There is a lot of new talk on how agencies could use data-driven marketing as a way to showcase their value and real results they obtain for clients. Fundamentally, marketing agencies need to take five steps to make this journey successful with clients:
Become data-driven. Making marketing decisions with data allows you to act faster and make better decisions when done right. Be crystal clear about KPIs. What's a KPI? It's the number you get your bonus for (or fired for). But in all seriousness, it means key performance indicators and they are important to proving to clients or employers that your digital marketing is producing a return on investment (ROI).
Build an agency cookbook. Cookbooks set apart good agencies from great ones. Use data to become proactive. Impress clients by being more proactive and pushing them. Squeeze all the juice from your tools. You probably don't need to buy more tools. An agency which takes these steps becomes more and more valuable to its clients. For folks on the client side, these are the things you should expect of your agencies, things you should ask for when agencies are pitching you. Agencies not doing these things will not serve you as well as they could. There's obviously a lot more detail, so go ahead and watch the talk now.
Here’s a truth that will probably not surprise you: most people, especially in marketing, don’t view themselves as particularly analytical or data-driven. And that is OK; being data-driven isn’t for everyone, and there are plenty of situations where it’s not the optimum methodology for solving problems. However, one thing I’ve noticed, especially since the beginning of the pandemic, is the absolute abdication of critical thinking, inquiry, and analytical capabilities among too many people with that mindset.
Here’s a very simple example: someone reads a news story that makes a specific claim, like studies show mRNA vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant of Covid-19 is about 65% right now. And that person simply accepts that statement at face value and assumes it to be true. (it is true, by the way, proven with peer-reviewed clinical research) At no point does that person wonder, “Well, how do they know that? How was that proven?” In effect, the person abdicated all critical thought responsibility and simply went with what they were given.
Closer to home, to marketing, I can’t begin to tell you the number of times I’ve given a report to a client with my analysis, and they simply accept it as gospel, as an immutable, always-correct truth. They share the report around internally with colleagues, and the business acts on it. On the one hand, I’m glad my work is received so well. But on the other hand, it can occasionally be concerning that someone doesn’t fact check it and say, “hey, this doesn’t feel right”, not in a confrontational way but simply a request to validate the findings. You and I, by virtue of being marketers who believe in the power of data and use it to do our jobs, are in a position where we’re handing our analysis and results to others, to stakeholders, and there’s a real possibility no one will question it and simply go with what they’re given.
What does this mean for us? It means we have a solemn responsibility, to the best of our abilities, to get it right, to do our homework, to produce analysis that’s as close to perfect as it can be - because no one else is going to check on it. It’s reminiscent of the changes made in the auto industry when auto companies adopted the ideas of W. Edwards Deming. Instead of having QA for every role (and possibly QA for QA), employees are told that they are solely responsible for the quality of their work. For successful companies, every worker was held accountable for the quality of their work, rather than abdicating responsibility for quality to a dedicated QA role. We must do the same. No matter your level of skill or comfort with data or analysis, be sure you’re getting it as right as possible. Not that many organizations have a QA role for marketing analytics, but even if you do, don’t rely on it. Don’t rely on someone else checking your work or making sure it’s free of errors. There’s a good chance the stakeholders who receive your work will simply run with it as is.
Speaking of analytics and accuracy, Google Analytics is one of the best free services around. If it's been awhile since you checked out the features, you might need a Google Analytics 4 Readiness Audit. Google Analytics 4 is the next generation of Google Analytics and at some point will be mandatory for everyone using GA. Are you ready? If not, get a checkup with my company, Trust Insights. We'll help you: Get your existing Google Analytics account in shape with proper goals, tracking cleanup, and best practices Identify key issues that will block your ability to use Google Analytics 4 and help resolve them Help set an analytics strategy for this that focuses on answers, decisions, and growth rather than pouring more data in your inbox Build a migration plan for Google Analytics 4, including Google Tag Manager and Google Data Studio.
Every year at Google Marketing Live, we announce some of our most exciting new product innovations for marketers. This year, we introduced new capabilities in Google Analytics 4, our next generation analytics experience technology. We would like to remind you that Google Analytics 4 is ready to set up alongside your existing Analytics setup. You can then begin collecting data and benefit from the latest innovations in Google Analytics 4 as they become available while keeping your current Analytics implementation intact. Now is the time to build the digital foundation your business needs for the future with GA.
