Data has a cost. It has to be gathered, stored and analyzed. That means storage, apps and IT. For the digital marketer, data produces no revenue until it is activated, and even then, the payoff may not be immediate. 

Yet data is more valuable than gold. It can find customers, tease out their preferences, and convert those wants into sales. Data enables action. Marketing is impossible without it. 

The value proposition

“It’s partly the invisible hand out there,” said James Fedolfi, VP for Product Development at OMI, the B2B business intelligence platform. Data is a lens into the market, he said.“ Theoretically you are targeting prospects perfectly.” But it’s never perfect, he added. 

“Data comes in abundance in the digital world, which often leaves it overlooked,” said Alex Melen, co-CEO at SmartSites, a web design and digital marketing agency. “[W]ithout proper analysis and interpretation, data in itself isn’t worth much.”

For email platform SparkPost, email is “true to a person’s intent,” observed April Mullen, Director of Brand and Content Marketing. The marketer knows if the customer is engaging with the content, when they open the message or subscribe for updates. “Marketers take for granted the value of first-person data,” she said. 

This is partially due to the short life-spans of chief marketing officers, who have “18 to 36 months to prove value, or they are out,” Mullen said. So they look for easy KPIs. “They are addicted to the acquisition side of the ecosystem. You can spend money and acquire new customers.” 

The COVID-19 pandemic brought the value of data into bright relief, as businesses had to go online overnight as a matter of dire necessity. “If you didn’t go online, you went out of business,” noted Niki Hall, CMO at Contentsquare, the digital experience analytics platform. Vendors and customers were no longer face-to-face. Data replaced the customers’ verbal and non-verbal cues. Data shows its value by enabling the marketer to understand why the customer is there at the web site and how they engage with it, what they want to achieve and where they get frustrated, Hall explained. “Without data, you are at a disadvantage.”

Right question? Right answer?

While data helps target the campaign, it cannot ask the right question, much less find the right answer, by itself. Marketers need to use data to bring a campaign into focus. “For me, the value proposition, first, is being in line with the goal,” Fedolfi said. 

OMI picks up 14 billion “signals” a week, which have to be separated from the noise through analysis. “Data helps in the pre-marketing prep,” Fedolfi said. User intent is revealed when users are searching for goods and services, he noted. Knowing this, one can push “information” to grow the mindshare of a potential customer. A marketer has to get there first to be effective.

So rather than starting the campaign by asking the right question, be prepared instead to learn from mistakes, but quickly. “You need to iterate,” Fedolfi said. “If something is not working, interpret and re-engage…Many [campaigns[ start with the wrong question.”

Melen altered the emphasis slightly: “I think ‘asking the right question’ is pretty much a shot in the dark,” he said. “The approach is to try, experiment and test everything. With the correct metrics in place, the correct data analysis, you will then zero-in on what will be most successful.” And even when analysis is spot-on, keep testing, Melen added.

“The good part is that you can see what works and what doesn’t,” Mullen added. A digital campaign can pivot quickly if the data shows a downward trend. Yet even if the trend line rises, “audiences are evolving,” Mullen noted. What worked today is not going to work forever. E-mail’s ability to engage is pretty close to one-to one, “so you can get a good read — and pivot.”

Numbers, letters and metrics

“I believe that a successful campaign starts first with the definition of your KPI and the metrics you’ll be tracking. Then, you set up the correct data collection in place, and specific intervals at which you will evaluate your ROI and make adjustments.” Melen said, “In the end, a campaign is successful if it hits it’s originally-set ROI metrics.”

“I don’t think the poor use of data is a prime suspect [for failure],” Hill said. “I expect to see some failure.” Data is used to lay out assertions, then prove or disprove them, in the marketing effort. “Without failure, I wonder if [the marketing team] is pushing themselves hard enough.”

Reviewing performance early and often is key, added Sparkpost’s Mullen. “Understand how the audience responds to the campaign.” That means taking stock of “signals” — opened e-mails, clicks, impressions. Gauge the direction of the signal. Each one is a “micro-conversion,” and these form a chain that can lead to a sale, Mullen pointed out. If there is a drop-off from one micro-conversion to the next, then re-examine that “break point” to see if the offer or the message is the issue. Modify from there.

Actions Have Consequences

Marketers have to bring their strategies to bear. There is more than one way to do that. 

“There is a lot of building out of data management internally,” Fedolfi noted. “The technical resource requirements [have to be] large scale to be competitive. It’s putting a lot of stress on IT departments.”

But those efforts are means to an end, as it allows a digital marketer to quickly move into a market space and quickly understand it, Fedolfi said. “That is the foundation of data.”

Mullen offered a different approach for marketers: have a data strategy. This is a tough one to pull off, as marketers are usually very busy executing the marketing strategy. But they should make that time, Mullen said. “All parties should come together to form the goals that will be helpful to develop the strategy that feeds into that goal.” 

