Content Marketing Strategies That Drive and Protect Organic Leads - NEDMA 2015
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Presentation at the NEDMA annual conference held at Bentley University on May 27th 2015. The explosion of content marketing has created new opportunities for marketers to take back control of their brands and the way that consumers interact with them prior to engagement. This presentation will review new methods by which marketers are using content marketing in conjunction with marketing automation to develop consumer interest and protect consumer engagement from competitive infiltration. Focusing on an in depth analysis of direct mail and email marketing campaigns, marketers will learn marketing best practices that will drive brand awareness and credibility while attracting, engaging, nurturing, and converting more leads, customers, and fans. Key Takeaways: 1. How the desire of consumers to research online prior to brand engagement has created an opportunity for brands to generate organic leads 2. Best practices for brands to retain consumers in their marketing funnels and not lose them to competitive efforts 3. Actionable strategies and creative tips on how to maximize their brand’s marketing campaigns using powerful cross-‐channel marketing automation tools and effective content marketing
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Content Marketing Strategies That Drive and Protect Organic Leads - NEDMA 2015
- 1. Content Marketing Strategies THAT DRIVE AND PROTECT ORGANIC LEADS
- 2. Today’s Speaker Dennis Kelly @djkelly1 Boingnet CEO www.boingnet.com @boingnet www.boingnet.com/blog
- 3. What are we doing today? • What is content marketing and why it represents both an opportunity to generate and protect organic leads • Best practices for brands to retain consumers in their funnels • Sample Case Studies
- 4. Content Marketing – What is it? “Content marketing is the strategic marketing approach of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.” – Joe Pulizzi – Content Marketing Institute
- 5. Content Marketing - Common Misconceptions Content and Inbound – the same thing? • Inbound Marketing – Getting found • Outbound Marketing –Targeting likely buyers • Lead Nurturing – help them throughTHEIR process • Loyalty & Retention Content Marketing is online marketing • Online – web, social • Mobile – apps, messaging • Offline – direct mail, print ads, broadcast
- 6. Content Marketing – Everyone is doing it • 93% of B2B marketers use content marketing, a 2% increase over 2012. (Source: CMI) • Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non- adopters (2.9% vs 0.5%). (Source: Aberdeen) • 78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. (Source: DemandMetric)
- 7. What’s Changed? Buyers are researching before buying. • “94% of B2B buyers do some form of online research”– AcuityGroup (Oct. 2014) • “44% conducted research from a mobile device”– AcuityGroup (Oct. 2014) • “Just 37% of B2B buyers who used supplier websites to conduct research say this is their most helpful channel”– Acuity Group (Oct. 2014)
- 8. GE Capital Bank Consumer Research – Major Purchases ($500 or more) • 81% Research online before visiting store • 80% start research online, at home (up 61% in 2013!) • Average 79 Days gathering information • 60 % start the process by visiting a search engine
- 9. What are researching buyers seeking? Fit.They want to find the right product at the right price. Buyers don’t want to waste time (theirs or yours) If marketers don’t give them what they want, they will go find it.
- 10. Content Marketing Generates & Nurtures Leads Researching buyers want good content Buyers will give up information in exchange for good content If your content is engaging, they’ll listen to more. If not…
- 11. Marketers have turned to Marketing Automation
- 12. How Marketing Automation Complements Content Marketing Content Distribution Stage & Profile Driven Targeting Marketing vs IT speed
- 13. Marketing Automation – Do More, Faster 80/20 rule – Email & landing pages Other channels Personalization = better content Drip Campaigns CRM Integration Analytics
- 14. Key Takeaways Content Marketing is exploding Content Marketing generates & nurtures lead by helping buyers find the right fit Marketing Automation gives marketers better tools to efficiently distribute content in an intelligent way
- 15. Google – your friend, and your foe
- 16. Google Is The Content Gatekeeper “Google holds a staggering 67.6% of the U.S. search engine market share” comScore April 2014 “Google now processes 40,000 search queries every second on average, over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year” Internet Live Statistics Google has become the free product & service research tool for the world.They monopolize the starting point for buyer research.
