Digital Marketing Strategy? Let’s Break It Down…

I recently attended an online webinar: Digital Advertising Strategy! Being of the generation I am (a 1990’s baby) Facebook, Instagram, Twitter; they are a huge part of my life but recreationally, not professionally; so as I sat at my desk waiting for it to begin, I assumed I was going into this thinking I knew a lot about social media.

I was wrong.

An hour later as the nice lady on the other side bid us farewell and the webinar came to a close, I felt like my eyes had been very much opened; particularly statistically.
In this post, I shall summarise the content I have learnt in the hope of expanding your own understanding of just how important Social Media can be to a business and a few handy tips on how to use it!

Social Media Marketing has come a long way since Twitter first introduced its ads in 2007, Facebook, theirs in 2011 and Instagram with theirs in 2013. Because of this; we know more about what people care about and what people are looking for, than we ever have before. This makes psychographic and demographical targeting considerably easier. We know what people do, where they go, what they like, even what device they are on. All of these things are measurable and attributable and through these, we can work out which ads bring the most revenue, the most pipeline and the best leads. It’s remarkable and for businesses, incredibly handy!

But don’t let this all overwhelm you… Let’s break it down.

Strategy is critical. The Trojans didn’t conquer whimsically; they built their wooden horse tirelessly and with impressive and fruitful results. Think of the strategy as your Trojan horse in the making; it is important to start small and work your way up!
So, can you answer these questions?

• Who is most likely to purchase your product/services?
• How much of the market is interested?
• Are there other companies selling similar to you?
• What are you already doing for your social media campaign?

Importantly and a good starting point, is establishing your advertising goals. This will give you a clear line to walk and as long as this is referred back to, you shouldn’t stray.
So what are they?

• Customer acquisition
• Customer nurturing
• Branding
• Loyalty, cross sell and upsell
• All of the above?

Once this has been established, it should ensure a good ground to begin working on; but of course audiences have different personas and these need to be honed in on to ensure you are targeting the right people in conjunction with your ad!
Consider:

• Backgrounds
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Their main source of info:
• Where do they go for their daily fix of info or funny cat videos, for example?
• Where could your advertisement gain the most traction:
• Do individuals go to twitter because it has recreational posts as well as news feeds or do they go direct to the Daily Mail app instead?

As important as it is to refine what people have, it is also important to discover what they don’t have; what are their pain points? Where could you fill the gap? Some people watch a lot of Youtube content; would a video ad be better suited? Or in the circumstance of them being glued to Facebook, write a post instead!  

Selecting your channels
This is where specificity becomes important: selecting your channel. An audience may not be defined through one channel alone; some may exclusively use Linkedin, others may have a whole app section on their phone dedicated to Facebook, Instagram and the like, all regularly used and loved. It is important to come across in the right format, on the right channel, to be as effective a marketing campaign as possible.
Take mobile users for example:
Mobiles open up a whole new spectrum of possibilities; sms messaging, push notifications, in app ads, banner ads etc. A vast majority of us have smart phones, all capable of accessing the internet and therefore online applications, so these could all be utilised to great effect! However; do not shoot yourself in the foot, as some of these methods could be viewed as intrusive, so watch out and handle with care!

Coordination is very important in social media; try and be as coordinated across the various platforms as possible; placing a post on Facebook may not be enough, but posting it on Facebook, Twitter AND Pinterest? That’ll gain more coverage across the various audiences watching. Recent studies show that the top used Social Media Platforms are as follows:
1st- Facebook
2nd- Youtube
3rd- Twitter
4th- Google+
5th- Instagram

Surprised? Or not so?

A quick step guide in selecting your channels:

• Find your audience
• Start broad targeting
• Coordinate across the channels
• Evaluate based on goals
• Test, test and test! (I’m coming to this bit…)

Targeting and Optimisation
At this point in the webinar, my fingers were getting thoroughly sore from all the note taking but as I looked up, a quotation flashed upon the screen: “Data driven personalisation is todays hand written note” said by Stacey Huggins, VPO Marketing at Tamara Mellon. It took me a few moments to truly appreciate what she said, or at least my interpretation of it. Personalising your targeting by data collection is key; it makes the entire process simpler; after all; you need to know of whom you are selling your product or services, to truly appreciate their requirements. This is where segmentation comes in…
Segmentation being the process of placing a wide audience into sub categories based on their similar interests with the intent of using that for marketing. You have all this data; what do you do with it? Naturally, you’d break it up! By doing this, you have a much better understanding of who is out there and what they like and how you can utilise that for your ads or services.
Take me, for example!

• Demographic- Male, 18-25, single
• Firmographic- Social Media, Marketing
• Behavioural- Reads a lot
• Interests- Fitness
• Geographical Location- Essex, UK

Good segmentation is personalised content. For me, it could be an ad on Facebook for 20% off books in Southend (that’s in Essex, by the way) or a promotional at my local gym for protein powder. These would appeal to me, of course? Because they would be part of my “profile”. An advertisement for a car MOT in Glasgow would do me no good… mainly because I don’t have a car to begin with and I don’t live in Scotland… so don’t be afraid to test your ad. It is unlikely to be perfect regardless, let alone the first time! So here are a few things you could test on your ad.

• What time of day you put your ad out
• What day you put your ad out
• Your CTA (Call To Action)
• Your headlines
• The tone of your ad; this all depends what network you decide to publish it on eg. Facebook is a lot more colloquial than Linkedin.

All these attributes can greatly affect the effectiveness of your ad. Working for a marketing consultancy company, eGenie, I recently put out my first Facebook event boost. The research into when, where, who, how, was extensive and it really opened my eyes as to when and where people really look at their Facebook via Facebook insights. There were peaks at 8am and 2pm, but the traffic was steady from 6am right through until 11pm; so people literally get up and go straight to their phone or tablet and think Facebook! Before sleep, they are on Facebook! Thinking about it, it seems a little mad, but it’s true. Our post would not be anywhere near as effective if this information hadn’t been readily available to me in the first place; so think very carefully and do the research!

Tracking and Reporting
Once the ad is out there to be tested, you should measure its outcome based on your own campaign goals. So consider:

Branding

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Engagement

Acquisition

• Impressions
• Clicks
• Conversion rates

Loyalty/Cross sell/Up sell

• Engagement
• Upgrades
• Repeat business
• Nurture
• Engaging with more content
• Repeat purchases

So to summarise; start simple and expand, personalise your ads to cut through the noise, coordinate across channels and devices and don’t forget to test, measure, optimise and repeat! I hope those who read this have found it useful! Check out other posts by eGenie for more informative blogs!