For Hill, marketers must ensure they have the right kind of data. They should not be looking for “who”,  but “why”. Contentsquare did a study that found that 73 percent of all brands could not provide a consistent customer experience across all channels, while another 71 percent said they could not act on information in real time. Marketers should be “using data to understand the customer. This is the new digital competitive landscape.”

Finally, Melen offered a checklist:

1. Proper success metrics must be defined;
2. Data collection must be set up to be able to track the success metrics;
3. Attribution models should be well defined and configured;
4. The data should be analyzed on an on-going basis and decisions made at statistically-significant intervals;
5. Reporting needs to be set up to help the client understand and fully digest the data; and
6. Always continue to test and experiment: All decisions should be data-based (not based on gut-feel).

Original Source: https://martech.org/data-the-value-proposition-for-marketers/

As we wrap up Q2, there are glimmers of hope after an almost-18-month pandemic. The unemployment rate is now at 6% (vs. 4% pre-pandemic, and 14% during the first month of the pandemic). The GDP is forecasted to grow 8% while personal income is forecasted to grow over 10%. At the same time, over 50% of Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and retail vehicle demand is forecasted by HIS to hit over 14M – exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

And dealerships are facing a new challenge – driven by unexpected demand and chip/manufacturing shortages, inventory levels are at an all-time low. To compound issues even further, this has driven the used car market to record levels – making it more difficult than ever to secure used inventory.

As we enter Q3, how does a dealership deal with these unprecedented conditions? How can preparations be made for a successful second half of the year? Surprisingly, the answers lie squarely in your digital marketing strategy.

“There is no question that sales of specific models in specific geographies are being disrupted by low inventories, but consumers are nevertheless demonstrating their willingness to buy despite having fewer vehicles to choose from in retailer inventor” – Thomas King, President of the Data and Analytics, J.D. Power

First – let’s take a look at the market. Even though inventories are low – consumers are staying in-market with either a) switching to used, b) switching brands, or c) placing build orders. Consumers are also spending more than ever. The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System disclosed that the average amount financed for a new car loan hit an all-time high towards the end of 2020 (and is forecasted to go even higher in 2021).

A Google/LRWGreenberg Study also showed that for the first time ever, more than half of purchasers who searched switched brands from what they previously owned. The same study also revealed that 91% of shoppers consider multiple brands while researching.

In this unique environment, if there is one thing that continues to remain, it is the importance of search engines and being “present” for those looking. A Google Gearshift study found that 79% of consumers used search engines to find the dealership they purchased their car from. Similarly, search was the most used tool for car research (followed by online video, dealer websites, and OEM websites). More interestingly, after seeing a TV advertisement for a new vehicle 90% of consumers said their first action to get more information was the internet search engine.

So, how can we use this to plan for a successful second half of 2021? The answer is to be present. While the knee-jerk reaction might be to cut advertising since inventory is low, being present where consumers are looking ensures that you continue to acquire and nurture your leads. While it may seem like going against the grain – similarly to what we saw as COVID hit, those who continue to invest in growing their presence ultimately are the ones that reap the benefit.

In a recent Google study, they showed that an investment in SEM, focusing on low-funnel keywords, generated sales activity as late as nine months after the initial click (with peak activity being at Month 5).

It’s more important than ever to make sure you are present in your marketplace, for your keywords, across the search platforms that your customers use (that means using not just Google, but Microsoft Ads as well!). Additionally, always remember that any traffic you drive to your website today can be remarketed to in the future. Creating awareness of your dealership today, even with low inventory, is crucial to establishing a sales pipeline for months and years to come.

“Today it’s important to be present, be relevant and add value.”

Original Source: https://read.nxtbook.com/digital_dealer/dealer_magazine/july_august_2021/how_to_use_digital_marketing_.html

Even with state regulations and other dealership impacts from the pandemic, consumers did not stop shopping – or purchasing – vehicles as there was a new need for the ability to travel safely from the comfort of their vehicle and a new way to buy – online.

Auto shoppers turned to Google to understand if they could – or should – purchase a car: We saw ‘Is now a good time to buy a car?’ spike 900% in March when the pandemic hit.

As we enter the last month of 2020 – dealing with a COVID resurgence and election uncertainty, it is as good of a time as any to come to terms with the fact that vehicle buying has changed.

With consumers becoming more comfortable in this new normal, a shift has emerged in the market with people now buying cars as a result of personal safety/health reasons. And there are also new demographics of people buying. A recent Cars.com survey reported 20% of respondents who didn’t own a car were considering purchasing one. A simple metric shows how far we’ve come – in 2018, only 1% of car sales in the U.S. were online. In March of 2020, nearly one in 10 car sales were online. According to forecasts, 25% of car purchases will be online by 2025.^[1]

“If a consumer wants to discuss financing over the phone instead of coming in, be ready to do that.”

