“Understanding Social Marketing”

I attended a presentation on social marketing, featuring:

• Comufy, a enterprise social marketing business that I have advised,
• Agillic, a technology company, (previously unknown to me) providing marketing communication tools to reach consumers across multiple online & offline channels
• eConsultancy, the Online research business.

There seemed to be a lot of Brand Marketers and Agencies in the audience. Last week I was involved in a discussion with a senior digital manager from the Greater London Authority, so I wondered if anyone from the public sector was invited along today. Post the summer riots, significant consideration of social marketing issues is underway in the public sector, and it would be great for them to find out about companies like Comufy, Agillic and others, and to consider their tools as part of their social communications strategy. Great opportunities exist in the public sector too for social marketing tech businesses.

First off, Jake Hird of eConsultancy set the scene with research, followed by Phil Mohr CEO of Comufy, and then Turlough Martin, MD Agillic.

Social Marketing offers 3 things:

• A Listening Platform
• Interaction
• A Sales Channel

All of this provides data. Data is the new oil, but to be put to good use it needs refining and to be processed, and for that to happen you need businesses like Comufy and Agillic. These two companies are collaborating by combining Comufy’s targeted social marketing tools into Agillic’s data rich streams from multiple channels. Comufy requires consumers to opt in just once, to allow brands to communicate personally with them on a broadcast, segmented, but importantly an individual targeted relevant basis, offering dynamic content and incentives like prize draws, VIP Clubs, discounts etc., from brands in return. It provides trackable links so ROI is easily available, and it allows for e-commerce prompts for abandoned baskets and reminders on interested items.

It also provides a rich stream of customer data back to Marketers, from the information supplied by users via their Facebook and other profiles. Agillic have offered a free trial for Marketers, to test out the Agillic Online services for up selling and cross selling. The end game is a dashboard joining all interactive channels together, both online and offline, with fast communication of consumer feedback across all interested data points up to reaction to stock prices. Ambitious perhaps, given how many companies and organisations still do not integrate social information, but at the other end of the spectrum sophisticated consumers expect marketers to join up the dots and ensure that all their consumer communications are relevant and targeted today. In the bar afterwards, this was certainly the view of Agency people I talked to, from their brand clients. Innovation means staying close to customer feedback.

In the Q & A, issues of security arose. With so much data going through one system, this is an area of great sensitivity, with some financial businesses regarding social data not to be compliant with their “risk” code. Upcoming change in EU cookie legislation was also discussed, with mixed views of whether this would have a negative impact or not. Consensus from the discussion yesterday is that there is time to consider this, as it is over a year until this change will take place. However, a participant working on this, recommended careful consideration of T’s & C’s now to avoid problems down the line. Lovely to see Claire Paterson, Managing Partner of Proximity London, a former colleague, at this event.

The Preview Theatre at The Charlotte Street Hotel is a great venue. I’m sure they will sort out the technical hitches that occurred, and I look forward to going back there again.