The do’s and dont’s of digital marketing
Whether you’ve been in digital marketing for 1 year or 100, you’ll learn that the rules of engagement rarely change. While the landscape of digital marketing is constantly evolving, the recipes for success remain the same. The same set of moves will put you in a hole and - get you out of it too.
Want to make sure you always land on your feet? Follow this list of do’s and don’ts and I GUARANTEE (that’s sarcasm) you will only ever achieve POSITIVE results (more sarcasm).
Seriously though, there are levers you can pull and manoeuvres you can make to have as frictionless an experience as possible. Let’s take a look.
Don’t set and forget
Even in the best-case scenario where your ads are pumping out results, you can’t just leave your ads to roam freely across the web. Money doesn’t grow on trees and even the best performing campaigns have redundancies. Always check your keywords, search terms, audiences and creative. If any of them are underperforming or serving at too high a frequency, cut them loose.
Do take inspiration from others
The world is built on evolving ideas. Borrowing from others isn't cheating nor does it mean you’re not good at your job - it can be a smart thing to do. Reinventing the wheel is not always the best route to take. A lot of products and services have a tried and true formula from which you can sprinkle your own brand and messaging on.
Hot tip: Check out Facebook Ad Library for great examples on your creative direction.
Don’t Panic
99% of the time you aren’t going to get it right the first time. Digital marketing is a journey of self discovery (or brand discovery). It’s not about climbing the mountain, it’s about always climbing the mountain.
Do take the time to review performance and plan ahead
One thing a lot of us are guilty of is staying in execution mode and only thinking for the short term. That is, putting band aids on things while we wait for a magical slot of time to open up in our day for planning. The reality is you have make time to sit down and plan. Pull yourself away from deadlines and sit in the “white space” where you have room to breathe and your brain can open up and go to work.
Do have faith in machine learning
Machine learning is such a buzzword, it’s verging on cringy. However, it is the best way to summarise how Meta, Google and other ad platforms work. With minimal tinkering, these platforms will work to deliver you the best possible results. A lot of people want to be in control and dictate every single thing these platforms do. The reality in 2022 is that you are restricting yourself and in turn performance by not letting the machine get to work. Of course there are still things you’ll need to monitor but ultimately these platforms will find the best results possible for you.
Don’t expect customers to come flooding in from day one
Similar to the don’t panic point, early on when you first turn on your campaigns you’ll likely notice you’re gaining lots of users to site but they aren’t converting. Ask yourself this question. Would you get married after the first date? The answer (I hope) is no. This can be applied to your prospective customers. They require a bit of warming up and allowed some time to think. Not only that but in the early days the ads platforms will be working out who is the right person for you. Your perfect match as such and in this learning process you will no doubt have people landing on your page who aren’t the right fit. The point is over time more relevant users will continue to land on your site.
Do test and learn, especially with creative content
Test and learn is another buzzword that can be a little prickly. If you’re not careful it can also be a delaying tactic or another way of saying “We got this wrong lets go again.” In my opinion, proper test and learn is, for example, setting up a Meta campaign with a retargeting audience, lookalike audience and broad audience (essentially your marketing funnel). Then pushing out a variety of content to them. Say a brand video, a testimonial, some user generated content, a static with a strong CTA, and a product carousel. Depending on where the user is on their journey they will likely respond to different types of content. We have no way of knowing who responds to what content best without testing the creative, and then adjusting the creative (learning) to suit their needs.
Don’t freak out if you don’t know your audience
While the options are vast in terms of audience targeting on all ad platforms, there’s no doubt you’lll get to a point where you aren’t fully satisfied with the options on hand. The good news is that the ad platforms are that sophisticated they will find your ideal customer eventually. Yes, you’ll spend some dollars getting there but you will get there. In no time you’ll be able to create custom audiences based off, for example, who landed on your site and stayed for over a minute or who watched your video right through to the end and with a bit of luck who purchased your product or service. From here you can create the magical lookalike audiences that all platforms offer and off you go. You now have an audience to work with.
Do tell your brand story
It’s not just about the pains and gains. Everyone’s doing the same thing. Telling you that they understand the struggle you’re going through, how they’re here to help and what you can gain from purchasing. It no doubt works as it evokes an emotional response, but as we mentioned before the customer journey is about relationship building. The prospective not only wants to know what you can do for them but they also want to know more about you. The best relationships are about knowing each other inside and out.
Don’t forget to track everything
Last but not least. If you do all of the above but don’t have tracking implemented then you’ll be flying blind. Track everything. You should know somebody’s heart rate when they are scrolling through your site. That’s a joke but I’m sure you get the point.
There you have it, my personalised list of do’s and don’t of digital marketing. Need more tips? Check out more resources here.