2. Digital Channel Schema
Channels Results
• Email • Greater Brand Recognition
• PPC • Increased ROI
• Social Media • Enhanced Sales Channel
Cycle
• SEO
• Increased Repeat
• Affiliate Marketing Purchases
• Mobile • Greater Customer
• Ad Placements Satisfaction
• Top and Bottom Line
Growth
3. EMAIL
Email, while not as effective as it once was, is still a very valuable marketing tool.
4. Email as a marketing channel, has evolved over the years. With the advent of spam
clogging user inboxes, email became the red headed step child of digital marketing.
This made many in the marketing space wary of email usage for marketing
purposes. It also created a more difficult environment to ensure delivery around
more sophisticated spam filters.
The key with Email marketing is lifecycle development and segmentation. Having a
plan for those who enter this channel is crucial. Creating a lifecycle that is designed
to convert an interested patron to a paying customer is the key to conversion.
Segmentation is also crucial for proper creative development that will be of interest
to the potential customer; or if a current customer, encouraging repeat purchasing
based on past purchases and potential vertical segment sales.
I use creative approaches to enter visitors into the email marketing channel. You
need to do more than just have a space for users to subscribe to a newsletter or
coupons. I make it a point to reduce bounce rates and increase entrants into one of
the marketing channels.
Too much emphasis is placed on getting visitors to the site and not enough energy is
used on long term development that end with conversions.
5. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Free Organic Traffic Development is often overlooked.
6. Search Engine Optimization used to be the key traffic driver for every internet site.
With the creation of Ad and PPC networks etc., marketers found quicker and
simpler ways to drive traffic.
The days of easy traffic are now over and one key area that is overlooked is free
organic search engine traffic. It’s not an easy task to get top rankings, and it’s also a
long tedious process for some of the more competitive key phrases. This usually
leads to discouraged marketing departments who prefer quick, simple, measurable
results.
I use this as a competitive advantage. With a properly developed and optimized site
that is designed to rank for key targeted search phrases, you can gain a traffic
source that is free and increase marketing channel growth. In this case it’s all about
answering the questions or solving the problems that your users are facing. Giving
them what they want without shoving it down their throat is important for
conversion. Google and the other main engines love educational content that
answers key questions that are answered this way. Building quality backlinks is
probably the most crucial area to getting better rankings that I go after.
Direct response actions are often created in this format, but you can increase
marketing channel growth in exchange for information in many cases. This satisfies
both sides and creates better engagement dynamics.
7. PPC (Pay Per Click)
Research and split testing are what drives PPC returns.
8. Pay Per Click is one of the best sources of traffic when you have a site running like a
well oiled machine. It provides quick measurable returns that can be scaled up or
down with a couple clicks.
On the downside, it can wipe out a budget very quickly if not properly optimized
and converting.
To be done successfully, you must research, split test, and test some more. You then
scale it once everything is converting properly. You often have to lose money to
make money in this space. The key is to not wipe your budget out by ramping a
campaign up before the site is optimized for conversion. Landing pages, keyword
bids, match types, and ad groups, are just a few of the things that must be
optimized before scaling the budget.
Analytics are important in this space and automating as much as possible makes the
chore easier to handle. I also look for lower hanging fruit in the space. Thinking of
creative ways to find vertical keyword segments can find longer tail, better
converting keywords that are cheaper with less competition. Proper ad group
optimization (ad titles, descriptions) is also key and increase conversion. Landing
page optimization is used to increase quality scores (primarily for Google) and
conversions. In the end PPC is a fairly consistent ROI predictor.
9. Social Media
The new marketing tool that is shaping future sales and conversion engagements.
10. Social Media is probably the most exciting marketing channel to come along in
history. The reason I say this is because it allows marketing professionals the ability
to create real time engagement possibilities that educate and convert potential
customers. Think of it as a channel that allows you to educate or solve potential
client problems with solutions provided by your business in real time.
This channel is ever evolving and staying in front of the trends are key. If you get in
front of the trends and use creative techniques to engage potential clients you can
create higher conversions, improved customer satisfaction, and long term
marketing/sales funnel development.
Take Twitter as an example. You can now easily build a follower list of anyone that is
interested in your products and services. This is more than adding a link to your
twitter feed on the page. You have to engage the user and build the list through
creative engagement techniques. It’s very easy to build a huge promotion and brand
building pipeline in this manner. This works across all the social platforms, but you
have to do more than create an account. I use out of the box creative methods for
this channel.
Monitoring social conversations is the area that I spoke of earlier that allow for real
time engagement.
11. With the new SAS (Software as Service) tools that are available now, you can
literally have any social conversation from various social networks, pushed to you
for direct engagement opportunities.
