Web 2.0 in Action - Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk. By Alicia Whalen Tuesday, 23rd September 2008

I just read this article published today in MarketingSherpa-dot-com – a source I often refer to for more practical examples of online marketing tactics and case studies -

As we often speak and write about Web 2 concepts and applications, sometimes we just need a good old step by step “story” of success to understand how all of these new media applications could work when put together as a well thought out strategy.

The case study How to Use Web 2.0 to Promote Your Content & Lift Revenue 200%  highlights how the travel publisher “Rough Guides” built it’s brand using new media channels such as Podcasting, communities within the brand site, Blogs, mobile marketing tactics and social media communities such as MySpace, Facebook and Wikipedia to increase brand awareness and increase book sales.

Some of my takeaways from this article include:

1. Rough Guides established from the start that the ultimate goal of implementing these tactics was conversion.         Conversion to them was distribution to achieve the goal of increased book sales.

2. They had a goal and a plan to get there before launching any Web 2.0 marketing tactics – and they adjusted where necessary.

There are nuances to each channel that must be understood in order to be effective. (The Rough Guides group understood that they had to match the content to the channel – the traditional marketing message does not fly in the blogosphere and in social media sites like MySpace)

3. They benchmarked and measured the success of each channel (podcasting/blogging/MySpace page) by establishing a goal, and tweaking campaigns continuously.

The marketingsherpa article points out that once they determined that Podcasting was not getting the downloads they had anticipated – they re-positioned them to focus only on Niche topics and posted them less often.

4. I love that Rough Guides points out that you should monitor the conversation – but don’t try to moderate it.

That is a great point although that does not mean that you can’t be a participant in the conversation.  If you are a brand playing in the social media space, you need to ensure that your users understand that you are the brand – users want legitimate conversation and not the marketing message.

5. Rough Guides uses these channels as one big focus group to improve and expand their products!  Brilliant!  Don’t be afraid of new media – it is the most measurable marketing channel there has ever been.

Listen to the buzz and tweak accordingly.

The case study points out that website traffic is up and that they have increased book revenue by 200% !  Don’t you just love a happy ending?  Hopefully just the beginning for Rough Guides!

Alicia Whalen is the co-founder of “Couple of Chicks.Com” an Internet Marketing, Distribution & Revenue Measurement Company.

www.ideahatching.com