Fixing your digital marketing strategy with George McCormick
Digital marketing strategies continue to be important as we enter the third decade of the 21st century. According to George McCormick, there are some signs that every B2B and B2C needs to look out for if they are going to have a strong digital marketing strategy.
“As eCommerce continues to skyrocket, consumers expect their online buying experience to follow new trends. Brands need to implement strategies that will allow them to closely monitor their campaigns.”
Read on for useful tips and further information on DM strategy:
Leads – numbers are important
“If you are not seeing enough monthly leads from your strategy, you know that you have a problem”, warns McCormick.
An effective digital marketing strategy will bring a B2C company at least 20 hot leads a day, and for a B2B firm, the expected amount of leads is approximately 20 per month.
How to fix it
Your marketing arsenal probably includes a mix of organic, paid and social efforts and you need to understand that these work in a combination. However, that may be difficult to determine.
High engagement and click-through rates of organic and paid promotions might not result in a high number of lead conversions but shows good promise. McCormick advises: “Perhaps these customers are not ready to commit, but their clicks are increasing awareness for your brand. At this point, you could do a re-evaluation of the channels and the campaign focus.”
Leads need to be of good quality
The importance of attracting good quality leads from your target market cannot be overlooked in any business. If you are a B2B firm, your leads may be looking for specific products that you don’t offer or within another price range; then you need to update your marketing strategy to target higher quality leads with enhanced targeting filters.
“Not every lead will be from your target market or be qualified, but if you are seeing anything over 30% of bad leads, then you need to review or update your marketing strategy,” McCormick advises.
How to fix it
Lead attribution is essential and if your business can’t afford a CRM to track multiple touch-points, then Google Analytics will help you identify last-touch attribution for every lead and source. If most of your qualified target market leads are coming from paid ads, then you can increase your budget or diversify to other platforms like Google Ads.
Your website needs an engaged audience
McCormick declares that: “Traffic on B2B websites needs to be from your specific target audience in order to make a significant impact, and quality always wins over quantity.”
Quality traffic means an audience that is engaged enough to visit other detail pages while on your website. After all, if your audience is not engaged, there is a very slim chance they will be interested in your product or service.
How to fix it
George McCormick insists that because every digital marketing strategy is slightly different, it needs to continuously be evaluated and adapted. Changes can be made to your website and adaptions to your brand so that you can continuously evolve in order to attract quality traffic.
Keep evaluating click-through rates for all ad campaigns
The click-through rates of pay-per-click and other campaigns can easily show you if you are targeting the right audience with the message that they need to hear. You will need the data of at least a few months before you can evaluate. Also, for a B2B, a realistic figure of click-through rates can often be around 2%.
How to fix it
You could try stopping Google Ads during the months where you usually have low click-through rates and maximize your busiest months by running more campaigns. Any changes to your strategy must be completed in Google Analytics so that you can track the impacts.
Important digital marketing trends to adopt in 2020
McCormick highlights the key strategies that brands need to apply.
Artificial Technology
AI and machine learning allow marketers to track and analyze so that they can cleverly drive revenues, increase leads and customer acquisitions. As Avi Ben Ezra at SnatchBot says: “Having a good arsenal of omnichannel communication tools is easier than before: you can have RPA, clever AI Bots and complete solutions for all industries with easy no-coding chatbots available from the chatbot store. Companies who fail to be up to date with this will no doubt take a backseat with efficiency.” (Avi Ben Ezra is the CTO of SnatchBot and a well-known AI researcher).
Augmented Reality
Online shoppers can now enjoy a unique shopping experience as they can visualize how things will look before they purchase. Companies that adopt AR are quickly taking the lead on their competitors.
Automation
Personalized interactions with customers through automation require no manual effort and they can be reminded about items they previously liked as well as abandoned shopping carts. Companies can automatically interact with customers on social media. Automation lowers costs, increases efficiency and boosts revenues.
Social Media and Videos
Videos have become easy to make and can be used on all digital channels and websites. You need to have engaging content and customers can also be effectively directed to purchase the products directly from the video with just one click. The easier the process, the better the lead conversion.
Transparency
When collecting data from clients make sure that you follow the consumer privacy regulations in your state or country. Clients also need to know to what purpose you are collecting their data.
Social Proof
User testimonials and reviews prove to prospective customers that your brand is the right choice. You should augment these by presenting the product with clear pictures, size charts and other information that consumers seek before committing to purchase.