- 17. Google AdWords – What Google Really Cares about 1.) In 2014, Google officially surpassed $59 billion in total advertising revenue. About of their revenue. 2.) Of that $59 billion in ad revenue, Google reported $14.4 billion in net income for 2014. Google doesn’t care about your content. It wants to use the searches from your buyers to sell ads to your competitors.
- 18. What happens when consumers research using Google?
- 19. What is Google doing to your funnel?
- 20. What’s the Best Strategy to Maximize Campaign Impact? Ignoring what consumers want to do won’t work Defeating Google’s momentum is not possible
- 21. Use Marketing Jiu-Jitsu Use the overwhelming force to your advantage in 2 ways: 1. Redirect consumers in your campaigns by giving them what they want in a “safe space” 2. Link AdWords campaigns to your campaigns – online and offline
- 22. 1st Jiu-Jitsu Strategy – Point researchers in the right direction 1. Develop a landing page/microsite with quality content buyer want – features, benefits, pricing, reviews 2. Distribute the URL through ALL OFYOUR CHANNELS. Web, email, direct mail, social. 3. Use automation to keep a steady flow of high quality content to your leads
- 23. 2nd Jiu-Jitsu Strategy – Buy your own AdWords real estate 1. Set up a Campaign in Google AdWords to correspond with your any-channel campaign 2. Bid on keywords that are related to your offer (tip – make sure to buy the brand name!) 3. Link those keywords to variants on the campaign landing pages that use the keywords in the URL, the title and copy
- 24. Landing Pages & Microsites – The “Safe Places” for brands to help buyers research A controlled environment that lets you give consumers what they want without distraction Low cost, easy to set up & embed in online, offline, direct mail & Google AdWords campaigns Especially useful for higher priced products with longer sales cycles
- 25. No Brainer Best Practice: Use pURL Landing Pages for Email & Direct Mail Content Step 1 – set up a pURL for the landing page to embed in your email and/or direct mail Step 2 – Set up a landing page that matches the creative of your email and/or direct mail Step 3 – Use profile data to personalize the message AND the landing pages for each target – keep message match!
- 26. Your Home Page Isn’t a Landing Page! ▪ Multiple Messages ▪ 7 Calls to Action • Designed for navigation, not designed for conversion
- 27. Key Takeaways #2 • Google is the content gatekeeper.You need a strategy to optimize your activities around it • Distribute high quality content on landing Pages & microsites through all of your channels, online and offline to avoid “Funnel Leaks” • Set Up Google AdWord to point to your landing pages as a complement all of your online & offline campaigns. Buy the real estate that your competitors want
- 28. Case Study #1 Bose Home Speakers • 90 Day Risk Free Audition • Direct Mail & Landing Page • Google AdWords
- 29. Case Study – Bose Speaker Direct Mail Offer Received triple folded letter from Bose 90 Day Risk Free Offer Need to unfold for CTA
- 30. Case Study – Bose Speaker Direct Mail Offer
- 31. Case Study – Bose Speaker Direct Mail Offer
- 32. Case Study – Bose Speaker Direct Mail Offer
- 33. Case Study – Bose Speaker Direct Mail Offer
- 34. Case Study #2 Vector Marketing • Vector Summer Job • Direct Mail & Landing Page • Googling – a bit of an issue
- 35. Case Study – Vector Summer Job
- 36. Case Study – Vector Summer Job
- 37. Case Study – Vector Summer Job
- 38. Case Study – Vector Summer Job
- 39. Case Study #3 AIG Advisor Group - Speak Loud Campaign • Designed to boost brand awareness among financial advisors and convince them to join one ofAIG’s 4 broker dealer groups • Digital Ads, Print Ads, Direct Mail, Email Blasts, Google AdWords, YouTube,Twitter, OnlineVideo Commercials • 2 year campaign – Phase 1 dedicated to generating leads, Phase 2 dedicated to nurturing the leads
- 40. Case Study – AIG Speak Loud Microsite
- 41. Case Study – AIG Speak Loud –YouTube & Print Ads
- 42. Case Study – AIG Speak Loud – Google Search
