Navigating the Digital Advertising Landscape: A Guide for Modern Marketers
Do you use digital advertising? In this week’s Monday Marketing Motivation, I touch upon the topic of digital advertising. It’s such a broad topic that I couldn’t cover everything in the 5-7 minute video, so I decided to dig in more deeply in this article.
What Is Digital Advertising?
Digital advertising consists of online ads. These may appear in search engines such as Google and Bing or on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and so on.
Why Use Online Ads?
Like organic search, digital ads reach customers at the point in their buying journey when they are actively seeking information about products or services. This is why they are so powerful in the marketing mix. It’s like getting an instant appointment with a prospect who is knocking at your virtual door!
Core Features of Digital Advertising
Digital advertising is both precise and measurable. Targeted reach allows businesses to focus their efforts based on specific demographics, interests, and behaviors of their ideal customers. This ensures that marketing messages reach the most relevant audiences rather than being broadcast broadly to uninterested viewers.
Think about it this way: television, radio, and print (newspaper, magazine) ads reach a broad audience. This audience may, or may not, be interested in the product or service displayed. Yesterday, I saw three ads in a row for prepared, frozen meals. I don’t eat or serve prepared, frozen meals, but many people do. The company advertising frozen chicken dinners has to assume that the majority of people watching TV want fast and easy food, so they use broadcast ads.
However, many businesses, especially those that market to other businesses (called “B2B” or business-to-business marketing), need precise targeting. They can’t use “spray and pray” methods of advertising because it is unlikely that they will reach their target market using mass media. Many consumer-focused brands need precise targeting, too, and that’s where digital advertising shines.
Performance tracking is another aspect of digital ads. It provides detailed and quantifiable metrics such as clicks, impressions, and conversions. This data-driven approach enables marketers to see exactly how their campaigns are performing and make informed decisions about future investments. The ability to track return on investment in real time sets digital advertising apart from traditional methods, where results can be difficult to measure.
Broadcast ads are priced on a fixed basis, often referencing viewers and cost per thousand of viewers reached. Digital ads are budgeted like a checkbook. You set up an ‘account’ and ‘bid’ on a price per click, with the amount deducted from your account. This makes them more affordable for smaller businesses who may not have tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on ads each month. It also enables easier and more affordable testing, so you can test new concepts, measure the results, and invest in what works.
Search Advertising: Capturing User Intent
Search advertising places your brand at the top of search engine results when users enter relevant keywords. These ads typically operate on a pay-per-click model, meaning you only pay when someone actually clicks on your advertisement.
Google Ads: The Market Leader
Google Ads dominates the search advertising landscape, processing billions of daily searches and offering outstanding targeting and reach. You can set your ad to appear only for specific keyword terms and phrases related to your products and services. Location filters enable local businesses to focus their advertising on specific geographic areas, while audience segmentation helps refine targeting based on user behavior and interests. This means that a restaurant in Farmville, Virginia, can show ads only to central Virginia residents. Let’s face it; if you’re in the Dakotas, you’re not going to drive to Farmville for dinner!
Google Ads reaches high-intent users who are actively seeking solutions to their problems. When someone searches for a specific product or service, they're often ready to make a purchase decision, making search ads particularly effective for driving conversions. The platform's extensive reach ensures that businesses can connect with potential customers at the exact moment they're looking for relevant solutions.
Bing Ads: The Overlooked Opportunity
Bing Ads are like the forgotten stepchild of the search engine advertising world, and that’s a shame because, for certain companies, they are an excellent choice. The platform tends to attract older and more professional audiences, making it particularly effective for B2B companies and businesses targeting mature demographics. I’ve seen it generate better results for B2B companies time and time again, so it’s worth testing if you sell services or goods to other businesses. Lower competition on Bing often results in cheaper cost-per-click rates, allowing businesses to stretch their advertising budgets further.
