Marketing Tactics That Sound Smart but May Not Work for You
Marketing – in some people’s minds – has a bad reputation. There is a meme that says, “Don’t tell my parents I’m in marketing. They think I’m a piano player in a whorehouse.”
If marketing indeed is sometimes seen as less than reputable, I believe it is because marketers are adept at selling really smart-sounding strategies that may not always deliver the kind of results the client expects.
Here are a few tactics that can be super effective but may not work well for everyone.
Paid Media – Typically a mix of paid search (PPC), paid social and display ads. Each piece has a part to play in moving leads through your sales funnel, but the balance has to be right for you. Some companies may put the bulk of their spend into display, while others may see better results putting more dollars toward search or social. Depending on your goals and where your prospect is in the sales funnel, the right combination of PPC, social and display can be the best strategy for increasing your bottom line. Don’t believe us? One of our clients was so happy with their paid media performance that they increased their monthly spend by 267%!
A/B Testing – Who wouldn’t want to do A/B testing? You test a couple landing pages (or banners, emails, ad copy, etc.) against each other for example, find out which one performs better, and then use that for your campaign going forward. It just makes sense. And the more things you can test, the better. Right? Eh. It depends.
First, you need to get enough clicks on both landing pages to get a statistically significant sample, and there needs to be enough of a difference between the two to declare a winner. So, if you are only running a small or limited time campaign, the testing may not produce any usable results.
Remarketing – Remarketing consists of ads that target consumers after they’ve visited a company’s website, or even a specific page on that website. They tend to be cheaper than paid search, and more effective, since you are marketing to people who’ve already shown an interest in your site. So again, this seems like a no-brainer. It’s a great way to nurture leads and move them further down the funnel. Of course you want to run a remarketing campaign!
The problem may be that you are not Zappos. Again, it’s a question of scale. For remarketing ads to be triggered on Google Display Network, your landing page or site must have a minimum of 100 active visitors within the last 30 days. And for Google Search Network, that minimum is 1,000 visitors. Make sure you are confident your campaign will drive enough visitors, or your banners may go to waste.
Separate Campaigns for Different Personas – Personalization is proven to work better than a shotgun approach to marketing, so naturally it sounds right to run separate, targeted campaigns for each buyer persona. And usually it is.
But again, it depends. How many personas do you have? And how different are they? Would any of them respond to the same messaging and call-to-action? If you are creating 6 separate campaigns when 2 would be just as effective, you’re wasting time and money. Simplify where possible to get more bang for your buck.
Again, in the right circumstances, all these tactics can be highly effective. Just make sure you’re making the most of them.
Need help figuring out the digital marketing strategies that will work best for your business? Let’s Talk.
Diane Callihan
With more than 20 years of experience writing for some of the country’s top brands, Diane helped to shape Roger West’s content strategy, lead generation, and PR efforts as Director of Marketing. She currently serves as President of Callihan Content Creation.