With data-rich mobile internet browsing, context determines content. Here are four ways context is changing online marketing.

1. The Rise in Mobile Browsing
The future of internet browsing is mobile. A 2011 report by the Pew Internet Project  found that 44% of Americans access the internet through their cell phones—a number that has only continued to grow in light of subsequent reports. That means that nearly half of Americans could, for example, potentially view mobile promotions for your store while shopping in it.

According to a Pew Internet Project 2012 update, “46% of American adults now have a smartphone of some kind, and for the first time smartphone owners outnumber users of more basic phones.”  Not only does this mean that overall mobile internet usage has climbed steadily since the 2011 study, but the majority of those who access the mobile internet have a high level of connectivity to a variety of apps and tools that you can use to both gather data and to send them promotions wherever they are.

2. What is the Customer Doing?
Since the right message needs to be delivered at the right time, it’s essential to send the right mobile ad when a customer is most likely to be receptive to it. Time of day can play a significant factor in helping marketers correctly position their promotions.  For example, you wouldn’t try to target teens in the middle of a school day with ads, but later in the evening you’ll find a captive audience as they interact with their friends.

Regarding the timing of ads, Jonathan Gardner writes at Mashable, “Our contexts change dozens of times a day: In the morning, you’re an athlete, working out on the elliptical — while at the same time you’re an executive, watching the early business news. Then you’re a cook, making breakfast. Then you’re an executive again, making decisions at the office.”

3. Where are Customers?
The real power of mobile will come into play as location becomes intertwined with mobile usage.  If you know that a FourSquare user has checked in at a downtown hotel, there are opportunities to send ads for local restaurants and cafes for meals with colleagues or meetings. Location marketing will allow marketers to send relevant coupons and promotions to customers when they’re in the perfect spot.

4. Specific Marketing Moments
There may be other opportunities to target customers when they are in the middle of a moment where they could make an additional purchase. By comparing data in a customer’s spending habits, you may be able to catch a limited trend in a customer’s spending.

For example, Tom Wentworth writes at Mashable, “Say a middle-aged husband with no kids prefers action movies, but suddenly orders a barrage of Disney movies from Netflix. Chances are, he has nephews and nieces over for the weekend. He has entered the uncle context. If you anticipate that and hit him with a discount for the nearby amusement park, you may have landed yourself a decent sale.”

Mobile marketing will continue to grow since mobile web usage and smart phone ownership will continue to rise for years to come. The prospect of having location-specific, contextually rooted data on customers provides marketers with a powerful tool they can use to further engage customers with their products and to create new revenue opportunities.

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a company that specializes in a to do list tool.

The information group consisted of two staff librarians and one support person. In retrospect, their roles may have seen a little extravagant (very “agency” like–you’ve read the rants about inflated professional rates) to some.  But my firsthand experience with the knowledgeable Jo Pearson all those years ago leads me to know otherwise. The work the librarian did was as much a tactical necessity as it was fundamental
knowledge development. And I think today’s social media managers and content planners/developers need to take lessons from yesterday’s staff librarians.

image courtesy IGN

Library science is an interdisciplinary field that applies the practices, perspectives, and tools of management, information technology and education. It focuses on the collection, organization, preservation, and dissemination of information resources, and the political economy of information. May also include how information resources are organized to serve the needs of select user groups.—Wikipedia

Jo saved my keister more than once when our big mobile phone client wanted detailed information about a market (she often worked in tandem with the staff media planners who helped create segments and profiles of customers). She also made sure we regularly fed our minds so that we could add insight to deliver greater value to our clients.

Sometimes that meant sending over an enlightening article from an obscure publication (the old-school version of the Share This button). Other times it meant culling data from several subscription-only databases to validate a proposed idea and “sell it in.” As an eager young account manager, it also meant getting smarter about business concepts and sharpening my competitive edge by checking out book after book at Jo’s recommendation.

The information caretaker

As the role of social media manager evolves, I think information – the acquisition, cataloging, funneling, and sharing of it – will play a more central role in the job, maybe looking something like this:

I imagine some social media managers, like community managers, are already doing some of the things outlined in the right hand column. But I suspect results would be stronger if methods were codified and people from cross-functional teams helped identify challenges, issues, and needs that often exist in pockets within an organization.

