Involve
Integrating Metrics to Boost Brand Experience
Tags:
Customer Experience Design, Digital, Marketing and Advertising, Public Relations, Technology, Thought Leadership
Brand strategy and metrics both matter in order to connect with customers
A lot of the aggressive performance marketing to drive lead generation is falling on deaf ears because it lacks a sound (and well-executed) brand strategy.
As defined by the Performance Marketing Association, “performance marketing” is paying for results (like sales, leads, or clicks) from marketing campaigns conducted through third-party channels such as email platforms, search engines, and social media sites. Performance marketing enables companies to run highly targeted marketing campaigns that deliver measurable business results, allowing marketers to track ROI with precision.
However, by designating certain strategies and tactics as driving performance, are we also implying that other tactics, like brand marketing, don’t perform?
While most brands will see a substantial boost when they first plug in a program built on the traditional mix of search, social, and display advertising, predictably, there will also come a time when the performance levels off. The low-hanging fruit has all been picked and the link between pay-per-click marketing and business growth starts to fade away. Then what?
It’s all too easy for brands that are faced with budget limitations (i.e., all of them) to focus on bottom-of-funnel performance and allocate any marketing spend to data-driven performance marketing that delivers results. It makes the spending easy to justify. We get it. But no matter how brilliant your marketing team is, a performance plateau will come … if you do not also focus on clever creative that amplifies your brand experience.
For your target customers to take ACTION, as asked by the CTAs of your performance marketing efforts, they must first be AWARE of your brand and what unique experience you are offering to them. It is vital to drive top-of-funnel awareness and consideration to enable a brand’s direct-response tactics to perform. This is true for B2C and B2B marketers, and even B2E, as well.
Thankfully, there is no contraindication between performance marketing and brand building. In fact, the total yields greater brand equity than the sum of its parts. Here’s a not-so-secret truth that’s key to understand: Advertising, thought leadership, owned content, and a brand’s reputation and engagement can all have a sizable impact on conversions, without getting any credit.
Marketers must boost brands by building awareness and engaging with their customer communities, especially in today’s environment of crumbling third-party cookies and an increasingly crowded privacy legislation landscape muddying tracking and targeting capabilities.
Creative integrated tracking helps Verizon attract talent
Like consumer and business brands alike, the Verizon Talent Acquisition Recruitment Marketing team must consistently prove the value of media and agency spend to support its global hiring goals, which include supporting a diverse set of hiring needs from niche and hard-to-fill roles (e.g., cybersecurity) to high-volume roles (e.g., retail). Substantiating the role and value of paid media within the context of a multichannel recruitment marketing multi-campaign was a perennial challenge.
So, in addition to driving the brand strategy, we worked with the Verizon team to build an end-to-end, closed-loop analytics solution that includes a predictive analytics model and automated analytics dashboard that delivers weekly performance data, enabling near-time media optimization across paid and organic media channels. YoY results in year one included a 100% increase in careers website traffic, an over 75% increase in qualified applicants for hard-to-fill roles, and an 11% reduction in time-to-fill high-volume retail roles.
Awareness accesses more authors for IEEE
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) provides a wide range of publications that make the exchange of technical knowledge and information possible among technology professionals. The organization was eager to build awareness and increase the number of article submissions for IEEE Access, its online, open access journal.
We employed paid search and social campaigns to reach their niche yet globally dispersed audience while building the IEEE Access audience through branded content on organic social channels. Through thoughtful targeting and methodology, integrated efforts were able to deliver high volumes of targeted reach to a larger pool of potential authors, resulting in a 36% increase in article submissions in one year.
Using creativity and accountability to build brands
Audience assessments and data analytics integration can improve marketing performance and drive accountability … to conversions and beyond!
And although some are now predicting that brand marketing will ultimately win over plug-and-play performance marketing, our clients know that a marriage of both is exponentially more beneficial to nurturing valued customer relationships. Impactful brand marketing helps brands differentiate themselves and build long-term relationships; persistently evaluating what messages are resonating and driving traffic ensures that you continue to engage with your target customers.
Customers want to be heard.
If you are ready to reach them and listen to what they are trying to tell you, we are ready to help you increase awareness for your brand and build enduring relationships with your customers.
