In part two of our Figaro Digital Marketing Summit Roundup, we reflect on the presentations we didn’t get to cover in our first installment. Presentations spanned a diverse range of subjects, from getting the most out of Google Ads, to embracing a non-linear, multi-touch approach, and how B2B brands can create a beautiful experience for their customers. The depth and breadth of topics discussed meant that everyone walked away feeling inspired, with actionable advice to apply to their own strategy.
If you were unable to attend the summit, or would just like to watch the presentations again, you can catch up on all the talks on our website. If you would like any of the slides shown in the presentations, please email slides@figarodigital.co.uk.
5 Key Trends That Will Optimise Your Content Strategy
If 60 per cent of all brand content is considered poor, irrelevant or doesn’t deliver, what are brands with successful content strategies doing differently? Considering key trends such as media ownership, voice experiences and targeted profiling, Kirsty Spencer, Managing Director at Made by Sonder, gave her insight into the content strategies they are optimising for brands. Brands need to position themselves as media owners and commit to producing high quality, informative content. Sonder worked closely with Triumph motorcycles, creating four different content streams that covered all the bases their customers were interested in. Together, they worked to capture their audience’s attention and involve them in the brand’s digital space. Content focusing on specific bike reviews, as well as more general articles like ‘Top Destinations For 2018’ ensured that different customer needs were catered for.
Another client that Sonder worked with, The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), were encouraged to move beyond demographics and to concentrate instead, on human behaviour. Firstly, they identified the primary motivators for RICS training and then segmented the conversion funnel into subcategories. By breaking down the process into think, feel and do, they could get a greater emotional understanding of their audience. Another area they worked on with RICS was powering the customer experience; they activated content based on the specific journey segment their customer belonged to. Voice isn’t a new phenomenon, but it is constantly teetering on the edge of mass mainstream adoption. Kirsty’s fourth tip for optimising your content strategy was to make sure that you’re ready to embrace the voice revolution. It’s helpful to analyse the current landscape and use this as a sounding board to map future opportunities in voice for your brand. Finally, Kirsty revealed that making sure value is correctly attributed is important to ensure that you are aware of which areas are working for you, and which are not.
View Kirsty’s presentation here.
Beautiful Experiences For The Unsexy And Unloved
B2B can often feel like the less sexy cousin of B2C, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still create beautiful B2B experiences. Codehouse’s Shaun Miller reveals how a framework for modelling these moments of joy can be easily adopted by any brand, allowing them to digitally delight their customers. His aim was to demonstrate how joy and value can be created in even the most “boring” of spaces. Areas such as signing up or signing in are often labelled as so mundane that they are unworthy of attention, but focusing in on these often overlooked processes can significantly improve the customer experience. Shaun shared some practical tips for beautifying the process of proving who a customer is, verifying their identity each time they login and agreeing on terms.
Marie Kondo isn’t just a source of inspiration for those decluttering their home, her philosophies can also be applied in new and surprising ways to your digital marketing strategy. Spring-cleaning your website and processes should be centered around creating a better user experience for your customer. Get rid of anything that will not bring joy, heightened levels of understanding, or incite action from your customer. Shaun also explains how Kondo’s mantra of ‘purge everything, before you organise anything’ can be relevant for your website too. He concluded his presentation by asking the delegates to reflect on three important questions: what is the infrastructure your company provides to its customers to help them live or work effectively and joyfully, what role can digital play in providing that infrastructure and what role can you play in providing the infrastructure for your company to deliver that value and joy?
View Shaun’s presentation here.
Content, Experience, Translation, The Opportunity And Challenge In Having A Truly Global Voice
The majority of customers want brands to speak to them in their mother tongue, but this aspect of marketing is often overlooked. As markets become ever more disintermediated, content and experience become the battleground for success, meaning how you manage language to support growth is critical. Jeremy Clutton, Global Director for Sales and Partners at Lingo24, shared five tips for successfully incorporating translation into your strategy. Global brands need to be able to manage language at scale. Jeremy demonstrated how eBay successfully leveraged translation to re-position language as an essential business requirement. It was particularly necessary for them when deciding on accurate and culturally aware search terms.
