By: Abby Sanders
Whether you have 100 employees or 1, chances are you’re already engaging in some type of marketing – whether it’s a taco car wrap or Instagram posts of your avocado toast. But can you define the strategy behind it?
There’s a big difference between piecemeal ad investments and a thought-out, start to finish marketing campaign. Here’s why a full-fledged digital campaign is the only way to go if you’re serious about growing your business.
What is a digital marketing campaign?
Entrepeneur.com defines a digital marketing campaign as “a specific, defined series of activities used in marketing a new or changed product or service, or in using new marketing channels and methods.”
Basically, it’s a promotional strategy that involves sharing content over the internet. Just about any promotional activity can be considered “marketing,” but a campaign has multiple stages, including planning, implementation, and measuring results. Have you ever increased your Google AdWords budget on a whim and then forgotten when you did it? That most likely was not a campaign strategy.
Determining the stages of your campaign in advance forces you to create a timeline. This means you’ll be able to attribute changes in sales to specific aspects of your campaign, rather than trying to remember if a peak in online orders coincided with the day you changed the color of your “Book Now” button.
One size may not fit all: tailor your message.
With billboards and TV ads, you have to choose one message for everyone. While you can make some educated guesses about the demographics who are likely to watch certain programs or drive through an intersection, you’re sending one message to thousands of people and hoping it sticks for a few of them.
A digital marketing campaign allows you to selectively serve different graphics, titles, or offers based on someone’s search activity, purchase history and location. This personalized approach pays off: according to Forbes, 88% of marketers report a substantial lift in sales thanks to personalization campaigns. You can’t accomplish that through any channel other than digital.
And as a fringe benefit, customers who are served ads specific to them feel more connected to your brand; in fact, they expect it. A study by Marketo found that 79% of consumers were likely to engage with an offer only if it was customized to reflect their previous engagement with the brand.
Survival of the highest conversions: test multiple ads and see immediate results.
If you’re paying for a magazine ad, you’d better be pretty confident in your visuals, headings, and copy. Testing out multiple versions in print advertising is costly and time consuming.
That’s why you’ll need a strong digital component to inform your other advertising decisions. Conducting A/B tests during your digital campaign allows you to measure performance as soon as your ads go live.
Even if you feel confident in your creative decisions, testing out a few variables is always wise. As much as you may love bulldog puppies, it’s possible that your photo of Baxter in a bow tie isn’t as effective as an image of a sunset. There’s only one way to know for sure.
A digital focus will give you confidence when you’re deciding where to invest next.
Your taco car wrap might be getting you thousands of dollars in sales. But when you’re deciding whether to wrap a second and third vehicle, you’ll have no idea how many people actually looked up your website after seeing your masterpiece. It’s hard to justify further investments when you’re acting on a hunch.
So, keep driving your tacos around town with pride. But make sure you have the data of a digital campaign to back you up the next time inspiration strikes.
