Digital Marketing Strategy: The Four Pillars Approach

Marketing strategy has to start somewhere and throughout a strategic process you are always having to ‘imagine tomorrow’. You need a future view of the digital landscape, to ensure you are arming yourselves and your clients with competitive advantage. Late last year, I spent 2 days in Dublin enjoying the hospitality of Google. Amongst the ample Guinness, there was a wealth of knowledge and thought leadership provided. One of the lectures really inspired me to re-imagine the way we talk about tomorrow with our clients; otherwise known as the ‘Four Pillar Approach’.

Mastering Search

Search still remains an area that confounds many marketers. However, long gone are the days when you could hide behind batch buying links and found an SEO strategy on this activity. Today, marketers need to look back to the ‘Kotler-esque’, approach to marketing: relevant content, produced for the right people in the right place and time. Sure, ensure your website is well optimised, however, long gone are the days of manipulating search engines. This is simply a quick fire tactic to not only lose domain authority, but also brand authority. With PPC becoming increasingly expensive, having an organic search strategy focused on developing resonance with the customer is key.

Let your organic search strategy do the qualifying, and then convert with PPC.

Mastering Measurement

In my career I have seen many examples of poor reporting and measurement. I’m talking about the typical reports that usually start with the ‘large number of clicks and impressions’ you are achieving and end with the ‘this is positive for brand reach and visibility’.

Do yourself and your client a favour and remove your Google Analytics stabilisers. Beyond goal and event tracking, there is a plethora of insight and value you can garner. You’re a B2B organisation looking to understand your business profile a bit more? Look at ‘Network’ to understand the time of business you are failing to engage with. Are conversion rates dropping and ‘Cost Per Leads’ rising? Hone down on geographical segments, removing those that are diminishing budgets and tailoring marketing messaging in areas where there is underperformance.

Attribution modelling has been a buzz for a while now and there are a number of theories on it. The objective behind an attribution model, is having the ability to decipher an accurate measure of the effect a channel has on leads and revenue stream. From last click interaction data, a branding campaign may not appear to be offering any value. However, working to a position based model should begin to arm you with enough data to determine if a display, social or branding campaign is really having a positive effect on revenue or if branded PPC is harming your organic leads.

Mastering Mobile

Google has been announcing the imminent ‘year of mobile’ for approximately three years now. The cynics among us would argue that this is a shameless sales tactic to significantly increase Google AdWords spend, against any efficiency measures and value to the client. No one is arguing that the world is becoming more mobile. However, if you are spending a significant amount of your marketing budget on mobile advertising, you first need a mobile responsive site.

Secondly, you need to set different KPIs for mobile traffic, versus desktop; here you can bring your attribution modelling into play.

Thirdly, you need to change user behaviour. Mobile is primarily used as a research tool; entice conversion by offering the customer a benefit from purchasing or lead generation via their mobile device. Once the ease of purchase has been identified, the really profitable metric of ‘repeat purchase’- can be enabled.

Mastering Storytelling

The brands that tell the best stories don’t just do this via a process of improvisation. Storytelling comes from an integrated content planning process. In modern day digital marketing, a client may have a number of different agencies delivering on different channels. Ensure you are collaborating throughout the process.

Essentially, cohesive storytelling or content amplification knits the pillars together and takes the customer on the journey to the end goal.

Think about the poor examples of remarketing that we experience all too often. You visit a website, but for whatever reason you are not in a position to convert. Almost immediately you are then remarketed with banner advertising, in an attempt to entice you to complete an abandoned purchase. All that happens is that you grow weary of this hard sell approach, lose brand resonance and go elsewhere.

Re-market with the next chapter of the story. The customer requires further assurance before completing the purchase, so give this to them. Storytelling is all about the understanding what role the chapters or channels of your digital marketing mix play.

There is an exhaustive list of strategy frameworks available online, which enable you to tailor your approach to imagining the tomorrow of your clients. The above provides just a very brief checklist of the elements that are key concerns for a number of businesses this year.

Oh, and be prepared; rumour has it that 2016 is the ‘Year of Mobile’.

Featured in http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/