All businesses are digital in some aspect.  Between finding new customers or staying connected to current ones, there’s much to consider for your marketing strategy.  Below are 4 key ways to give your business a digital tune-up:

1) Give your digital platforms a review.
Consider the look of your website, which is often your first impression to consumers:

• Ensure that your website is clean, responsive and easy to navigate.
• Fix broken links, refresh images, and update designs to engage more visitors.

2) Yes, you probably should pivot to video.
Research predicts that video will account for more than 80 percent of web traffic¹:

• Video can often better engage and tell a story than can a whitepaper or blog post.
• Video can be repurposed and shared across multiple platforms.

3) Think about your social media strategy.
Determine how social media plays a part in your overall business:

• If it is a source for new customers, or if continued engagement is important, then focus more attention on social media.
• Social media platforms each have their own strengths and weaknesses. If you have a loyal following or products/services that do well on a specific platform, stay the course.

4) Great content still matters.
Research indicates that longer-form, higher-quality content will be even more important in the years ahead²:

• Avoid generic filler content that populates the page with useless language.
• Provide readers with value so they feel they’ve learned something beneficial.

Leading trends in digital marketing will help move your business forward with a vision for success.  A balance between traditional marketing and an eye toward the future of brand building through digital is important in today’s media landscape.

Source:  BusinessNewsDaily.com, written by Derek Walter, founder of Walter Media; ¹Cisco Visual Networking Index-Forecast and Trends 2017-2022; ²Forbes-buzzsummo.com; internetmarketinginc.com

A recent study shows that CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers) rank business growth as the top priority in marketing goals. Following are insights into achieving this objective, as well as other strategies and challenges*.

What are the top priorities in marketing?

Business growth ranks first as the primary role of marketing:
• #1: Delivery of business growth.
• #2: Ensuring effective brand management.
• #3: Developing the overall customer experience.

How do CMOs support business growth?

Building lasting relationships with customers is key to delivering business growth:

• #1: Securing long-term customer relationships.
• #2: Driving revenue growth.
• #3: Enhancing margin growth.

CMOs see a battle for consumer attention.

There are challenges in building long-term customer relationships:
• #1: Increasing levels of competition.
• #2: Consumers’ less responsive to traditional advertising.
• #3: Information overload.

*Top 3 rankings for each category

Source: Dentsu Aegis CMO Survey Report, reported by Marketing Charts

Online activity is a two way street:  consumers are “showrooming”— browsing businesses and going online, and “webrooming”— researching online and purchasing in brick-and-mortar establishments.  Following are insights about success in the connected commerce space.

What Consumers are Doing Online (activities scoring high):

• Looking up product information.
• Checking/comparing prices.
• Searching for deals/promotions/coupons.

What Consumers are not Doing Online (activities scoring low):

• Clicking on email ads.
• Subscribing to product/store emails.
• Liking/tweeting/commenting on social media.

Consumers Pursue Information All the Time (see chart):

• 87% before visiting a business.
• 79% while visiting a business.
• 35% after visiting a business.

Strategies for Omni-Channel (Online/Offline) Success:

• Be customer-centric: Understand consumers’ demographics, purchase habits, path to purchase.
• Prioritize personalization: Provide clients with relevant, personalized information/offers.
• Think digital, but don’t neglect in-store: Physical establishments maintain many key advantages over online-only channels.  Customer service is a differentiator in every channel — providing exceptional service should be a primary focus for businesses.

Connected consumers = smart consumers, and they are using digital options to make informed purchase decisions, from reviewing products/services online to using in business establishments.

“Digital is viewed less as a threat to brick-and-mortar… and more as an opportunity.  Today’s winning brands use a combination of on and offline strategies to… help consumers make more informed decisions… [and] add value throughout the entire [purchase] experience.”

— Patrick Dodd, President, Nielsen Global Retailer Vertical

 

Source:  thinkwithgoogle.com

 

Awareness is the first stage in the customer purchase funnel — a buyer must be aware of your product/service before making a purchase. While ROI (Return on Investment) focuses on sales, ROO (Return on Objectives) focuses on defining metrics, such as increased awareness, brand impact, and purchase intent. Awareness is an important metric to be measured as it can be a major asset when trying to influence purchase decisions.

STRATEGIES

Strategies for how awareness contributes to driving objectives and sales defines the metrics used to measure effectiveness:

• For short-term gain, generate a spike in awareness just prior to an integrated campaign; also, condition the target audience with awareness of key attributes that educates potential buyers.
• For long-term strategy, re-position brand perceptions that builds awareness of advantages relative to a competitor, leading to higher preference, sales conversion, and loyalty.

METRICS
Awareness works well as a “diagnostic” tool to understand why other metrics, such as consideration, intention, purchase, etc., may be under-performing:

• Place increased weight on your primary target audience since they are a good fit with your brand and are more likely to move from awareness to consideration and purchase.
• Assess awareness among buyers currently in the purchase funnel, which is a better measure of effectiveness than from consumers not likely to buy for a long period of time.

MEASUREMENT
To measure ROO and ROI from awareness-building initiatives, design the measurement to understand customer behaviors:

• Assess the short-term lift in engagement and purchase actions associated with increases in brand awareness; allow for a slight lag time using modeling or market testing.
• Track perception metrics and your brand attribute ratings relative to competitors with ongoing or pre-post campaign surveys; closely monitor awareness changes relative to other metrics (consideration, intent, purchase, etc.).

Your business is mentioned all over the Internet.  It’s important to have your business listed in as many directories as possible, as it helps your ranking in Google Maps’ search results and with local SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  Following are steps for optimum results:

1. Consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number)

• Google improves search results by aggregating information about your business from all over the web. Make sure your name, address and phone number are listed the same everywhere, especially if your business has moved, changed names or phone numbers.
• Check that your business information on third-party sites is accurate; contact the respective site directly with any corrections.

2. Google Yourself

• Google your business to see if it shows up in directories, such as Yellow Pages, Manta, Yelp, Foursquare, etc.
• Every directory gives the option to update information. Follow up in two weeks to verify any changes you made.

3. Take Ownership

• Many directories add businesses on their own, not based on submissions.
• It is important to see if there is an option to claim, manage or take ownership of your listing.

4. Document

• Taking ownership gives you full control over your listings and is essential in keeping your information correct.
• Document the sign-in user name/password for each listing, so if your information needs changes, you can easily do it yourself.

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Listings are the first “picture” consumers will see of your business, so ensure that each one is accurate, informative and up to date.  Claiming and maintaining listings is one of the most crucial elements of your presence on the Internet. 

Source:  Jordan J. Caron, Meaningful Marketing; Google My Business Support Area

 

 

In the past, companies typically used mass media (ex: TV, print, radio, etc.) to reach large audiences and there was limited data for digital advertising.

Today, we are in the “age of local,” where marketing wars are digital and local relevance is key for major brands and local businesses.

Follow the Money

• Multi-location brands are spending 25% of their budgets on location-based marketing.
• More than 50% of multi-location brands are using location data to target customers.¹

New Balance of Power

• Local businesses are investing in digital, going head-to-head with the national competition.
• Digital ad spend overall surpassed that spent on community-based print and broadcast for the first time in 2017, and this trend is forecast to continue through 2022² (see chart):

Getting to Digital Proficiency