Alex Van Doren: How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales
An Interview With Orlando Zayas
Out of the various PPC platforms that are out there for advertising, my top pick is always going to be Google Adwords. They are the most widely used search engine to date which then garners the largest available reach for ads in volume while having a large number of websites that happen to be on their Google Display network. With both search and display campaigns available, you can get ads up and going with as little as $10 a day in ad spend to get traffic moving to your shop or website. It does require a little more research and leg work to get it operating vs other advertising platforms, but you will tend to gain higher quality and qualified leads using this PPC platform.
Marketing a product or service today is easier than ever before in history. Using platforms like Facebook ads or Google ads, a company can market their product directly to people who perfectly fit the ideal client demographic, at a very low cost. Digital Marketing tools, Pay per Click ads, and email marketing can help a company dramatically increase sales. At the same time, many companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools often see disappointing results.
In this interview series called “How to Effectively Leverage The Power of Digital Marketing, PPC, & Email to Dramatically Increase Sales”, we are talking to marketers, advertisers, brand consultants, & digital marketing gurus who can share practical ideas from their experience about how to effectively leverage the power of digital marketing, PPC, & email.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Alex Van Doren.
The background of Alex Van Doren lies in successfully conceptualizing and implementing innovative marketing initiatives to drive market impact and expansion of product, program, and campaign launch and development efforts. With her comprehensive experience, the focus is to implement strategic campaigns from launch through complete execution. As well as Alex’s knowledge in both digital and traditional media channels — she establishes the ability to enhance brand awareness and lead generation that prepares her to significantly impact her client’s company’s objectives while reaching levels of success.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
Absolutely! I received my bachelor’s degree as a multimedia designer. While in my senior year, a friend of mine had presented me with a huge opportunity. Redbull Europe was about to launch in the Philippines and they were looking for people to work on the activation events. I was part of the team that was tasked to manage awareness campaigns on-site and Twitter influencer campaigns (Instagram wasn’t a thing just yet). It was the job that introduced me to marketing and from that point, I fell in love. After 6 months of planning, prepping and finally launching, my internship had come to an end. From there another friend had told me about another opportunity which led to a full-time job working for a group of companies in the Philippines that had a big need for marketing.
In the next chapter of my career, I came back to the states and worked with another company (larger than the last) that was tied to some household names such as HGTV & McDonald’s Canada.
I’ve worked in marketing for 11 years, the first seven were in the world of corporate. After that time I decided to start my own business. It was extremely scary and I felt like a fish out of water. I didn’t know if I was going to be successful or not but I did know that I was not going to give up.
All of my experiences strengthened my skillset and brought me to where my company is now.
Can you share a story about the funniest marketing mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lessons or ‘takeaways’ you learned from that?
Honestly, any mistake in marketing is not one to take lightly, but there was one occasion where I accidentally posted a photo that was intended for my personal account that landed on my client’s social media account. Obviously, the lesson here is to REALLY take your time in any client-facing work. Check, recheck, and check again. I don’t believe in “fast work”, I believe in quality work.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
For me, three people come to mind, my best friend from college, Justine who told me to give marketing a shot and recommended I apply for the internship position at Redbull Europe.
Panjee was the one who helped me obtain my position at Timeless Bar & Restaurant Concepts which really helped shape the start of my career.
And last but certainly not the least, my right hand, Ashley, my Assistant Director of Social & Sales, shined while I was pregnant with my son. She was able to put things into perspective, assist with priority management, be my support system, and help in client relations.
What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
It’s essentially our clients. We are their consumers and their brand personas. This automatically helps us determine strong strategies, look at all angles of the data (we are big data enthusiasts!), and incorporate customization in every unique need of the client. The team we have is also INVALUABLE… There is no one alike in my company and love how it adds such strength to our systems and processes.
You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
- Stubborn — Most people lose the fight to keep their small business and quit after 2–3 years, but if you channel a bit of stubbornness and persevere while staying determined, you can push through and continue to strengthen your business! I had a large number of opportunities where I had to start fresh or could have made it easy on myself and just throw in the towel, but I always for whatever reason, came back to this industry. It’s like a poltergeist that won’t leave me alone but in a great way. :)
- Humble — Able to take constructive criticism. Naturally, l am a very proud person, hard to admit when I may be in the wrong, BUT once I take a moment to see the whole picture, I admit to any mishaps, owning up to that mistake and continue to practice this on a regular basis. What can I say? I am a passionate person!
