By: Jacob Davis
Along with my colleague Ashley La Fleur, I attended INBOUND 2022 with the goal of expanding my digital knowledge and arming our team with new intel and tactics to move the needle for our clients.
Taking a long view on digital advertising was one of the first things I distilled for our team. Why? Because it flies in the face of traditional thinking.
The 95-5 Rule for Digital Advertising
Here’s a stat that got a lot of buzz at the conference: 95% of the purchase cycle is “out market.”
The new way of thinking – which is seen as being more B2C centered – shows that everything you do has an impact on the buying decision of your future customer/clients. And whether you like it or not – you’re playing the long game.
So, how do you influence 95% of your buyers over the long haul? And what does that mean for your organic social and digital advertising?
The digital strategies that marketers use to drive to form fills or awareness ads matter, even though the payoff will be realized downstream. It’s important to adjust expectations accordingly and advocate for budget that paves the way for a payoff down the road.
When in doubt, remember the words of John Boyle, “Time is your friend; impulse is your enemy.”
Everyone wants a quick win, but creating a lasting impression takes patience.
Taking stock of the content you’re creating and promoting is key. Variety matters. Question your content mix, shake it up, and promote things you’d actually want to read.
Leave No Data Behind
According to HubSpot, nearly 60% of CRM data goes unused. Which begs the question: Are you hoarding data that you’ll never use or are you under-utilizing a powerful CRM tool that you have at your disposal?
One of the key takeaways from INBOUND was importance of data management and integrity – especially due to the launch of Data Quality suite. As digital marketers, we are called on to use the data that’s being collecting and clean up what’s left behind.
That can mean a number of things, including:
- Use email opens to trigger workflows to empower the sales team to initiate follow ups
- Create reports on blog activity
- Generate leads and pipeline movement after several engagements
- And clearly, I’m just scratching the surface here…
As you consider how you’re leveraging data for your business and sales team, I leave you with this:
“Data that sit unused are no different from that data that were never collected.”
I wish I could take credit for that quote, but it’s attributed to data scientist Doug Fisher. #Goals
Why You Should Care About Cross-Channel Marketing
I saved the best for last. Let’s talk about the 1% — a.k.a. the (staggeringly low) percent of marketers using cross-channel opportunities.
Cross-channel marketing is a customer-focused digital marketing method to provide an integrated experience across all paid, owned, earned media, and digital channels.
It is a powerful way of designing your marketing strategy and implementing data and testing to create omnichannel customer journeys. A quick quiz to find out where you stand:
- Is your LinkedIn audience engaging with your newsletter?
- Is your display campaign bridging the gap from your Meta ads and Search Campaign? Do you want it to?
- Are your retargeting ads bringing your customers back to your website?
If you’re not using a data-driven approach for cross-channel growth, you’re not alone. Designing and implementing a cross-channel marketing strategy can be a little intimidating and tracking/optimizing is certainly not an easy task.
If you want to learn more about creating an integrated marketing funnel, you might like our upcoming content series focused on increasing engagement, optimizing the customer journey, and reaching audiences at the right time. We share tips, lessons learned, and how to leverage data for decision-making.