Integration with Microsoft products expands Bing's reach beyond just search results. The platform connects with various Microsoft services, providing additional touchpoints for reaching potential customers. This ecosystem approach can be particularly valuable for businesses targeting professional audiences who rely heavily on Microsoft's suite of business tools.
The Power of Search Advertising
Search advertising offers immediate visibility for relevant queries, putting your business in front of potential customers exactly when they're looking for what you offer. The high conversion potential stems from user intent - people clicking on search ads have already demonstrated interest by searching for related terms. This qualified traffic often leads to better conversion rates compared to other advertising methods.
Detailed analytics provide ongoing optimization opportunities, allowing marketers to refine their keyword strategies, adjust bids, and improve ad copy based on performance data. This continuous improvement process helps maximize return on investment over time.
Social Media Advertising: Building Relationships and Driving Action
Social media platforms provide rich environments for brand storytelling, engagement, and direct response advertising. Unlike search ads that capture existing demand, social media advertising can create demand by introducing products and services to users who might not have been actively searching for them.
Facebook and Instagram: Visual Storytelling Platforms
Facebook and Instagram offer access to a massive user base with sophisticated targeting options that go far beyond basic demographics. The platforms' advanced targeting capabilities allow businesses to reach users based on interests, behaviors, life events, and even connections to existing customers. This precision targeting helps ensure that advertising messages reach the most receptive audiences.
These platforms support various ad formats, including single images, videos, carousels, and stories, providing creative flexibility to match different marketing objectives. Visual storytelling opportunities make Facebook and Instagram particularly effective for B2C campaigns where emotional connection and brand personality play important roles in purchasing decisions.
LinkedIn: The B2B Marketing Powerhouse
LinkedIn serves as the premier platform for business-to-business advertising, offering unique targeting options that reflect its professional user base. Advertisers can target prospects by job title, industry, company size, seniority level, and many other professional characteristics. This granular targeting makes LinkedIn ideal for reaching decision-makers and influencers within specific industries or organizations.
The platform excels at promoting professional services, educational content like webinars, and thought leadership materials such as whitepapers. LinkedIn's professional context lends credibility to business-focused content and creates an environment where users expect to encounter industry-relevant information and solutions.
Emerging and Specialized Platforms
Twitter, now known as X, remains useful for real-time engagement and capitalizing on trending topics. The platform's fast-paced nature makes it ideal for timely campaigns and brands that want to participate in current conversations.
Pinterest represents a powerful platform for lifestyle, fashion, home decor, and DIY brands. Users often come to Pinterest with purchase intent, researching products and ideas they plan to implement, making it valuable for driving qualified traffic to e-commerce sites.
Benefits of Social Media Advertising
Social media advertising enables deep audience engagement through comments, shares, and direct interactions that can build a community around brands. This engagement creates opportunities for relationship building that extend beyond the initial ad impression.
Creative flexibility allows brands to experiment with different formats, messaging approaches, and visual styles to find what resonates best with their audiences. The informal nature of social media also permits more personality and creativity in advertising approaches.
Retargeting is also possible on social media. Retargeting means that the platform re-engages, or shows your ad again, to customers who may have visited your website or seen your ads before. This helps encourage buyers to revisit your site with the goal of more leads or sales.
Strategic Budget Planning for Digital Advertising
Budgeting digital advertising is both an art and a science. Most companies start with their best estimate and refine their budget based on demographics, targeting, and campaign results. A/B testing, or testing each new ad against the control or previous ‘winner,’ helps refine budgets and increase response rates over time. It builds on what works to maximize ROI.
How to Budget for Digital Ads
The first step is essential - define your goals. What do you want to accomplish? Brand awareness, lead generation, direct sales, customer retention, or something else? Identifying specific goals will help you focus and refine the entire campaign, including establishing the budget.
Next, choose the platform for your ads. Base your choice not on your favorite platform but on the demographics of the platform’s users. In other words, your ads should appear on platforms where your target audience likes to hang out. B2B ads may wish to test Bing, Google, and LinkedIn, while consumer-focused ads may wish to try Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.
