Consumers are in the driver’s seat more than ever before, dictating when and how they communicate with brands. With a flood of information at their fingertips, they crave personalized experiences that educate, enable and entertain. Agencies, and their clients, must strive to deliver these highly relevant communications across channels.
Marketers must also connect actions to goals (e.g. website visitors, leads and sales). In tracking the right metrics, campaigns can be tied to bottom-line business impact, budgets can be justified and strategies can be adapted based on performance.
In a recent HubSpot (@HubSpot) webinar (available on-demand here), Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer), author of The Marketing Performance Blueprint, shared 10 steps to becoming a performance-driven agency—one that builds and measures integrated marketing campaigns for maximum client ROI.
10 Steps to Drive Performance
1. Align expectations and potential.
Understand clients’ core business goals at each stage of the funnel, and the existing marketing foundation they have in place (e.g. internal team strength, marketing technology utilization, historical marketing performance). Ask yourself: Are assets in place to have an immediate impact, and are budgets aligned with growth goals? Set client expectations accordingly to reduce the risk of churn.
2. Commit to core strength.
Corporate marketers increasingly lack the digital skills they need to succeed. Agencies are in a prime position to fill the talent gap, and deliver integrated campaigns that drive measurable value.
3. Integrate at all costs.
Consumers don’t interact with brands in silos. They want a connected experience that helps them make smarter decisions. To deliver this, agencies need to be integrated. They can’t be siphoned off into social, paid, content, etc. departments, as this trickles into strategy recommendations.
4. Take a full-funnel approach.
Target campaigns toward specific areas of the sales funnel—brand, leads, sales and loyalty. Benchmark and set metrics throughout the funnel to better measure impact.
5. Balance builders and drivers.
Builders lay the foundation for future success, whereas drivers capitalize on existing assets to accelerate growth. Ensure client campaigns properly allocate builders and drivers based on performance goals.
6. Personalize the customer journey.
The customer journey is not linear. Consider the different platforms that consumers will use to interact with a brand, and target messages based on context.
7. Measure everything.
All campaigns should be designed to achieve a specific goal. Collect, analyze and present data to back up campaign activities.
8. Embrace agility.
Monitor campaigns in real-time and look for opportunities to adjust and improve.
9. Be remarkable and different.
Everything your agency does should be focused on creating tremendous value for your clients. Seek ways to surprise and delight.
10. Move your marketing forward.
Success is often one of the greatest impediments to progress. Take a good look at your clients and agencies for opportunities to transform into something even better.
The Marketing Performance Blueprint Webinar Series
Looking for a deeper dive into marketing strategy and performance management? We’re excited to announce our new Marketing Performance Blueprint Webinar Series.
This three-part webinar series digs into concepts and processes from Roetzer’s The Marketing Performance Blueprint, using a hypothetical B2B company as the model. While it is built for marketers, executives and entrepreneurs, lessons are widely applicable to agencies running client campaigns.
- (Session 1) The Marketing Assessment: How to Analyze Your Company, Forecast Potential and Align Expectations—Feb. 10
- (Session 2) The Marketing Scorecard: How to Build a Customized Marketing Performance Dashboard—Feb. 17
- (Session 3) The Marketing Game Plan: How to Drive Growth with Integrated Marketing Campaigns—Feb. 24
Reserve your spot today! Use the promotional code “mai10” to save 10% on your registration.