What do you think about this idea of an “information backbone” to the social media manager role? Does it exist already? Am I making it more complicated than it needs to be? Holla.

But first I thought it would be fun to look at some reasons why some companies don’t think content matters. From the hallway and lunch table conversations I noted, these issues are fairly commonplace.

1. Your boss, or your boss’s boss, is unfamiliar with the term Objectives and his friend, Goals. Look, squirrel!
2. Internal politics is so wound up that content everybody’s concern. And nobody’s end-to-end responsibility.
3. Code and programming are specialized skills. It’s not necessary to hire someone to come in and write. Janis could probably handle it. Did you check with her?
4. We spent a lot of money on the corporate brochure and web site a few years ago. Still waiting for that to pay off.
5. Sure, a new website is on our list of priorities. It’s just that everybody really needs to focus on sales right now.
6. We have just the one website, and it only has a few pages. Anything more is overkill, really. Plus we’re in the book and go to the major conferences.
7. The company’s been around a long time. Everybody knows us already.
8. We’re a manufacturing company (distributor/niche services provider/soup kitchen, whatever). We really don’t have that much to say.
9. There’s no way to measure that.
10. We spent the last of the marketing budget for this fiscal on these great thumb drives for Sales to hand out in the field.
11. Pretty sure our competitors aren’t worried about content.
12. Our information changes so fast because of the industry and product development cycles. There’s no practical way we could keep up.

Tongue-in-cheek, of course. Well-planned content that’s clear, useful, and relevant is indeed important to business because of the myriad ways it (and the supporting values system) matters to customers.

What reasons would you add? What other excuses or fallacies have you heard that gave you a <headdesk> moment?

Asked another way, do those bytes count and help move your needle somewhere?

I picked up on a tweet stream from Scott Abel around midday today (oops! that’d be ‘yesterday’ now).  He’s someone I watch, and I’m anxious to learn from him as well as the other fine speakers lined up for Confab in May.  But let’s get back on track.

Near as I can tell, Scott was participating in a chat (or seminar) that discussed the complexities of content and translation.  One of his tweets in the #SDLInnovate thread stood out:

For sure, this tweet is out of context.  I didn’t hang around for the entire conversation, and I’m not suggesting something untoward about Scott (he’s good people). In the bigger scheme of the chat, who knows the significance this single tweet held.  But I want you to think about it (specifically the 2nd sentence) in this isolated, stand-alone form for a minute.  Go on, read it.

Persuasive content gets [them] to do something.

I don’t disagree with Scott’s statement. I just wonder if it can (should) go deeper.  Persuasive content isn’t necessarily an end game. The traditional conversion funnel has evolved. Content maintains roles at different points in a non-linear path to closure and relationship sustainability.

If the ‘do something’ Scott refers to is a cut-and-dried sale, then I’d say the notion might be too general and overlooks a more informed conversion path, one I think more consumers are taking (thank you, economy).

There are indeed times – depending on a consumer’s personal need, the aggregate effect of their exposure to the brand, the degree/amount of external influences like recommendations from trusted sources, etc. – when the persuasive nature of content may serve as a tipping point.  Purchase is made, period.

But for the most part, I really believe the function of content is primarily incremental.

Good content starts a notion buzzing in the back of your brain and keeps nudging you along toward the desired end (nudge, not shove). Along the way it informs and educates (even when the site entry is a side or back door).  It even encourages the user to ask questions of themselves and arrive at a decision that’s likely to be more deeply seated than had they read traditional sales copy.  There’s some neuroscience wrapped up in this thing, too.

What purpose do you think content serves?  To move or to sell?

Can it contribute to overall brand experience? Or is it simply a tactical component?  I wanna know what you think.

Sounds like content distribution, doesn’t it?  In today’s terms, that might include blogs, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, the list goes on.  It’s about sharing what you know and think.  About opening doors in the imagination and sparking creativity.  Or for that matter, sparking debate.

The art of storytelling has a rich and complex history.  Generations of cultures matured under the influence of stories shared by family and friends.  Stories evolved because they’d been shaped and distributed among trusted groups.  The geographic influence of the story was far and wide.  Telling stories—communicating concepts, sharing ideas, prompting discovery, suggesting solutions—served mankind throughout the ages as we learned the world around us. How to survive, how to solve problems, societal dynamics and interplay.  How to dream.