I like to start with small ad budgets to test different approaches. Think about your first few campaigns as reconnaissance; you want to gather as much information as you can, learn from it, and move on to bigger and better things. Based on the metrics from the initial campaigns, you can then increase successful ones and sunset unsuccessful ones.
An important, but often overlooked aspect of digital advertising budgets is budget management. Keep an eye on your bank account, so to speak. Look at the metrics, including cost per click, conversion rates, and return on ad spend. Are you getting the most bang for your buck?.
Platform-Specific Budget Considerations
Google Ads typically requires higher minimum budgets due to competitive keyword costs, with most businesses starting their ad budgets around $500 monthly. However, highly competitive industries may require higher investments to achieve visibility and meaningful traffic volumes. This is why many companies prefer working with consultants and marketing agencies that specialize in Google Ads. (Note: Seven Oaks Consulting does have a partner ad agency that does this work for us, so let us know if it’s of interest!)
Facebook and Instagram advertising can be effective with smaller budgets, often starting around $300 monthly. The platforms' advanced targeting and optimization algorithms can work effectively even with limited spend, making them accessible to smaller businesses.
LinkedIn advertising generally requires higher budgets, typically starting around $1,000 monthly, due to the platform's premium audience and higher cost per click rates. However, the qualified nature of LinkedIn traffic often justifies the higher investment for B2B companies.
The Strategic Importance of Extended Campaign Duration
Don’t shortchange your ad campaigns by running them for a week and declaring victory (or losses). I recommend a minimum of three to six months of investment in an ad campaign to test, measure, and deliver information that can be used to improve future campaigns. If you can’t invest consistently in a digital ad campaign, now is not the time to run it.
Learning from Your Online Ads
All digital advertising platforms today use sophisticated algorithms that require time and data to optimize how, when, where, and to whom they show your ads. That’s why you need several weeks, if not months, to allow the ads to settle down (as I like to say) and start producing results. During the first few weeks of a campaign, the algorithms learn about your audience. They test different delivery strategies and identify the most responsive users. Cutting campaigns short disrupts this learning process and doesn’t provide a good return on investment.
Ads Build Recognition and Trust
There’s a reason why you see the same ads over and over again. Advertising success relies on repetition to build recognition and trust. Brand exposure, or seeing your company name, logo, and products repeatedly, imprints them in the viewers’ subconscious, helping them return to your company and products. Multiple touchpoints and multiple times seeing your ad improve brand recognition.
Accounting for Seasonal and Market Fluctuations
Here’s another often overlooked factor: seasonality.
All businesses experience natural seasonal shifts. Even technology and manufacturing companies see ups and downs in interest from customers. Consumer companies face even greater seasonal peaks and valleys. The Christmas rush, Black Friday, Mother’s Day, summertime…depending on what you sell, one season or month may be busy or slow. Longer campaigns offer more data, which smooths out potential biases from seasonal peaks and valleys.
Recommended Campaign Approach
So, how should you start a campaign? Focus first on strategy: where you should run your ads based on your customers’ platform or search preference. Then, establish your budget for at least three to six months of testing.
Next, conduct keyword research to develop your creative approach. Launch your ads.
The first month of digital advertising gives the algorithm time to adjust. During this time, watch carefully to ensure you’re reaching the desired target audience.
Months two and three represent the optimization phase, where insights from initial testing are applied to improve campaign performance. This might involve refining audience targeting, adjusting ad creative, or reallocating budget toward the highest-performing elements.
Months four through six focus on scaling successful strategies and maximizing return on investment. By this point, campaigns have sufficient data and optimization to support increased budgets and expanded targeting while maintaining efficiency.
Maximizing Digital Advertising Success
Digital advertising represents a powerful tool for reaching and engaging target audiences in today's connected marketplace. Success depends on understanding the unique strengths of different platforms, from search ads that capture existing intent to social media advertising that builds relationships and creates demand.
