Accordingly, I recommend a far more laissez-faire approach to your discovery of EMPLOYEE proprietary audiences. Begin by documenting:
Which company Facebook pages, Twitter handles, and other official social media accounts you currently promote to EMPLOYEES and how
What forms current EMPLOYEE communications take (channels, messaging, and frequency)
What monitoring tools like Google Alerts and Radian6 (@MarketingCloud) you currently use to identify and track EMPLOYEE/AMPLIFIERS across blogs, websites, and social media
Whether your organization asks new hires to provide Twitter and other social media handles as part of their onboarding process
With this PARTNER and EMPLOYEE information in hand, your PAD Team should have a treasure trove of information regarding your company’s current PAD efforts across all of your Paid, Owned, and Earned Media. It’s therefore time to take your team out for a well-earned adult beverage of their choosing. Just make sure everyone’s back in the morning bright and early; you’re going to have some very important goals to set.
The Employee Connundrum: Audience Asset or Liability?
While your PAD Audit should assess the viability of leveraging your EMPLOYEES as AMPLIFIERS, you should not feel obligated to do so. Many businesses have very legitimate reasons for restricting the use of social media by EMPLOYEES. Case in point: restaurants.
Restaurants exist to serve CUSTOMERS with their full attention; consequently, many have policies restricting EMPLOYEE use of cell phones during work. I spoke with one restaurateur recently who also bans EMPLOYEES from discussing the restaurant on social media. While this may sound dictatorial, his reason is simple: He wants to make sure the restaurant is presented online in a manner consistent with his vision. It may be funny when an employee tweets out, “Five tables open—come get fat and spend money”; but it doesn’t project the image he wants for his restaurant.
So when assessing whether to leverage EMPLOYEES or any proprietary audience for that matter, don’t be afraid to go against the grain if it serves your brand without negatively impacting sales.
Document the Holes
With your PAD Audit findings hot off the presses, be sure to document the holes in your existing efforts. What channels are missing, underdeveloped, or understaffed? Where is your Paid Media not working hard enough? Where is there confusion or conflict as to channel ownership or control?
This list of holes in your current Proprietary Audience Development efforts will be an indispensable asset as you look to articulate your goals, map your strategy, and prioritize future tactics.
3. Set Your PAD Goals
For your PAD Team to evolve from an off-the-org chart collaborative into the cross-functional, asset-building juggernaut we know it can be, you’re going to need to set some goals. Your number one goal, of course, is contained in the PAD acronym itself—Proprietary Audience Development. You and your team are seeking to develop proprietary audiences in assets for your company.
But why exactly is that again?
It may seem like a silly question to ask at this point, but it’s the question your company’s leaders will ask when you inform them of your PAD Team efforts. Why exactly are you investing your time in Proprietary Audience Development? Why should your team? And why should your company? Answer these questions in a fashion that satisfies your CEO, CMO, and CFO, and you have found your PAD Goals.
So without further ado, here are some PAD Goals worth consideration as well as some inspiration from brands working toward each:
1. Increase marketing-generated sales. For many executives, this is the only marketing question of any kind that matters—did your PAD efforts generate sales? If you want to prove that your proprietary audiences are assets to the company, then this should be goal number one of your PAD efforts.
Inspiration: Restaurant.com (@Restaurant_com) realizes 900 percent more revenue per email thanks to automated messages to SUBSCRIBERS.2
2. Increase paid media ROI. This goal requires collaboration with your Paid Media brethren to add Proprietary Audience Development CTAs to their campaigns. Instead of just measuring sales lift, they can also generate value via the SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, and FOLLOWERS driven into your permission marketing loop.
Inspiration: Papa John’s (@PapaJohns) Super Bowl coin toss campaign, which sold pizzas and built SUBSCRIBERS, FANS, and FOLLOWERS.
3. Decrease dependency on paid media. This may rankle your paid advertising friends, but it’s a worthy goal. Larger, more responsive proprietary audiences should give you both the will and the way to phase out your least productive paid media placements.
Inspiration: Procter & Gamble (@ProcterGamble) shifting paid media budget to more efficient digital media.3