Re:Adventure: An Article Series eBook for Navigating the Digital Landscape

You’ve heard the old cliché, “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey” that counts. And actually, we couldn’t agree more. But in business, the journey is more like an adventure that is constantly changing with the latest and greatest products, trends and tools. In the new series Re:Adventure, we will discuss how to create a roadmap that will allow you to accomplish your business goals while also remaining flexible and adaptable. Adaptability is the key to creating a successful roadmap, especially in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Pack your bags; it’s time for Re:Adventure!
Download other eBooks from our blog, Asking Smarter Questions: You’ve heard the old cliché, “it’s not the destination, it’s the journey” that counts. And actually, we couldn’t agree more. But in business, the journey is more like an adventure that is constantly changing with the latest and greatest products, trends and tools. In the new series Re:Adventure, we will discuss how to create a roadmap that will allow you to accomplish your business goals while also remaining flexible and adaptable. Adaptability is the key to creating a successful roadmap, especially in the ever-changing digital landscape.
Pack your bags; it’s time for Re:Adventure!
Download other eBooks from our blog, Asking Smarter Questions: http://ow.ly/lLRYP

Transcript

2. PREFACE Travel Smart: Create Opportunity on Your Re:Adventure pg. 3 PART 1 Picking the Destination: Where Does My Brand Need To Be? pg. 5 PART 2 Grab A Compass: Digital Tools to Help You Succeed pg. 7 PART 3 Never Travel Alone: Choose Key Passengers to Bring Along pg. 9 PART 4 Preparing for Bumps in the Road: Damage Control pg. 12 PART 5 Time for a Pitstop: Assess Potential Opportunities Quickly pg. 14 PART 6 Sightseeing: Tips for Leveraging Digital Trends pg. 16 PART 7 Reflect on your Journey: Learn from Analytics pg. 18 PART 8 On the Road Again: Planning your Next Journey pg. 20
3. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 3 Travel Smart: Create Opportunity on Your Re:Adventure by Steve Parker, Jr. We all dream of having an adventure; it is in our DNA and part of what has made the human race truly great. Having a leading sense of adventure brings to mind names such as Columbus, Lindbergh, Roosevelt, Cousteau and Armstrong. We all cannot be included in that rare company (perhaps because most of us are not willing to risk death), yet it is this inspiration that drives our quench for new answers, solutions and success for Re:Adventure. In the movie City Slickers, the late, great, omniscient Curly knew a thing or two about adventure. He asked Mitch if he knew the secret of life to which Mitch responded, “No. What?” Curly’s answer, “One thing. Just one thing.” Mitch prodded further, “That’s great. But what’s the one thing?” Curly said, “That’s what you’ve gotta figure out.” That’s what we’ve all gotta figure out. When starting out on adventures there are many unknowns, questions and uncertainties. However, that is what makes the adventure great and generally the experience and outcome even greater. Last week, I was discussing a trip to Africa with a friend of mine. I have been there three times, the first being my honeymoon – Zambia, Botswana and Tanzania (I know that’s not a standard honeymoon – but wow, what a great adventure it was). I told my friend that on that trip, I was overwhelmed—not only because it was an amazing trip with the love of my life—because I realized how insignificant we all are in the world. Simultaneously, however, I had never before felt such a part of it. Adventure brings us perspective and with perspective come answers and the ability to Achieve What Could Be. Without this perspective, we leave so many unturned stones on the path to success. Think for a minute about how many opportunities (both personal and professional) you leave on the table because you don’t ask, seek or challenge yourself or those around you to start a new adventure. There are many. So, how can you change this and create new adventures, to seek and find success or a new way to solve an old or plaguing problem? Think for a minute about how many opportunities you leave on the table because you don’t ask, seek or challenge yourself
4. 4 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM Make time to focus on strategic vision – set aside true time (yes, we are all busy) to reflect on the meaningful challenges you or your business need to overcome. Get out of the office and create an environment for a strategic thinking day or days. Get your team out with you! Don’t be a loner; give everyone a chance to think critically. Answer the WHY questions – these are the motivators. If you can’t or don’t answer these what you decide won’t last. Set goals and make them specific – you have answered the ‘why’; now create goals from them and make them meaningful, not convenient. Be accountable – determine how often you evaluate them to make sure you are still on the path. This will create positive outcomes. I hope you enjoy this Asking Smarter Questions series, where we will explore topics related to adventure such as your brand journey, tools to help you succeed, key assets to bring along on your adventure, preparing for the unthinkable, learning from your successes and failures, and planning your next trip. Now you are set and ready for your Re:Adventure! Get your team out with you! Don’t be a loner; give everyone a chance to think critically. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
5. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 5 Picking the Destination: Where Does My Brand Need To Be? by Jeff Adelson-Yan In our new series, re:Adventure, we will be working with you on the steps to build a roadmap for your business’s digital strategy. Along the way, we’ll be exploring the best ways to improve business intelligence with data from your marketing campaigns + beyond, preparing for any speed bumps you may encounter, and making sure we keep the best company (tools, technology + more). Owning a business is quite the adventure, and keeping up in the digital landscape can be tough without the proper plan in place. So if you’re up for it, come along for the ride. Much like picking a vacation spot, you have to be aware of your unique opportunities and needs in the digital space. If you want to relax, then chances are, you shouldn’t go to a loud, crowded tourist destination. If you’re really active, you should choose a place with more to do than sit on the beach. Similarly, choosing where you want to be in the digital space relies a lot upon your business goals and where you want to be found. Sure, there are search engines. But where else will your audience be looking for your brand? Doing your research is important because there is almost an endless amount of choices: Google, Bing, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs, Quora, Google+, Vine, Vimeo, YouTube… you get the idea. Where Should I Be? Although there are tons of platforms to be on, this doesn’t necessarily mean you should be on all of them. Our recommendation is usually to do a few things–and do them well. Instead of trying to be on every single social platform, for example, choose two or three that are the most practical for your business goals and target audience. If you’re a B2B company with an affluent target consumer, LinkedIn is probably a safe bet. If you’re a B2C with a young audience, Facebook might be the place for you. Taking the time to learn where you need to be–as opposed to simply where you want to be–will pay off in your roadmap planning. Specify Strategies Once you’ve decided where you need to be, it’s time to consider how you’re going to present your brand once you’re there. Remember how I said to pick a few things and execute your initiatives well? What I mean is that you’ll need to create Sure, there are search engines. But where else will your audience be looking for your brand?
6. 6 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM a specific strategy for each digital initiative you undertake. Your paid search ads will not utilize the same copy as your social updates; your consumer response and Pinterest strategies will be completely different. The reason this is important is because each initiative has its own unique audience and its own unique form of engagement to connect with that audience. Measuring Impact How can you tell if your digital initiatives are a success? It’s easy: measurement. When deciding where in the digital sphere you want your brand to be, you have to implement a measurement system for each. Establish key performance indicators and a way to monitor them. Measuring success is what will propel you into the future and make your journey a fruitful one. Effective measurement essentially guarantees that you will have insights + trends to capitalize on. You will be able to optimize your re:Adventure for efficiency + effectiveness. Once you have answered these questions, you will be ready to start packing for your journey of growing your business. Measuring success is what will propel you into the future and make your journey a fruitful one. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
7. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 7 Grab A Compass: Digital Tools to Help You Succeed by Steve Parker, Jr. You wouldn’t plan a road trip without first researching the tools you’ll need. Whether you’re going old school with an atlas or new school with a GPS, it is necessary to bring along resources that will make your journey easier and more successful. When creating a strategic roadmap for your digital initiatives, you mustn’t forget the tools you will need to help you succeed. And there are many of them from which you can choose. Here are a few examples of tools that will help you manage your various digital initiatives and make your life much easier: Paid search: Google AdWords, MSN AdCenter Site-side analytics: Google Analytics, Adobe Marketing Suite (formerly Omniture), Marin + Kenshoo CRM/New Business: Salesforce, PipelineDeals, Netsuite, Oracle Social: Hootsuite, Sprout, TweetDeck This is nowhere near an exhaustive list of tools used for these buckets, but all of these tools do similar things. Essentially, they organize all of your campaigns and content so that it is easily accessible to your team and your clients (if necessary). So what do all of these tools help you do? Though they are all different in look and feel, they essentially help you do three main things: 1. Aggregate + organize data The aforementioned tools are meant to house lots and lots of data so it is easier to measure and act upon. Paid search and social can teach you about messaging that works well, site-side analytics can help you understand user behavior and experience, whereas CRM tools can help you optimize your communication strategy with potential and current customers. 2. Measure success Success measurement is the most important thing that digital tools help you do. Oftentimes it takes a little ingenuity (with tracking code and setting up reports), but tracking your customers’ online actions is imperative for measuring your digital initiatives’ success. Paid search is simpler to see a return on investment. After all, you are given the precise number of clicks and conversions per user or investment. Success measurement is the most important thing that digital tools help you do.
