Use Your Digital Marketing Resources Wisely

Time, money, and energy are the finite resources that you need to distribute across your digital marketing strategically to get the most effective campaign.  This is easily forgotten as different people come together to work on a campaign with distinct perspectives. 

Typically, these perspectives can be broken up into 3 categories.

  1. Content
  2. Design
  3. Technical

Technical resources tend to be used the most effectively because they are often pricy to establish and are fairly objective (either it works or it doesn’t).  Content and design are the categories that see the most wasted resources largely due to their subjectivity.

Every stakeholder in the digital marketing campaigns must hold themselves and other accountable to staying focused and not wasting resources.  This can be uncomfortable if you have an element that you personally want to change or if you have to hold others accountable to moving forward even if they are preoccupied with a particular detail.

Set expectations up front on timelines, budgets, and bandwidth.  If you or any person working on the digital marketing process is addressing trivial details that likely won’t impact the campaign’s goal, then it needs to be tabled as a future improvement, not a current need.

As an example, I was on a conference call recently where half a dozen people were analyzing whether text on a graphic was a very light blue or white.  Obviously it was not a glaring problem since a consensus could not be immediately attained.  I ended up making a suggestion to leave the color as it was and it could be updated on the next communication.  No matter what decision we came to, this subtle difference was not going to have a tangible affect on our marketing campaign’s effectiveness. It simply wasn’t important enough to prevent someone from converting to a lead.

Similar issues can arise with content. I’ve witnessed long email chains debating sentence structure in an article or implied demeanor in a video.

Spending resources to revise a design or content should only take place if there’s a clear impact to the marketing campaigns effectiveness. If a design element is off brand or clearly an error, then it needs fixed.  If the content is unclear or unprofessional, then that should be corrected.  Any other subtle or preference related changes should be noted and updated in future communications rather than wasting resources on retroactive fixes or campaign rework.  

Is Your Content Becoming Redundant?

That’s funny . . . I don’t remember being absent minded!?

Meeting the demands of a consistent digital marketing campaign can lead content creators into becoming repetitive. This is especially true for trainers, consultants, and professional coaches that have been producing long term content from a limited amount of topics. To combat absent-mindedness or redundancy in your content, set content categories or refresh cycles to keep it innovative.

There are several ways to prevent redundancy from creeping into your digital marketing content:

Modernize Old Content

Do you have a fresh perspective on a topic you’ve already covered. Expand on your thoughts while linking to the previous content. This prevents your content from appearing repetitive while building on the topic you’ve previously addressed. This can be especially useful for technology or digital related content that evolves quickly

Set a Category calendar

Redundancy is never as glaring as when duplicate content is delivered in quick succession. Divide your topics into categories and rotate between those categories to ensure that any redundancy at least has the benefit of a break between them.

Reduce the Amount of Content

If your videos are running over 5 minutes or you have thousands of words in an article to cover a topic in depth, break that down into a series of content. The total amount is the same but you can deliver it bite size chunks that will fill your content calendar.

Reduce Frequency

This isn’t always possible depending on the goals of a digital marketing campaign. But give your frequency a hard look. If you’re not getting tangible benefits from an aggressive content calendar, scale it back.

Create Something New

Maybe you’ve leveraged a particular topic or concept as far as you can. Find related content about your area of expertise and create new tools and techniques that can serve as a fresh perspective on your product or service.

Trainers, consultants, and professional coaches can fall into content ruts in their digital marketing. It’s important to reinvigorate that content because if you aren’t genuinely passionate about sharing your expertise, others won’t be inspired to pay attention or want to learn more.

Is Marketing Automation Worth the Effort For Your Company?

Almost every company, large or small, aspires to achieve a systematic process for marketing automation.  Marketing automation promises pre-defined triggers and communications that will minimize time and effort while maximizing sales and leads. However, most companies run through an endless cycle of false starts and rebuilds that never really fulfills that promise.  So if marketing automation is a high risk / high reward aspiration, why do a majority of companies feel that they will overcome past failures to finally achieve this holy grail?

Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches are aware of marketing automation on a conceptual level but a lack of understanding the specific function or lacking a clear vision for the end solution leads most of them to fail or settle for a subset of what marketing automation can provide.

Some of the blame for this falls on digital marketers.  In our enthusiasm to describe the merits of marketing automation, we often gloss over whether it’s a realistic goal for a company.  Working with varied firms, we tend to find that only about one in five have true marketing automation.  The others tend to:

  • Have a system that used to be adequate but a knowledge gap from losing staff, partners, or subject matter experts has led a previously functional system into ruin.
  • Be working with some isolated marketing automation functionality that is stitched together with a series of manual processes.
  • Believe they have marketing automation in place but one or more marketers are working frantically to make the marketing process seem more turn-key than it is.