These conversations are targeted by selecting key phrases that relate to your
product and services. With the ability to enter and answer questions in real time
you can see the possibilities for growth in this area. Imagine someone looking for a
product or service that you offer. You could then respond with something like “Hey
Mary we have product xyz that handles your needs in this area, and I have a coupon
code xyz, that you can enter for a new customer discount”. You are only limited by
your creativity in this space, and it’s a creative marketers dream.
Some of the older social media tools such as blogging are still very useful and
valuable. The key here is to use it as a marketing tool as well as an awareness
platform. Much of the content should be developed to rank for key search terms
and questions that your customers are looking for when making purchasing
decisions. Many users have blogs that they use that are basically random ramblings
that sometimes raise awareness, but are rarely good marketing tools. I make it a
point to use the blog from a marketing perspective that educates and converts.
Social media is one area that can give your business a competitive advantage when
used in creative engagement manners.
13. Affiliate Marketing is a great tool that works for many businesses. If you’re looking
for a way to increase top and bottom line growth with little overhead or increased
labor costs, then affiliate marketing should be considered. This channel obviously
will not fit every businesses product or service, but if it does, developing this
channel can be done rather efficiently and with minimal integration and
expenditures.
Think of this as the ultimate outsourcing tool. By utilizing external vendors who
specialize in the space, you can create key affiliate relationships with other sites in
the same segment or similar verticals that drive growth. External vendors will
handle all the payments and a big part of the affiliate relationship. They do leave
the ability to approve or disapprove and the ability to set your own terms of service
for acceptance. Integration is usually a simple process as well. They provide the
whole interface, all that is required on your end is placing code to track stats and
conversions.
I have extensive experience in this space and like to develop key partnerships. It
only takes a few big players in a similar vertical to explode revenue growth. In the
beginning I usually recommend increased payout percentages to attract bigger
players. The major things that an affiliate will look at in this space are average order
size and conversion rate. I push to increase both of these metrics to attract more
affiliate engagement.
15. Mobile marketing is the quickest growing segment in digital advertising. This will
only continue in the future. With smart phone growth rates, and smaller portable
devices like the Ipad becoming runaway hits, the future of digital advertising from a
platform perspective is becoming a mobile medium. It is also becoming a simpler
medium with less complexity and slicker user interfaces.
From a marketing perspective this medium will become crucial for all business
types. The local marketing potential is huge on the mobile platform. Think of
creating an application that pushes a simple promotion when near your brick and
mortar store (this is what’s coming). For a strictly virtual based store front the app
can be used for promotions and awareness in the same manner but a slightly
different engagement level.
The key with mobile applications is the adoption rate. You must be creative in this
space as well if you want adoption. You can’t just give a shopping cart experience
and expect users to download the application (unless you have major brand
exposure). You are fighting with 250,000 applications on platforms like the Iphone,
so you must offer the potential adopter something in return; or a unique fun
engagement experience. You can really push for engagement on the mobile
platform that involves contests and promotions, that involve the customers
themselves to increase adoption. There are ad placement opportunities in vertical
applications that can be utilized to create direct response actions for conversion.
17. Media Buys can be a great tool for branding purposes but when the site is
optimized they can be a great scaling tool. The key is finding good ad networks or
private placements with strategic partners that lead to either a direct response
action or marketing channel growth.
I push for conversion in this space, unless branding is the key objective. Using
creatives that are focused on conversion over clicks is key. We have all seen the
creative with a moving monkey that says “punch me”. Obviously this will encourage
clicking, but it will do little to nothing for your bottom line other than draining your
budget. If branding is the objective then clicks are key and creatives for this purpose
would be designed for click actions for maximum exposure.
Media buys often require different landing pages. This is due to the fact that you’re
dealing with a more unqualified visitor. The landing page should be designed with
more of a marketing channel entrance goal, instead of a conversion. Most likely the
user will be less interested and conversions are almost always lower. The key is to
get them into one of the marketing channels for lifecycle development that turns
this from a tire kicker into a future customer.
Placement opportunities can sometimes be found with strategic partners that can
develop into cheaper traffic alternatives than those that already are selling their
space across ad networks.
18. In closing, If you’re looking for a dynamic, out of the box, creative thinker that finds
ways to use technology to increase conversions and simplify the sales process, then
I would be interested in working for you to make your company stand out from the
pack.
My key digital marketing philosophy is based around long term repeat purchasing
objectives. I feel that you work hard to get that visitor to your site and just allowing
them to leave without a fight is a waste of resources. A belief that when gently
nudged a potential future customer can be gained, by using creative techniques
that benefit both sides. Engagement marketing is the future of sales and marketing
in the digital realm. I love what I do, and hope you give me consideration to speak
about some of these initiatives and help lead and develop your marketing team.
Jeremy Kates
jeremy@jfknet.com
314-922-3671