Strategic budget planning ensures that advertising investments generate meaningful returns while supporting long-term business growth. The commitment to extended campaign durations allows for proper optimization and relationship building that short-term approaches cannot achieve.
Whether focusing on immediate conversions through search advertising or building brand awareness through social media campaigns, digital advertising offers measurable, scalable solutions for businesses of all sizes. With thoughtful strategy, appropriate budgeting, and patience for optimization, digital advertising can drive significant growth and create lasting competitive advantages in the digital marketplace.
Achieve Better Results Through A/B Testing
Let's be honest—marketing can feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall sometimes. You have this brilliant idea for a new headline or button color, but will it actually work? Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, there's a better way: A/B testing.
What Is A/B Testing?
Think of A/B testing as a friendly competition between two versions of your marketing content. You create version A (usually your current version) and version B (your new idea), then show each one to different groups of people. Maybe you're testing whether "Get Started Now" works better than "Start Your Free Trial" as a button label. Or perhaps you're curious if that bright orange header will outperform your current blue one.
The beauty is in the simplicity—you let your audience tell you what they prefer through their actions, not their opinions.
Why Testing In Marketing Matters To Your Business
Here's the thing: we're all terrible at predicting what other people will do. I mean, really terrible. That "obvious" improvement you're sure will boost conversions? It might actually hurt them. That design change you think looks awful? Your customers might love it.
A/B testing takes the guesswork out of the equation. Instead of making decisions based on what you think will work, you're making them based on what actually works. This means less risk, better ROI, and those "aha!" moments when the data surprises you.
Picture this: you change a "Buy Now" button from blue to red. Seems minor, right? But what if that simple change increases your conversion rate by 15%? Without testing, you'd never know you were leaving money on the table.
Where You Can Use A/B Testing
The great news is that you can test almost anything in your marketing toolkit:
Email campaigns are perfect testing grounds. Try different subject lines (does "50% Off Everything" beat "Your Exclusive Sale Starts Now"?), experiment with sender names, or test whether your audience prefers short, punchy emails or longer, detailed ones.
Landing pages offer endless possibilities. Test headlines, swap out hero images, move your signup form from the bottom to the top, or try different call-to-action buttons. Even small changes in form length can make a big difference.
Digital ads are another goldmine for testing. Does that lifestyle photo perform better than a product shot? Which headline grabs more attention? Test different ad copy, visuals, or even audience targeting approaches.
E-commerce product pages can benefit from testing product descriptions, customer reviews placement, promotional banners, or even the number of product images you show.
Website navigation and layout elements like menu structures, sidebar content, or footer information can all impact user behavior in ways you might not expect.
The golden rule? Test one thing at a time. If you change both the headline and the button color simultaneously, you won't know which change drove your results.
Getting It Right: Best Practices That Actually Work
Sample Size and Statistical Significance
This is where things get a bit technical, but stick with me. You need enough people to see each version for your results to be meaningful. If only 50 people see version A and 47 see version B, a small difference could just be random chance. Most testing tools will calculate statistical significance for you, but aim for at least 95% confidence before declaring a winner.
Timing and Test Duration
Don't rush this part. Running a test for just a day or two rarely gives you reliable data. You want to capture different user behaviors throughout the week—people browse differently on Mondays than Fridays, and weekend traffic often behaves uniquely. Aim for at least one full business cycle, and consider seasonal factors if relevant.
Setting Clear Goals
Before you start, decide exactly what success looks like. Are you trying to increase email signups? Boost product purchases? Reduce bounce rate? Having a clear primary metric keeps you focused and prevents you from cherry-picking results later.
Avoiding the "Early Winner" Trap
This one's tough because we all want quick results. But declaring a winner after just a few hours or when you see early positive trends can lead you astray. Let the test run its full course—patience pays off in accuracy.