Today, storytelling serves marketers by fueling environments created for distributing and directing messages or objectives. As historically audiences may have sat in rapture or curiosity as a story was shared, in the here & now, engagement of the mind, exploration and discussion inspiration are goals for crafting compelling content.  Like a good actor, a (good) brand can capture attention, entertain, comfort, and resolve stories–for its customers, and customers-in-waiting.

Authoritative use of a stage (channel) can be an effective tactic when used as part of a more comprehensive marketing strategy.  One simplified scenario, for example, could be if a brand sought to build some interest around a new or repositioned service offering and developed some intriguing video with well-scripted footage. [disclaimer: assumes discovery, planning, research, and other examination/validation steps in process] The video could be posted, a few blog posts or Twitter updates (from an established presence) could bring the material to the light of consciousness, and the opportunity is borne.  Let the audience get lost in the story (and yours WILL be a good story, won’t it?).

By sharing a branded product or service story, maybe as described above, a marketer effectively prepares the stage for publicity and interest by presuming there’s an inherent entertainment value in what s/he has to offer.  Strong strategy has the marketer recognizing the viral opportunity is more about exposure, entertainment, and experience than it is about education, persuasion, and conversion.   Make sure your viral program has clear focus and objective, and doesn’t get reconfigured to try to achieve too much, or the program is at risk for being diluted.  There has to be a compelling, likely emotion-based reason for someone to become involved. To comment.  To forward.  To believe, or even be annoyed.

Once the seeds of awareness have been planted, it’s time to carefully cultivate the growth of the program through sustained, but not oppressive, methods.  If there are public personalities with a good match to your service, then they could serve as new voices of content distribution, and add credibility to the cause or topic.  Maintain momentum, but do not overwhelm or inundate your target market with “sales” messages for a viral program, lest you suffer backlash from what might appear as a deceptive maneuver.  Consumers expect advertising on search engine results pages.  They do not want it from a trusted resource purportedly directing them toward something of interest.

Plan (what’s your one thing?), maintain focus, cultivate, and self-monitor—those are some keys to a successful viral story.

I’m Yours To Lose (30 Seconds or Less)

Wearing my Consumer hat (it fits the best), I’ll unequivocally state that my online expectation is that any site I visit will enable me to do what it is I need to do.  Whatever that need may be.  It’s like, the cost of entry for being allowed on the ‘net.  It can be as simple as listing the phone number or as complex as completing a transaction of some sort.  That’s what your site is for, right?  To tell me everything–as a consumer–that I’d want to know about you as a [service provider or product type here].  It’s your one shot to impress me, virtual-like, to give me your “elevator speech.”  The RTB, or Reason To Be.

I’m thinking this idea of “your site must let me do what I came to do” isn’t particularly novel; in fact I’m sure its not.  But that said, why, then, do so many sites still stink?  Because when a site stinks, I bounce.  And I rarely give them a chance later to redeem themselves.  Why waste time?  Google will give me alternatives, lickety-split.

Do some sites stink because they [the site owners]:

• look at the Web as a piece of their Contact Information, a perfunctory element of diminished capacity and something that’s just “done” (irrespective of “done well”)
• never consider looking at their site from the end-user perspective, as their consumers might
• use jargon or slang either by poor planning or to project a false-feeling air of “cool” that can fall flat in Web context if not carefully planned
• think the whiz-bang Flash or “big reveal” IS their Web statement.  That’s what people come for, the animation.  Wrong.
• don’t plan for every online scenario, and then some
• lack the resources, knowledge, or time
• don’t understand that to a consumer, their Web page IS their brand, their product.  I.e, a site that is complicated, shallow, or unnavigatible is automatically discounted
• don’t realize that content is alive; it requires nurturing and maintenance to stay relevant and ready
• list continues…

Due Diligence

By no means an exhaustive list (I have more work to do tonite after this gets posted), but to suggest a few things site owners work on, to deliver immediate (if topical) value to their site visitors and circumvent The Big Bounce (I encourage you to add to this list by posting comments):

