Want a 1,200% ROI Improvement? Read on...
In a dimming economy, promotional budgets are a bean counter's favorite target. These budget crunchers have been eagerly waiting to put the kibosh on marketing's endless string of spendy events and exorbitant promotions, along with their nebulous "results." Marketers rationalize the absence of metrics with responses like, "you can't put a price on building brand awareness." Even when results are generated, the path from promotional customer-engagement activities to a qualified lead or sale is generally untraceable, except for possibly the very last campaign element that "may" have inspired the customer to hit the purchase button or request pricing or more product information.
Swoosh. The next thing marketers know, their budgets are slashed. The only money left is for initiatives that can be directly correlated to a qualified lead or sale. Now there is a new problem: initiatives executed in isolation don't produce.
When promotional initiatives can't demonstrate measurable results, they should be cut –in a healthy or an unhealthy economy. When the market takes a downturn, however, every marketing program has to go above and beyond to meet its return on investment (ROI) or return on advertising spend (ROAS) objective. Today, this may mean saying goodbye to activities such as trade shows and their sky-high costs per lead, unmeasurable "brand building" event sponsorships and high-cost advertising's unquantifiable results. Instead, say hello to the specific measurability, low cost and high ROI of a well-planned integrated online marketing campaign. In this article, we'll walk you through some key success factors and a model you can use or customize to build an effective integrated online campaign.
Building an Effective Campaign
One key to your success will be the ability to define and promote the results of an integrated campaign to the executives charged with both top and bottom line responsibility. This will limit the possibility that your campaign will be killed before it's been fully executed. Doing this will require you to surmount a few challenges: (1) Educating decision makers on what constitutes an effective integrated campaign. (2) Adequately communicating the results, progress and mid-course corrections of the campaign over time. (3) Ultimately, delivering a campaign that maximizes ROI and achieves other defined objectives.
Before you begin, or in parallel with the campaign-planning process, you have to educate executives on why a multi-step, integrated online campaign is the best avenue for proven results. Now proven, traceable results may be as rare as a unicorn sighting, but there is no shortage of executives looking for a silver bullet to immediately deliver on a company's revenue goals. The 90-day fix presented below, if properly presented and reported on, may be fast enough for even the most impatient, but business-savvy, executive.
You'll need to convey a few important concepts. One is that successful online campaigns use multiple marketing vehicles to touch each individual prospect 7-11 times over a 45-90 day period. This is because prospects need to be repeatedly exposed to your brand, so your company or product name registers. Then you need to captivate the prospects desire to learn more.
Now, you'll need to communicate expectations, and subsequently, the progress toward meeting the objectives. In order to do this, you'll need to define and track multiple metrics for each marketing initiative. Because you will have the metrics defined in every step of the campaign, and your online monitoring tools will be in place, reporting is baked right into the overall design of the campaign.
Your 90-day Blueprint for ROI
Following is a model you can use or customize to create your own low-cost, high-ROI online campaign – complete with trackable metrics – that I have seen implemented with success. This campaign has at least 24 unique possible touch points, in essence providing insurance that you'll touch enough prospects the 7-11 times necessary to reach your objectives.
The objectives of this campaign are to: (1) Generate 3,000 new sales with an average sale price of $1,000; (2) Strengthen your brand by demonstrating your company's industry leadership and expertise; and (3) Execute with a total marketing budget of $25,000, delivering a significant 1,200% ROI.
July/August. To start, create the first of a three-part article series (with three corresponding Webcasts) that illustrates your company's industry thought leadership on a current "hot topic." Of course, the topic should be related to the solutions your company delivers. Target the audience of a widely-read industry publication.
Next, revise Web site content to align and maximize organic search results for the topics to be covered in the article triad. You'll need to do this early to allow search engines the time required to "crawl" for the new content.
Early September. Phase 1 of the campaign begins. Article 1 is published with live links in the e-zine version and URLs in the print version that take readers to a landing page specific to this campaign. The landing page offers: (1) The article available for download. (2) Registration to attend an Article 1-related Webcast. (3) Sign-up for a mailing list to keep informed about other available Webcasts, articles and helpful tips. (4) Registration to request product or pricing information.
A paid search campaign for $5,000/month is also implemented for terms related to Article 1. A search "conversion" is defined as completing any of the four actions above. A conversion is valued at $5, which is considered high … but prior experience indicates that early integrated campaign initiatives generate fewer conversions than later ones. An electronic direct mail (EDM) blast is also sent to target buyers and influencers in your company's database, with a link to the landing page. The blast goes to 50,000.
