Today’s digital marketing world is vastly different from what it was even a year ago. In an uncertain economy, many businesses want to make sure they are capitalizing on marketing methods that give them the best ROI possible. The last few years’ challenges have created untapped opportunities for businesses that make wise marketing choices with their budgets.
Thinking outside the normal parameters of digital marketing requires approaches that challenge the status quo, but the desire to think differently can be met with resistance from management and businesses – mostly due to an urgent need for quick results and unreasonable returns.
Coming up with this list is not a walk in the park. On the surface, some examples may seem stupidly simple, which is why they sometimes get overlooked. I’m sure there are plenty more, but here’s a list of 3 less-considered ways to increase your business’s ROI (I never said it’s easy):
1. Be Antifragile
Who knew that a mindset could improve your ROI?! Most businesses stress resilience, and that’s a natural behavior. But the notion of creating solutions and becoming stronger in adverse situations is less thought about. For example, after spending months on a campaign without yielding a favorable ROI, the inclination is to analyze and over-analyze the data to “find a nugget.” Getting consumed by data is fragile. Before I get crucified by the marketing gods, I’m not saying we don’t infer from the data. No sirree. I am proposing to accept the outcome, keep your options open, and experiment with new things (with healthy avoidance of what doesn’t work).
“Antifragility is about adaptation in the face of uncertainty, and digital advertising is fraught with uncertainty despite what non-skin-in-the-game consultants might tell you. For us, it’s an acknowledgment that advertising is volatile, dynamic, and a commitment to not let that defeat us – but rather make us stronger.” – Wes Musgrove
2. Zig When Others Are Zagging
This concept has been talked about for decades. When everyone is pulling back, it’s an opportunity to double down. But buyer, beware! There is a pattern over the years – opportunities are ripe for businesses with sound digital marketing strategies ready to take advantage in a soft market. Of course, this is not for businesses in financial distress and requires that the business has been working within healthy parameters and advertising budget.
The world is fighting to recover from the pandemic, and marketing budgets face total cuts, reductions, and increases. It’s better late than never to be more careful about where you’re throwing advertising dollars and learn how to stretch your marketing budget.
Like many automotive businesses, one of our clients experienced significant supply issues across their vendors. The immediate reaction was to pull everything back and wait it out as most retailers did. Instead, we hunkered down with our client and addressed difficult questions about the business, economy, and customers’ shopping trends. With careful consideration, we collaborated to create a solution that allows the business to pivot and shift focus on profitability versus volume. While this reduced sales by about 30% over last year, it allowed the business to be lean, build cash reserves, and position for a healthy recovery.
Use the right bidding strategy
This is one area that can be prone to complacency. While a particular strategy may have been successful 3 months ago, it might not fit in with the market or your current business objectives. It is worth auditing your current bidding strategies to ensure they are aligned when objectives change.
Improve Digital Media Performance
Relying on traditional pay-per-click advertising is also something customers should re-evaluate. Years ago, we could talk about Google for search and Amazon for shopping advertising while others were spectating from the sidelines. But now, there are more players in the pay-per-click game – like Walmart.com, Target.com, and eBay for auctions. As a media agency, you must create solutions to include the right pay-per-click advertising platforms to deliver desired business outcomes – from brand awareness and audience activation to conversions and business leads. Matching the correct platform to your business is another way to get the most bang for your buck with PPC budgets.
Tighten keyword targeting
Spending money on keywords that aren’t producing results is the opposite of increasing your ROI, so cutting low and non-performing keywords is the easy first step.
Affiliate marketing
Whether it is influencer or website-generated, affiliate marketing is commission based, meaning you aren’t spending any of your marketing dollars. When the affiliate directs traffic to your website, they receive a commission on the sales, which can be a bounty based on the leads they send your way. If you aren’t engaged with it currently, it is worth exploring!
Lean into CRM strategies
Using CRM strategies is one way to use those email lists to increase sales and engagement. It is a buzzword, and creating an effective CRM process is easier said than done. Building and implementing an effective CRM system can tie your operational, analytical, and collaborative strategies together to form a cohesive approach to winning returning business from already established customers. Your approach should match your business, there is no one size fits all model that will work across all businesses. One market might appreciate targeted emails, while another would respond better to texts. Working with your marketing team to design one that will work best for you is imperative.
3. Focus on Profit, Reducing Volume
Sometimes, businesses must take two steps back to move one step forward in a different direction that is healthier for the future of the business. While in the past, the main focus might have been generating an acceptable ratio of marketing dollars spent to an increased sales volume, now the focus might be on higher returns on a lower marketing budget. So even with lower sales in a volatile economy, the returns generated are worth the dollars spent.
Conclusion
Above all, adopting an antifragile mindset can radically yield unexpected results – it’s usually the road less taken. Especially in the current state of financial uncertainty and economic fear, humans are wired to be fragile in times of chaos – so when businesses are experiencing a decline in revenue performance, the natural course of action includes reducing marketing investments, layoffs, or closures.
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Author’s Bio
Derek Chew is the founder of Fullmoon Digital. A former early Yahoo! employee (where he cut his teeth in digital marketing), he is one of the few 100% independent digital marketing agencies in the United States. The firm is cross-functional with deep experience in SEO, digital strategy, programmatic, analytics, performance marketing, paid media, social advertising, and creative. They push the envelope of what is possible in terms of marketing and technology while providing best-in-class digital marketing service to their “pack” of clients. For more information, please visit www.fullmoondigital.com.