• Ensure your branding is obvious and strong.  There’s a chance I clicked on the wrong link or guessed at your URL.  Reassure me I’m where I meant to be.
• Ditch the “under construction” fluff, it feels insincere.  Either you have a site or you don’t.  And I can’t imagine why you might not have a site.
• Take care with the visual design of the site.  Clearly, aesthetics are part of the appeal for me, and as the web literally IS the element of your brand I interact with, it should be harmonious (consistent) with other elements I might experience.  But factor in the inherent and contextual constraints and some adjustments might be appropriate between your mass media design execution and your web design execution.
• Provide as much concierge-like navigation and wayfinding support as possible.  Make it easy and intuitive for me to find my way around, and find my way back.  Remember that depending on their search term, visitors might not start at your home page but rather an interior page.  Include bread crumbs, strong and clear main navigation to help me process where I should go to accomplish my site goals.
• Sounds trivial, but its true:  Tell me how to reach you.  And I suggest every way possible.  Offering a “contact me” form is great (be sure the mail box for the form is monitored closely), but sometimes I don’t want to take the form route, and want to actually email a real person.  Provide a directory or listing and I’ll feel validated.  I might be worried about what black hole the forms fall into.
• Review your content.  And then review it again, after someone unassociated has read the content.  Back to the brand item mentioned earlier, it’s likely that your brand has a voice–a unique tone– for your consumers, and ensuring your content maintains that continuity of voice throughout all touchpoints for  a specific audience is key.  Stylistically, content read on page A sould “feel” like the content written for page Q.

Content Enganglement Factor

Content is a broad and glorious label, one that in my experience refers to a number of site assets, including body copy, headlines and subheads, multimedia, audio, video or other interaction element, photos, graphs, charts, graphics, sidebars, panels…Well-planned and executed content just hangs together beautifully.

Content can kll the bounce, cold.  Intentional and deliberate Web copy written in a appealing tone of voice, respectfully sectioned or broken up (yes, I’m guilty myself) and replicated as appropriate throughout the site…that’s as sweet as chocolate.  It tells me there’s a story to be told by your brand, and you’re inviting me into the dialogue.  You want to share, not shout.  There can be an implied level of friendship in Web content that can’t easily be crafted in other media…possibly because the Web is an interaction, an exchange–and its through exchanges that we prove our mettle.  When consumers become entangled, they’re engaged, they’re active and not passive.  Passive means you’re easily forgotten.

Companies PAY to get active consumers entangled.  As with most things, once entangled, its harder to depart, to shed the warm & fuzzy blanket you’ve come to enjoy.

 A little ingenuity, a penchant for considering and trying what may be unknown.  Must gather all of the ingredients listed below and take heed of the Cook Time.  If using Google Analytics, then establish campaign goals within the system in advance of going live with your AdWord campaign.

Cook Time:

Varies according to your brand’s prior sustained presence in online search; interest in being competitive for placement in search engine results pages (SERPs) via bid commitment; strength of your message and product/service; time and interest to manage the campaign ongoing (do not leave the oven unattended).  Other variables include your chosen offline tactics and their potential to drive interested targets online.  Also consider user experience; content must be scanable, digestable, authentic, and engaging.  Forms must work; phones must be answered.

Ingredients:

• Marketable product or service
• Clear point of distinction or difference
• Succinct value statement surrounding that POD
• Compelling offer translated into a brief intriguing message
• Variations of the message written in text ad format
• Consumer-oriented keyword list
• Video, virtual tour, or other electable multimedia content
• Campaign-oriented source identifiers for various drivers: unique toll-free number, PURLs, ad or direct mail codes
• Redirects (to differentiate between organic and incited traffic)
• Landing pages crafted to envelop reader in a story, written with a tone and voice consistent with the brand persona and in a manner that invites the reader along
• Conversion points (a secondary page form, page providing toll-free number, “forward to friend” functionality, etc.)
• Analytics package, and qualified interpreter
• Budget earmarked for SEM expenditures

Directions:

Validate keywords through the keyword generator; make adjustments as necessary. Write the ads, establish the campaigns.  Turn the oven on, and sit back to watch things rise.  Adjustments are very likely; remain alert for the duration.  At completion, test for doneness against goals.

Cut a slice of quantifyable leads and report back your impressive ROI.