- 43. Takeaways, Questions, Thoughts? • Content Marketing is exploding because buyers are researching everything before they buy • Google represents opportunity and threat to your campaign – you need a strategy • Distribute high quality content on landing Pages & microsites with directed URL’s to control your environment and protect leads from Google’s “Siphon”
- 44. Quick Word on Boingnet • Rockland, MA SaaS provider of Lightweight Marketing Automation • Affordable, easy to use, fast to implement • White LabelVersion forAgencies • Feature Set: • Landing Pages • Microsites • Email Marketing with Drips/Lead Nurturing • Direct Mail pURLs • SMS/Text Messaging
- 45. ThankYou! Get in touch: Dennis Kelly @djkelly1 T: 781-421-6291 dennis@boingnet.com Boingnet.com
- 46. Case Study –Yodle Lead Generation Service Market Testing
- 47. Data Driven Content Marketing - Yodle
- 48. Case Study –Yodle Lead Generation Service Market Testing
- 49. Your Direct Mail Google Strategy? All of your direct mail targets are using Google every day No amount of great creative, CTA, database targeting can help you avoid it Smart mailers bake Google into their campaign strategy. A good strategy starts with some questions:
- 50. What Makes a Good Landing Page? Web Page Designed to Convert Clear & Consistent Headline & Subhead Single CallTo Action “Message Match”
- 51. Use Responsive Design for Mobile • 20-50% of Landing PageTraffic Mobile • Smartphone &Tablets • 300% higher conversion
- 52. What is Google doing to your campaign?
- 53. Use Landing Pages (or microsites). For Everything. You OwnThem. Facebook, Google,Twitter, etc. don’t Easily optimized for SEO & PPC Marketing Automation makes them easy & affordable
- 54. Use Landing Pages (or microsites). For Everything. Cross Channel – online and offline For content used for lead gen through loyalty Personalization drives conversion
Editor's Notes
- This is me and this is how to get in touch! I’m the CEO of Boingnet. We’re a lightweight marketing automation platform based in Rockland. We help small marketing teams and agencies deliver great campaigns across web, email & direct mail channels. We believe marketing software should be affordable, easy & fast to implement. Our white label edition is designed for agencies to build their own revenue streams by running campaigns for their clients. If you’re interested in learning more, stop by our table today or check us out online.
- 1.) What is Content Marketing & Why is everyone into it? 2.) Why it represents an opportunity to get leads and a threat to lose your leads, all at once. 3.) We’ll see it in action. Look at some real campaigns to see what’s working and what isn’t
- What is content marketing? Joe Pulizzi (Content Marketing Institute – fabulous resource) has six useful definitions of content marketing that could take up the next 20 minutes, but here is a quick version: In short, instead of always just pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. Make them a better buyer. Content marketers believe that if they deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.
- Many people get inbound and content marketing confused. With good reason, they appeared about the same time on the marketing landscape, and they both focus on educating rather than interrupting. In reality, Inbound is the about the top of the funnel – getting found. Content Marketing includes getting found along with outbound, direct marketing tactics that apply throughout the customer’s journey, including mid funnel and post sale, loyalty and more. Many folks think content marketing is all online, with e-books, whitepapers, cases studies and the like. This is not the case at all. Content can and should be created to touch buyers through all channels. Marketers have been using print and broadcast channels for decades, content marketing is about using these channels to educate & inform, rather than just sell.
- Tons of stats to back up the premise that everyone is generating content to help buyers make educated decisions My favorite is Google Trends – which shows the explosion of interest over the past 3 years in particular. Relative to Inbound Marketing, which has had a great trajectory, interest in Content Marketing has blown it away. Show of hands – how many of you are involved in content marketing? How many are heavy into it? What has caused this? Why has it become so popular? Who has an opinion?
