR strategy must incorporate Digital PR. Digital PR takes advantage of the viral nature of the web to expand visibility and message syndication across traditional media, new media and the end customer audience. Below is a quick checklist of what you might consider in your PR strategy and plans. The list is based on how we at Revenue Architects approach building a Digital PR capability with clients:

Digital PR Strategy

Clarify goals and metrics for digital PR
Align target audience, key words, channels and influencers
Set up, selecting and supporting listening services to gain insight into activity and sentiment across the web
Use PR and marketing to speaking directly to your customers and buyers with targeted messages
Architect and select digital technologies – blogs, RSS, rich media, web 2.0, listening tools enhance the viral impact of news and information distribution
Evaluate and recommending newswire services that deliver effectively digitally
Facilitate the operating model and governance across functions

Digital PR Delivery

Optimize press releases and distribution strategies for organic visibility, inbound links and visibility
Support campaigns for new influencer outreach in the blog, community, wikisphere and broader mediasphere
Produce creative content including innovative video - Documentary Branding, Explainer Videos, Impact Creative
Manage listening programs and campaign analytical services
Manage key word implementation, landing pages, and key word optimization
Use more native social media style and content to engage new audience and increase transparency
Improve tactics around press release key words and links to enhance SEO

Must See Video - Social Media Revolution

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:20:00 +0000

If you are exploring Social Media and trying to understand the impact it is having on media and business, check out this video on YouTube. (adjust your volume)

Financial Marketing Summit NYC 10/15

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:40:18 +0000

I connected with iMedia about a speaking role at the Financial Services Marketing Summit in New York on October 15. I will give a short talk to explore proposed solutions to the question of “how to operate your digital marketing in a way that doesn’t lose all of the personal touch you have with your customers offline.” We will use a fictional banking case study/scenario. I will then join a group of other “problem solvers” on stage with Jay Livingston, SVP, Global Marketing, Bank of America and two other brand marketers to discuss the problem, proposed solutions, and get the audience involved in a town hall type of format.

Fun!

Here is the abstract from the event web site - maybe we will see you there.

The Bottom Line for Digital in Financial Marketing

Welcome to iMedia’s Financial Marketing Summit—now in its third year—where you can join more than 100 senior marketing executives from a broad range of financial service companies, as well as their agency partners, as they spend full day exploring the digital marketing opportunities and challenges for this important sector of the online marketing industry.

Now more than ever, marketing executives for financial services companies are focused on strategies that deliver the maximum ROI. Digital is unquestionably a leading direct-response and lead-gen powerhouse. In a financial environment where trust and stability are key components of a consumer’s decision-making process, however, marketers are looking to deploy the full-range of targeted branding options within the digital environment, not to mention ensuring they’re part of the social media digital fabric being woven by their customers every day.

iMedia’s Financial Marketing Summit is a one-day immersive experience to gain insights into these challenges. And it’s FREE to financial marketing executives and their agency partners!

Thoughts from Kristen Luke from #IMPACT09

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:05:45 +0000

I will write a more complete debrief from my experience as a speaker on Social Media for Advisors and engaging with attendees and colleagues at Schwab's Impact 2009 conference. It was a great event - very well run - and also well attended by Schwab's registered investment adivsor community. While there, I was able to have a catch up with Kristen Luke. Kristen attended my talk and also provided me some insights from her current projects. Below is a summary of her lessons from the conference and here is a link to the blog post.

Lesson #1: The more channels a client uses to interact with his or her advisor, the higher his or her satisfaction with that advisor.

Lesson #2: 100% of High Net Worth individuals ask their CPA for a referral to a financial advisor.

Lesson #3: Become better at dating your prospects.

Lesson #4: Web 2.0 helps with organic search engine optimization.

Lesson #5: There are tools available to make it easier for social media to comply with SEC and FINRA rules.

Kristen Luke is a Revenue Architects colleague and the Principal of Wealth Management Marketing, a firm dedicated to providing marketing strategies and support for financial advisors. Kristen works with independent advisors to develop effective marketing plans and provides the back office support required to implement the strategies.

My slides are posted on slideshare here:

Social Media for Financial Advisors

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:01:17 +0000

I am heading out west to San Diego today to speak at the Charles Schwab Impact 2009 Conference. It should be a great event and I am looking forward to meeting Advisors from around the country and discussing keys to Internet Marketing and social media. One of the top issues Advisors face is navigating the compliance considerations from FINRA.

I think that FINRA needs to update and improve its direction related to Internet communication and advertising so that the use of tools like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Podcast, YouTube, Blogs and other tools can be more clearly understood. For example - once content is approved by the compliance officer- why should there be restrictions in the syndication links to the content across these networks?

Here is a Slideshare of my talk. Let me know what you think.

I am working with Advisors to address these strategies and challenges and I am seeking input, so feel free to comment:

What are some best practices for using social media to promote a Financial Advisor firm?
How should an Advisor use Twitter, Facebook, a Blog or Linkedin?
Why does it matter?

An interview on Womens Radio

jcstone@revenuearchitects.com (John Stone) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:48:21 +0000

Pat Lynch from Women's Radio interviewed me last week about developing revenue architectures using Internet Marketing and Social Media strategies. I first met Pat at the Gilbane Conference in San Francisco. Pat is the Editor-in-Chief and Host of "Speak Up!" Speak Up! invites women, and also men, who “speak” to women in terms of their values, their goals and their strong sense of community, to address issues, opportunities and successes that need to be heard by a larger audience of women leaders.

Here is the link to the interview. The topics we discussed were relevant to women owned businesses - and also apply to businesses of all sizes:

Authentic Marketing – don’t just optimize your website with SEO (Search Optimization) but approach your strategy in an authentic way – deliver real value for your target audience through focused content, tools and information.
Audience Relationship Management – go beyond “CRM” and outbound "interuption" marketing and engage your target audience through awareness and capture inbound audience intent with search visibility
Using Social Media – extend your presence beyond your website by engaging in social media presence to drive visibility

Thanks, Pat!