Results-driven Marketing - The Key to Ongoing Business Growth |
Posted: July 13, 2019 |
The rise of digital marketing has made it easier than before for businesses to advertise their brands. However, the ease in access to online advertising does not always translate to great marketing results. For a marketing campaign to be effective, it must increase brand visibility, create (consumers’) interest in the brand, and generate leads and sales. Any campaign that does not deliver on these items is of little or no value to a brand. This is the reason why it is important to hire a marketing agency that focusses on results-driven marketing services. Martin Wilson CEO of Albion Agency in the UK is a firm believer of putting your money where your mouth is and displaying real results and case studies that show how focussing on the bottom line is the key to generating online growth. Below he takes a look at some of the most effective ways to prove for a fact which digital marketing strategies and attitudes work best for businesses around the world. Unlike other marketing approaches, a results-oriented approach places focus on the end-goal, i.e., the results a brand desires to see from its marketing campaigns - ie, increased profits and business growth, as opposed to less tangible effects such as increaed “awareness”, “engagement” and other less-scientific key performance indicators that are recommended by the recent influx of social media “gurus”. Your bottom line is what matters, so unless you can prove retweets and Facebook shares actually turns into profits, investing in these methods may be money down the drain. Lets have a look...
As already mentioned, a results-driven marketing strategy focuses on the desired end-result, and not the process. Therefore, before starting your campaigns, you need to is set the goals that your marketing campaign(s) should achieve. So, identify all the things you want to achieve – increased traffic, leads, sales, revenue, etc. and list them. When setting your marketing campaign goals, you should also ensure that they are realistic. You can do this by employing the SMART approach, i.e.:
Regardless of how successful a marketing campaign is; it will amount to nothing if you target the wrong audience. Say, for example, you are a fashion brand selling female clothing items. You can design a good marketing campaign, but if you end up running the ads on sites you didn't realise were mostly visited by men, you will be targeting the wrong audience. And while your brand might receive more exposure, the sales generated will be very little. Make sure that you research the market to identify the specific consumers who have a need for what you are offering. Be sure to also identify the key decision makers of your audience. For example, if you are selling kids clothing, you need to target parents (decision makers) and not kids. Children's theme parks that make their sites and campaigns childish are one of the worst offenders of this mistake. They simply didn't consider who pulls the purse strings, and its not just events and entertainment brands that suffer these bad effects. After identifying your audience, you also need to understand their needs and how your business can best meet them. Next, you need to identify the various buying stages of your target audience – problem recognition, information search, options evaluation, purchase decision, etc. – and how you can move them to the next stage in the sales process.
When creating a results-driven marketing strategy, one of the things you need to take into account is your competitors. Your competitive advantage will have a huge bearing into the results your campaign(s) will offer. So, you should start by researching the marketing to identify all of your current competitors and what they are offering. From there, you need to create a value position that will place your brand (to the consumers) as the best alternative. You can be able to create a great value position by:
Equally important in a results-driven marketing strategy is the marketing tools and channels used. Remember, these are the resources that will help you target your audience and deliver your brand message. Therefore, if you select the wrong tools and channels, your audience targeting will be ineffective, and consequently, your marketing campaign(s) will fail. Therefore, you need to select the best tools and channels that will best deliver your message. The choice of marketing tools and channels should depend on your target audience. Select the tools and channels that will allow you to reach a wide audience and deliver your message. For example, you can use social media channels such as Instagram and Twitter to target a young and/or tech-informed audience. Likewise, you can use SEO to increase the awareness of your brand to consumers who search for information online. For the best results, you can combine several marketing resources and channels so as to reach an even wider audience and garner even more awareness for your brand.
You cannot execute a results-oriented marketing strategy without having a plan to measure the performance and results. Therefore, you need to create an effective measurement plan, which should start with identifying the key performance indicators for your campaign(s). Some of the key performance indicators you can use include:
In addition to the key performance indicators, you also need to identify the right measurement and analytics tools. Google analytics is one of the best tools for measuring the performance of online marketing strategies. Other tools include built-in social media analytics tools (for example, Facebook Insights), Hootsuite, HubSpot, custom analytics software, and others. You can even combine more than one measurement tool so as to derive more accurate data on how your marketing strategies are working.
The 80:20 principle, or the Pareto principle as it is commonly known, is a rule which states that for several events, about 80% of the results are achieved from 20% of the causes. It is a principle that is used widely in business to place more emphasis in areas that offer the most results. In results-driven marketing strategies, the 80:20 principles can help to optimise various areas where your brand can achieve the most results from its marketing strategies. For example, you can use 80:20 method in audience targeting to optimise targeting of a specific segment of your audience who are bringing in the most sales revenue, i.e., 80% sales revenue from 20% of the consumers. Other examples of the 80:20 methods in results-oriented marketing include:
With this method, you can be able to identify the areas of your brand that matter most and optimise their performance through the allocation of sufficient resources. This way, your business will be able to enjoy increased profits, which, in turn, will lead to more growth. Summary A marketing strategy that does not offer results for your business is not only of no value but could be an expensive undertaking that can lead to losses. However, with a well-designed results-driven marketing strategy, your business can be able to realise its set objectives and generate more revenues and profits. Let us know how you have fared with results-driven marketing and which strategies achieve your real goals, rather than just go through the motions of digital marketing. https://albion.one/
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