Being an account manager at an agency, you come across many different scenarios. Just like snowflakes, there are no two accounts that will ever be the same. You may have two eCommerce accounts but with different products and investments, goals may be drastically different. Or the value of a lead generation form for Business A may be much less than that of Business B. No matter the difference, it’s our job to make ourselves an extension of our client’s marketing team and learn, learn, learn.
When new accounts are brought on, we can generalize a couple of things such as;
- The product(s) that are being marketed.
- If the business is eCommerce or Lead Generation.
From that point, the dialog begins regarding goals, what is meaningful to the business, etc. So what happens when eCommerce and lead generation coincide under the same account. Today, I want to walk you through three must-dos that will help you to keep the balance and ensure that everyone plays nice.
Don’t Ever Discount A Goal
When you first learn that you will be tracking forms and general transactions, ask questions such as;
- How many forms do you have across your site?
- If a user fills out a form and completes a transaction, will they still be contacted via the sales team?
- What’s the value of a form lead versus a general transaction?
- Are leads and transactions tracked in the same CRM (Customer Management Software)
The end goal is to understand all the processes and to understand how the business works together as a whole. No question is too silly and from experience, your contacts will love to answer your questions. As mentioned above, we want to be an extension of our client’s marketing team and therefore by asking questions, we are immersing ourselves in their business. Did I mention that no question is too silly?
Allow Keywords to Speak for Themselves
This is a tough one. When thinking about different conversion actions, it’s easy to say that when this term is searched for, someone is obviously looking to directly purchase or vise versa. I have found this to be the farthest thing from the truth in some situations. You would be surprised at terms that are searched for by decision-makers and the end result is a form fill that leads to a huge win. My recommendations here are as follows;
- After you have ensure that everything is being tracked properly and conversions begin to populate filter. Filter by conversion action. Know what terms are driving traffic.
- Keep the conversation going. If you see “obvious” transactional search terms leading to form fills, speak up. Tell your client. It may open up internal conversations about how users are viewing products and speaking of products.
- Test, test, test. Test keywords that speak to various parts of the funnel. Learn how users are searching and use that to your advantage.
Allow Creative to Meet The End-User
Last but certainly not least, allow your findings to dictate how you speak to users. Don’t be afraid to test “lead generation” language around seemingly eCommerce/Transactional products. “Shop Now” may be too abrasive, whereas “Learn More”, may speak to the user who isn’t ready to purchase and simply wants more information. On the flip-side, “Shop Now” may open the door for someone who is looking to purchase but once they make it to your site, they realize they meet other qualifications and need that conversation with a sales representative.
Final Thoughts
Like a few other posts I have written, the end story is that you should always test and allow the data to speak. However, we need to also be vulnerable and ask questions to gain a greater understanding of our clients.
