Digital Marketing for Entrepreneurs

Seminar by Delfin Vassallo at International Entrepreneurship Conference, Riga, Latvia. April 2010

1. Digital Marketing
Your gateway to
international
markets
International Entrepreneurship Conference ‘Baltic Spark’
April 17, 2010 - Riga, Latvia
Delfin Vassallo

2. Business going international
•“The Global Village”
•10 years ago:
●
You had to travel to the target country
●
Research the market, opportunities,
competitors
●
Get local contacts, advice, get a distributor
or representative
●
Do local promotion
•Nowadays you can do all these directly from
your office / home. All this globalization story
made it possible, with Internet as the main tool

3. Success stories?
•85-95% CEE entrepreneurs fail to offer any product /
service different from competitors
•67% retailers are failing in going outside home market
•Western world companies are failing in going abroad
•They are still living in BG times

4. Traditional Marketing
vs.
Digital Marketing
And how does it fit on
my business?

5. Traditional Marketing
Brand
Marketing
Direct
Marketing

6. Marketing in the Internet era
Brand
Marketing
Direct
Marketing

7. Your opportunity
“…if your consumers trust their friends more than big
brands, you have to become more like their friends to earn
their trust.”
Shiv Singh
VP & Global Social Media Lead, Razorfish
“Consumers are tired of engaging with large, impersonal
brands and often turn against them in the web…
The economic downturn is accelerating the use of social
media because people are placing more value in the
recommendations of their friends than they are in big
business.”
The Economist & 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer

8. Campaign
Development
Evaluating Executing
Planning Creating
Traditional Marketing

9. Defining
strategies
Company
personality
Business
development
input
Developing concepts
Choosing tools
Effectiveness
Objectives
achieved
Evaluation
parameters
Benchmark
parameters
Adjust
performance
Implementing
CRM Influencing Engaging
Evaluating
Involving
Planning
Creating
Measuring
Digital
Marketing

10. Digital Marketing is different
Example from www.HubSpot.com

11. Digital Marketing is based on:
*More info www.HubSpot.com **Razorfish TM www.razorfish.com
Inbound Marketing* Social Influence Marketing**
Nothing new on business networking process, just as you do offline:
•Meeting people
•Building relationships
•Asking questions
•Answering questions
•Building trust
•Building a reputation

12. From where do I start?
And where
to continue?

13. Do your strategy
Where are we? > Where we want to be? > How do we get there?

14. Where is your market?
Research by country:
Internet use
Popular sites
Local niches

15. • Track every KPI relating it with
your business objectives
• Traffic generated by SEO
• Leads by source: inbound web,
seminars, tradeshows
• Compare metrics with your
increase in leads & sales
• Every effort should focus on how to
influence final consumer
• Commit your team members to
take initiative on conversations
• How the target can share or
discuss with others your content
• Very specific
• Where the activity will develop
• Whom you are targeting
• How it synchronizes with offline activities
• Define KPI’s and how will be measured
• How they will work together
• Who will implement and manage them
• Measurement process
Define your
objectives
Doing your strategy
Choose your
tactics & tools
Execute for
engagement
Track the results

16. Choose your tactics & tools
•Website
•Blog
•eNewsletter / podcasts / webinars
•eMail Marketing / eCRM
•Pay Per Click Advertising
•Social Media Marketing
Photo by Skene http://www.flickr.com/photos/skene/2691689029/in/photostream/

17. Website developing dimensions
Business dimension:
How website fits on
Marketing strategy?
Define KPIs & its
measurement
Technical dimension:
Programming
Hosting
Maintenance
Website
effectiveness
Visual dimension:
Web design
Look & feel
Corporate identity

18. Questions to do before creating a website
Source: Seth Godin’s blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
•What is the goal of the site? (when it works great, what specific result will come?)
•How many people on your team have to be involved? At what level?
•Which is our target market?
•What are the sites that this group has demonstrated they enjoy interacting with?
•Are we telling a story? Or are we trying to close sales?
•Are we hoping that people will watch or learn?
•Do we need people to spread the word using various social media tools?
•Are we building a community where people will use to connect with each other?
•Is there ongoing news and updates that need to be presented to people?
•Do we want people to call us?
•How many times a month would we like people to come by? For how long?
•Who will update this site? How often?
•Does showing up in the search engines matter? If yes, in which terms? At what cost?
Will we be willing to compromise any of the things above in order to achieve this goal?
•Will the site need to be universally accessible?
•Any issues of connection speed or language or browser?
•How much money do we have to spend? How much time?

19. Types of websites: online brochure

20. Types of websites: corporate

21. Types of websites: online store

22. Types of websites: online services

23. Types of websites: SaaS

24. Create your webhub
•Not a destination but a crossroad
•Keep always in mind what your customers like / want
•Create buzzing content**
•Make something different (Only 16% of European companies
have something else than corporate web / online brochure*)
•Ask for external help when needed, don’t wait until it’s too late
•Have fun!
* European Interactive Advertising Association: http://www.eiaa.net/
** Writing engaging content: http://www.conversationagent.com/2009/06/writing-engaging-content.html
50 Content ideas that create buzz: http://www.conversationagent.com/2009/04/50-content-ideas-the-create-buzz.html

25. Worth to read
Digital Marketing insights
Going Social Now by Shiv Singh http://www.goingsocialnow.com/
Jeremiah Owyang www.web-strategist.com/blog
Valeria Maltoni www.conversationagent.com
Hub Spot blog http://blog.hubspot.com/
Duct Tape Marketing http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/
Online Marketing blog http://www.toprankblog.com/
Marketing Sherpa (thoughtful research) http://www.marketingsherpa.com/
Enterprise 2.0
50+ Enterprise 2.0 case studies: http://www.jmorganmarketing
.com/collection-enterprise-2-0-case-studies-examples/

26. Keep in touch
Delfin Vassallo
Digital Villager
Helsinki, Finland
@DJVassallo
[email protected]
www.djvassallo.com