February 28, 2017
Anymore, when I log onto my social media accounts or am searching for something on the web, I feel like Oprah is behind it all saying: “And you get a digital ad! And you get a digital ad!” They are everywhere and they’re so targeted to my new-mom, twenty-something, Cleveland marketing professional status.
These companies are targeting me where I work, live and play online – and they’re doing it pretty effectively. (However, I have refused to buy into the elephant cup to wash my son’s hair that Amazon so desperately wants me to buy – isn’t that what Solo cups are for now?)
The good news is your B2B company can become super-targeted in the same way by using digital advertising to help tell its story. Here are six considerations you should think about when getting started on a digital advertising plan:
1. Identify the overall objectives of your campaign
Are you looking to create awareness of your company or product? Or do you want sales leads? Is there something else you’re hoping to achieve? Identifying your advertising objectives and how they will support your overall business goals will help pinpoint the tactics you use to reach your target audience.
2. Know your key target audiences
Who is your customer? Do you know the titles of your potential clients? What are their interests? How old are they? Do you know where they are located? Are they attending any upcoming trade shows? All of these parameters can be targeted when creating an advertising plan that will allow you to reach the exact person you want to.
3. Find the best tactics to reach your key audiences
Now that you have your objectives and target audience in place, how should you reach your target audience? Does it make sense to still do print advertising if you’re trying to capture leads? Would a paid social campaign work better? Or are you trying to influence a purchasing decision, where a pay-per-click campaign may be most effective?
4. Develop personalized creative to reach your different audiences
Does your product serve more than one type of customer? Do they have the same needs? Likely they do not, so the creative that is developed will need to be personalized to highlight the most important thing for each individual audience.
5. Create audience-specific landing pages
Make sure you’ve thought through the whole user experience. What will this potential customer do once they’ve clicked on the ad? Will they be taken to a home page? Or will it be a unique page specific to the ad? (Pro tip – the latter is better!)
6. Figure out how you’ll measure success
This goes back to your overall objectives and business goals. Will success be measured by how many times the ad was clicked? Or is your system sophisticated enough to integrate with your CRM system and your sales folks can follow up on leads? Setting this up in the beginning of a program will help prove the advertising ROI to your leadership team, especially if it can show how it’s helping to meet business objectives.
And there you have it! Do you have the considerations above outlined in your digital advertising program? Or are you just getting started?
Either way – I’d be happy to talk over cookies or ice cream about how we can make sure your advertising plan is working effectively and efficiently to meet your goals.
