Marketing allocation for digital channels is becomingly increasingly important in today’s world. In fact, digital advertising is estimated to grow to $517 billion in 2023, up over 82% from $283 billion in 2018. But marketing is more than just an expense, it’s an investment. Whether you have a large digital marketing budget or a smaller one, getting a good return on investment is key to your success. Here are some tips for making the most of your digital marketing spend
Recycle Strong Content
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time you need a new content piece. Capitalize on time invested in a strong piece of content by leveraging it on multiple channels. Did you write an awesome blog post? Use it in a newsletter and promote it on LinkedIn! Or maybe you created a moving video testimonial for your website. Throw it in an email AND use it in a Facebook ad. The “Rule of 7” states that a prospect needs to be exposed to the advertiser’s message at least 7 times before they’ll take action to buy that product/ service. While this is an old school adage in marketing, there is still truth to your customers needing a certain amount of touches from your brand to take action.
Work on Your Email Strategy
Dispersing email content is a highly affordable and a great way to stay top-of-mind for your customers. Building your email list should be a priority no matter where you choose to advertise. Your email list is the easiest way to reach the 7 touches needed to get a customer to take action. Consider offering an incentive for signing up for your newsletter list, like a chance to enter to win a free Amazon gift card. Oh, and don’t forget the ROI on email marketing is proven: For every $1 spent on email marketing $44 is made in return. Of course, there is a delicate balance between firing off emails and ensuring they are relevant to your audience. We see a lot of success when implementing monthly newsletters sends that include a balance of industry education, event promotion, sales, and more. Remember, provide information that defines your organization as the authoritative leader in your space.
Use A/B Testing
Setting and forgetting a paid ad can be a huge detriment to your budget. Instead, make sure you are constantly measuring and testing your ads to get the best return on investment. Facebook and Google will gladly allow you to pour thousands of dollars into an ad but pay attention to ads to make sure they are working for you. A/B testing is an experiment where two or more variants of a page or ad are shown to users at random and analyzed to determine which variation performs better for a given conversion goal. Test different audiences or even different ad copy and design. We often recommend running both social and Google ads but if your budget is very limited, you might even test one platform against another to see which is more effective for your business model. Similarly, if you are paying for 3rd party ad placements, make sure the analytics reflect a positive return on investment.
Measure Your Efforts
Just as with A/B testing, measure and track your analytics to make sure the numbers reflect a positive return on investment for your marketing efforts. Don’t skip UTM codes* on digital campaigns. The first step is knowing how you’re going to spend your money, the second is knowing how many customers that spend is bringing in. When it comes to deciding if your campaign is impactful, don’t just look at the traffic it brings to your website, asses the quality of that traffic. Paying attention to numbers like a customer’s time on site, the bounce rate*, will help paint of picture of if your digital campaigns are bringing in quality traffic or just a large quantity of it. If it’s the latter, that means you are spending more to make less. It’s probably obvious that’s not the best use of your marketing budget.
Use Remarketing
Remarketing* is a great way to target individuals you know are already interested in your business. When a visitor lands on your site but leaves, it means they want to know more about your product/ service but are possibly not ready to purchase or are comparing you to your competitors. Remarketing allows you to stay top of mind for these customers so that, when they are ready to make a decision, they are one click away from your website. When spending your digital marketing budget, skip the top of the funnel* and go straight for the more qualified leads who are more likely to convert. Additionally, with remarketing ads, you only pay when your potential customer clicks on the ad. So, if an ad banner is simply displayed in their browser, that’s free brand awareness!
Be Flexible
Adjust spending as necessary throughout the quarter or year. While you might be super stoked on an idea, the numbers will tell you whether it’s working or if it’s time to ditch that tactic and reallocate your budget into an effort that is working. We know keeping a close eye on the ROI of your marketing spend or even how to measure your ROI can feel like a full-time job. Hiring a marketing agency like 10 Pound Gorilla is a good way to ensure there are ALWAYS eyes on your marketing performance that can help tweak your strategy to allow you the most bang for your buck.
Glossary of Terms
*UTM Codes- A snippet of code that you can add to the end of a URL to track the performance of campaigns and content.
*Bounce Rate- Represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and then leave rather than continuing to view other pages or take action on that page.
*Top of Funnel- Refers to the first stage of the buyer’s journey, where marketers will spread brand awareness about their products and services to generate leads they hope will become customers.