Digital Marketing Channel Strategy

Digital Channel Schema

Channels

• Email• PPC• Social Media• SEO• Affiliate Marketing• Mobile• Ad Placements

Results

• Greater Brand Recognition• Increased ROI• Enhanced Sales Channel

Cycle• Increased Repeat

Purchases• Greater Customer

Satisfaction• Top and Bottom Line

Growth

EMAILEmail, while not as effective as it once was, is still a very valuable marketing tool.

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 entrance 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 ends with conversions.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)Free Organic Traffic Development is often overlooked.

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.

PPC (Pay Per Click)Research and split testing are what drives PPC returns.

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 increases 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.

Social MediaThe new marketing tool that is shaping future sales and conversion engagements.

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 is 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.

With the new SAAS (Software as a 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.

Affiliate MarketingA great Top and Bottom Line growth tool.

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 rates. I push to increase both of these metrics to attract more affiliate engagement.

Mobile MarketingA quickly growing channel that will shortly be essential in digital marketing.

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, which is increasing usage across all demo ranges.

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 not 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.

Ad PlacementsStrategic Media Buys that increase exposure and conversion.

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 them 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.

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 Katesjeremy@jfknet.com

314-922-3671