Today, we continue our “Getting Started” series of blog posts. Strategy, is a loaded word. By strategy, we are specifically speaking about understanding what you want to learn (what insights you want!), what the priority is, and how we will go about defining our approach. For each element we identify as an important, where we want to obtain an “insight”, we will need to isolate that element to measure its impact. (You will note that we know delve straight into tactical concerns!) For starters, let’s break down our marketing campaign into three core elements:
Audience - This is the “who” we are targeting. Understanding what audiences “perform” well is critical to our campaign’s long-term success. We generally counsel our clients to start with audience identification tests. Once an audience is defined and its scale is understood, the other elements are easier to apply. Gotta know who to speak to, right?
Offer - Traditionally, the offer is the price point or other commerce-related attribute (e.g. Free Shipping) that entices a targeted audience member to convert. But, an “offer” can also be a Call-to-Action. We often identify the offer with the question “What are you asking the target audience to do?”. The answer is generally your offer. After audience, this is a critical element to test. Should you ask your audience to “buy now” or maybe “sign up for our newsletter” or “learn more” is a more productive offer? Testing will reveal the answer.
Creative - Creative is how you communicate the offer to the target audience. Most marketers think of the creative first. In the long run, it is the most important component of your digital marketing campaign. But, it only becomes important with your audiences and offers are understood.
Landing Page - In digital marketing the landing page is so important yet so often overlooked or relegated to a secondary concern. We often hear, “We already have a landing page?”. A landing page is distinct from other web pages on your site. A landing page should facilitate a “soft landing” for your campaign clicks. Ideally, it contains relevant content and a similar look and feel to your ad creative. You are paying for every click (or paying for the media to generate the click) and an effective landing page is one of your best tools for ensuring those paid clicks don’t bounce away from your site. A campaign landing page should be considered a critical campaign component that should be tested early in your marketing efforts. (Note: Google and Facebook both have declared the importance of the landing page. Google’s “Quality Score” and Facebook’s “Relevance Score” are partly based on their measurement of the relevance of your landing page as it pertains to your keywords/ad.)
This is just an overview of the initial steps of developing an effective marketing strategy. We’d love to talk to you more about getting started on developing a digital marketing strategy that can meet your marketing goals. Next week we’ll discuss probably my favorite topic, measurement and reporting. I’ll do my best to make it less dry than normal.