- What’s changed? Buyers are conducting research prior to buying anything. They are looking around for information to help them make better decisions. Search Engines and mobile devices - a few keystrokes or finger swipes, they have easy access to everything they need to help make their decision, including: 1.) Price & product comparison information (am I getting a fair price?) 2.) Detailed product or service information such as spec sheets, videos, e-books, whitepapers & case studies 3.) Reviews from professional sources as well as fellow consumers Not just B2B buyers are researching…
- Content Marketing Isn’t Just for B2B –detailed consumer survey information from GE Capital Bank (2013) 3,220 consumers nationwide who made a major purchase of $500 or more 12 segments including: Applicances, Electronics, Flooring, Home Furnishings & Bedding, Home Improvements, Jewelry, Eyewear, Sports Products and Lawn & Garden Equipment. As you can see, consumers are spending lots of time researching Higher price point – higher percentage of consumers go online to research decisions. Products with a price point of $116 generate twice the amount of research as lower priced products. Think about what that means for things like auto purchases, financial services, non profit donations, college tuitions. Especially college tuitions (says the parent of two college students as of this fall). So what are all of these buyers looking for in their research?
- Buyers are looking for the right fit. They want information to help them figure it out on their own. They don’t want to waste time (in their minds) talking with salespeople before they need to. They don’t want to be hassled with calls, emails and other interruptions while they are in their information gathering stage. Our jobs as marketers is to give them the information they want in the channels they want to access the information in. Marketers have responded, in force. Hence, the explosion of content marketing.
- All this evidence points out how content marketing can help generate leads Marketers that publish high quality content will generate leads. The key then becomes to capture & organize the leads, keep in touch with them so they grow their interest over the course of their buyers journey There are some great tools out there that can help you capture & organize the leads, distribute the content and automate the delivery of it
- There’s a lot of content that needs to be organized, distributed & targeted to a lot of leads that need to be captured & nurtured. Marketing automation has really taken off, especially on the B2B front. Large B2B brands with big budgets have lead the way. Given the consumer research we just looked at, Boingnet believes strongly that B2C brands will follow, as the purchasing characteristics of big ticket B2C items is similar to big ticket B2B items. There are some great tools out there that can help you capture & organize the leads, distribute the content and automate the delivery of it. According to our friend Scott Brinker, there are 1,876 vendors across 43 different categories. That was in January.
- Why is this such a strong trend? MA helps distribute content quickly, on scale, with intelligence MA gives marketers low cost, easy ways to target leads at each stage of the funnel MA works at marketing speed, not IT speed
- Marketing Automation helps marketers do more, and do more faster. How specifically is it helping? The bread & butter of marketing automation typically revolves around tools that help marketers develop and publish email and landing pages. They tend be to at the center of just about every activity that marketers are involved in. Some packages help out with creation & distribution of other channels, like direct mail, social & mobile as well. Boingnet started off with pURL technology for direct mail, as we’ve grown we’ve surrounded with lots of other channels & feature. Personalization & Drip Campaigns – this is where the cutting edge lies today. Better packages make this easy & simple. CRM & Analytics – Good MA fits into the processes that already exist. Integration can be standard or custom, it shouldn’t be 6 months & tens of thousands of dollars.
- In order to research – buyers have figured out that they just need to type or tap on Google and a few words describing their interest. Google has become the default “free” product & service researcher for the world (except in China, interestingly). When it comes to search, and more importantly when it comes to online research, buyers around the world have come to rely on Google to provide them with the information they are looking for in ways that are easy to access & understand. As a near monopoly on the “starting point” activity that just about every consumer is doing, Google has the power to make or break your success. More & more consumers are hopping online whether they are at home, work or walking around on the street to check things out before buying. This is happening before picking up the phone, or responding to any type of offer from brands. You can reach out to them email, direct mail, social, radio or TV, they catch your interesting headline, offer or Call To Action, and they think “Hey, I think I’ll check this out further, on Google”
- As the Content Gatekeeper - What does Google really care about? Their Google AdWords product. Google is a spectacularly successful business that almost entirely depends upon selling ads to their search users. While they generate headlines for things like self driving cars, Google Glasses and all sorts of other geeky research projects, AdWords is really their business. After reinventing the online search business in the early 2000’s Google has achieved a dominant status in online advertising. AdWords lets businesses & organizations bid on “keywords” that are associated with searches and place ads that are designed to get consumers to click on them when they express interest in a topic via those keywords. As you can see, it’s a nice little business that kicked off about $14 billion in profit last year and has a nice little growth rate of 31% annually. We should all have nice little businesses like this.