Marketing automation is a admirable goal but one that the majority of companies will not achieve. Remember that marketing automation will require more expensive tools, more expensive expertise, and longer implementation process to become productively functional. You can count on costs be exponentially higher so the projected return needs to be well defined to justify the endeavor. Based on size and type of business, it’s really not a justifiable venture for some firms.

Be realistic with how sophisticated your marketing automation needs to be.  We tend to suggest starting off with automation basics that are easier to implement and gauge the return on that process improvement.  In this way, you can gradually build processes that save time and effort while maintaining or increasing leads or sales.

Is Marketing Targeting Sales Now or Sales in the Future?

During the pandemic, there has been a fairly prevalent sentiment that now is not the time to sell.  The rationale is that people and businesses are experiencing unprecedented hardships and do not want to be sold or marketed to. Like most advice with a broad scope, there are certainly situations where that is a sound suggestion but it is untrue for many businesses.  Rather than halting your marketing that has sales aspirations, it might be better to refocus on providing free value immediately that positions you for a sale in the future.

Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches have modified their digital marketing to feature online content and programs.  However, depending on their client base, they might experience significantly reduced demand.  So through the pandemic and into the recovery, each firm needs to consciously identify a strategy that is suitable for their target market.

If you find that your clients and prospects are suddenly struggling during the pandemic then focusing on a sale now is unrealistic.  There are many industries that simply don’t have the budget to buy or the time to purchase.  If you find your target market is in that unfortunate position, adjust your marketing to relationship building for a future sale rather than a sale now.

How? Any free offer that you can provide will illustrate the value you bring without requiring money or other resources immediately.  Provide content to your target market especially if it helps them navigate these troubled times.

Providing helpful offers now without a request for an immediate sale helps build good will. You’ll be ideally positioned once your target market starts recovering and again have the time and budgets to buy your paid services.

The Right Offer During The COVID -19 Downturn

Business as usual is not business as usual. While some training, consulting, and coaching firms are slow to react, others are rapidly cycling through a multitude of options hoping that one will stick. Whether overreacting or underreacting, almost all of these firms are finding that their digital marketing calls-to-action need to be shifted to appeal to their audience who are unexpectedly dealing with new problems and concerns than they had before the pandemic.

Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches have needed to adjust their business model during quarantines and lockdowns. That adjustment has been extreme for some that did no online learning or more of a slight shift for those that already had digital delivery capability.  Regardless of your situation here are a few calls-to-action that can be leveraged during the downturn.

Webinars

Free Webinar – This seems to be the most popular option that trainers, consultants, and professional coaches are turning to.  These free events tend to work well for gaining attention, especially if they focus on problems that your audience is suddenly confronting given COVID-19 restrictions.  However, you should go into a free webinar expecting sales conversions will be slim to none.  If the goal is to get your firm in front of a wider audience and position yourself as an expert as the recovery begins, this is a great option.  If the goal is to generate immediate leads and revenue, it will likely be lacking.

Paid Webinar Series – Effective online delivery is difficult to sustain for much more than two hours. One hour is the typical suggestion.  Therefore, firms are finding that more robust training or coaching options need to be broken into a series of events.  These more robust programs will not draw as many registration but can create valuable immediate revenue. If you are offering multiple series, it’s important to clearly differentiate them as well as to space them appropriately so that you are not competing against your own offers or confusing your audience.

Recorded Training

Offering a small library of recorded training can be a low cost option if your audience is experiencing short-term budget constraints.  If you already have online learning platforms or digitally delivered content, leverage it as an on-demand training at a lower price point.

Reports or Whitepapers

Reports or whitepapers, especially those targeted at the pandemic, lockdowns, or downturn are a frequently overlooked resource the last few months.  The natural inclination for trainers, coaches and consultants is to speak to their audience because that is what they are accustomed to doing.  A document often has as much or more of a draw and requires no resources for delivery after it’s been created. Reports are often better suited as a free offer but if you have robust content, it can also serve as a low cost option for people to purchase.

There are many different delivery methods for these calls to action.  Rather than “optimizing” for the best platform, we suggest using what you already have available or are most comfortable with.  Trainers, consultants and professional coaches that are striving for perfection through the lockdown tend to be producing little usable content as they get lost in a cycle of improvements or shifting focus. In an effort to “pivot” many firms are failing to pick a direction but instead are chasing their tails. Pick a call-to-action that makes sense for your audience, professionally produce that call to action, and then start adjusting accordingly as we move into a recovery.

