On the 10th June 2010, I helped facilitate a marketing discussion for Social Enterprise West Midlands called ‘Marketing your Social Enterprise’. The focus for the event was to share best practice and discuss ideas and develop skills around web and digital marketing.
Some of the key issues for organisations were the following:
Communication
A key issue for Social Enterprises is the terminology and acronyms that are used within the Third Sector. This often leads to a confusing message in marketing channels, and will not work in line with search engines especially.
It is important that organisations understand who they are targeting, what their key USP’s are and the reputation that they are starting with.
Feedback is essential from current and potential clients to help with improving your marketing message.
Web Design
The feedback from the majority of Social Enterprises is how important updating creative is for their organisations. Many of the Social Enterprises at the event were going through a brand change in addition to a new website.
New design increases sales, but it does cost the organisation in the long run, especially when refreshing a current brand and all marketing material. The most popular pages from participants websites was typically the ‘vacancies’ and ‘about us’ page.
It is important to make sure your web company understands your online requirements. With your next project, is there the opportunity to get it right first time, meaning that they you easily edit in the future?
Usability & Accessibility
Many organisations felt that they need to improve the usability and accessibility on their current platforms. In addition to making them easy to use for disabilities, the key to developing user-focused websites is being aware of what the visitors/members will be searching for, providing answers to their questions and present it in a way that is easy for them to process.
Learnability - How intuitive is the design of the site?
Efficiency - How quickly can users perform tasks, find resources etc?
Memorability - Can users easily remember how to use the website? What kind of errors are users making, why are they making them and can they easily recover from these mistakes?
Satisfaction - Do your customers enjoy using your website?
Social Media
Many organisations felt that Social Media has offered them a great deal of new followers, and a younger audience than they would usually connect with. Some businesses felt that they should be using it, while others didn’t see the value.
The key thing to social media to remember is that it takes time, but can pay dividends. Dell estimated they have made $6.5m from Twitter.
The social networking platform provides a much easier route for enterprises than cold calling; you can add who you want in to your twitter stream!
Digital Marketing
Key online marketing techniques being implemented by the participants were E-Marketing, Web Surveys and Social Media.
The general feeling was that mobile may offer huge opportunities with its immediate reach (96% messages are read), and a few of the participants will be trialling this shortly.
Many of the Social Enterprises aren’t using free tools to research, blog and measure the success of their current website. One participant had found a keyword that described its business that customers were searching for on Google, which was bringing in large amounts of traffic and customers. Understanding what users search for when searching for a product is key to success.
Google Analytics was rarely used by most Social Enterprises and should be implemented through all sites, it’s free and provides the information to see if their sites are working for them.
Written by Ian Hughes, Marketing Director at The Social Media Partnership
Tags: enterprise, marketing tips, social
