Digital Marketing Success
Four Pillars for Digital Marketing Success
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the pace of digital marketing? You’re not alone. While the digital landscape continues to change, there are four pillars for success that endure: a strong web experience, the right mix of channels, regular testing, and analytics. If you stick to these four principles, you’re bound to succeed.
Pillar #1: Your website is your digital showroom. Make the most of it.
What happens when your marketing tactics deliver traffic, but the traffic doesn’t convert to sales? Your digital spend will be a waste. Consider the following components of a strong “brick and mortar” showroom experience:
- Products that are beautifully displayed and arranged
- A retail “flow” that makes it easy for customers to browse and purchase
- Knowledgeable customer service associates who are available (but not intrusive) to answer questions
Does this describe your site’s UXD? A well-designed site is essential for digital conversion, and will be rewarded by Google with a higher search ranking.
Pillar #2: Determine the digital channels mix for your company.
Facebook, email, pay-per-click (PPC) and banner ads each have their strengths.
- Email can be highly effective to reach your customers on a 1-to-1 basis, but only if you have a healthy list of subscribers who have actively opted-in to receive your communication. (Hint: buying a list almost never works!)
- PPC is a great way to reach engaged customers and prospects, as long as your target customer is likely to look for your product or service via a search query.
- Facebook ads offer powerful demographic and behavioral targeting capabilities, but only if your customer is active on Facebook.
- Banner ads help drive brand awareness, but are usually not as effective at driving conversions as other channels.
Not certain which channel to choose? First, identify your goals. Next, run several test campaigns to determine what works best.
Pillar #3: Learn as much as you can in each channel by testing.
After identifying the right channels, it’s important to test regularly to improve your results. Test each hypothesis at least several times. For example:
- Test whether an image-heavy or copy-heavy layout works for your audience.
- Test whether questions or statements work best in headlines.
- Test timing of delivery to determine when your customers are the most engaged. (Effective timing can more than double response rate.)
- Test personalization tactics. Does adding a first name to your email subject line increase your open rate? (Hint: usually yes, as long as you don’t overdo it.)
Testing and learning will help you continually improve the effectiveness of your digital channels.
Pillar #4: Study your analytics.
If you go to the trouble to set-up your tests, it’s essential to read results and understand your key metrics.
- Analytics help build a big-picture programmatic view of what works and what doesn’t.
- Read results carefully. A campaign may deliver strong engagement (click-thru), but not sales.
- Carve out time to review metrics. It’s one of the most productive things digital marketers do.
If you stick to these four digital marketing pillars, you are almost guaranteed to succeed. Have anything to add? We’d love to hear from you!