Proper Randomization
Make sure your testing tool randomly assigns visitors to each version. You don't want all your mobile users seeing version A while desktop users see version B, as that would skew your results.
Advanced Considerations for Better Testing
Sequential Testing Strategy
Once you find a winner, don't stop there. Use that winning version as your new baseline and test another improvement. This compound approach can lead to dramatic improvements over time.
Monitoring Secondary Metrics
While focusing on your primary goal, keep an eye on other important metrics. A version that increases click-through rates might decrease average order value or customer satisfaction. You want the full picture.
External Factors and Timing
Be mindful of outside influences. Running tests during Black Friday, major news events, or seasonal peaks can introduce variables that won't be present year-round. Sometimes it's worth pausing tests during unusual periods.
Multivariate Testing
Once you're comfortable with basic A/B testing, you might explore testing multiple elements simultaneously. This is more complex but can reveal how different elements interact with each other.
Building a Testing Culture
The biggest challenge often isn't technical—it's getting your team comfortable with being wrong sometimes. Create an environment where "failed" tests are celebrated as valuable learning experiences. Document everything, share insights broadly, and make data-driven decision-making the norm.
Making A/B Testing Work for Your Business
Start small if you're new to this. Pick one element that you suspect could be improved—maybe an email subject line or a single button on your website. Run that test properly, learn from the results, then gradually expand your testing program.
Remember, not every test will give you a clear winner, and that's okay. Sometimes the biggest insight is learning that your current approach is already pretty good. Other times, you'll discover game-changing improvements hiding in the smallest details.
The Bottom Line
A/B testing transforms marketing from educated guessing into strategic optimization. It respects the complexity of human behavior instead of trying to predict it, and it gives you the confidence to make changes based on evidence rather than opinions.
Whether you're optimizing your first email campaign or running sophisticated tests across multiple channels, the principle remains the same: let your audience show you what works. They're the ones making the decisions that matter, so why not listen to what they're telling you?
The best part? You don't need to be a data scientist or have a massive budget to get started. Many email platforms, website builders, and ad platforms have A/B testing built right in. The hardest part is often just getting started—but once you see how powerful data-driven optimization can be, you'll wonder how you ever marketed without it.
Choosing the Right Marketing Consultant
Tips for Choosing the Right Marketing Consultant: A Veteran Marketers' Perspective
Choosing the right marketing consultant is an art. My dad used to say there were two types of people: those that talk about doing things and those that actually do them. I have found throughout my 30+ year career in marketing that this holds true for consultants, too.
Two Types of Consultants
I have seen consultants that “do”. They roll up their sleeves and dive into the company’s problems. What needs to be done? Who needs support and coaching? How can I help?
And then there are those that “do not.” These are the bloviators. The talkers. The incessant theorizers. They love to attend meetings, host meetings, and meet to meet.
The “doers” explore problems and offer solutions. They focus on tangible results and ROI.
The “do not” consultants love to throw money and people at problems. Not getting enough leads? Well, you aren’t spending enough. (That may be true, but it may not be. The do-not-do consultants immediately throw money at the problem.) Not getting the results that you need? Ah, you don’t have the right people, or your staff is too small. Hire my cadre of best friends to fill out your marketing department and you will see the results.
More often than not, the do-not-do consultants leave before the results are in. They leave behind another story: bloated teams, wasted budgets, and exhausted managers. The talkers love theories, but they hate hard work. They love to delegate the job to the staff while making themselves look like the heroes should any one of their trendy theories work and improve leads, sales, and ROI.
At Seven Oaks Consulting, We Are All Doers!
In case you haven’t guessed, I’m a doer. I’m a roll-up your sleeves and dig-in kind of consultant. I mentor and teach, to be sure, but typically, I use situations as learning opportunities with my clients’ marketing teams to help them improve.