8. 8 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM With social and CRM, it may be slightly more difficult. Rely on your business goals to dictate what your most important Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are and work to create a system that will measure the increase or decrease in these completed KPIs. If your business’s goal is to generate leads, and you implement an email marketing campaign, your main KPI is probably a user performing a “Request More Info” form. However, it can be beneficial to measure things like email open rate and transfers to website to assess whether or not your email messaging and images are effectively communicating with the user. In short, to measure success, you must first define your terms of a successful campaign. As a more concrete example with email marketing, let’s say that 5% of those who fill out a lead form result in a new client acquisition with $X average profit. Therefore, you can monetize how valuable a completed lead form from email marketing is. Sometimes it’s just as efficient to work backwards. 3. Optimize campaigns + messaging Once you are able to measure success, you are able to optimize your campaigns. It doesn’t matter if your digital initiative is an email communication, a paid search ad or an organic social update. All of these messages can be optimized toward a better return on investment. Historical data as well as current trends can help digital analysts predict when and where messaging will be most effective. If you are able to make predictions about marketing trends, this can aid in predicting business trends as well, which will help improve efficiencies in your business. Optimization is ongoing for those that want to constantly improve their return, but like success measurement, you must be optimizing toward an end goal. With these tools and goals in mind, you will be well-prepared when planning your road to digital success. Next week, we’ll be talking about what to pack to prepare for speed bumps in your journey, so stay tuned! It doesn’t matter if your digital initiative is an email communication, a paid search ad or an organic social update. All of these messages can be optimized. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
9. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 9 The digital space is constantly changing and it requires a level of thinking that is highly adaptable. Never Travel Alone: Choose Key Passengers to Bring Along by Jeff Adelson-Yan You have a destination in mind. You have the tools you need in place. Now it’s time to decide who to bring along with you on this journey. And by “who,” I mean those people that are your brand champions, the people that want your business to succeed and will help it do so. These people fall into three main categories: 1) employees, 2) customers, 3) partners. And you need to consider them in that specific order. Let’s go through each category and figure out how to attract and retain the best of each: Employees: Employees are the backbone of your business. If you surround yourself and your brand with honesty, integrity and innovation, you will be a step closer to success. Therefore, hiring the right people who have specific talents to help you achieve your business goals is imperative when planning your digital strate- gy. For the sake of brevity, I’m not offering tips on hiring peo- ple in general, but those that will be working in your brand’s digital space. These include community managers, account analysts, data analysts, IT professionals and media planners/ buyers. These are the folks that need to be well-versed in the digital sphere in order to move your brand forward. The follow- ing key characteristics are a “need to have” for the aforemen- tioned roles: 1. A capacity to learn quickly This is one of those things that employees know to say in interviews. Put their “I’m a quick learner” claim to the test by asking them to share a specific product, tool or process they had to learn quickly and how they were able to use this tool to execute a task. The digital space is constantly changing and it requires a level of thinking that is highly adaptable. In addition, many of the skills necessary to be a successful digital market- er are essentially brand new and require a “test it and figure it out” mentality. 2. Great communication skills This skill is needed for basically every industry, but can be very important in digital as well. Think of it this way: Twitter allows you 140 characters to tell your story. Facebook ads have even fewer characters. It is important that your employees know how to communicate clearly and concisely with each other, clients and with customers.