- So what happens when buyers – online, offline, email & mobile, use Google to do a little research after you’ve grabbed them with your clever headline? Here’s an example of a simple online search for donations to AIDS. Perhaps this user has gotten an email or direct mail piece soliciting a donation, and thought they’d go online to do some research before deciding what to do. Why not? Its free, its comprehensive, its fast & easy to use. As you might expect, when consumers come to Google to use their free search engine, Google wants to get paid. The way they get paid is through Adwords Campaigns. Each of the items in the red boxes are ads that Google has strategically placed for maximum impact. The ads are designed to make consumers click to see what content is behind the solicitation.
- What happens when your leads go to Google to research? Your funnel all of a sudden has sprung several leaks! Google is selling ads to the eyeballs that you’ve driven to them with your campaign. These ads are designed to distract your clients from whatever their original intent was in going online to research. Once your clients click on an ad – you risk losing them to competitors trying to entice people to spend their dollars with them. In this case, the non profit who sent out the email or direct mail campaign to generate donations for AIDS is having its hard earned leads being “siphoned” by organizations like Unicef, an AIDS orphan organization, Heifer.org, Goodwill, a Find AIDS charities company, an AIDS research organization, and the Elton John Foundation. All great causes. All of them siphoning off interest in your campaign.
- We’ve discussed how consumers are increasingly using Google to make research decisions prior to responding to any call to action in any campaign, online or offline. We’ve discussed how Google is generating billions in profits from their AdWords product that is designed to distract your campaign targets from their original intent in learning more about the offer that you’ve spent your hard earned money putting in front of them in your mail piece. You can’t pretend this isn’t happening. Great businesses develop strategies to deal with reality. While Google may eventually be slayed by a new competitor, it probably won’t be one of us here today that does it. Their cash hoard of about $64 billion will ensure they will be a player for some time. So what’s a marketer supposed to do?
- While I’m no martial arts expert, there’s much to be learned from some of the philosophies that have evolved over the years – in this case when an overwhelming force is being applied to a marketplace – an economic battleground of sorts. We are all marketers – we need to give consumers what they want, while directing them to a “safe” spot (away from Google and your competitors ads) to dig in further and to quench the thirst to use online resources to learn more about the offers you are putting in front of them. This can be done both in the creative in your campaigns – both online and offline, as well as within Google AdWords campaigns themselves
- 1st – develop a landing page/microsite strategy for every campaign that gives the buyers what they want: Features, benefits, pricing & reviews. Transparency! Buyers who crave information want transparency. 2nd Develop a simple URL that can be distributed across all channels. All buyers who click on or type in your URL AREN’T going to Google. If you don’t give a URL to go to, expect leads to get siphoned off by AdWords 3rd – gather leads, organize them and give them great content over their life cycle using marketing automation. It’s the only way to be sure EVERY lead is followed up on with great content.
- 2nd Jiu-Jitsu Strategy – Buy your own AdWords real estate. For every campaign. Or, just let your competitors steal your leads that you’ve just spent time & money generating. You can’t beat Google, so use it for what it does best. Set up a Google campaign that works in conjunction with your online or offline campaign Bid on the right keywords Link those keywords to variations of the landing page/microsite content. MA can help the creation of lots of variants with optimized keywords for each so it doesn’t have to be a massive undertaking.
- Landing Pages and Microsites are the “Safe Space” where marketers control the content, the message and the options for buyers. Good landing pages are opportunities for marketers to give buyers a place to go online where they can learn more, compare & contrast, without being distracted by competitors. Low cost, easy to set up & embed in online, offline, direct mail & Google AdWords campaigns Especially useful for higher priced products with longer sales cycles
- Personal URLs are a great, low cost and easy way to develop personalized campaigns that keep your targets engaged, and away from Google. Marketing automation platforms make it easy to develop these campaigns, using profile data to personalize both the email/direct mail content as well as the landing page/microsite. Message match is a massively important concept as you hand buyers off from one channel to the next. By keeping your landing page consistent and embedded, there’s less chance they’ll get distracted from your call to action, they’ll stay engaged instead.