Another key aspect when mastering translation, is ensuring that experiences are joined up across multiple channels and regions. A 2017 study, ‘Market Share of Online Languages’, revealed that if your business can effectively communicate in six languages it opens up the opportunity to access 80 per cent of market share. For example, Trainline offer a service which transcends national boundaries and mastering translation allowed them to expand their markets and move away from the UK as their center of business. Another brand that has recently overcome challenges relating to translation is Patagonia. They worked with Lingo24 to make the process of translation more efficient, allowing them to focus on spreading their brand purpose and message of authenticity across their varied markets. Jeremy gave the audience five important reminders to round off his presentation: automation drives scale, produce content with international in mind, pick your battles, AI offers opportunities for moving quicker and international doesn’t have to be hard.
View Jeremy’s presentation here.
How Companies Who Embrace Non-Linear, Multi-Touch Funnel Are Thriving
Customers have more access to information before buying than ever before. On average, it takes nine touch points to convert a customer to a sale, meaning that it is increasingly important for brands to have a solid grip on attribution models. Being able to assign the right value, or credit, to each marketing touchpoint and knowing how to use that data is essential to growth. John Wilkes, Co-Founder of Somebody Digital, looked at measurement, optimisation strategies and having realistic expectations of what people are going to do at various stages in the funnel.
In marketing, as with all industries, you have to be able to back up your claims with evidence. This will make it more likely that your voice is listened to and acted upon, as John stated “without data you’re just another person with an opinion”. Attribution modelling is an effective way of ensuring that you have accurate data to back up your claims. However, you won’t be getting the most out of your attribution model unless you’ve made sure that all your channels are fully optimised. If, for example, your data shows that PPC is really not bringing your business much value, you should first assess whether your PPC team are working effectively and confirm if they are causing the issue. It is also important to increase your CRO by generating more conversions from your existing traffic and making sure that you’re directing them to the correct channel. Marketers need to have realistic expectations of what their customers are going to do next and act accordingly. These improvements to your conversion make your whole marketing budget work harder. Cohort analysis is another key area to work on, it will provide you with a clearer break down of revenue generation, by looking at a how a particular group are behaving. It will allow you to delve deeper and explore the reasons behind spikes or slumps in revenue and hopefully provide insight into what marketing strategies you should replicate. John ended his presentation by declaring “marketing attribution is hard, but it’s all relative to where you are now” and he explained how even small, conscious steps towards creating an attribution model are significant.
View John’s presentation here.
Using Advanced Audiences in Google Ads
With the wealth of tools now available, Gareth Morgan, Managing Director at Liberty Marketing, explains why search marketers have never before had it so easy. Google alone offers multiple tools to help you identify and engage with your audience in more effective ways. Gareth shares his tips for getting ahead using advanced adwords techniques in Google Ads and how you can get the most out of your PPC budget. These ranged from utilising ready-made affinity audiences to bid modifiers – using location, device, and time of day to modify what you are willing to spend on an ad. This is important for marketers working in the retail sector in particular, Gareth explains: when someone is in walking distance of your store within store opening hours, it is worth modifying your bid to optimise your PPC.
Knowing the who, what, when, where of your audience is integral for marketing to them successfully. Additionally, and perhaps a more nuanced layer of audience identification, is being aware of what they are passionate about. This will allow you to unlock vital information on the type of products they are looking to buy and when they are more likely to do so. Google’s Custom Affinity Audiences allows you to input descriptions of the customer base you are looking to target. Once you’ve identified what your customer is interested in buying, tools like In-Market Audiences, Life Events and Custom Intent Audiences can help you pinpoint the when. However, even if all these tools haven’t helped you convert consumers, all is not lost. Re-marketing, RLSA and Similar Audiences give you a second shot of trying to bag your customer. Search marketing is still a difficult skill to master, but the tools that Gareth has advised on, are sure to make your life a lot easier.
View Gareth’s presentation here.