Marketing
Why Now?
In recent years, Facebook and Twitter have attracted huge audiences, however efforts by advertisers on these platforms to target effectively i.e. based on signaling strong purchase intent, has largely proven elusive save for some notable exceptions where strong signals are discernible i.e. when a user changes their relationship status from ‘single’ to ‘engaged’.
One main challenge with Searls’ vision up to now has related to broadcasting the intent i.e. how could customers easily signal their needs to a wide audience of suppliers? The increasing use of social media platforms by users to request information provides the answer. We are now beginning to see the emergence of the next stage of usage beyond content sharing and staying on top of breaking news.
This stage is where social media users are increasingly sending clear signals of intent via platforms such as Twitter e.g. where they ask their followers for
purchase recommendations,
or opinions on certain products or services. And as users gain more followers (increasing the likelihood of getting responses) this behaviour is likely to increase. As it becomes the norm more people will use the medium to request information about purchases representing as it does the latest example of social proof playing a growing part in informing online purchase decisions (mirroring the successes of everything from Amazon to Tripadvisor reviews).
In essence, this was one of the missing parts from Searls initial vision, as Internet users can now easily signal their purchase intent publically and via a broadcast means which is only now beginning to enable businesses to respond. This is of course premised on these very businesses having the capability to respond in a timely manner with very specific offers to these highly targeted individuals who have signaled strong purchase intent.
We are already seeing the emergence of a number of companies in this field offering this very capability, including Needtagger and Leadfindr
(disclosure: who I
have advised
in the past) in the U.K. With the latter, for example, the premise behind it is pretty straightforward. Build applications that use Natural Language Processing to filter data from Twitter’s API so that you can package readymade leads (who have clearly signaled purchase intent) to clients looking for customers. When viewed through this lens it is clear that this emerging market opportunity is significant. As US entrepreneur and journalist, John Batelle claimed;
“Expressions of intent which correlate to purchase intent or some other monetisable transaction are extremely valuable and can form the foundation of a multi-billion dollar business. (monetisable intent is the foundation of AdWords and AdSense).”
Judging by the click-through rates (CTR’s),
Leadfindr.com is already generating in its initial pilot it is also clear that customers are happy with timely offer led responses. Perhaps Doc Searls’ Intention economy is finally beginning to become a reality.
29 entrepreneurcountry
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