As we described in our previous article, First Foray into Digital Marketing, Oodle's initial focus for a new client is to launch a campaign that quickly drives measurable results. In order to do this we suggest the first-time digital marketer focuses on two avenues for growth:

1. Paid Search: Intent-based advertising that shows up for those who are raising their hands for your product or service
2. Landing Pages: Custom content pages that create a cohesive experience leading to higher rates of conversion

After both of these recommendations have been executed, our clients have a firm foundation from which to expand their digital marketing ecosystem and marketing sophistication – continuing to drive improved results.

But this is no time to get comfortable. Capturing additional returns from your marketing spend requires a strategic evolution to increase your audience, as competitors can siphon off prospects using higher-funnel tactics.

Expanding Your Reach

The first step in evolving your strategy to expand your audience is to layer in prospects that are in the awareness/consideration phases of the buyer journey while continuing to target those prospects who are actively searching for solutions to their problems. Since these new prospects are most likely not ready to be converted to leads yet, the goal is to first entice them into regular engagement with the brand.

Paid Social

In order to reach an audience that is slightly further up the marketing funnel we often recommend paid social – a method of displaying advertisements or sponsored marketing messages on popular social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

The data collected by social media platforms provides marketers with a broader set of segmentation criteria and leads to the ability to serve ads to a narrower audience. Additionally this audience information can lead to the discovery of cross-over interests that can allow you to reach new audiences in an area your competition isn’t.

While paid social advertising can go a long way in expanding your reach, this portion of the audience is going to have to be nurtured in order to ultimately convert into a lead. And landing pages aren’t going to fulfill their needs.

Fostering Engagement

Layering in higher-funnel prospects means we have to look at a different website experience. Landing pages provide great quick hit information and reasons-to-believe for those ready to make that final decision, but prospects in an earlier phase need more. It’s time to evaluate and potentially rebuild your entire website.

Understanding the User

To optimize your website to better meet the needs of this wider audience you need to understand who they are and how they think. This understanding let’s you know what information is most valuable to the audience as they go through the buying process. We’ll get there by creating:

• Personas: A persona is a fictitious person created to represent a group or segment of customers that use or engage similarly with a product – putting a face to abstract customer data. This allows you to better think of who you are actually selling to and how to speak to them.
• Buyer Journeys: Using the personas as our guide we map out the process buyers go through to become aware of, consider and evaluate, decide to purchase, and potentially evangelize a new product or service.
• Sitemap and Content Architecture: The information defined in the previous two steps creates a foundation for us to create content and develop a structure to your site that allows a user to:

1. easily identify where they are in the buying process,
2. receive the information they need at that particular stage of the process, and
3. navigate through the process until they convert as a lead.

The new traffic we are sending to the site likely won’t be that far into the buyer journey, and the process of converting will often take multiple visits over weeks or even months. So it’s going to be important to stay on their radar.

Staying Top of Mind

To truly foster engagement we need to look at encouraging prospects to re-engage with your brand. Retargeting, also known as remarketing, is a form of online advertising that can help you keep your brand in front of prospects after they leave your website.

Retargeting serves to remind those who were previously on your site, but weren't ready to convert at the time, to come back and take action.

• Generally convert at higher rates
• Can be customized to relate to the page/product your audience has visited
• Most cost effective option for targeting: focuses your advertising spend on clients who already have some degree of interest

Expand Your Audience with Oodle

To recap, in phase 1 we increase your audience reach by first using paid search to drive traffic to landing pages that are optimized for converting visitors to leads. In phase 2 we add paid social to broaden your audience reach and, we redesign your website to engage visitors by providing them with the information they need at that stage in the buyer journey. Then we nurture those leads through retargeting.

In our next article, we’ll show you how to fully connect your digital marketing ecosystem. Article coming soon.