Zipfluence - Marketing and Communications in the age of network effects

It has never be easier to make a noise. It has never been harder to be the story

All customer journeys begin in hope. Prospects. Opportunities. Targets. Traffic. An audience of potential customers in search of something.

Hopefully that something is you. Your products. Your service. Your experience.

The problem is the cost of reaching out and making that connection, however fleeting, has never been higher.

We live in an age of short attention spans. So how do we turn these chance encounters, however expensive they are to arrange, into loyal customers?

It begins by rethinking how you measure success

We are all familiar with the economics of the Long Tail. But few us understand the price of doing business in a new media marketplace dominated by the Long Tail.

Take for example Google. Perhaps you can quote your CPC but do you know the real cost of customer acquisition from your Adwords campaign? What is the sales commission you are paying Google for all that new business? What is your Profit Per Click? And how do your efforts rate alongside the rest of the competition?

Map the figures published in Google's economic report on a Zipf curve and you'll discover the average sales commission paid by those using the adwords platform is 50%.

Include organic search into the mix and you'll discover the average sales commission across the Google advertising platform, before you factor in the cost of Search Engine Optimisation, is closer to 9%. Or, about what you would pay the average salesperson to pick up the phone and knock on a few doors

The cost of Google

The next question is how does this measure up against the other channels available to you in this increasingly fragmented media landscape?

But the most important question is how do you measure up? Is your cost of customer acquisition your competitive edge or your Achilles heel? Are you the market leader? And, if not, how do you compete?

The answer to that question isn't simply about deciding which channel offers the highest potential return on investment. Nor is it about delineating between investing your Brand Equity vs. generating short term sales.

The New Media Marketplace

It's about understanding, that in a world of short attention spans, your customer's experience. The journey they undertake with you and share with others. Is the most cost effective marketing and communications channel available to you today.

Don't waste money interrupting the story. Be the story your customers want to share