In an attempt to build an individual’s web identity and to predict a consumer’s next move, marketers and advertisers tactically map a consumer’s identity through the obscure third-party tracking of digital behavior and activity by following a trail of, if you will, ‘cookie’ crumbs, to collect various data points that web users leave behind. In digital advertising, the identity of the consumer is generated based on an often unsystematic or unrepresentative set of data points.
The segmentation of the digital target-market is more inaccurate as the barriers to using the internet are low and thus it is a widely available resource to most consumers. As such, the data points that define digital identity may not be conclusive or reflective of one's true consumer behavior.
While consumers are consistently willing to trade their data and privacy in return for recommendations, services, and customization tools, often companies use this “captured information” to force onto the consumer intrusive messaging (Dahlström and Edelman).
Rather than digitally force unwanted viewership and interaction onto internet users based on disjointed data points, companies must begin to use a more cross-functional system of target-marketing that can successfully define and address customer interactions through a comprehensive view of the entire story and identity of the consumer. The product must fit the lifestyle, and the lifestyle is based on a synoptic analysis of consumer identity. Marketers, advertising agencies, and media groups cannot effectively use data in its original form: that being a compilation of scattered data points. Rather, these organizations must be understood in the format of a linear timeline or map on which the data points were viewed, processed and generated to create a reaction for any given product. Furthermore, these data points of consumer behavior and activity are only valuable in the context of how the“ individual encountered a brand and the steps they take to evaluate, purchase, and relate to it across the decision journey” (Dahlström and Edelman).
Full agencies must not only generate a clear path of an individual’s digital consumer behavior in order to customize an experience, but they must also maintain an expansive understanding of the trends and behaviors of the market to which they belong, while simultaneously allocating sufficient amounts time to developing a team for CRM to socially engage with and sample from their target-consumers, and effectively integrating tools that can rapidly assess spending trends and touch-interaction and contact as they relate to consumer decision journeys (Dahlström and Edelman). Through both the achievement of an effective system or "language" to cultivate a streamlined collaboration among the diverse platforms of the new "full-agency," and the sufficient dedication to illuminating the contextualized narrative of a digital consumer's behavior drawn from the individual data points, consumers can be better represented and served by their own data trails.
For instance, when followed, “American families, on average, repeatedly buy the same 150 items, which constitute as much as 85% of their household needs,” (Schneider and Hall). In order to successfully benefit a digital consumer's experience, an organization must "get to know" the consumer and the target market to which they belong by analyzing to ultimately understanding the way in which consumer's data points connect and relate to their targeted segment.
When focusing on correctly placed inbound marketing tactics - or relying on branded content to lead a customer to an organization instead of the more traditional outbound marketing tactics- cold-calling, and other ways that organizations reach a customer, user feedback was as follows, according to statistics compiled from many different tracking websites including Hubspot:
1. 32% of brands are decreasing spending on outbound marketing to spend more on content marketing.(source: Inbound Marketing Agents)
2. Because 61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers custom content, they are also more likely to buy from that company.(source: Custom Content Council)
3. 90% of consumers find custom content useful and 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.(source: McMurry/TMG)
4. 29% of marketers use whitepapers as a content marketing technique.(source: Inbound Marketing Agents)
5. 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.(source: Content Marketing Institute)
6. 84% of 25-to-34-year-olds have left a favorite website because of intrusive or irrelevant advertising.(source: Mashable)
7. Per dollar, content marketing produces 3 times more leads.(source: Eloqua)
8. 82% of consumers like reading content from brands when it's relevant.(source: The CMA)
9. Companies that spend more than 50% of their lead generation budget on inbound marketing report a significantly lower cost-per-lead.(source: HubSpot)
10. For mid-sized businesses, content marketing costs 31% less than paid search.(source: Eloqua)
11. 68% of consumers are likely to spend time reading content from a brand they are interested in.(source: The CMA)
12. Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing.(source: Mashable)
13. According to 37% of marketing managers, the most important way to engage customers is content-led websites.(source: The CMA)
14. 86% of people skip television ads.(source: Mashable)
15. Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links.(source: Inbound Writer)
16. 3 out of 4 inbound marketing channels cost less than any outbound channel.(source: Mashable)
17. Marketers allocate 34% of their overall budgets to inbound tactics – 11% more than they dedicate to outbound strategies, like banners, direct mail and more.(source: Gannett Local)
18. 200 million Americans have registered their phone numbers on the FTC’s “Do Not Call” list.(source: Mashable)
19. 54% more leads are generated by inbound than by outbound.(source: HubSpot)
20. Telemarketing was reported as being “above average” in cost by 21% of respondents.(source: Mashable)
When inbound, targeted-marketing reaches the correct audience, more often than not, customers are happy and satisfied.
Bibliography
The segmentation of the digital target-market is more inaccurate as the barriers to using the internet are low and thus it is a widely available resource to most consumers. As such, the data points that define digital identity may not be conclusive or reflective of one's true consumer behavior.
While consumers are consistently willing to trade their data and privacy in return for recommendations, services, and customization tools, often companies use this “captured information” to force onto the consumer intrusive messaging (Dahlström and Edelman).