So, who are these new digital-embracing consumers? How are they going to be shopping? Well, 63% of new purchasers said they would consider ordering their future car online and having it delivered to their home. 73% said they are comfortable negotiating the purchase, lease, or financing terms entirely online or through a mix of online and offline.^[2]

Some in the automotive space see this as an existential threat when, in fact, it is an opportunity to evolve and thrive. Is there a secret formula to accomplish this? Any specific timing on when things will change again? Unfortunately, no. But working with thousands of clients across all industries, I will give you my playbook to succeed this holiday season and beyond.

1. Short-term: Be flexible. 

Consumers are going to have different comfort levels – some will embrace digital more than others. Be flexible, understanding, and empathetic with both the way you approach the consumers and with your marketing messaging. Offer flexible purchase options, pickup/drop off options, and so forth. If a consumer wants to discuss financing over the phone instead of coming in, be ready to do that. And not only should you be ready to do all of this – you should be conveying this on your website and in all of your marketing.

“The path forward for auto is to offer shoppers the choice of moving frictionlessly between online and offline experiences in the customer journey.”

2. Mid-term: Be Agile.

If there is one thing that’s certain, it’s that we will have more uncertainty in the next three, six, and even 12 months than we’ve ever had before. By most metrics, more-so than we had in the last six months. Nobody can predict all of the trends, but you can be agile in it. Make sure you review your marketing and messaging on a regular basis. What’s important to the consumer next month may be different than what’s important to them today. Be ready to spot trends in real-time and take action on them.

3. Long-term: Be transformative.

The digital transformation is here.

“Clearly COVID has dramatically accelerated digital adoption,” Gass says. “I mean, some would say, five-plus years what it typically would have taken across all demographics.” – Michelle Gass CEO Kolh’s Nov 5th, 2020.

You must reimagine what the purchase experience looks like for the shopper. How are you creating a frictionless online experience, educating your customers, and connecting your messaging across all tiers? How are you capturing demand in a dynamic way? Doing all of this will require smarter automation that can make actionable sense of data and signals, in real-time, at scale. The path forward for auto is to offer shoppers the choice of moving frictionlessly between online and offline experiences in the customer journey.

I believe what will separate those who thrive vs. those who fail in the next five years will be determined by how good you are at capturing data, turning it into actionable insights, and altering your business operations based on that. You must understand and accommodate the new digital consumer (who will range from those who are purely digital to those who move back and forth) and also communicate your accommodations in all that you do (website, all levels of marketing, etc.)

So, how do you succeed with your marketing in the new digital paradigm?

Succeed by upping your measurement game. Establish your business objective and align high-value action KPIs and store visit measurement strategies to understand the entire journey and signals of an auto buyer.

Succeed by adopting automation. Adopt bidding and targeting tools to help you drive better performance while maintaining strong privacy controls.

Succeed by focusing on cross-tier customer-centricity. Deploy a frictionless, customer-led, end to end online auto shopping and purchase experience supported with marketing across tiers.

Succeed by identifying how the industry’s new but somewhat standardized buying tools are not so similar at your dealership. Work closely with your internal marketing personnel and outside Agency/Consultant providers to carefully craft your unique identity in an ever-crowded space of online car sellers

“One thing in dealership marketing and messaging has not changed: clearly communicating the inherent Differences between your store and the competition will empower your marketing efforts and dollars to attract more customers than your competitors.” This, according to Chris Anderson at Anderson Advertising, a 30-year agency in automotive marketing.

It’s clear that auto brands have survived ups and downs in the market and other crises before, but COVID has thrust the auto industry into a new paradigm of doing business. Brands that will develop an e-commerce foundation, power of the program, and deliver tireless marketing will be the ones that succeed in the future.

C O N T R I B U T O R   B I O

Alex Melen is an Award-Winning Entrepreneur & Keynote Speaker. He is the founder of web hosting company T35 Hosting (founded 1997) and co-founder of advertising agency SmartSites (founded 2011). SmartSites now manages over $50MM/year in advertising spend and has six offices and over 140 employees worldwide. SmartSites has been featured in the INC5000 for four consecutive years as one of the fastest-growing digital agencies and Alex has been featured in Business Week’s Top 25 Entrepreneurs, Bloomberg, Forbes, and NPR.

Original Source: https://read.nxtbook.com/digital_dealer/dealer_magazine/dealer_magazine_december_2020/pivoting_your_marketing_to_ca.html

First of all, how are you and your family doing in these COVID-19 times? 

Alex Melen: Thankfully, we’re all doing fine. Our headquarters are in Paramus, NJ – next door to NYC, which was hit really bad in the first round of COVID. I’m happy to report that we’re all doing fine, though, and everyone is staying safe & healthy.

Tell us about you, your career, how you founded SmartSites.

