Chasing The New Hot Channel Or Technology Without A Strategy

Discovering new marketing channels or technologies can be exciting. Just remember that vendors & agencies have product marketing teams that have honed their pitch to get you excited about the possibilities and potential ROI gains from leveraging these products or services. But before leaping in, it is important to determine where this new shinny object fits into your larger strategy. Here are some things to consider:

• For upper funnel tactics consider, "Does this new channel effectively reach my target audience based on the demographic and psychographic profile I’m looking for? Is this where they are actively engaged?" We see far too many brands wasting time and resources activating channels where their target audiences simply do not exist to any meaningful degree. Example – Your target audience is typically over 50 years old? Please stop spending your marketing dollars on TikTok.
• Ask yourself, "Can I effectively measure my ROI?" Don’t be swayed by case studies highlighting surface level performance metrics. Before committing to an investment, determine how you will measure success. If you can’t, for whatever reason, you’re not ready to invest in this new channel or solution. Work on solving your measurement gaps before taking a leap.
• Where does this new opportunity fit in terms of my funnel? Is this an upper funnel tactic aimed at generating demand across new audiences, or a mechanism for continuing to foster demand among existing prospects?
• What would my messaging strategy be? Does it need to be refined based the audience type of funnel stage? Understand who are you trying to reach, what your message needs to be, and where this investment fits before making a commitment.
• Will this activation put me in a position where I am over invested in a specific funnel stage? Will I be reallocating dollars to fund this, potentially starving other critical funnel stages and impacting my overall marketing success? Never pull funds away from what is currently working to test an unproven new solution or service. And keep a close eye on your budget allocation across your funnel. We’ll get into that more below.
  
  

The Perpetual Test

Testing is always a smart approach. How else can we discover potential new channels, tactics, or solutions that provide meaningful results. But all too often we see cases where an activation that was originally intended to be a short test becomes a fixed line item on an organization's marketing budget. That wouldn’t be a problem if it provided measurable return. The problems arise when there is an absence of proven performance. Here is our advice when it comes to testing.

• Always keep a budget reserve to test new strategies. Never reallocate funds from proven tactics to test new solutions, channels, or campaigns. That is a great way of sabotaging your current growth trajectory.
• If you can’t measure the ROI then what are you testing? Never jump into a new investment without a means of effectively measuring your success.
• If you do move forward with a test, demand proof the results are there and measure frequently.
• Be ready to pull the plug. Yes, campaigns and tactics are worth optimizing to determine if you can generate better results. But trust your gut and know when to get out. Those dollars might be better spent elsewhere.

Agencies can be a great resource for businesses. They have in-house expertise that can make the most of your marketing investments and optimize your campaign ROI. Unfortunately, we’ve seen far too many instances of agencies hyper-focusing on campaign specific performance rather than looking at the broader picture. There must be someone at the helm taking into account how it all works together to achieve the overarching business objectives. Here’s what we mean.

• Agencies will always suggest increasing spend across channels, campaigns, and tactics that are, “performing.” High performing campaigns are great, but how does the current or proposed level of investment fit into the larger strategy? Are you overfunded at one funnel stage but starving others? This is why your budget allocation across funnel stages needs to be closely monitored at all times.
• Example – Your upper funnel tactics are crushing it and are generating a ton of interest. Meanwhile, your middle and lower funnel stages are underfunded and/or underperforming. While you might be doing a great job of generating initial interest across your target audiences, you are dropping the ball when it comes to fostering that demand through to a conversion. Far too many of your leads, that you’ve paid real dollars to generate, are slipping through holes in your funnel. Before simply increasing spend on one campaign or tactic, ensure you have adequate investment downstream to facilitate this influx of newly created interest.
  
  

Panic Driven Investments Into Problem Areas

Throwing money at a problem. There is no better way of creating waste for your business. This is also another area where monitoring your budget allocation by funnel stage is critically important.

• Upper funnel tactics not performing? Don’t just throw additional dollars into brand awareness campaigns while not also adjusting your investments in you middle and lower funnel tactics. Doing so creates a scenario where your newly generated leads will simply spill out over the top of your funnel, rather than being effectively facilitated through to a conversion. You need to scale investments in tandem across the funnel to maintain the effectiveness of you marketing investment… Assuming the ratios are correct.
  
  

Lack Of Strategy Across The Prospect Journey

One of the most common problems we see is a lack of strategy around a prospect’s journey. This is how random acts of marketing create significant waste. Organizations need to take the time to ask, “ok, then what happens.”

• Build out a plan on each specific marketing touchpoint and ensure prospects move seamlessly from one stage of the funnel to the next.
• Hone your messaging for each funnel stage. Far too often we see the same messaging regardless of where a user is in their journey. As a prospect moves deeper into the funnel consider how you can elaborate on your value proposition to further foster their demand. This is also where it is important to have a robust testing strategy. Test, test, and test again to optimize your results for greater yield.
• Deploy increasing levels of personalization across the journey. Countless studies have shown improved conversion rates with the use of personalization. It makes the message more relevant and impactful for the prospect.
• Don't ignore opportunities to deploy automated retargeting for cross-selling. Taking full advantage of what is already in your pipeline is the single most effective way to improving your marketing ROI. It's like mining for gold in your own backyard.
  
  

Marketing Strategies Detached From Business Objectives

This is without question the most common problem we see. This happens when business objectives are finalized without taking the time to develop a coordinated plan to achieve them. The objectives have changed but the marketing strategy remains stagnant.

• Don’t develop your business objectives in a silo. Bring your business leaders and marketing resources together and take the time to review and breakdown specific business goals. Leverage your business performance data to isolate profitable products or services where you want to grow your market share, or to isolate new growth opportunities you want to capture. Then, take the time to develop a plan around audiences, messaging tactics, & geographic areas to target for each objective. Growth is not a strategy, it's a goal.
  
  

In Conclusion

A robust and well-orchestrated marketing funnel is core to creating scalable and profitable growth engine for your business. Mistakes can be corrected and avoided if we know what to look for. It’s also important to recognize that the work is never done. You must continue to optimize your messaging, budget allocations, and campaigns to account for both your successes and disappointments.

Click here to learn more about organizational marketing transformation & how we can help you avoid these critical errors.