- Grit (AKA a little elbow grease) — Work hard and do whatever it takes to get it D-O-N-E. If you plan to start a business and don’t have the capital, know that you must be prepared to do anything, and to be confident enough to do most of it on your own. That means spending time learning and researching all the in’s and out’s and hopefully not dreaming you’ll become a Forbes 30 under 30 overnight.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Yes! We have some new projects in the works that will help take our clients’ businesses to the next level. This will not only expand their company base but this service is not even in demand yet. Needless to say, we are VERY excited to launch!
Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. As we mentioned in the beginning, sometimes companies that just start exploring with digital marketing tools like PPC campaigns often see disappointing results. In your opinion, what are a few of the biggest mistakes companies make when they first start out with digital marketing? If you can, please share an example for each.
When first starting out, not having proper tracking in place is a huge missed opportunity. Especially with seeing constant new updates required that are tied to advertising platforms. This can ruin results quickly. For instance, when the Apple iOS 14.5 update was released, it required users to provide explicit permission for apps to collect or not collect shared data. Meaning advertisers lose out on 50%-60% of advertising information that previously aided in retargeting has now become off limits.
Not aware of the customer journey. As a marketer, you don’t know the full spectrum of the audience you are advertising to and where they are ending up through that customer/client process. It’s crucial you are aware of the journey from A to Z and if any additional measures need to be taken to ease the process for your clientele. This could be as simple as knowing the landing page, thank you page, what list they are going into and what email series they are receiving. As it can be complicated for remarketing that comes after the email series.
Nonexistent Lead Gen — This is certainly more technical and requires work on the backend, but when not properly in place of where you are directing them to go. Such as trying to gather an email list and the popup on your site to “Sign Up!” form isn’t embedded correctly, you can miss out on their information and that possible retargeting opportunity.
If you could break down a very successful digital marketing campaign into a “blueprint”, what would that blueprint look like? Please share some stories or examples of your ideas.
After years of research, with a bit of trial and error, my agency has developed a strong digital marketing campaign blueprint. It includes the following:
- Know the clients business goals
- Research their market and competitors
- Profile potential customers (personas)
- Strategy planning and implementation
- Creative direction
- Understanding your customer journey
- Understanding the sales funnel and process inside out
- Test ads/strategy
- Remarketing tactics
- Confirm social media is being posted on a regular basis with optimal branding in use
Let’s talk about Pay Per Click Marketing (PPC) for a bit. In your opinion which PPC platform produces the best results to increase sales?
Out of the various PPC platforms that are out there for advertising, my top pick is always going to be Google Adwords. They are the most widely used search engine to date which then garners the largest available reach for ads in volume while having a large number of websites that happen to be on their Google Display network. With both search and display campaigns available, you can get ads up and going with as little as $10 a day in ad spend to get traffic moving to your shop or website. It does require a little more research and leg work to get it operating vs other advertising platforms, but you will tend to gain higher quality and qualified leads using this PPC platform.
Can you please share 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful PPC campaign?
- Customer Journey: Understanding from A to Z where the customer is going once clicking an ad
- Ad Spend for Desired Results: Calculating the results you want against the benchmarks for that industry and advertising platform, will help you determine how much you should be spending on your ad campaigns
- Know The Numbers: Having the ability to understand and analyze your data from advertising will help you manage and optimize for optimal delivery
Let’s now talk about email marketing for a bit. In your opinion, what are the 3 things that you need to know to run a highly successful email marketing campaign that increases sales?
- Possessing an in-depth understanding of the actual customer (For example: Who are you talking to? What are their likes and dislikes? What kind of tone/voice are you planning to use? What kind of slang will you use, if any? Are you going to use emojis within your sentences?) Having a strong understanding of your customer base will make it feel more like a friend is speaking to them and not feeling sold to by a brand.