Rather than digitally force unwanted viewership and interaction onto internet users based on disjointed data points, companies must begin to use a more cross-functional system of target-marketing that can successfully define and address customer interactions through a comprehensive view of the entire story and identity of the consumer. The product must fit the lifestyle, and the lifestyle is based on a synoptic analysis of consumer identity. Marketers, advertising agencies, and media groups cannot effectively use data in its original form: that being a compilation of scattered data points. Rather, these organizations must be understood in the format of a linear timeline or map on which the data points were viewed, processed and generated to create a reaction for any given product. Furthermore, these data points of consumer behavior and activity are only valuable in the context of how the“ individual encountered a brand and the steps they take to evaluate, purchase, and relate to it across the decision journey” (Dahlström and Edelman).
Full agencies must not only generate a clear path of an individual’s digital consumer behavior in order to customize an experience, but they must also maintain an expansive understanding of the trends and behaviors of the market to which they belong, while simultaneously allocating sufficient amounts time to developing a team for CRM to socially engage with and sample from their target-consumers, and effectively integrating tools that can rapidly assess spending trends and touch-interaction and contact as they relate to consumer decision journeys (Dahlström and Edelman). Through both the achievement of an effective system or "language" to cultivate a streamlined collaboration among the diverse platforms of the new "full-agency," and the sufficient dedication to illuminating the contextualized narrative of a digital consumer's behavior drawn from the individual data points, consumers can be better represented and served by their own data trails.
For instance, when followed, “American families, on average, repeatedly buy the same 150 items, which constitute as much as 85% of their household needs,” (Schneider and Hall). In order to successfully benefit a digital consumer's experience, an organization must "get to know" the consumer and the target market to which they belong by analyzing to ultimately understanding the way in which consumer's data points connect and relate to their targeted segment.
When focusing on correctly placed inbound marketing tactics - or relying on branded content to lead a customer to an organization instead of the more traditional outbound marketing tactics- cold-calling, and other ways that organizations reach a customer, user feedback was as follows, according to statistics compiled from many different tracking websites including Hubspot:
1. 32% of brands are decreasing spending on outbound marketing to spend more on content marketing.(source: Inbound Marketing Agents)
2. Because 61% of consumers say they feel better about a company that delivers custom content, they are also more likely to buy from that company.(source: Custom Content Council)
3. 90% of consumers find custom content useful and 78% believe that organizations providing custom content are interested in building good relationships with them.(source: McMurry/TMG)
4. 29% of marketers use whitepapers as a content marketing technique.(source: Inbound Marketing Agents)
5. 80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.(source: Content Marketing Institute)
6. 84% of 25-to-34-year-olds have left a favorite website because of intrusive or irrelevant advertising.(source: Mashable)
7. Per dollar, content marketing produces 3 times more leads.(source: Eloqua)
8. 82% of consumers like reading content from brands when it's relevant.(source: The CMA)
9. Companies that spend more than 50% of their lead generation budget on inbound marketing report a significantly lower cost-per-lead.(source: HubSpot)
10. For mid-sized businesses, content marketing costs 31% less than paid search.(source: Eloqua)
11. 68% of consumers are likely to spend time reading content from a brand they are interested in.(source: The CMA)
12. Inbound marketing costs 62% less per lead than traditional outbound marketing.(source: Mashable)
13. According to 37% of marketing managers, the most important way to engage customers is content-led websites.(source: The CMA)
14. 86% of people skip television ads.(source: Mashable)
15. Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links.(source: Inbound Writer)
16. 3 out of 4 inbound marketing channels cost less than any outbound channel.(source: Mashable)
17. Marketers allocate 34% of their overall budgets to inbound tactics – 11% more than they dedicate to outbound strategies, like banners, direct mail and more.(source: Gannett Local)
18. 200 million Americans have registered their phone numbers on the FTC’s “Do Not Call” list.(source: Mashable)
19. 54% more leads are generated by inbound than by outbound.(source: HubSpot)
20. Telemarketing was reported as being “above average” in cost by 21% of respondents.(source: Mashable)
When inbound, targeted-marketing reaches the correct audience, more often than not, customers are happy and satisfied.
Bibliography
- Aaker, Jennifer L., Anne M. Brumbaugh, and Sonya A. Grier. "Nontarget Markets and Viewer Distinctiveness: The Impact of Target Marketing on Advertising Attitudes." JOURNAL OF CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY 9.3 (n.d.): 127-40. Web.
- Dahlström, Peter, and David Edelman. "The Coming Era of ‘on-demand’ Marketing." McKinsey Quarterly (2013): n. pag. Web.
- Lynn, Michael. "Segmenting and Targeting Your Market: Strategies and Limitations." School of Administration Marketing Collection (2011): n. pag.Cornell University; The Scholarly Commons. Web.
- Meyers, Yuvay Jeanine. "Target Marketing and the Product: Categorizing Products to Understand the Resulting Marketing Communication Outcome Measures." Journal of Management and Marketing Research (n.d.): 1-8. Print.
- Rittenburg, Terri L., and Madhavan Parthasarathy. "Ethical Implications of Target Market Selection." Journal of Macromarketing 7.2 (n.d.): 49-64. Web.
- Schneider, Joan, and Julie Hall. "Why Most Product Launches Fail." Harvard Business Review (2011): n. pag. Hbr.org. Web.
- Vollmer, Christopher. "Digital Darwinism." Comp. Booz&Co. Marketing and Media Ecosystem (2010): n. pag. American Association of Advertising Agencies. Web.