RICE Digital Marketing Strategy

SUMMARY:
  • The RICE digital marketing strategy is a comprehensive and structured method to plan and manage digital marketing tactics and activities.
  • RICE is an acronym for Reach, Interact, Convert and Engage, describing the marketing funnel with your customers starting as strangers and end up as promoters of your business
  • The end outcome is a robust digital marketing plan, complete with KPI's to measure marketing success

In Digital Marketing Strategy by Benjamin

Why a Marketing Strategy?

When online advertising such as Google Adwords (as it was known then), Facebook Ads and email marketing first appeared, many business owners and marketers immediately dived in and leveraged on its powerful features to reach audiences worldwide. For example, an accounting software distributor would simply create an image and target everyone on Facebook Ads. A simple keyword targeting on Google search advertising using keywords such as “accounting software” is sufficient to generate traffic to the website.

In the early days of digital marketing, the technique of casting a wide advertising net would definitely work, as there was limited competition, making the cost of advertising low, compared to traditional advertising on print. However as digital advertising cost crept higher and conversion rates dropped, marketers began to develop strategies that enable them to target audience with precision and measure conversion rates and various performance metrics. The traditional 4P’s (later 7 P’s) of marketing no longer works in the digital world.

The RICE Marketing Strategy is not new but is an amalgamation of Hubspot’s inbound marketing model and Smart Insight’s digital marketing planning system, simplified for clarity and completeness by Nebworx’s own consultants.

Defining RICE = Reach, Interact, Convert & Engage

RICE Digital Marketing Framework

RICE Digital Marketing Framework

Each component can be briefly described below:

  • REACH: Get Traffic. Identify where your target audience is and how to reach them. Whether through social media, search engine, influencers or publications. Publish and promote on the platforms where they frequent most.
  • INTERACT: Get Leads. Give your audience a pleasant user experience and connect with content that is relevant, inspirational, useful that would leave them wanting for more. Draw them into your customer journey and build your prospective leads.
  • CONVERT: Get Sales. Use the 4 P’s of marketing; Price, Promotion, Product and Place to grow sales. Leverage on today’s digital technology such as marketing automation, remarketing and analytics to drive and improve conversion.
  • ENGAGE: Retention. Delight your customers by continually providing value to the relationship via high quality product/services support. Engage them on various interactive platforms to gain repeat sales and referrals.

Mapping Marketing Tactics to Marketing Strategy

The RICE Framework is a practical digital marketing framework to illustrate tactics that could be used to bring strangers into your business and nurture them to be your customers and advocates.

  • REACH: From strangers to visitors. Business owners and marketers are already familiar with the many choices available to reach their target audience. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Local SEO, blog posting, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, social media are the top choices, with some enterprises using programmatic advertising to leverage these platforms to automate advertising and manage their budgets.
  • INTERACT: From visitors to leads. Strategies to implement to gain the visitor’s email trust. It’s about the ability of the business to increase the visitor’s trust in the business by providing an excellent user experience with relevant content, easy to find information and ability for the visitor to easily reach the business, could be via phone, contact form, live chat or even from social media pages.
  • CONVERT: From leads to customers. This is where marketing automation and CRM comes in. Traditionally businesses would hand over leads to the sales team, however with the advancement in marketing automation technology and CRM, marketing teams are able to automate the qualification process and even nurture the leads to make a purchase.
  • ENGAGE: From customers to advocates. 80% of your company’s future revenue comes from existing customers. It’s imperative to continue to engage your customers with relevant content and support, delivered via email, social media and visits!.

Content Marketing

In the digital age, marketing activities are based around content, with the adage “Content is King” ever so true. However, it’s not just creating content, but content that is relevant to the potential customer in their buyer journey. Gary Vaynerchuk has been attributed to saying “If Content is King, Then Context is God”!  RICE strategy maps the type of content that needs to be produced to the buyer journey:

  • REACH: The Awareness Stage. Buyers are seeking for information for a solution to a problem/issue they are facing or even possibly they are not aware of an available solution to a common problem in their industry.
  • INTERACT: The Consideration Stage. Buyer is seeking for a demonstration of the solution offered and comparing with other available solutions in the market.
  • CONVERT: The Decision Stage. Buyer seeks reinforcement and validation of their decision, could be in a form of a case study, testimonials, or a compelling sales offer.
  • ENGAGE: The Retention Stage. Continue to provide helpful information and support about the product or service, be visible in their sphere and continue to strengthen your authority in the field.

Measuring Strategy Success and Optimizing Performance.

Finally, the RICE strategy is measurable. The table below is a general overview of Key Performance Index (KPI) that we measure, with a more granular metrics available based on the tactics that are deployed.

 

Conclusion

RICE Marketing Strategy Framework can be applied to practically any industry, and for marketers in the B2B industry, it provides a powerful framework to plan, execute and measure short and long term marketing plans.

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ABOUT

Benjamin Tan switched from a career in engineering to the artsy field of marketing, whilst retaining his love for structures and data. He's available to provide training & consultancy. Book a FREE 15 minute session now!   →