Brands
Complete Journey Tracking
Digital marketing refers to all forms of advertising delivered through electronic devices connected to the internet, and it’s the way brands reach and connect with potential customers.
Possibly one of the greatest advantages online marketing offers—especially to small companies—is the ability to reach new audiences at a lower cost compared to traditional offline marketing (TV, print, radio, etc.) Depending on how broad the brand’s strategy is, the exposure to potential customers grows exponentially—think about the channels you have available when adding this channel to your marketing mix: email, social media, paid search, text, and multimedia messages.
Even though any type of marketing may be helpful to tackle your objectives, digital marketing is an easy, accessible, and cost-effective channel to communicate with your target audience. Nowadays there are 430 million internet users in North America, which means opportunities to reach and engage with new audiences using digital marketing are limitless.
Section Summary
Data and analytics: the source of truth
For a long time, clicks, likes, and engagement rates were the go-to metrics for marketers, but by now everyone knows there is a more meaningful source of truth in marketing. The intrinsic need to know the customers’ journey in detail as these are getting more complex with every new platform hitting the market, has every marketer wondering: Where are these consumers coming from? What’s resonating with them? What’s their intent? In short, what is generating leads?
Looking at data and analytics ensures you are following the leads, not the individual metrics. Having the right tools and technology is essential to optimize user workflows, determine what product or services the audience is more interested in, and what their journey looks like (data can even be useful to target potential customers and analyze competitors’ strategies).
Understanding their source of truth gives brands a clear picture of what’s happening with their customers and journey, which allows them to improve ROI by allocating money in the right places.
What is attribution and why is it important?
The multi-channel approach marketing campaigns have nowadays, even though rich, presents unique challenges for marketers when it’s time to analyze the results and bottom-line impact.
Marketing attribution refers to evaluating the touchpoints in a consumer journey and determining which channels and messages had the greatest impact when converting. This knowledge and understanding of the journey allow brands to improve and customize their marketing campaigns, accordingly, ultimately improving ROI.
This is why data granularity is so important when discussing effective attribution. The more details brands’ have about their customers and their journeys, the more specific they can be with the improvements to the campaigns—and this eventually leads to an optimized marketing spend and a greater bottom-line impact.
Complete Journey Tracking
In the digital era, the customer’s journey does not begin when they set foot in a branch, nor does it end after they open an account. Instead, there are seven stages to the modern financial customer journey:
Awareness > Consideration > Evaluation > Signup > Onboarding > Retention > Advocacy
While the first steps receive the most attention from traditional financial institutions, the last ones tend to be neglected. And although this is a recipe for failure, it also means a massive growth opportunity.
Customer journey tracking allows brands to pinpoint the most important channels for each segment of their customer base, which enables them to design the best possible omnichannel for their customers at every touchpoint. With access to a source of truth, marketers and C-executives can work on strategies to meet their customers’ needs and fill the gaps in their journeys’.
A well-designed customer journey acts as a multiplier for a brand’s digital marketing efforts. It doesn’t happen overnight and requires a process of continual iteration and improvement, but with the right tracking technology and data, it is a game changer.
A study by McKinsey found that brands that improve the customer journey see revenues grow by 10-15%, while also lowering costs by 15-20%. In a comprehensive study of 211 companies, the Aberdeen Group discovered that companies with a formal customer journey management program enjoyed a 24.9% year-on-year (YoY) increase in return on marketing investments (ROMI), compared to a mere 16.2% increase for all other companies.
Channel Best Practices
How Influencer Marketing Can Win Over the Next Generation of Members
Master the Growth Mindset: 4 Tactics to Drive Performance
