Marketers often struggle with juggling resources, budgets, and silos but are still expected to prove ROI. From the CFO to the CEO, to the shareholders, everyone wants to know how the allotted advertising and marketing dollars translate into bottom-line sales. Whether internal or agency, when it comes to performance marketing there are always high expectations of delivering ROI.
The pandemic has increased pressure on these expectations along with an increased strain on budgets and resources. And if it hasn’t been hard enough, the channels and system have kept us on our toes with updates, changes, privacy constraints, and a continued lack of control. So how do we win?
Start with the basics by asking; Who, What, Where, When, Why, How?
- Who are we trying to market to? Who is involved in the process?
- What is the marketing goal we are trying to achieve?
- Where do we need to target? Is there an opportunity to focus?
- When are we trying to launch and when is it expected to accomplish these goals?
- Why? How does this impact the overall business objectives? What is driving the questions and goals that are coming from the top levels of the organization?
- How? How are we going to do it? What channels? What content? Where are we targeting?
Pushing Alignment Upfront
Cross-team communication has been more important than ever, and even more critical that harder conversations are being brought to the forefront. To be successful it starts with asking the right questions, being comfortable getting into the weeds with sales teams or operational departments. Be willing to ask why? What else? What if we could? And how can we? What’s the real priority? What will I be held accountable for? Do we actually have control of the entire process? If that answer is no, address it and find solutions. If there are blind spots hit them head-on. Learning how to leverage communication and resources is critical for success. Look to identify these main elements:
- Data Constraints
- Content Resources
- Sales and Customer Service Processes
- Audience Personas, Segmentation & Ideal Customer Profile
It may not be possible to get answers to every question or have visibility to certain details, data, or team departments and that’s OK. It doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to provide clarity for strategic planning.
Research & Data Mining For Agility
Get creative, stay agile and use all of the data that is at your disposal. Approach data in a way that takes the guesswork of what it will take to make an impact and drive long-term performance. There will always be more work to do than can possibly be done. And, more media budget we wish we had. So, get creative and laser-focused on how to use the resources that are available. Ask critically, is this going to move the needle? Is this going to drive the value that I and/or my team are accountable for? Meaningful data mining can absolutely make the difference. Data needs to be at the foundation of resource allocation, targeting, and media plans. Looking for things like what has worked in the past? Why not? What are my competitors spending? What does that mean for what we want to accomplish? How much time will need to be spent? Types of data for mining:
- Current website and organic channel performance
- Seasonal search trends
- Competitive benchmarking
- Audience insights
- Paid channels; spend, creative, audience requirements
- Sales and CRM data
Simple tools and research tactics can be easily implemented that will set the strategy up for success. The idea is to identify what’s possible to achieve business and campaign goals within the constraints that may exist within resources, budgets, and siloed data.
Campaigns & Efforts That Are Laser Focused Sandboxes
The initial campaign launch strategy needs to be laser-focused. Using the research, data, and team details that have already been uncovered leads to the starting line. The purpose should be to start small, test, and scale-out. When integrating cross-channel strategies in a testing sandbox, will create a brand halo effect.
- Integrate cross-channel sandbox frameworks
- Test and integrate attribution models
- Agile media budget planning and testing
- Look for brand-halo effects
The underlying concept is to go big in a small sandbox in order to go big at scale.
Scaling with Reporting Frameworks
So much time can be wasted trying to figure out reporting after the fact to accommodate everyone involved. If we create a report on what we think matters, we’ve missed the point. Reporting needs to focus on what matters to each stakeholder. Laying the foundation starts with asking the questions upfront. What business questions do we want to get answered? What do we need to know for executives? Questions that need to be answered with reports could be things like; What’s working? What’s not? What are we learning? How are we improving? Laying in a reporting framework allows scalability of campaigns that every stakeholder is on board with. Look for ways to implement the following:
- Team Reporting Framework
- Build For Forecasting
- Data Integration Planned for the Long Game
Learning to Be Creative In A Box
Doing more with less is about getting creative with what we have, learning to work in an agile environment, and having the data to help us tell the story. There are some amazing ways to accomplish this through frameworks, tools, and team integration, that helps cut the fluff out of the process, teams can move faster, test, and ultimately scale.
Learn more in the session: Winning in Multi-Channel Strategy with the Age New Marketing Model; Do More with Less
What you’ll learn:
- Easy to implement research tactics that will help you laser focus on strategy and budgets
- A framework for creating target personas that drive creative performance and conversions
- New tactics for better reporting up, down, and across your organization
Also, get access to strategy resources including tools and worksheets you can use in day-to-day planning, execution, and activation.