- Finally – don’t use your home page as a landing page. Often, direct mailers & others in the offline marketing world assume that because the brand has a home page, people will just respond to an offer by going to that home page and getting what they need online. This isn’t the case. The home page is a wonderful portal to many things, and rightly has huge time and effort put into it to ensure it accomplishes its many tasks. What the above example points out is that it just can’t keep up with marketing. Marketing campaigns come and go quickly – they are, by definition, limited time efforts. Home pages really struggle with message match – the ability of a marketing effort (in this case, web page) to line up with the messaging that originated the viewing of the page. Marketers have learned that by building landing pages and microsites with the sole purpose of acknowledging and building upon the messaging that prompted the consumer to act, conversion rates skyrocket.
- 1. Google is the content gatekeeper. You need a strategy to optimize your activities around it 2. Distribute high quality content on landing Pages & microsites through all of your channels, online and offline to avoid “Funnel Leaks” 3. Set Up Google AdWord to point to your landing pages as a complement all of your online & offline campaigns. Buy the real estate that your competitors want
- As Boingnet does a lot of with cross channel, direct mail campaigns, the case studies that I have here all have a direct mail component. The principals apply to any distribution channel. First up – Bose Speakers 90 Day Risk Free Audition Direct Mail & Landing Page Google AdWords
- Bose First Fold Received triple folded letter from Bose 90 Day Risk Free Offer Need to unfold for CTA
- Bose 2nd Fold Do the fine folks at Bose really think in 2014 that I’m going to find a pen, out a form in tiny spaces, and put something back in the mail as my first option? There’s no mention of anywhere to go on the web to learn more, to fill out this form, or to do anything else. For me, and for many people, this is the point where the paper meets the bottom of my garbage can. But wait…maybe I’ll go online to do some research first
- So of course I go to Google – I type in “Best Home Speakers” as my search phrase. Bose does show up – they set up a Google AdWords campaign to list an ad (as did Crutchfield) for the keyword phrase “Best Home Speakers” – any offer for 90 days risk free? Unfortunately for Bose, my eyes are immediately drawn to: The images of the high end speakers that Google decided to present front and center. Non of them are from Bose 2013 Speaker of The Year at OrbAudio.com Best budget home theater speakers – CNET Lots of distraction – I’m forgetting about the nice offer that I got for 90 days free – especially since there’s no mention of it anywhere – even on the Bose Google Ads. Assuming that I haven’t gone completely down another path at this point, back to the mailer.
- Bose 3rd Fold – Landing Page Just for kicks, there is more to the Bose mail piece. If I do unfold all the way, and scan to the bottom of the page – I can find a URL to go to. It is in black & white (to save money), the font is smaller than the 800 number (which is okay, but ultimately a futile exercise).
- The landing page Bose designed for this offer is pretty well executed. It has a nice image of the product, I have some options to see different views of the product, to watch a video about it, the price is prominently displayed. It is, however, lacking an important element – the offer that compelled me to research – 90 day free trial, is in tiny print below the “Add To Cart” button. It should be the headline!! This lack of “message match” can kill an integrated landing page campaign. Overall – a pretty poor effort from Bose. I got a relatively lackluster piece of mail, I had to really work to find where to go online, and when I got to the landing page I didn’t immediately see the offer that drove me there. As an online research first buyer, I’ve been prompted to spend time researching home speakers, but none of the content that I’m likely to use to research is from Bose.
- 2nd up Vector Marketing Vector Summer Job Direct Mail & Landing Page Googling – a bit of an issue
- My son received this letter offering summer employment. Pretty cool, as not many kids are getting mail offering them jobs. He was immediately interested. As you can see, this appears to be a personal letter from the District Manager. My son is personally addressed, indicating that variable print technology was used in the production. The call to action is clearly stated at the top of the letter in bold type. They want my son to call them. Now. But, before my son calls anyone (he much prefers to text), he wants to do a little research. Since Vector hasn’t given him any direction, he turns to Vector’s good friends at Google.
