Over the past several years, there has been a fundamental shift in where marketing is spending its dollars.
Historically, traditional channels such as print, TV, and outdoor media ate up most of the marketing dollars and it was difficult to measure the effectiveness. Today, if the bulk of your marketing dollars is not allocated to digital media, you are missing major opportunities to reach your existing and potential customers. But, how do you determine where and how to focus your spend in each area, and with which type of creative to achieve the best results?
Marketers often construct campaigns with experimentation in mind, especially when it comes to digital. Let’s throw X dollars at Google ads and see what works. Let’s put this amount towards daily Facebook retargeting ads, allocate Y dollars to TikTok or buy this customer list. It’s often guesswork, and marketing departments throw money away trying to find the right formula.
Why spend valuable budget if you don’t know where it will be the most effective?
Well, here is the answer. You have to find a balance between the right creative concept and strong customer insights. It’s imperative to building a successful campaign. Designing a campaign well in the beginning and using insights driven by specific customer data removes the guesswork.
This concept is not a new one. Sophisticated marketing departments have been fine-tuning their research to help guide their marketing for a while now. However, blending the science and creativity equally to develop a refined strategy is a balance that is rarely utilized. That balance will deliver more powerful results.
A common issue is marketing teams are under constant pressure to balance resources and budget to achieve the desired results. This results in rushed data gathering, an over-dependence on broad industry research data, or simply skipping the science altogether to focus on “wow-factor” and tactics. Unfortunately, good insights and a deep understanding of the target audience are necessary for a truly successful and measurable campaign.
Understanding this, marketing teams should seek to partner with an agency that will provide primary research, first-hand data and meaningful insights that truly reflect THEIR specific audience. Most creative firms imply that they do this but rarely have the capability to execute. They focus on producing innovative creative concepts and often rely on pre-published industry research reports. Marketing departments need to find a partner that has the capability to do both effectively and efficiently.
Having the right insights will arm the creative team with the information they need to build a campaign that will truly connect with your audience. Removing the guesswork allows your team to engineer a campaign designed specifically to meet your audience where they are.
At the end of the day, you need to ensure that every marketing dollar spent is used effectively to deliver high-performance results.
To learn more about how to blend science and creativity to develop a refined strategy that delivers a powerful return, please visit: www.rtrnstrategy.com