With the global economic slump here to stay for the forseeable future and everyone pinching their pennies, creating marketing initiatives that are both effective and accountable has become a greater challenge than ever before. Nancy Marzouk, in her article “The 10 Things Performance Marketers Should Do— But Don’t”, lists 10 guidelines in order to help strengthen a brand in this time of global recession.
Marzouk recommends to take optimization into one’s own hands. “Do not pay for someone else’s optimization that is not transparent to you,” she admonishes. One should demand transparency in order to see how one’s sales video budget is being used and how keywords are being optimized. By doing this, one makes sure that he or she is getting value for the optimization premium paid.
Eliminate media waste by pinpointing and targeting one’s ideal customer. Marzouk says one can do this by looking for a partner who can append one’s data to theirs and personalize one’s media plan.
One should know his or her addressable market, Marzouk suggests. “Are your goals realistic given you addressable market? How big is your current market opportunity? How can you expand it?”, says Marzouk,” Know where the tipping point is in terms of diminishing returns.”
Analyze your attribution method in relation to frequency and exposures of your sales video. One should know one’s optimal frequency across the whole media plan. If one can’t track frequency and exposures across the entire media plan, one can’t assign attribution equitably, Marzouk says.
Fifth, Marzouk recommends establishing metrics based on cross-channel market opportunity. having a system for cross-channel attribution analysis in order to establish metrics that will allow one to effectively budget different channels.
Marzouk also recommends to invest in good creatives, have control over where one’s sales video ads are running and give one’s website the same amount of attention as one’s media. “If one does not have control over where their ads appear, it won’t matter how compelling they are,” says Marzouk.
“Challenge your ad agency. Ask why they are doing what they are doing so that dollars are spent as they should be,” says Marzouk. Finally, clearly define one’s objectives.