10. 10 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 3. Concrete understanding of your business goals When I say “concrete,” I don’t mean memorizing the business’s mission statement. Goals must be written on a sheet in the forefront of their minds. It will help them make better business decisions every single day, and will help them communicate your brand’s message in real terms in everyday conversations. Customers: You may want to bring these guys along for your roadtrip, seeing as how they will be the ones to provide revenue. But you need to truly get a handle on your customer. It’s imperative that you target the most engaged people and the most likely to convert. Here are a few things to help you decide who your ideal customer is and what actions you’d like them to take: 1. Social network Leveraging others’ networks is a huge part of social media marketing. Brand loyalists are much more likely to share information and positive feedback about your brand, and it helps if their network is vast to extend the reach of your products and services. 2. Targeted messaging To find the right customer base (ie: the ones that will not only purchase from you, but will also be a brand advocate), you must know who your target audience is. You can conduct social research, test user experience on your website and simply administer surveys. All of these practices (and many more) will help you understand exactly who needs your product/service and how to tailor messaging directly to them across all of your digital channels. 3. Conversion optimization Just like you don’t like traffic jams, your customer doesn’t want to hit a roadblock when on your site or researching your brand online. So if you have a broken link in a paid search ad or stale content on your site, or bad product images, you are hurting the consumer experience. Therefore, you must be constantly testing your site to be sure that the conversion funnel is clear and without hiccups. This will ensure that a customer, once reaching your site, has a good idea of what actions you want them to perform, and it is easy for them to take those actions. Just like you don’t like traffic jams, your customer doesn’t want to hit a roadblock when on your site or researching your brand online.
11. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 11 Partners: Partners may not be at your top-of-mind when thinking of who to bring on your road to digital success, but they can make all the difference. Just like having the appropriate research and tools at your fingertips can ease your journey, having the right partners can enrich the experience. 1. Leverage your community–and theirs Whether you’re talking about peers, industry advocates or just your digital agency, it’s important to leverage your community across all channels. Having partners that know about your unique challenges can help you make better business decisions. In fact, having an Advisory Board comprised of people who care about your brand and want to help it succeed can be a great way to expand your network and reach. Also, they may stop you from making a wrong turn. 2. Bettering your community Having partners does not always have to directly impact your day-to-day business decisions. Instead, partners could also mean other companies that wish to participate in the same charities, outreach or advocacy as your company does. Aligning your brand with other companies that are making a difference can be a great way to impact your business and your community. 3. Press affiliations Successful companies share their wins, innovations and time with the public. Sharing your wealth of knowledge is easy with public relations and press outreach. Align your business with notable publications (online and offline) to make sure your message is accurately and positively spread. Keep in mind that some of the best ways to reach people are through digital publications like blogs and news aggregates. All of these people have to come with you on your digital journey or it will be a failure. While you have to remain open to inevitable change in the industry, you also have to be able to rely on your employees, customers and partners to achieve what could be. Finding the right people with whom to make the trip ensures your brand’s future in the digital space. Have any other suggestions for important people and how to find them? Leave them in the comments! You also have to be able to rely on your employees, customers and partners to achieve what could be. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
12. 12 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM Preparing for Bumps in the Road: Damage Control by Jeff Adelson-Yan Just like you wouldn’t go on a journey without a spare tire, you cannot expect to never run into problems as you build your brand. Inevitably, you are going to hit a bump in the road. And it will deter you. It’s the nature of business–and of life. What is important is that you are savvy in your damage control and keep the effects of this bump to a minimum. Here are few tips for helping your business prepare for a bad situation and implementing a good strategy if and when it happens. Depending on your industry, there are many potential obstacles your business could run into. But the four practices and processes below should ensure that you avoid most major potholes, or if you hit one, you will have a plan in place to deal with it. Secure + Protect Oftentimes people think they are doing enough to protect their business from trouble. But with the onslaught of Big Data around the country and world, you need to take the extra step to protect your proprietary information and customers’ personal data. Everyone knows to change their passwords every two months or so, how many of the below precautions do you take? 1. Hide data in files with steganography 2. Heighten browsing privacy 3. Never use the same password for any website or app 4. Always protect your business’s wireless networks 5. Use much more difficult security questions + answers There. Don’t you feel more prepared already? Risk Control Many times, taking a risk in business involves risking our reputations if something isn’t a success. Other times, it involves risking capital. And both can be equally as scary. Therefore, we can implement a plan I like to call “risk control.” It basically means that taking the larger, risky project or initiative and cutting it into smaller, more palatable sizes. For example, a risk might be a total re-branding initiative. Besides testing your audience’s reactions to potential marketing collateral, you can use social research to assess how consumers feel about other brands’ images and messaging similar to what you are creating. Prepare yourself Inevitably, you are going to hit a bump in the road. And it will deter you. It’s the nature of business— and of life.
13. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 13 to hear what you don’t want to hear, and refine before you move on. You may not always be able to split up investments, but keep in mind that testing before implementation is just as important as measuring after implementation. Make Customer Service a Priority There are many reasons to revamp your customer service initiatives. It keeps your customers happy and keeps your business thriving. However, when trying to triage a bad business situation, the reason to make customer service a priority is two-fold. Customer service is your first line of defense in a sticky situation. Having a plan in place of what customer service representatives can say–and should say–to your audience is a great way to ensure that damage control is always top-of-mind. Secondly, successful customer service departments have undoubtedly already converted negative experience into positive ones, which creates brand loyalty. A loyal customer following is likely to help stave off negativity surrounding your brand’s faux pas. Essentially, an investment in customer service today can return a huge dividend in the event of a disaster. Remember Storytelling Leverage your brand’s story when times are good, and especially when times are tough. Giving your brand a face, a name and a story can help people empathize with your company when the brand has taken a hit. Take for example, the decline of Wall Street. The average American felt no sympathy for what had happened to these investment companies and banks because no one knew who was behind them, who was working to make it right. As a result, the industry’s and involved brands’ reputations took a serious hit. It’s best to be proactive about telling your brand’s story and managing your online reputation. If you wait until disaster strikes, no one will be interested in listening to you. And remember, when in doubt, try to do the right thing. Whether your business is big or small, and even if the “right thing” means losing money, be sure to show your patrons that you care about their opinions and want to make it right. The positive PR your company receives could even offset the initial hit. We’re all going to hit a pothole or two on the road to success, but it’s how we deal with it that really matters in the Court of Public Opinion. Having a plan in place can make your customers, your board, your investors, your partners–or whomever–feel much better in midst of crisis. Customer service is your first line of defense in a sticky situation. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
14. 14 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM Time for a Pitstop: Assess Potential Opportunities Quickly by Steve Parker, Jr. The nature of the digital landscape is that it is constantly changing. Trends, tools and data that seem to be best-in- class today may not be around tomorrow. So although we are planning for the future, this strategic roadmap has to have an element of adaptability and flexibility. This begins with what we’ll call “pitstops.” There is a huge amount of information and emerging trends bombarding our inboxes and news sites on a daily basis. It’s important to be well- equipped to assess whether or not these opportunities are worth stopping for or just a distraction. Therefore, I have created a list of questions to ask yourself before pursuing a potential business opportunity. By sticking with this list (and adding some of your own), you should be able to ascertain whether or not a new opportunity is in-line with your goals for the future. How does this help me achieve my business goals? This is the primary focus and question you should ask yourself before changing directions on your road to success. We have worked so hard to create a strategic roadmap that will align with your business goals and get you to the place you want to be. Although some opportunities might be flashy or exciting, it doesn’t mean they are right for you. What strategy can I implement to ensure success? Ok, ok. We can’t “ensure success,” but you can help your new initiatives by always implementing a strategy. Since you have already figured out which business goals this new initiative will help you achieve, you can implement a strategy for each goal. Remember: You don’t need to be a part of something for the sake of being a part of something. A perfect example of this is Pinterest. Sure, it’s a great platform and fun to be a part of, but that does not mean it’s right for your business. And if you do think it a good move for your business, don’t get into it without a strategy in place. How will I measure the success of this? Even though this is also a part of strategy, it’s important to think of measurement as its own initiative. How are you going to deem the use of this tool/trend/initiative a success without a measurement plan in place? Two words: you’re not. Also consider at what point you will determine if the opportunity is successful and implement a timeline for when you have to decide this. This will help keep you honest. Although some opportunities might be flashy or exciting, it doesn’t mean they are right for you.
15. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 15 Example: if this does not prove to be successful within six to eight months, we’re going another route. What am I risking? Risk is usually associated with big financial investments, but this isn’t always the case. There are small risks associated with simply shifting your or your employees’ time and focus. If you decide to switch directions, think proactively about what other areas will be impacted in your business. What’s my plan if it doesn’t work? This sounds a little paranoid, but the fact is that many, many business ventures and ideas fail within the first five years. If a new opportunity for a partnership or tool bites the dust, what is Plan B? Will it be easy to bounce back? Preparing for failure will help give you foresight, which can make you proactive. If you can answer all of these questions, you can assess the opportunity without investing a lot of time and effort. If you cannot answer all of these questions before moving forward, I simply wouldn’t. You want to make calculated decisions based on what is best for your brand and bottom line. This does not always include a flashy new tool or investing time into a new social video platform even though you might wish it did. Keeping these questions and answers in mind will keep you on the road to success and avoid pitstops becoming pitfalls. Preparing for failure will help give you foresight, which can make you proactive. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
16. 16 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM Sightseeing: Tips for Leveraging Digital Trends by Steve Parker, Jr. You’re on the road to success, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to opt for the freeway. In fact, sight- seeing is a great way to ensure that you stay engaged with your industry. It is important to remember that staying flexible and adaptable within your strategic roadmap is imperative to your success. After all, priorities + perspectives will change. To stave off complacency in your business and in your digital strategy, you must–in Steve Jobs’ words–”stay hungry.” “Sightseeing” might sound like ambling to you, but it can pay off. In our last series article we talked about assessing potential business opportunities quickly. But sightseeing is different. Essentially, you want to commit time to exploring new trends in your industry, making room for new goals and perspectives and new plans for achieving those goals. For example, if you asked anyone five years ago whether or not their brand should be on Facebook, you may have gotten mixed answers. Some would have probably said that Facebook is just for keeping in touch with friends and family or that no one was interested in shopping while social networking. Today we know that this isn’t the case. People like to connect and engage with brands on Facebook. Therefore, the plans of those businesses had to change their digital strategy accordingly. If a business did not take the time to explore brand pages and marketing options on Facebook, it’s likely they were left behind or striving to catch up with competitors who took the time to sight-see. Here are a few tips on integrating flexibility into your business plan: 1. Have dedicated teammates Whether you have a team or just one individual, it is important to stay abreast of current digital trends + how you can leverage them within your business. Sure, everyone knows about SoLoMo right now, but what is the next wave of execution to look out for? Your company should always be on the lookout for potential opportunities, but take the time to delve into new trends as well. It is easy to get swallowed into routine and only concern yourself with your industry, but there is opportunity in many other places. To stave off complacency in your business and in your digital strategy, you must—in Steve Jobs’ words—“stay hungry.”
17. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 17 2. Outside the box In that vein, it is important that you monitor trends even outside your industry. Let’s say that you’re in healthcare or travel and you notice that retail companies are doing something innovative with their remarketing ads. Envisioning how these trends can be applied to your business can help ensure that you are among the first to test new waters. 3. Adjust your plan Since digital is ever-changing, your plan should have room for change and improvement. Don’t be married to one idea of how to achieve your overarching business goals. If email marketing converts the best for your first two years, and then mobile begins to take over, switch up your focus + put more effort toward monetizing what is working. It does not always have to include new channels, either. If your paid search strategy needs to go hyper-local to be competitive, find a way to make it happen. 4. Maintain end goals No matter what new paths you may venture down, always be sure that the end goals are the same. If a new initiative does not meet your long-term goals, then it’s not worth pursuing. There will always be new ways to engage with and convert customers, but always be sure that each initiative has a measurement plan firmly in place. With these tips, you will be able to stay abreast of all that’s new in digital and what can potentially help your business. When creating your roadmap to digital success, it’s important that you plan ahead but also plan to be adaptable. Change is inevitable in the digital space and those with a more flexible business + marketing plan are bound to have fewer hiccups. If a new initiative does not meet your long- term goals, then it’s not worth pursuing. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
18. 18 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM Reflect on your Journey: Learn from Analytics by Jeff Adelson-Yan We’re coming to the end of our Re:Adventure series, which means that it’s time to reflect on your journey so far. What is the best way to reflect on the past and assess what you’ve accomplished? Diving into your analytics! I know we’ve preached about the importance of a developed and comprehensive analytics solution before, but that’s because there’s not a better way to understand where you’ve been and where you’re going. If you have been proactively using your analytics throughout your journey, there are things you already know about your business. However, data can help you understand the full extent of the trends and help you develop insights at the end of your campaign. Therefore, we’re going to explore the ways in which analytics can help you make sense of your past and present in order to plan ahead for the future. You’re never truly at your destination, but analytics can help you optimize your road forward. First, let’s consider what kinds of things your analytics solution can tell you about your business: 1. Where your visitors are finding your content. Exploring the most common paths that lead people to your site shows you not only what content is most popular, but what sites your audience visit most. Therein lies the opportunity to get your content on similar sites, whether it be through a link, guest blog, press release, etc. 2. What actions your visitors are completing on-site. Are they coming to your site purely for informational or educational purposes? Are they watching videos and reading reviews? Are they completing lead forms or subscribing to your email newsletter? All of these are actions that you can optimize toward, depending on your business goals. 3. Where customers are getting hung up. Pathing reports within your analytics solution is a great way to find out where customers might be getting hung up in the conversion funnel. Perhaps there are too many steps to complete. Perhaps the forms are not linked to enough throughout the site’s pages. Perhaps the navigation isn’t intuitive. There are a number of reasons why your visitors may not be completing actions on-site and your analytics solution can give you opportunities to test new site structure. You’re never truly at your destination, but analytics can help you optimize your road forward.
19. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 19 This, of course, is not an exhaustive list. Based on the analytics solution you have, there are many other insights you can glean from your site-side data. Secondly, let’s consider what kinds of things your analytics can help you plan for your future journeys. 1. By looking at historical data, it is possible to pull out trends and predict what will happen in the future. For instance, if you sell running shoes, your sales probably go up at the beginning of the year when people are trying to keep New Years Resolutions about getting in shape or in the beginning of spring when people know that bathing suit season is just around the corner. By looking at the data and seeing the rate at which sales increased, it’s possible to predict about how many running shoes you will sell during these times in the coming year. If you drill down even more, it’s possible to see what brands sell best at what times and keep more of these in stock. This can improve your inventory, pricing and business model as a whole. 2. Similarly, when looking at historical data, it’s possible to assess the slowest times of your business. If you find that there are a few months with little to no sales or less traffic to the website, it may be feasible to optimize your staff. Assessing with data empowers you to find the efficiencies within your operation. 3. Your analytics can also help you plan the future of your marketing. What channels are most cost efficient for you? What are the areas that need more budget? Analytics can help show you how valuable a customer is who finds your site via Google search versus Facebook. If you leverage the data by asking smarter questions of it, it can reveal a lot about your site visitors and how they got there. In the future, you can invest more heavily in the channels that work best and remove budget from those who do not perform well. And since we know that sightseeing is important, you can also assign budget to those new platforms or tools you wish to test. There’s no limit to how one might use analytics to better his business. And when you’re reflecting on your journey, it’s the best place to start. Set benchmarks from your last journey and new goals for the next one according to your findings and business goals. Analytics can help you do it all until you’re ready for your next trip. Set benchmarks from your last journey and new goals for the next one according to your findings and business goals. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
