Social Media Marketing or Viral Marketing...Which one is best? (Part 2 of 2)

Monday, August 10, 2009 by Matt Chamberlin
So It's been a couple weeks since Part 1, so just-in-case you need a refresh....check out Part 1 here

Okay, so as I stated in Part 1, Social Media Marketing and Viral Marketing can be very effective marketing strategies...BUT, effective execution and implementation can vary from company-to-company. Let's take a look at a couple examples:

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    Company: Higher-End Manufacturer Car-Dealership

        Key Facts:
            - Currently they do NOT participate (not active) in any form of social marketing and/or viral marketing
            - Have an existing customer base of around 5,000
            - Roughly 25% of existing customers use their service department for recommended tune-ups
       
After initial analysis, their desired marketing-breakdown is as follows:

        Horizon 1: GOAL = To Increase Yearly Revenue
        Horizon 2: OBJECTIVES =
                    A) To Increase # of Cars Sold (Used & New)
                    B) To Increase the # of Customers Utilizing the Dealerships Service
                    Department for Scheduled Tune-ups
        Horizon 3: STRATEGY = Hmm, let's see...

Given the scenario above, what strategy(s) would better support their goals and objects:
            (A) Social Media Marketing?
            (B) Viral Marketing Campaign?
            (C) Both?
            (D) None of the Above? (....bet you're thinking right now; "man I miss school" :) )

---

Although many-professionals could prove to you that all-4 are correct...however, within the context of this discussion, I like (A); Social Media Marketing the best!

Here's why...

--
-SALES DEPARTMENT: The dealership currently has a pretty good size customer-base (approx. 5,000) to actively engage and leverage to assist them with their objective. Here are just a few-ways they could utilize social media:
 
            1) To Provide a conduit for these customers to share their POSITIVE                             
            buying experiences with the dealership
            2) To Provide a platform for the sales dept. team-members to communicate with their
            customers on a more regular basis and on a more personal level to strengthen
            relationships and keep them "top-of-mind"
            3) To Promote the upcoming new models and/or upgrades of existing models, etc...

-SERVICE DEPARTMENT: Again, given the size of their existing customer-base, the service-team could use social media to:

            1) Promote current service-specials
            2) Provide a platform for existing customers to share their POSITIVE service
            experiences
            3) Keep the customer informed/remind about service recommendations, recalls, etc...
--

Again, these are just a few tactics that could be utilized using social-media....and sure, could a Viral Marketing campaign be utilized as well, sure...but given the companies variables and the objectives we needed to fulfill, building a social-media presence first makes more sense.

 
***ACS Creative - Located in the Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. Area***

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