Mid-September. Webcast 1 is executed and a recorded copy is placed on the landing page. An EDM is sent to the 3,000 registrants who have requested notification of the recorded webcast. Immediately following the webcast, a pop-up message asks if the prospect would like to receive product or pricing information; a second popup offers a link to a blog set up to discuss the content of Article 1/Webcast 1. The former will result in a lead placed in a sales person's queue; the latter is a source of feedback for improving future webcasts and is also a good indicator of who was still seated at their desk when the webcast ended.
Any time the article is downloaded, the same popups appear. Whenever a visitor is presented with a registration page, if they do not complete the process, a final popup asks them to comment about why they have abandoned the process.
30-day Metrics for Phase 1:
(1) Landing page views and visitors: 10,000
(2) Article downloads: 3,000
(3) Engagement (i.e., average time spent on the website): five minutes
(4) Product-specific page views: 2,500
(5) Registrations for webcasts; sign-ups for mailing list; requests for product or pricing information: 1,000, 4,000, 50
(6) Webcast views; complete webcast views: 1,000, 750
(7) Paid search click thrus; conversions; ROAS: 2,000, 1,000, zero
(8) Organic search results: 1,000
(9) EDM 1 open rates; click-thru rates: 20%, 10%
(10) EDM 2 open rates; click-thru rates: 30%, 20%
In the first phase of this integrated campaign, there are six possible unique touch points. The true number of touch points is more than twice this amount, because: (1) the article is featured in a 3rd-party publication, as well as on the Web site. (2) The webcast is offered live and canned. (3) the article and the webcast are promoted through direct marketing, paid search, organic search, journal publication and blog posts.
If any of the metrics are not met, it's time to review what is and isn't working. For paid search, the evaluation of keywords is something that must be done early and often. Anytime keywords are not generating targeted conversions/ROAS, others should be tested. Google has enough money from people who don't validate the results of their keywords. If article downloads or registrations are low, experiment by changing the creative content and headlines on the landing page. If webcast abandonment is high or article downloads are low, analyze blog posts to see if the materials are not being received well. If registration abandonment is high, review the comments by those that posted the reason for their early departure. If open and click thru rates are off, check the bounce rate and reevaluate the timing and test variations in the subject header and email content.
If all metrics are off, it's time for an evaluation of the visitors: location, title, industry, demographics and company size. This will answer the question about whether or not you are reaching the targeted markets and buyers. If you are reaching the audience you intended, have you ill-defined them? This will be the topic of a future article.
October. Phase 2 begins. Article 2 is published, with the same integrated campaign elements as above. Additionally, the author presents Article 2 at an industry conference. A press release is issued the day of the conference announcing the presentation and offering a link to the landing page for Article 2. Public relations outreach results in an interview with a leading industry publication.
The 30-day metrics are similar to those identified above, with the following additions and modifications:
(1) Requests for information at the conference: 25
(2) Links from conference web site page to landing page: 1,000
(3) Press release news placements: 25
(4) Page views of author interview: 3,000
(5) Article and webcast download increase: 20%
(6) Paid search conversions are valued at $2; ROAS stays at zero
(7) Organic search results increase: 100%
(8) Requests for information increase: 1,000% to 500
In the second phase of this integrated campaign, there are nine or more possible unique touch points. The total number, again, could be twice as high or higher because of the numerous ways a visitor can be directed to the landing page and the dual ways information is served.
November. Phase 3 begins. Article 3 is published, with the same integrated campaign elements as Article 2. The 30-day metrics are again similar, with the following projected increases expected because the compound effect of the sustained delivery of touch points is in full gear.
(1) Requests for information at the conference: 50
(2) Links from conference web site page to landing page: 1,000
(3) Press release news placements: 25
(4) Page views of author interview: 5,000
(5) Article and webcast download increase: 35%
(6) Paid search conversions are valued at 50 cents; ROAS stays at zero
(7) Organic search results increase: an additional 100%
(8) Requests for information increase: 30x to 15,000
If all metrics are fulfilled, this campaign will meet, and slightly exceed, all of its objectives. The campaign stayed within its $25,000 budget, which included $15,000 for paid search, $2,500 for list purchases, $2,500 for author travel to events, $1,500 for press release distribution and $3,500 for permissions to reprint articles.
What's more, the campaign has delivered upon its promise of an exceptional 1,200% ROAS. Brand awareness has been measurably improved, as witnessed by a reduction in the sales cycle by five days, and anecdotal reports from sales reps that prospects appear to be more familiar with the company's brand as a leading authority in your industry.
Check out the webcast to learn how integrated online campaigns can save money and boost ROI in just 90 days.
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