Data marketing can become a very daunting task in the hands of the internet and social media. With ever-changing trends and a carousel of influencers, it can be a challenge to know if you are doing it right. While there are plenty of easy mistakes we can all be guilty of making, here are 5 tips for setting yourself up for success in the new age of data marketing.
1. Know Your Audience
We’ve all heard the crucial phrase “read the room.” Knowing the public you are trying to sell to, and making them believe you, will be what makes or breaks your campaign. Just ask any company who neglected to know its audience, and the influx of avoidable work it gifted them.
In order to develop a successful marketing plan that your audience will absorb, you have to know who you’re speaking to. You can’t pitch Krispy Kreme to New Yorkers, just like you can’t market Atlanta Braves merchandise to Dodgers fans. You can, it just probably won’t work out in your favor. When your marketing strategies have no solid audience knowledge, it’s hard for any campaign to flourish.
2. Objectives
To have an effective marketing campaign, you must have precise objectives. If you try to go with a generic objective or something similar that worked for another company, you risk losing your audience by way of irrelevance. How many times have you left an article halfway through reading, or watching a video, because you couldn’t find any tangible relativity? Probably more often than you’d like to admit. To avoid confusion and loss of public interest, give your audience clear reasons to keep going. Prove to them that there is a specific reason they are consuming your marketing campaign.
Having a clear and relevant objective puts your marketing strategy in a position to be successful, and creates trust in your growing public.
3. Metrics
The right numbers can take you to great heights. Measuring results will help continue and grow your success in each marketing campaign. These metrics, however, can vary from platform to platform. Your metrics of TikTok may be vastly different from the metrics of your email subscribers.
To achieve the most success from your metrics, they must be connected to your desired outcome on each platform.
For example, if your end goal is to increase web subscribers by 10%, then you probably should not have a prioritized metric of Instagram likes on the owner’s profile. A better metric would be measuring website traffic throughout each day. This way, you see what days and times peak visitors occur over the course of a week.
4. Use Your Immediate Networks
Whether face-to-face or screen-to-screen, you are able to poll the public with specific questions about your marketing strategy to know the public you are trying to reach a little clearer. If your target audience is a specific growing neighborhood in a city, you should be surveying them where they are. You make it easy for the audience, they shouldn’t have to look for you.
The same goes for an online public of people, such as a book group on Facebook. Get involved, you wouldn’t ask them to seek you out. Instead, you make it easy for them to help you. For example, in B2B strategies, LinkedIn is the most widely used platform to gather public data and learn vital information for marketing tactics and strategies.
5. Applied Data
Now that you’ve gathered metrics and have an attainable, measurable goal to put those measurements towards, you can apply them. It’s no longer an educational guess. You have the answers in front of you that are just waiting to be applied. So, by giving yourself the necessary tools to be successful you are able to achieve working smarter, not harder. You can now implement your tactics into the correct channels. Maybe you found that Twitter would be the best course of action to send out a graphic about your campaign through your surveying.
The best part about applying the data you gather is that while there is plenty of room for error in any marketing campaign, you know that there will be little to none due to your exact audience already giving you the answers.
6. Data Hygiene
Keep your sources public and research clean and up to date.
Continuing education is the same for marketing strategies as it is for doctors, teachers, engineers, etc. You must continue to learn and grow with the public around you, or you risk getting left behind. Trends come and go so quickly, especially with relevant social media platforms like TikTok. Those relevant platforms all have their respective influencers, which a marketing team will also need to stay on top of. Having campaigns in the hands of young adults due to their popularity within your targeted public can be a scary scenario, but by keeping your campaign clean, refreshed and on top of trends and traps, you’re able to tackle it all.