Over Communicate In a Crisis . . . With Purpose

During these turbulent times digital marketing has become more about company communication on processes and intention, rather than  promotional.  As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupts business-as-usual in many markets, it makes sense to scale back on advertising which might appear self-centered.  Clearly relaying what your audience needs to know takes focus. Effective communication requires discipline in stating needed information specific to your organization without regurgitating notices that are widely available or running on with unessential content.

Nothing is worse in a crisis than sending a lot of content that is confusing or unnecessary. Over communicating is only helpful when it stays focused.

Most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches have pivoted to an online version of their business. We’ve been busy helping clients relay the tools and updates required to make those changes known to the appropriate audiences.  These types of communications should be hierarchical. A short personal note wishing your audience well is appropriate but beyond that the content should focus on logistic matters for how clients can access training, coaching, and/or consulting.

Many initial emails as the pandemic grew were unnecessarily packed with the companies feelings and intended response.  That’s productive for a team conversation but becomes a cluttered message to work through via digital marketing channels.  Most people were getting bombarded with COVID19 information and really only needed to know how they can move forward with you during the crisis. Expounding on the situation comes later.

Along those same lines, hyperlinks are your ally in keeping you communications focused and helpful.  If a government notice or recent news item is prompting a change, briefly mention that information and link to it.  Everyone is aware of COVID-19 at this point and there’s no reason to re-state public notices, only how they might be prompting a change for your company.

At this point, most companies have taken steps to respond  to COVID-19 and made adjustments to logistic concerns.  Some focus can now return to marketing but in a sensitive manner.  There won’t be much receptivity to hard sells or physical interaction.

If you have content that can be delivered virtually and genuinely help your audience through this crisis, now is the time to offer it.  We suggest offering at least some portion of it as a free promotion. A lot of people are struggling through financial and professional uncertainty. Trainers, consultants, and professional coaches are often uniquely qualified to alleviate some of that stress. 

Of course, it’s not practical to provide all the content, time, or services that a paying client would receive. But any information that specifically helps people through the pandemic strengthens your community as well as builds healthy relationships with your audience that might result in future business after the crisis abates.

Should You Screen Negativity?

Preventing negativity is not necessarily the same thing as eliminating it.  We had a couple questions posed from our last article about screening out negativity.  While screening out negativity can be a viable option on your own channels, it needs to be handled objectively to ensure you aren’t disregarding valid concerns or criticism.

There are typically three ways to screen out negative content:

  • Block/Report a Comment
  • Hide content
  • Remove a user

Your options for using these screening tools varies from channel to channel.  For instance a negative review can be hidden on some platforms but needs to be reported to a moderator for removal on others. Understand the process for screening negativity on any channel before embarking to do so.  Nothing will rile up an agitated user like a notification that they are trying to be silenced.

If you are considering options for screening out negative comments or reviews, re-imagine yourself as an online forum moderator.  Just because you don’t agree or appreciate a negative response, doesn’t mean it’s inappropriate.  You want to encourage users to interact on your platform so only egregious negativity should be considered for screening. If you truly do not see any credibility or relevancy to negative responses, then taking next steps to block, hide, or remove the offending person or content is warranted.

However, the more likely scenario is that you’ll find some catalyst that drove the negative response.  In this case, it’s better to respond earnestly and helpfully.  Nothing counteracts a negative comment online as succinctly as a firm or company responding publically to inquire about the problem and strive to resolve it. Make sure your focus is on resolving a problem, not proving a point.  Starting an online argument will only serve to tarnish your reputation more.

You also have the option of redirecting people to alternate points of view.  For example, if you only have a couple Facebook reviews that don’t have a high rating, include a link on your page to your more relevant and positive Google reviews.

Screening out negativity usually comes down to a judgement call.  If online negativity is disrespectful, insulting, or inaccurate then a digital marketer might chose to remove it but should first exhaust options for responding reasonably before removal.

Image courtesy of  hywards / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Prevent Negativity from Dictating Responses

The internet is now the number one source for debating. But debating implies a productive dialogue where both parties are offering points and counterpoints to come to a mutual understanding of ideal conclusions or solutions. More often than not, internet debating is more akin to arguing and bickering to reinforce a pre-established bias. Even benign topics can quickly devolve into negative emotional arguments. Digital marketers need to be keenly aware of this dynamic to make sure that their business communications don’t spiral into a void of conflict.

When thinking about negativity online, many people’s first thought is cyberbullying.  While instances of cyberbullying have been particularly malicious, rampant attacks aren’t something that only affects children.  Online forums and social media are littered with adults launching unfounded and disrespectful assaults at one another.   

So what can digital marketers do to keep this strife away from their online channels?

