Digital Marketing and Analytics by Anil Batra

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

5 Tips to Improve Marketing Campaigns

Marketers spend millions of dollars on digital marketing campaigns every day. Analytics help marketers get the most of out of every dollar spent and drive great benefits for them and their organization. Data collected at each step of the way to conversion can help marketers and their agencies in optimizing each campaign's performance. Below I've outlined five tips on how to use the data to optimize marketing campaigns.

1. Target the Right Customers

For a campaign to have any chance of succeeding it has to reach the right customers. Clearly defining customer segments is a critical component of any campaign. You can use historical data from previous campaigns to determine which customers are more likely to respond to your campaign.
For an in-house email list, you can use attributes that you have available in the database and create a segment of customers with those attributes that have responded in the past. For display advertising, you can use email attributes or on-site behavioral data and use a technology like BlueKai to target and reach segments that look like those who responded in the past. For search advertising, determine the key phrases (words) that clicked with those customers and then use them as your starting point to figure out which keywords/phrases to use.

2. Target the Right Channels

The question marketers often struggle with is where to spend their budget. Which channel (e.g. direct mail, email, display, search, social, affiliate, etc.) or combination of channels is likely to be most effective for that particular campaign? Use historical data to figure the channels that your target segment is more likely to respond to.
Customers use various channels in their journey to becoming a customer. They use those channels differently. Use data (current and historical) to figure what a typical customer's (your desired segment) journey is and then determine where you should focus your efforts.

3. Develop Creative and Messages that Resonate with Your Customers

If your creative and messages do not work you will notice it immediately in the form of clicks. Use historical data and industry benchmarks to determine the expected outcome in terms of Click Through Rate. If your CTR is way lower, change the content, if CTR is higher, continue doing what you are doing.

4. Developing Engaging Landing Pages

Getting people to click on your ads or emails is a good start but is of no value unless those users take actions on your landing pages. Use the data to determine if users are engaging with the landing page or are they bouncing off without going any further. If the bounce rate is more than expected, take appropriate corrective actions. You should always conduct testing (A/B or Multivariate) to figure out what resonates with your customer and make them go to the next step.

5. Optimize the Conversion Path

The conversion path is the last step in converting a visitor into a customer. The job of the conversion path is to lead the visitor to final conversion. Every step of the path is there to convince the customer and drive her to take the end action, the action that defines the success of the campaign. Use the data collected on the conversion path to determine which steps are losing visitors. Conduct A/B testing and take appropriate actions to improve the steps of the conversion path.
Note: This article was originally published on CMSWire on Sept 20th, See 5 Tips to Improve Marketing Campaigns Using Data on CMSWire.com
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