- As you can see, this isn’t a “safe place” for Vector. The 2nd headline that Google has come up with for “Vector Summer Jobs” is “Don’t get suckered into their scam! VM is a bunch of con-artists!” Not exactly what the marketers at Vector had in mind when they reached out to Patrick. After seeing this, there’s no way that my son calls them.
- The Vector story is not yet complete. Shortly after receiving the letter from the District Manager, my son received another letter, from the same guy, with the same offer. This time, the marketers at Vector included a personal URL for Pat to go to. PatrickKelly38.VectorApply.com. Nice & simple, easy to type in. Rather than seeing a page that says “Don’t get suckered into their scam! VM is a bunch of con-artists!”, Pat sees the following:
- Here’s a pretty well done page – while spare, speaks to him directly with personalization techniques, gives some benefits from working for Vector, and gives him a very easy call to action – enter the zip code – to begin finding him a job. It also has images of some happy teens about his age. This is an experience that is “safe” for Vector. The marketers took a little more time to develop a direct mail & landing page integration that gives Pat what he needs, but shields him from the mess that is out on Google.
- Case Study #3 AIG Advisor Group - Speak Loud Campaign Designed to boost brand awareness among financial advisors and convince them to join one of AIG’s 4 broker dealer groups Digital Ads, Print Ads, Direct Mail, Email Blasts, Google AdWords, YouTube, Twitter, Online Video Commercials 2 year campaign – Phase 1 dedicated to generating leads, Phase 2 dedicated to nurturing the leads
- The folks at Jameson Advertising Group nailed this content campaign. The centerpiece is a multi page microsite with deep, high quality content designed to appeal the several very clear buyer segments. The home page of the microsite that you see here has a URL (https://aigspeakloud.com/) that is easy to remember and is short – a key for direct mail or in a print ad. Above the fold I see links to lots of appropriate content as well as images of financial advisors who have switched – and their stories that I can relate to. As I scroll down, in the middle panel I get an Infographic with key stats and information about the advisors and the key benefits of joining AIG’s group. Finally, at the bottom, I get the pitch. I can learn how easy it is to switch to AIG Advisor Group, and I can fill out a form for customized solutions. Putting the form at the bottom of a long page is not considered a best practice. By using a strong automation platform, AIG (or the agency running the campaign for them) can swap out the page quickly for another with a form more easily accessible. This same automation platform can use the form data to help target personalized email and landing page content offers for the leads that come in.
- Taking a quick look at some of the other channels, there are several supporting videos (some used on the microsite, some as video commercials) with a reminder of the URL and the social hashtag. The print ads back up the exact microsite creative, with the financial advisor stories highlighted and the URL printed clearly. If a financial advisor sees this ad in an industry trade magazine, they are just as likely to type in the easy “Friendly” URL as they are to go to Google.
- In addition to directing online & offline traffic to the microsite, explicitly, there’s been a Google AdWord keyword buy for the campaign. By typing “broker dealer firms” in the search bar, there’s an ad for the campaign that appears on the right hand. There’s a ton of competition here, but at least AIG is in the game. By referencing the EXACT campaign slogan (#SpeakLoud), they’ve done a great job remaining consistent across channels – if you’d previously seen a print ad or direct mail piece with this creative, you are more likely to respond to it while searching. Overall a great job here by AIG and their agency partners at Jameson Advertising
- Content Marketing is exploding because buyers are researching everything before they buy Google represents opportunity and threat to your campaign – you need a strategy Distribute high quality content on landing Pages & microsites with directed URL’s to control your environment and protect leads from Google’s “Siphon” I hope you enjoyed the presentation! I’ll be around at the Boingnet table top for the rest of the day if you want to chat.
