We do mistakes in our digital strategy. Imagine that you are going on a mountain hike. You do not have a list, and therefore you shovel all the things from the table into your backpack: a mug, 5 kg of refined sugar, cat litter, candles, and a guide to Leningrad for foreign tourists. Not only have you forgotten a bunch of really useful things, but you also carry an extra load with you.
What a good digital strategy consists of:
- site diagnostics;
- USP formation, brand positioning;
- target audience analysis;
- competitive analysis;
- analytics and adjustment.
The first step in developing a digital strategy is setting goals correctly.
Once a company approached us with a request to bring the site to the top of the search results for a certain number of requests. By the way, this is the most popular request from both the agency and the in-house marketer. However, this goal is fundamentally wrong. We ask: “Why do you need a top?” – “Selling cottages in the surat region. If the site is at the top, I can sell more. “
The logic is correct, but the set of requests that the client came with turned out to be useless and did not help achieve his goals with a certain cost per lead. As a result, advertising was unprofitable, which we warned about. It made sense to advance on high-frequency requests with an admixture of mid-frequency and low-frequency. But no, “I want to top”.
Conclusion:
Incorrect tasks bury the coolest idea and will most likely lead to unjustified waste of marketing budgets. Define the business metrics you want to achieve and subjugate all channels to this global goal.
Inadequate expectations at the start
Relying on forecasts is vital in strategy. The most important question of a strategist, which he asks his colleagues with irrepressible “Wishlist”: “What will it give us?” Most companies, small and medium businesses, come to us with a ready-made action plan, a desire to promote a group in SMM Marketing or promote a viral video. But when they talk about reach, they often mean sales. “Let’s just tell more people about me and they will become my customers.” We disperse, everything was invented for us.
There are different companies and different budgets. The larger the budget, the more options are available to the marketer. For the SMB segment, this is contextual advertising in search, display network and YAN, for large businesses – coverage tools, RTB and video advertising. But any predictions begin with the question “What will it give us?” It is possible that the true goal will lead to more serious costs than the customer thinks.
I work with different clients, some of them take hostility to the proposal to increase the budget. There is even a magic phrase “no more than 100,000 rupees”:
- Are we promoting a pizza chain? – “Not more than 100,000 rupees.”
- Elite real estate? – “The budget is 100,000 rupees, no more.”
- Launching a ship to Mars? – “Sorry, Ilon, I can’t give more than 100,000 rupees.”
Conclusion:
Calculate the effectiveness of your marketing. Take the key indicators: average bill, cost per click, conversion of orders to sales – and enter it into the calculator. Cost per click – 100 rupees, conversion – 2%. So why would you want to get 600 sales for 100,000 rupees?
Trying to sit on multiple channels
To attract a potential buyer in Internet marketing, a huge number of channels have been invented: SEO, contextual and display advertising, SMM, SERM (working with brand reputation), etc. It seems that the more tools you use, the faster the advertising costs will pay off and the longer it will be a line of potential customers. In practice, it turns out that quantity does not grow into quality at all.
We work in a standard way, without a twist
When we develop a strategy, we do not get hung up on standard tools, we are ready to offer stocks, strategies based on current bases, and set up a look-alike. Often companies dream only of “fashionable” channels: “Let’s just pour money into the context or target …”. Doesn’t it work? Why, sometimes it works. People sometimes win at sports lotto.
But don’t forget that context is the most overheated channel. There are certain topics in which the cost of a lead is higher than the product itself. For example, this happens in the segment of household appliances. This is because there are large stores and aggregators there, which boiled auctions to sky-high numbers.
What can be done besides standard solutions? Look wider. Context, targeting, SEO do just about everything. Aerobatics and the thrill of a strategist – digging out something new. This is how we worked with Door Lock, an online store of accessories for doors and windows. Read more about the project in the article , and I will tell you a short story.