Alex Melen: I started the company with my brother Michael almost 10 years ago. The idea was to create an agency that can bring enterprise-level solutions and ROI-driven marketing to SMB clients, helping them embrace digital and succeed online.

How does SmartSites innovate?

Alex Melen: SmartSites, as a company, innovates on an ongoing basis, making sure our clients are getting results and succeeding with their digital presence. This ranges from designing cutting-edge and ROI-driven websites, following Google’s best practices and private betas for SEM, and generating constant growth in organic search traffic through link building and content writing.

How the coronavirus pandemic affects your business, and how are you coping?

Alex Melen: With the majority of our clients being SMB’s – and almost half from the NYC-metro (which was hit very hard by Covid) – we were impacted pretty heavily. However, we committed as a company to not lay off any of our 150+ employees and continue to invest in the company, our employees, and our clients. While that meant losing money for the first time since our founding as a company, we needed to make sure we were there to support both our employees and our clients in these difficult times.

Did you have to make difficult choices, and what are the lessons learned?

Alex Melen: Yes – perhaps the most difficult was the decision to allow the company to lose money for several months to retain our employees and continue helping our clients, sometimes at a very big loss. I still believe that was the correct decision, and we’re now more prepared than ever to continue growing the company and helping our clients. 

How do you deal with stress and anxiety? How do you project yourself and SmartSites in the future?

Alex Melen: As a company – we are committed to our continued growth strategy. If there is any silver lining to COVID is that it made the importance of digital clearer than ever. We’re not out of the woods just yet – but the long-term outlook is bright, and with our entire team in-tact, we are more prepared than most of our competitors to continue succeeding in the digital space.

Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?

Alex Melen: The digital media space is full of competitors ranging from 1-person-companies to enterprise-level agencies like Publicis (for whom I worked for 3 years). As before, we plan to continue our focus on our employees and our clients. Ultimately, as we continue helping our clients succeed online, we will continue our growth trajectory and plan to grow from the current 150 employees to 500 in the next few years.

Your final thoughts?

Alex Melen: While many of our SMB clients are going through a hard time right now, I think the future is bright. I think the importance of digital and investing in your online presence (both in terms of making a website and digital marketing) will be more important than ever. Stores that got by with just a physical mall presence now understand the importance of diversifying. Local restaurants that might have been fine with just a Yelp page before now understand that they need to have a website and invest in diversification (i.e., deliveries, online order, etc..). Even places like a local butcher now understand the power of building a website and taking orders from all over the country instead of being limited to a single town. Again, if there is any silver lining to COVID is that it helped speed up the digital revolution by at least 5 years. And while not everyone agrees with my view, many are starting to coming around:

“Clearly COVID has dramatically accelerated digital adoption,” Gass says. “I mean, some would say, five-plus years what it typically would have taken across all demographics.” – CEO of Kohls 11/5/2020.

Original Source: https://startup.info/alex-melen-smartsites/

SmartSites is named to Adweek’s second annual list of 100 fastest growing agencies while achieving a three-year revenue growth of 116%.

Adweek has announced the winners for 2020 Adweek 100: Fastest Growing Companies. SmartSites ranks No. 71 on the second annual list with a three-year revenue growth rate of 116 percent. This honor is presented to a wide array of small and large agencies that cover over 20 disciplines across the globe. The main industries include experiential, creative, digital, media, performance, full-service, and more. SmartSites, a full-service digital marketing agency, has grown its revenue by over 100 percent thanks to the work completed for clients such as AGA Parts, Sir Duct Brothers, and the New Jersey Institute of Technology.

To qualify for Adweek’s 100 Fastest Growing Companies list, companies must provide at least three years of earned revenue between 2017 and 2019. In addition, entrants had to achieve a minimum of $250,000 in revenue for the year 2017. Participating agencies are required to certify the accuracy of their reported revenue data. Adweek performs additional audits to determine the validity of the applicants’ information.

“When SmartSites was established in 2011, the digital marketing agency’s goal was to develop and grow strategic partnerships to help businesses succeed online,” explains Michael Melen (Co-CEO and COO of SmartSites) and Alex Melen (Co-founder of SmartSites). “SmartSites has achieved this goal by building strong partnerships with clients and hiring a dedicated team of marketers, web designers and developers, writers, and problem solvers, who all work together to make websites and online marketing campaigns successful.” The approach that SmartSites has employed over the years has proven to be effective. Key components of that plan include planning websites based on user intent, designing websites that users love and share, and promoting websites to improve their rankings on the SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

To view the complete results of Adweek 100: Fastest Growing and individual company profiles, visit: https://www.adweek.com/agencies/adweek-presents-the-100-fastest-growing-agencies-and-10-solution-providers-of-2020.

Original Source: https://www.martechcube.com/seo-company-smartsites-named-in-100-fastest-growing-agencies/