- Yodle Cross Channel Customer Acquisition Campaign Yodle is a fast growing company that helps over 50,000 small businesses in over 250 industries find and keep customers through website development, local SEO and other online marketing techniques. With this campaign, we have 3 different messaging strategies, 3 audiences and 2 offers to test. Our focus is on specific small business verticals – two that are more blue collar (HVAC and General Contractors) and one that’s white collar (Real Estate Agents). Across these segments, we’ll be testing different potential audience mindsets: Hasn’t Been Worth It: Using/used a service, but unhappy Google Searches: Not using a lead generation service, but just needs a little nudge 48 Hours: Not using a lead generation product and doesn’t know where to start This page is devoted to the General Contractor segment
- Yodle Cross Channel Customer Acquisition Campaign Yodle is a fast growing company that helps over 50,000 small businesses in over 250 industries find and keep customers through website development, local SEO and other online marketing techniques. With this campaign, we have 3 different messaging strategies, 3 audiences and 2 offers to test. Our focus is on specific small business verticals – two that are more blue collar (HVAC and General Contractors) and one that’s white collar (Real Estate Agents). Across these segments, we’ll be testing different potential audience mindsets: Hasn’t Been Worth It: Using/used a service, but unhappy Google Searches: Not using a lead generation service, but just needs a little nudge 48 Hours: Not using a lead generation product and doesn’t know where to start This page is devoted to the General Contractor segment
- Here’s the same landing page devoted to a different audience (HVAC Contractor) with a different message for testing (Maximize your presence online). The visual content of the page is designed to appeal directly to the audience segment.
- So, Google is out there, what is your strategy? We’ve established that Direct Mail Campaigns Drive your targets online to do research prior to taking action. Many of them will use search. We’ve also established that Google is the dominant player in search. In formulating a strategy on how to maximize the effectiveness of your campaigns, the next logical questions to ask are: 1.) “What does Google REALLY care about, since everyone uses their free search, there must be more to the story” 2.) “What happens when consumers use Google to do research when I send a direct mail campaign?” 3.) “What happens to my consumers after they use Google to do research?”
- Landing pages are web pages designed with a single purpose - conversion! By focusing their intent on exactly their goals, landing pages deliver better results than “normal” web pages. What do we mean when we say “designed with a single purpose” At the most basic, fundamental level, we mean: 1.) All Content and all Navigation not needed to achieve the conversion is stripped away – images, text, linkes, buttons, etc. 2.) The Headline of the page is clear, simple and to the point. If a sub head is used, it builds upon the headline with simple, clear language describing the product/service or offer. 2.) There is a SINGLE call to action on a landing page. By limiting the choices of actions that a user can take, you are purposely driving them to accomplish the one task you’ve set out to do – CONVERT! That call to action is usually the focal point of the design of the page – the layout, use of “whitespace”, the coloring choices should all be driving the eyes to focus on the Call To Action (CTA for jargon). The CTA will often be expressed in a button that requires the user to click. This button needs to be designed carefully, with color, size, font & word choice being thought through to attract the eye and convince the user to take the desired action. 3.) The primary messaging of a good landing page will match that of the messaging that DROVE THE USER TO THE PAGE. It doesn’t matter if the user got to the page via a Google search, an email message or an offline advertisement. The messaging needs to be consistent or you will lose a high % of your potential targets when they arrive at the page. We call this “message match” & we’ll dig in on this shortly.
- As everyone knows, mobile usage is on a massive growth curve Smartphone & Tablets are being used more & more for all purposes When landing pages are designed for mobile – they convert mobile traffic at a much higher rate than non mobile. Think about your own experiences, if you have to zoom, scroll around, pinch and do a lot of extra work, you are much more likely to click out & keep moving Research backs up the obvious. Many more people convert on pages that are optimized for the device being used. Build Once – run anywhere One set of code Automatically resizes for desktop, tablet & smartphone
- What is Google doing to your campaigns? While H. Ross Perot famously described the “giant sucking sound” of jobs leaving America because of NAFTA in 1992, I think a better image for the effect of Google AdWords on your campaign is that of a siphon. Google is selling ads to the eyeballs that you’ve driven to them with your campaign. These ads are designed to distract your clients from whatever their original intent was in going online to research. Once your clients click on an ad – you risk losing them to competitors trying to entice people to spend their dollars with them. In this case, the non profit who sent out the email or direct mail campaign to generate donations for AIDS is having its hard earned leads being “siphoned” by organizations like Unicef, an AIDS orphan organization, Heifer.org, Goodwill, a Find AIDS charities company, an AIDS research organization, and the Elton John Foundation. All great causes. All of them siphoning off interest in your campaign.