- Knowledge of the customer journey and sales funnel.
“Sell them what they want — give them what they need.” Your goal is to address your customer’s specific wants and needs and reveal how your product or service can fix pain points. A proper understanding of the sales funnel/process will help you write out emails for each step of that journey. A smart move is to make sure you don’t speak to them like they are in the middle of their journey when they are just starting out. There will be a huge disconnect. - Heavily practice the craft of copywriting. Words are a magical thing. There’s a certain way to write something out that will completely enthrall your audience and or customer base. This is a powerful tool when it comes to email marketing. Be captivating with your use of words and either tell them a story or draw them in to where they fall in love with your product or service.
What are the other digital marketing tools that you are passionate about? If you can, can you share with our readers what they are and how to best leverage them?
Some of the top tools I love utilizing for my business as well as recommended for those with advertising agencies are the following:
- Monday.com: project/task management platform that is able to monitor your ads performing in Facebook Business Manager
- Google Analytics: this should be set up on any website to follow incoming traffic and any bounce rate
- Canva: a great tool for generating and editing creatives for advertising and social media
- Grammarly: to help with grammar and spelling for those who are writing copy for ads, social or branding material
Here is the main question of our series. Can you please tell us the 5 things you need to create a highly successful career as a digital marketer? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Working for yourself is not an easy job, you have to be able to self-manage, keep on top of the work you are doing for your clients, and really love what you do! These are my top must have’s to create a highly successful career as a digital marketer:
- Perseverance:
When having a life outside of your business, such as a husband, kiddos, hobbies, a second business, you know anything personal, you still need to channel past the distractions, frustrations, and reality of your business on your shoulders
- Passion:
While loving what you do is great, you want to make sure you maintain this. Continuously educating yourself and your team, change things up a bit, don’t always have the same schedule to where things could go stale. Refresh your purpose, the “why” you are running a business in the first place. Another great suggestion is devoting time to giving back to your community or causes that resonate with you
- Patience:
If you’re already a mom, your business is another baby. With any child, you need a large amount of patience, and such as running an agency, you need to be able to handle all that comes with it while being a calm and stable rock for your team. When you start to notice your limit is approaching try using some breathing techniques to bring you back to where you need to be
- Discipline:
To remain on track and generating success, you have to be on top of yourself, you are the boss after all. Being on time, present, and aware of your clients and team, as well as completing your list of work to-do’s is crucial
- Flexibility:
Being adjustable is key to strategies and plans. What you would like to do for your clients may not align with what they want or what their goals may be. Though you are the expert and you aim to give a strong strategy/goal to follow, its imperative to keep in mind what the customer wants/needs within reason
In a nutshell, the greatest example of this is the lifestyle that is portrayed by being an online entrepreneur. It makes it seem glamorous to work for yourself and have it all. But what people don’t realize is that it’s a lot more work, dedication, and passion that will drive you to work for yourself and be successful.
The “laptop lifestyle” isn’t for everyone, and most people learn that pretty fast without being able to keep up with the workload that is required to run a business. You are your own boss, you manage accounting, oversee as a project manager, and more. Needless to say, the overall outcome can be extremely rewarding working for yourself and accomplishing or exceeding your goals for your business, but all of you needs to be all in.
What books, podcasts, videos or other resources do you use to sharpen your marketing skills?
A few go-to Books: The war of art, Brain Rules, Tim Ferriss Tools of Titans, Mindset
Podcasts: The Mindset Mentor, Built to Sell, How I Built This, BizChix, Outside In, Duct Tape Marketing, Make it Happen Mondays
Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. Here is our final ‘meaty’ question. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
Inspiring women to develop an independent entrepreneurial mindset. It is not as common as it should be and luckily, can evolve from an early age. Too many impressionable girls and women get stuck in the corporate system mindset not knowing that there is a whole other world of independent entrepreneurs with many options of running their own side hustle or business! Channeling this new direction is exciting and can give you the opportunity to learn to think creatively, be resourceful, identify the purpose, and own results to attain all the success deserved! All while empowering women to take charge and help them realize they really can do whatever they want in life and with their careers.
How can our readers further follow your work?
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