20. 20 ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM On the Road Again: Planning your Next Journey by Steve Parker, Jr. We’ve come to the end of our Re:Adventure series, and looking back, we’d say it’s been great (and hopefully educational) fun! This week, we’re going to talk about the importance of gleaning insights from your campaign’s performance to apply to your next initiatives. Whether it was a paid search, social media, or a non-paid initiative (like social outreach or content syndication initiatives), there are several things you need to check in order to build upon for your next trip. 1. Modify Modification is key, especially in the digital age where consumers are constantly bombarded with marketing messages (and therefore become fatigued much quicker). For your next campaign, you need to switch up not only your creative, but your copy. Look for the best performing messages and try to figure out why they did so well. Was it a specific time these ads or updates ran? Was there a clearer call to action? Was the creative more vibrant and eye-catching? Did it simply educate the reader? Whatever the criteria, categorizing your messages makes it easy to assess which categories did the best. Highlight the various creative attributes that performed the best (say the call to action button was green rather than yellow or the tagline was bigger in this banner ad versus another) and tuck these insights away for when you begin your next campaign. This is not just about marketing messages, either. You can also use your site-side analytics to assess where the stumbling blocks are on your website and modify those as well. Utilize the best performing search ads or most visited pages on your site to modify underperforming pages to have similar copy and creative. This will not only help refresh your site (which is great for SEO initiatives), but also give your consumer the most relevant and cohesive experience possible. 2. Refine Don’t confuse modifying and refining. Modifying is changing the ad, the update or the posting schedule. Refining is essentially making your campaigns smaller by optimizing targeting and placements. Once you have assessed which messages and creative performed the best, you are able to make the pool of creative smaller and more effective. Similar- ly, look into what landing pages and content resonated most Modification is key, especially in the digital age where consumers are constantly bombarded with marketing messages.
21. ASKINGSMARTERQUESTIONS.COM 21 with consumers (hint: look at “time spent on page” and “return visits”) and direct your next campaign to these pages and/or new ones like them. It’s best to cast a large net in the first few campaigns and then refine to capture a more relevant and lower-funnel user. 3. Remarket When planning your next journey, remember tactics that will connect you with customers that have already shown interest in your brand. This helps refine your targeting and can be a large display initiative. Remarketing is great especially for eCommerce sites, as it is targeting consumers who have already shown interest in your site by visiting. It can be used for several different reasons. If a consumer did not purchase your service or item when visiting your site, you can remarket them with an ad that displays the item at which they were looking very quickly (even during the same search session) to keep your brand top of mind. If a consumer did make a purchase, you can remarket them during their next feasible sales cycle or with corresponding items. So, for example, if I buy new tires, a company could remarket me to remind me to schedule an appointment for a tire rotation 80 days later. If I bought a pair of jeans from an online retailer, they might remarket to me with ads of suggested tops the same or next day. The possibilities are virtually endless as long as you have cookie data. This ensures that the consumer journey will align with yours. With all of these tactics, you have the opportunity to optimize your next campaigns before they even start. Historical data can be a huge source of knowledge in planning + predicting future trends in your business and marketing initiatives. In the digital age, performance is never optimized enough. There are never enough tests conducted. In short, there is always something you can be doing to maximize your dollars. Therefore, it’s important to assess where you’ve been to see more clearly where you’re going. Once you’ve done this, it’s time for another Re:Adventure! In short, there is always something you can be doing to maximize your dollars. BACK TO TABLE OF CONTENTS
22. Primary ASQ contributors Steve Parker, Jr. and Jeff Adelson-Yan are also the Managing Partners and Co-Founders of Levelwing. Levelwing is a business analytics and intelligence firm, mining and analyzing data to help businesses operate with greater clarity and profitability. Please contact us directly to learn how your business can benefit from our services. Email: steve@levelwing.com Phone: +1.843.631.4587 Web: levelwing.com/services