The focus for online marketers in 2010 and 2011 is identifying ways to integrate online marketing directly into the chatter of the Internet. Chatter marketing allows marketers to become part of online conversations where they have relevant content to insert directly into the conversation.
What does this mean? The Internet is basically a chatterbox. At any given time, billions of conversations are happening and there’s a tremendous amount of information being shared by your prospects and customers. Most marketers let the chatter go on around them without understanding how they might tap into those conversations with relevant content and offers.
Chatter marketing is technology that, using content triggers, allows marketers to isolate their companies’ opt-in subscriber in real time as they view URLs, click on specific links, share images, etc. Much like salespeople overhearing a customer’s preference for a certain color dress, chatter marketers monitor Internet conversations, and respond to them automatically and in real time — before customers turn to search engines for answers.
Dynamic e-mail messages are deployed in real time based on subscriber actions. The importance of targeting only subscribers is that they’ve opted-in to receive e-mail and have set cookies, so their actions can be easily identified. When a subscriber views one of your company’s product videos on YouTube or visits a specific page on your website, they get a targeted follow-up e-mail. When they participate in your company’s message board using a pre-determined keyword, that triggers an e-mail. Future technologies will enable far-reaching applications of this concept, so it’s important to test today.
Chatter engines will be the next iteration of search marketing. Instead of people going to a search engine, chatter engines will identify keywords in online conversations and respond to them with email and other technology.
For those marketers tapping into chatter, the sky’s the limit.