New Advertising Workspace in Google Analytics 4 The Advertising workspace makes it easy for advertisers to find reporting, tools, and resources to help them achieve their advertising objectives with Google Analytics 4 properties. As part of this launch, the workspace will contain the Advertising snapshot and Attribution reports. Google Analytics 4: Conversion Paths Report You can use the Conversion paths report to understand your customers' paths to conversion, and how different attribution models distribute credit on those paths. The two sections include data visualization, which helps you quickly see which channels initiate, assist, and close conversions, while the data table shows you the paths users take to complete conversions. Google Analytics 4: Model Comparison Report Analyze conversion credit shifts under different attribution models by using the Model comparison report and determine how different attribution models impact the valuation of your marketing channels. Google Analytics 4: Adjust Session Timeout You can now configure how long it takes a session to timeout after a user stops interacting with your website, and how long a user has to engage with site content before a session is engaged. Ad Conversion Tags via Server-Side Google Tag Manager Server-side Tag Manager allows you to move your Google Ads conversion tracking tags from the webpage to the server. Moving these tags to the server will reduce the amount of code you have to run in the page, and may help improve page load times. Bounteous: What to Consider When Migrating to Google Analytics 4 "Take advantage of this opportunity to start fresh in a tool that is meant to provide more flexibility, with the ability to better understand users across their online interaction with your company enriched by predictive metrics and machine learning." Loves Data: Advertising Workspace in Google Analytics 4 "The new Advertising Workspace in Google Analytics 4 includes reports dedicated to your inbound marketing and advertising activities in the GA4 interface. It includes insights for your campaigns, along with any other paid and organic traffic sources." Data Driven: Understanding Google Analytics 4 Exploration Reports "The 'Explore' section is one of the most important spots in all of Google Analytics 4. With your exploration reports, you can dive into deep analysis and understand your user behavior at the most intimate level.
And speaking of Google products, one of Google's popular products is getting updated while some features are seeing a sunset soon. As Google announced earlier this year, they are making several upcoming changes to support FeedBurner’s sustainability. Here’s what you can expect to change and what you can do now to ensure you’re prepared. Now starting in mid August, we are transitioning FeedBurner onto a more stable, modern infrastructure. This will keep the product up and running for all users, but it also means that we will be turning down most non-core feed management features, including email subscriptions, at that time. For those who use FeedBurner email subscriptions, we recommend downloading your email subscribers so that you can migrate to a new email subscription service. For many users, no action is required. All existing feeds will continue to serve uninterrupted, and you can continue to create new accounts and burn new feeds. Core feed management functionality will continue to be supported, such as the ability to change a URL, source feed, title, and podcast metadata of your feed, along with basic analytics.
Several top marketing industry thought leaders recently shared their strategic insights for data-driven marketing and branding. GE's Tomas Kellner shared his expertise on building a brand story: “When you work on a story, it's your duty to bring in some new insights that your audience doesn't know, something they can walk away with.” NPR’s Michael Smith discussed fulfilling a brand's mission via podcasting: "People really pay attention when they hear their own voices and perspectives in our content." TikTok’s Sofia Hernandez gave advice on telling brand stories on the social platform: “TikTok gives an exciting opportunity for brands to become a part of the fabric of the culture." LinkedIn’s Ife Babatunde talked about new ways marketers can engage audiences: "The best posts on LinkedIn are the ones that open the door to community interaction and invite you to participate and share your experience."
After doing a quick search – you showed up near the top of the rankings, so whatever you’re doing for SEO, looks like it’s working well. So here’s my question – what happens AFTER someone lands on your site? Anything? Research tells us at least 70% of the people who find your site, after a quick once-over, they disappear… forever. Maybe SEO isn't the end all be all of marketing after all. That means that all the work and effort you put into getting them to show up, goes down the tubes. Why would you want all that good work – and the great site you’ve built – go to waste? Because the odds are they’ll just skip over calling or even grabbing their phone, leaving you high and dry.
But here’s a thought… what if you could make it super-simple for someone to raise their hand, say, “okay, let’s talk” without requiring them to even pull their cell phone from their pocket? You can – thanks to revolutionary new software that can literally make that first call happen. When targeting leads, you must act fast – the difference between contacting someone within 5 minutes versus 30 minutes later is huge – about 100 times better! That’s why you should check out our new SMS Text With Lead feature as well once you’ve captured the phone number of the website visitor, you can automatically kick off a text message (SMS) conversation with them. Imagine how powerful this could be – even if they don’t take you up on your offer immediately, you can stay in touch with them using text messages to make new offers, provide links to great content, and build your credibility.
The 4 key elements of Inbound Marketing Methodology: This buyer-centric solution is generally broken up into four sections to help attract more customers without intrusive outbound advertising:
1. Attract - Attracting new audiences is all about creating helpful content and driving new prospects to your website. Use these tools to attract visitors: Magnet SEO, Blogging, Social Media Marketing
2. Convert - Once you've attracted the right customers to your website, your next step is to get their information and convert them. Use these tools to converting visitors to leads: Info Call-to-action, Forms, Gated content
3. Close - You've attracted the right visitors and converted the right leads, now you just need to close and you've got a customer. Use these tools to help you manage this stage: Client Emails, CRM, Marketing Automation
4. Delight - Once your client is a customer, it’s all about making them as happy as possible. This stage is focused on turning your customers into promoters. Use these tools for this stage: Glove Surveys, Social media monitoring, Follow up emails.
YouTube just got shorter! Now you can create, edit, and share short videos on YouTube Shorts. All you need is a phone, your ideas, and boom! New ways to create mean new chances to be seen. Where will your creativity take you? CHECK OUT SHORTS Have fun with Shorts! Share your Shorts + get discovered Connect with the millions of fans already watching Shorts. Share recipes, hacks, or start a movement. Use YouTube videos as your soundtrack Pick your favorite video, sample the song or audio clip, and put your twist on it! Join the #PermissiontoDance challenge Dance your heart out to the new BTS song! Then, show off your moves exclusively on Shorts.
Just this alone could be a game changer to make your website even more effective for your data-driven business advertising and marketing.