Like most problems, the first step in counteracting online disputes is understanding the phenomena. Online interaction has been studied by psychologists and most people succumb, to some extent, to online disinhibition effect. I’m certainly not qualified to explain all the complexities of this dynamic but it tends to boil down to two factors, anonymity and invisibility.  Put another way, people behave badly online because they feel they are anonymous and others online are abstract “users” rather than actual people.

For digital marketers, this means that we are engaging with a group of people who have justified a relaxed moral or social code of conduct when interacting with us or others on our online channels.  Simply acknowledging this fact will grant an element of patience and reasonableness when online interactions are hostile.

After acknowledging that some contentious interaction is inevitable digital marketers can take two steps to prevent it:

Avoid the Three Inflammatory Topics: Religion, Politics, and Sports. 

For most trainers, consultants, and professional coaches, it’s not difficult to avoid these topics.  However, sometimes an analogy or story about one of these things is leveraged in an article or resource.  Keeping those references general, like a sports analogy, is typically ok.  As soon as you get into a specific opinion on any of these things, you invite online conflict.

Don’t Escalate Disagreements

It takes two to argue.  Sometimes negative comments are enraging or hurtful and it can be difficult to react calmly.  If you find your anger rising and want to “set the record straight” online, it’s best to step away for a while and then craft a response.  If a comment is particularly inflammatory, it might be best not to respond at all as it might not warrant the effort. Remember, just like clicking send on your email, once your response is online, it’s there for all to see.  Even if you remove a response, it doesn’t mean that others haven’t already duplicated or reacted to it. Make sure that your response to any negativity is coolly handling a question or accusation, not getting your emotional needs met.

Website and social media comments can devolve into destructive conflicts rather easily.  Remain aware of the dynamic and always look to prevent or diffuse such negativity as quickly and calmly as you can.

Inauthentic Email Marketing Personalization

ID-100234288 (1)A lot of aspects of email marketing get lumped into good and bad categories.  One such aspect is personalization.  The more personalized the better.  In some ways that is true.  If you can cater content to a particular audience to ensure relevancy then personalization is good.  However many trainers, consultants, and professional coaches don’t have an infrastructure or list size to make segmentation   practical.  So instead they “personalize” by adding a form field name to the top of a newsletter or offer email.  This is inauthentic personalization where the communication is meant for a group but contains superficial personalized elements.

Personalized email means its set up for a particular person or audience.  Trying to make general communication personalized is often a transparent effort that has no measurable effect on metrics. We recently ran a test on a client’s stock newsletter that had always included a first name.  There was no measurable difference when we tested a version with a name vs. a version without.  The audience understood that they were receiving a company communication not intended as a personal message, therefore the added name was just superficial.

Adding a name to something like a newsletter usually does not do any harm but it’s also not creating a personal connection.  Generally people can identify when they see a form field in an email.  Real problems arise when trainers, consultants, and professional coaches attempt personal messages delivered in a mass communication method.

Recently a client asked about doing an email campaign to local business owners. The campaign included a report specific to their geographic target.  Furthermore they had generated a list of business owners of the applicable size and industry verticals.  Seems like the perfect setup for a true personalized email right?

The issue was that they wanted the emails to come from individual consultants in their office as if the consultant had typed it.  The reason for this is that each consultant was to be assigned a particular business owner to call and offer a customized analysis of how the report related to their business. The plan was to run the emails through an email marketing platform.

The emails from an email marketing platform have to include SPAM compliance information and opt-out instructions.  That’s non-negotiable so it served as a clear give away that the consultant had not actually written an email to the business owner but rather done a group blast.

Instead of doing an inauthentic personalized send we restructured the email to send from the companies actual email addresses.  Furthermore, the groups were broken down into smaller sections that allowed for very specific customization by demographics.  The result was that it was more time consuming to get the emails out but responses were better as the emails were actually personalized.

Inauthentic personalization might make you feel like the email is “better” but often has no real impact. If personalization is desired then an effort need made to actually personalize it.

Image courtesy of cuteimage/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Website Maintenance: It’s just got to work

Many times the complex can blind us to the simple.  This is true in online and email marketing campaigns.  We become immersed in metrics, schedules, and best practices to refine our online campaigns to their top performance.  That is admirable unless we let the simple items slip.  Stripping away all the complex online marketing vehicles that are available we are left with our website, and it just has to work.

It’s a good idea to do functional checks on your website.  This includes submitting test versions of forms or surveys to make sure they function properly.  Few things can make as bad an impression as a form or link that is broken.  In fact when this happens all the online and email marketing are an exercise in futility.  Even if people get to the site they won’t have the ability to take a next step in engagement.

Remember your website is your central point of contact for most online and email marketing.  Make sure that it is perfectly functional so that interested parties can take advantage of your offers and are left with a positive experience.

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