TMCnet Online Community News
TSG's Marketing Mix: A Two-Part Case Study - Part 2
In Part 1 of the TSG case study, we discussed the ways TSG creates educational content for its online community to reach its target audience. In this edition, we cover TSG’s approach to marketing testing and trying out new, unique and cutting-edge content.
TSG’s Key to Marketing Success? Test, Experiment, and Have Patience
TSG’s advice for marketers looking to boost awareness of their products and services is “keep throwing stuff at the wall to get the education out there and realize it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time.” This is a crucial message for marketers, who sometimes look at immediate results as the “tell” of whether their campaign or investment has been successful. As TSG’s marketing team states, “There’s no such thing as ‘never do it again’; just do another iteration.” If a company expects immediate results, they may be disappointed; it’s all about the long-term investment, which will pay off considering many competitors quit after a few months or after one bump in the road. TSG accredits its winning marketing efforts to this endurance and patience, and a steadfast focus on what the customer wants to receive, not what the marketer wants them to have.
…And Have Fun!
TSG has some great advice for engaging their audience with content in unique ways. For example, “we did a lot of educating in our calls to action. We started to have some fun, and built some innovative applications” states Rafalko. Having fun on an online community is something we at TMC (News - Alert) have seen be a tried-and-true best practice among many sites, and so has having content with “personality” – like a blog with an interesting twist or a “thought of the day” for example.
TSG believes that by going outside of your typical business role and doing something different is a great marketing technique. A tip: Engage your sales staff or people from within your company who may have something to offer your audience. With their “if something doesn’t work, that’s OK” mentality, the idea of taking “risks” with content isn’t a deterrent for them. However, there should be some types of oversight to ensure the company’s reputation is solid, especially when using social media channels. TSG recommends companies be careful about people relaying the right tone and messages about your company on social media sites. Reputation management is something many companies are faced with when engaging a wide network of writers, bloggers, twitter contributors and more, but once standard practices are set in place, this should be fairly easy to manage.
How to Measure Success
“Branding isn’t just sales all the time. It’s about building your name in the community” states Rafalko, who believes that working to try new techniques, test, measure and keep at it is the only way to be successful in your marketing efforts. This means focusing on ways to build your brand awareness in addition to your direct sales efforts, and spreading different marketing initiatives out to measure which ones work best, and which could be improved. He states, “all marketing is good; it’s which endeavor takes you the farthest – and which stands out the most that you should continue to put effort into.” In addition to those shared in this piece, some additional tips from TSG include:
-
Try different landing page layouts, or article titles and see which ones get better results.
-
Test pieces of everything you do, even slight iterations, to truly know which approach is best for specific audiences.
-
Develop a process for qualifying and scoring leads that come in from various marketing channels.
Online Community Results
“We’ve had great success, and learned so many lessons from our marketing exploration and investments”. Their Online Community with TMC, for example, has been a successful campaign for TSG. With their strong content efforts and their partnership with TMC editors, and over the past 5 months the Text Messaging community receives a high average number of unique visitors (2,100) and page views (over 8,000) per month.
As TSG continues to develop new, innovating marketing techniques for their equally innovative product, there are sure to be more additions to these best practices in the years ahead – and we look forward to hearing their stories of tests and success.
Join the Discussion: What are your stories of marketing tests, online community content, or social media? Share your reactions and stories – and bring your own innovative techniques – to the Online Communities social sites. Twitter|Facebook|LinkedIn
About TMCnet Online Communities
TMCnet Online Communities are news-generated, content-rich portals that position your company as the leading “go-to resource” for your industry group. TMC has been building Online Communities for over 10 years, and continues to be the market leader at developing these successful sites for our customers. To learn more about the TMCnet Online Community program, please contact Anna Ritchie [email protected] or call 203-852-6800 x 107. You can also visit us online at http://www.tmcnet.com/community.
Anna Ritchie is product manager for TMC's Online Community Program. Previously, she worked as a change and communications practitioner for a global consulting firm, and as a freelance marketing and communications specialist. She received her master's degree in English from Seton Hall University and her bachelor's degree in English from Loyola University.
