The lost link to improve your (Digital) Marketing Campaign

Digital marketing is the rage nowadays.  There are a spectacular (and confusing) array of digital marketing tools available.  Google Display Network, Google AdWords, Facebook Custom Audiences, LinkedIn Matched Audiences and numerous more.  Most businesses I meet these days have some form of digital marketing campaign running. Most of these campaigns are run by one or more digital marketing consultants.  And most of these companies are confused whether digital is working for them.  This post looks at a crucial exercise to increase the chances of success of a marketing campaign, digital or otherwise.

One of my favourite models from business school are Philip Kotler’s 4 Ps of marketing- the marketing mix.  They stand for Product, Price, Place and Promotion.  Very often, businesses jump straight into the 4 Ps.  And with increased focus on digital marketing, the last P (Promotion) is becoming the starting point for development of a marketing strategy.  Often there is a worrying lack of sync between the platform used to the product or service being sold.  Or the content or format of the content is not suitable for the platform or the product / service.

That’s not good!  Over emphasising only one ‘P’ of the marketing mix doesn’t make good marketing sense.  Despite the 4 Ps being an incredibly useful tool, they are not the starting point towards building a great marketing strategy and plan.

So, what’s the first and crucial step to developing a great marketing strategy and plan?  Another basic b-school concept- Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP).

Though a basic concept, in my experience the STP exercise is hardly performed in a structured manner. And when it is, the implementation is often flawed. This holds true for companies, big and small, family owned and managed or otherwise.

How does STP help your digital marketing efforts?

• The more specific your target audience, the cheaper your marketing campaign.
• The more specific your target audience and the clearer you are on your positioning, the better the content you develop. With better clarity on the social and internet advertising channels you should use
• Your conversion rates get better with fewer leads. So, instead of getting 1000 leads with a 1% conversion rate, you get 100 leads with a 5% conversion rate.  Its easier to manage 100 leads and it could be cheaper to acquire as well.  A collateral advantage- higher conversions also means higher team morale

Anything to be careful about when doing an STP?

Daniel Yankelovich and David Meer in their Harvard Business Review article ‘Rediscovering Market Segmentation’ talk about three primary reasons for failure in a segmenting exercise.

1. Excessive interest in consumers identities rather than on the product features that matter most to current and potential customers.
2. Too little emphasis on actual consumer behaviour.
3. Too much absorption in technical details of devising segmentations.

It’s also important to understand that segmentations are dynamic- they need to keep changing to reflect changing customer requirements.

What next?

An STP exercise is one of the most important exercises any company can undertake. Even if you aren’t focused on digital marketing or don’t really do too much advertising.  As the original proponent of non-demographic segmentation, Daniel Yankelovich says “Segmentations should be part of an ongoing search for answers to important business questions as they arise”

We’ll be doing a post soon on which Digital Marketing tools are relevant for your business and when to use them.  Subscribe to our mailing list to be intimated on new posts.

Questions (comment below / email ) with any questions or comment