AUDIENCE(91)
11. Lani Rosales, “Pepperidge Farm Surprises a Blogger, Wins a Fan for Life,” AGBeat, February 6, 2013, http://agbeat.com/social-media/pepperidge-farm-surprises-a-blogger-wins-a-fan-for-life/.
12. See White Castle Hall of Fame, accessed August 6, 2013, www.whitecastle.com/cravers/hall-of-fame.
Chapter 25
Test & Evolve: What Marketers Can Learn from 5,000 Years of Football
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way . . .1
—Charles Dickens
This quote from A Tale of Two Cities is one of the most famous openings of any novel ever written. In a single sentence, Dickens conveys the head-snapping duality of his era; a time when optimism and pessimism existed simultaneously to inspire—and torture—the hearts of men.
And I can’t help but feel it summarizes today’s marketing environment perfectly.
Right now is the “best of times” for your business in that you’ve never had more ways to reach consumers. It’s also the “worst of times,” because you’ve never had more ways to reach consumers. Frankly, if you aren’t feeling overwhelmed, you aren’t human.
Seriously, what businesses—what marketing departments other than the largest in the world—can fully leverage the variety of channels, advertising formats, and technologies out there today? The answer: none. Being great at marketing today is as much about knowing where to place your bets as where not to place them.
Being great at marketing today is as much about knowing where not to place bets as where to place them.
And that’s why the last stop in your Proprietary Audience Development roadmap requires you to test and evolve your efforts on an ongoing basis. You’re not going to get things perfect out of the gate. You’re going to make mistakes and probably bite off more than you can chew. Since you can’t do it all, you need to test, measure, and assess which of today’s Proprietary Audience Development channels work best for your business and then realign your efforts accordingly.
Test, Measure, and Assess
“Test, measure, and assess” is really the mantra of any marketer pulling their weight today. Unlike Don Draper’s era, nearly all of our digital marketing channels deliver real-time performance metrics straight to our desktop. As a result, we can use A/B, multivariate, and other testing methodologies to improve campaign performance during our campaigns. This permits us to:
Boost conversions by defaulting to higher-performing CTAs.
Cease efforts in channels that underperform.
Convert high-performing organic posts and tweets with high engagement to Sponsored Posts or Tweets with greater reach.
Initiate reengagement campaigns to those who initially don’t respond.
Replace out-of-stock items with CTAs for in-stock items.
Shift ad spend toward audience segments with higher response.
Shift messaging to dayparts with higher response rates.
Ultimately, all of these efforts allow you to prioritize of your investment of time and money in those Proprietary Audience Development channels of greatest value to your organization. Remember: You’re seeking the tactical mix that works best for you—and this may be vastly different than your competition because of differences in your:
Abilities
Brand
Budget
Corporate policies
Market position
PAD goals
Physical properties
Proprietary audiences
Staffing
Status (public or private)
What works for other brands can serve to guide your testing efforts; but ultimately, it is what works for you company—your brand—that must guide your tactical investments. As channels evolve and laws change, you must also be prepared to accept that what worked last year may not work next. Slowly but surely, through your testing, measuring, and analysis, it will become apparent which PAD channels benefit your business the most. Over time, you will also evolve your mix of channels, messaging, and staffing to best increase the size, engagement, and value of your proprietary audiences.
How does that make you feel? Exhilarated? Terrified? Well, rest easy—because I have one final handy-dandy analogy to ease your mind about the workload ahead. Anybody got a ball?
Marketing Lessons from 5,000 Years of Football
One of the perks of my position is that I get to speak to audiences around the world, ranging from C-level executives to front-line marketing folks who make the magic happen. During one such speaking trip to the United Kingdom a few years back, I had the pleasure of riding to the airport with a cabbie who had an encyclopedic knowledge of football—what we Yanks refer to as soccer.