It’s an easy trap to fall into and we see it happen a lot; it’s always tempting to just keep your marketing activity ticking over. If it’s producing a positive ROI, then why change anything? But this is bad in the long run, your marketing will start to become less and less effective, and you won’t spot potential issues or new opportunities until it’s too late to do anything about them.
Good marketing is about constantly re-evaluating what you’re doing and evolving your strategy and execution to be better and better each time. Sometimes it’s not even about getting better results, sometimes the best insights are learnt from trying something and failing – it’s all part of the process.
Are you being responsive?
Optimisation isn’t just about getting the best end result, it’s also about putting the minimal input that gets the maximum output. The longer activity is left to just cycle on its own the more wastage you’ll see piling up. Audiences being targeted that are unresponsive, messaging variations that are ineffective still being used, discount offers that are undercutting each other put out across different channels – these are all common things that can happen without constant review and optimisation. Many marketing departments are spending money they don’t need to be spending.
Firstly, you need a plan of what data to capture and how you’re going to track and report on it. Then you need to make sure you’re constantly taking the data insights and building actions off the back of it to enhance your marketing strategy.
Is your creative right?
It’s amazing how fast things can change, from visual trends to language to lifestyle. You need to constantly be thinking about your brand perception and the impression you’re trying to make. What resonates one year might not hit the same heights in the next. You should always be playing devil’s advocate with your brand communications, Is your brand consistent? Are you communicating your key features in a clear way? Are your call to actions compelling?
Are you creating the right touchpoints across your customer journey?
Don’t make the mistake of concentrating too much on just the top of your funnel, adopt a growth marketing approach that takes into account the whole journey from prospect to customer to loyalty, to advocate. The best customer journeys are the ones that create multiple touchpoints across different channels. For example, it’s easy to think that running digital ads is all you need to do, but research indicates that consumers are suffering from digital saturation. Digital ads tend to have a lot more competition for an audience’s attention and even when they get it, they don’t hold it for very long.
A recent survey from the CMO Council revealed that almost two-thirds (63%) of consumers would respond more positively to a social media ad if it appeared on a more traditional advertising channel. For young people especially, the novelty of receiving something physical is a novelty that can cut right through the digital noise and grab their attention.
It’s not about replacing digital with traditional, it’s about creating a customer journey that has touchpoints across both. Did you know there’s even such a thing as programmatic mail? It’s mail that is triggered by an online action. This is especially useful for countering activities such as abandoned baskets. In fact, data from one of our recent campaigns showed that 60% of customers who were sent a personalised mailer after abandoning their cart returned to the site, with an 18% conversion rate.
Rethink with direct marketing
One of the biggest victims of lazy marketing is direct mail. This is because not a lot of marketing managers know enough about it and there are so many misconceptions out there. It’s targeted, trackable, effective and can be integrated with digital activity. It’s a trusted and exciting format for audiences and gets brands into people’s homes.
We’re experts at direct mail and can handle everything, keeping you in the loop just the right amount. Every campaign combines our experience and expertise to continually optimise and evolve to be better each time.
So if you’re not utilising direct mail, if you’re not pushing your marketing activity to be the best it can be, then we say it’s time for a rethink.
Get in touch with one of our team to discuss how we can help you rethink your marketing.
