Quick Backstory
This past summer, as we were all battling COVID and the COVID quarantine, we were able to head to Southern Utah in a COVID-safe way. We had a guide, but he had a system fine-tuned on how to hike in the outdoors (very remote). It was a much-needed break. We went to one of the world’s longest slot canyons. A few months later, having learned the route, we took our family (kids ages 7-17). We hiked 14-15 miles. Super long hike, but beautiful. As they say in Utah, “Be-UTAH-ful”. We encountered a number of obstacles that were definitely scary. When you go back to slot canyons, the obstacles change as the rainwater shifts things around. We had a very serious scramble area (pic included). The flash floods had wreaked havoc on this area. The thing that inspired me was that despite the very difficult rock placements, deep chasms, and random logs, people had created extremely crafty ways to get around those obstacles. As we navigated our way through the slot canyon, I had hours to think as we walked. The common theme in many of my thoughts was centered around “obstacles”.
Marketing Obstacles
Whether through prospecting or client engagements, I get the opportunity to speak with dozens of different companies every single day. I very much view it as an opportunity to see so many amazing minds at work in their respective industries. I feel like I’m cheating at digital marketing because of the splendid insights, learnings, and visibility I get into so many different industries.
Here are the top 3 problems I see people or companies encountering in marketing in 2021.
- Lack of unified marketing campaigns
- Wrong message to the segment being targeted
- Lack of defining campaign or marketing goals upfront
Context Into the Top 3
Here is a quick context into the top 3. I plan to share brief insights into what people are encountering and what people are doing to conquer those obstacles when they are indeed doing well against them.
#1 – Lack of unified marketing campaigns
A common problem is when all different departments, channels, or sub-channels are using slightly different messaging, aesthetics, etc. I think of this more as a lost opportunity than causing massive problems. It takes a lot of organization and additional work to get everyone to buy into a particular campaign theme. It can be much easier to create your own marketing campaign and do not have to get buy-in by consensus. But the benefits are well worth the time invested. A truly integrated marketing campaign amplifies a common brand message in a much more powerful way.
Gartner reports that integrating 4 or more digital channels will outperform single or dual-channel campaigns by 300% from a performance perspective.
#2 – Wrong message to the segment being targeted
Most companies lack the resources that it would take to clearly, unequivocally identify and have data-backed insights into the correct segments that a company should be targeting. Most companies aspire to have 2-3 defined, data-backed segments or audiences. While this would be remarkable, it’s simply a fool’s errand for most organizations. In one of my previous companies, it was determined that we would spend $300k to identify our top 3 audiences. We worked with 2 of the best organizations out there, to ensure we received actionable, data-backed segments we could then target. We received back remarkable data, but it was far from perfect. In the end, we learned that we could have likely spent $300k less money and saved months of time, by simply using the internal data we had at our disposal. The best solution is to do the best you can with the data you have available, then go test out the segment hypothesis. My opinion: spend the $300k on driving results and testing the hypothesis, not on a hypothetical solution.
The companies I see doing well on performance digital marketing are those that form segments and then run disciplined tests with messaging aligned to those audiences. Many advanced targeting techniques can be used to ensure you are not missing the mark on the segment you have decided to target – geotargeting, CRM list targeting, or 1st/3rd party data solutions. There are many solutions available. Here is a great framework on how to ensure you develop the right message.
For [TARGET] who are [SEGMENT], [BRAND] provides the [CATEGORY] with [DISTINCTION] because of [PROOF]
Reference this blog post for additional information and insights.
#3 – Lack of defining campaign or marketing goals upfront
Without question, the key point of #3 is the “upfront” part. It can be too easy to say “our CPA is the goal”. While the CPA may be an important goal within the campaign, every channel is different. Defining what you’ll watch as metrics & the ultimate KPI for a campaign upfront is key. For example, we run many awareness campaigns that are directed at a very specific hyper-targeted audience, and views of the video are an important part of the success of the campaign. If we are not getting video views, we are not doing a good job of informing this hyper-targeted audience. No views on the videos and likely no action will follow.
Another solid example. Some clients prefer to hyper-target their key audience with connected TV or video. They simply want video views, maximum views. They already know that this is the right audience, so they want to educate and help them become aware. The key metric is “views”. If we were to hang the success of the campaign on “visits” we would fail miserably because people do not have many opportunities to “click” on a connected TV ad.
We then follow up those campaigns with another campaign that only engages with users that have viewed the video content. We can target those that viewed the video in the first campaign with the display or view-retargeting messages which helps the customer begin to take action or become further educated on the brand. Clicks become much more important for the latter campaign. Clicks are the CTA and clicks are possible in a display-oriented campaign. Every company has different needs, but pre-defining the KPI is a consistent way to drive more meaningful progress for your company.
Lean on our experience
As mentioned, we get the benefit of speaking with dozens and dozens of smart people at very smart companies. If we can help you solve some of the obstacles you are encountering in marketing, we are happy to jump on a call. Schedule here.