Last year we decided to stimulate the demand for customer locks. And they did it in the best traditions of spy films. We posted a series of articles and several posts about burglaries due to low-quality locks. At the same time, we launched advertising campaigns (the message is “safe locks”) and increased the rates. As a result, the demand in Yandex.WordStat for the search phrase “doorlock” increased by 58%, and the wholesale orders of the client’s products increased by 13%.
Conclusion:
In internet marketing, there is always a place for experiments and bold hypotheses. But they must work in conjunction with classic attraction channels, otherwise, there is no way.
No analytics configured
In the process of work, the analyst plays no less important role than at the start. Clients often make “childish” mistakes, do not mark advertisements with UTM tags, do not optimize advertising campaigns by time, by device, they simply forget to remove the ad on time. In short, they drain the budget, and then write on specialized sites that “the target/context / SEO in my segment did not work.”
Analytics provides very useful insights. We worked with a fast food client who was convinced that the main buyers of his products were women. I went to Yandex.Metrica, rummaged through the reports, and it turned out the other way around – most of all the goods are ordered by men. If you can’t believe your eyes, and the data doesn’t beat your senses, run a test. But first, you still have to go to any analytics service.
Conclusion:
Take a look (or install, what is already there) in your Yandex. Metrica and Google Analytics counters. Check if the goals in the sales chain are configured correctly and if data is lost. And based on this information, optimize your work.
Abrupt course change
Advertising campaigns are constantly being adjusted. A good strategist analyzes the results every day, reallocates the budget towards conversion ads, changes targetings, tests various hypotheses. Advertising offices have automatic rate adjustment, but the system will not replace an experienced person yet. Small changes are fine.
It is much worse when the strategies do not give time to swing and instead of making point adjustments to the settings, they turn the steering wheel 180 degrees. A large fast food company worked with us, which became disillusioned with digital. The marketing helmsman decided to completely abandon Internet advertising, to transfer all activity offline: to distribute leaflets on the streets, to throw brochures into mailboxes.
He did this for three months until sales dropped, and then he came back to us anyway. When all companies are online, and one is printing flyers, it is difficult to achieve results. All changes should take place with an eye to competitors, in our tight digital world, true revolutionaries do not take root.
Conclusion:
Adjusting channels, connecting new instruments, tests is the right thing to do. Conjecture-based abrupt course changes are unacceptable.
Marketing works, but sales drain
The worst is when the problem is not at all a strategy. Well-tuned advertising, high conversion to lead – and sales are not growing. Mystic? No, the usual human factor. The problem with order processing is one of the biggest problems in indian business.
I analyzed the reasons and made the top errors (there were more of them):
- the client conducts the dialogue himself. According to the rules, the manager must seize the initiative by asking a counter question;
- the manager does not offer an alternative, discounts and promotions;
- the manager does not call back or does not immediately. By standards, the deadline for a call is 15 minutes. They called tomorrow – the client has long cooled down or bought from competitors.
All together led to dissatisfaction with the agency and the threat of breaking the contract. When we pointed out the facts, the managers were reprimanded and our work continued.
Conclusion:
unfortunately, the problem with processing applications is associated with a low sales culture in Indian companies. Well, so far, medium and small businesses do not know how to work like Joe Girard. The issue is resolved only by hiring competent people or training personnel.
How to maximize digital strategy
Here are some tips on how to dramatically improve your online marketing experience:
- Develop and follow a digital strategy. Indeed, few companies have a well-functioning analytics-driven action plan.
- Connect Yandex. Metrica and Google Analytics counters. Set the correct goals, check them regularly for correctness.
- Make decisions based on real data, not advice from your mom’s friend’s son or other marketing “experts”.
- Don’t complain to a strategist or marketer if leads don’t convert into sales. Analyze the entire funnel, conduct an audit of the sales department, and only then draw conclusions.
- Hire or grow a digital strategist. This is a specially trained person (primarily a marketer) who is engaged in tying together all the channels of attraction. And if it is not possible, contact Ingate – we will help you develop a digital strategy and achieve your business goals.