I know the theories, of course, and yes, I apply some of them. Brand story. EOS. Agile marketing. Each bears exploring. But the consultants avoid love to talk incessantly about theories without putting them into practice. When pushed, they rarely demonstrate theories in actual practice.
Finding the Best Marketing Consultant
How can you avoid the “do nots” and hire “can do” consultants? During the interview process, listen to the questions they ask. The do nots often leap immediately to the solution and insist that they have seen it all and therefore do not need to explore alternatives. The can-do consultants request data, plans, and results to date. They want to talk one on one with a few team members. They ask specific questions about what has been tried and what has failed.
Hire can-do consultants. Ask for references. Look at their work. Ask pointed questions during the interview process.
Some questions to consider include:
- How would you solve this problem?
- What experience do you have with X?
- Why do you think this is happening?
- What would you recommend in this example?
Should Marketing Consultants Provide Samples?
Do not expect the consultant to provide samples specific to your company or a written marketing plan for free. I have had potential clients steal sample plans and enact them. I’ve caught them doing this; we’ve met, given them a short marketing plan, and the next thing I know, I see the messaging and tactics all playing out. It’s not a coincidence. It’s happened to me too many times over my 18 years as a consultant, so now I rarely provide details in writing without a hiring agreement. However, during the interview, I am happy to give some industry perspectives, best practices, and a few ideas.
As a senior marketing consultant who has run a successful business-to-business marketing practice for over 18 years, I can help you weed out the talkers from the doers. More importantly, I can help you get the work done. My teams can be deployed quickly to your content needs, providing regular marketing content for social media, blog posts, guest posts, and more. And I promise not to talk theory without practical application. That’s a promise.
Mailing Violation: Marketing Agency Fined for Lack of Disclosures on Direct Mail
I check several news sources daily to keep up with both local and world news. One story on the AP News caught my attention: Marketing Firm Fined $40,000 for 202 GOP Mailers in New Hampshire.
The story is interesting to me because of my background in direct mail. Before founding Seven Oaks Consulting in 2007, I had a long and happy career leading marketing and direct mail for some of the nation’s largest education companies. My master’s degree in Direct and Interactive Marketing from New York University included many courses in direct mail management, and I spent many hours over the years working with mailing houses, printers, and agencies through the New York tri-state area. I have even led workshops in direct mail for marketing agencies who need to shore up their knowledge of best practices.
The AP report was scanty and did not give background information about the case, so I searched the New Hampshire Department of Justice for the case and read through the PDF on their site that lays out the state’s case against the marketing agency, Deliver Strategies. Deliver Strategies is a marketing agency specializing in political marketing for candidates running for office. Direct mail is often used for political marketing.
According to the document found on the New Hampshire DOJ site, the case began when it was discovered that 189,000 political mailers sent to residents in New Hampshire failed to contain the appropriate disclosure language (paid for by) and return address. Investigation into the mailers led to a tangle of mistakes that began with the client and ended with the mail house.
Mistakes make throughout this case include:
- Deliver Strategies acquiescing to the client’s request not to put the return address and disclosure on the mail piece.
- Trusting that the client’s lawyers had reviewed the mail piece and given it a green light to proceed without the disclosures. (I wonder if they received written confirmation from the client on this).
- The mail house, upon questioning the name to put on postal form 3602-R, taking it upon themselves to search online for the candidate’s name and address and putting it on the form. Meanwhile the candidate neither authorized nor paid for the mailer. The candidate knew nothing about it. It was paid for through a political action committee (PAC).
Reading through the DOJ document, I kept shaking my head. I understand completely how such mistakes happen. The agency wants to please the client. The agency asks for, and receives, reassurance that the legal team has blessed the mailer. Meanwhile, the mailing house tries to do what it thinks is correct and ends up screwing up everything further.
I think the moral of this story is that if a client – or an agency – sends you a creative proof that you feel is wrong, you need to question it. Dig in your heels. Do not go with the flow.
Digital Strategies questioned the client about the lack of return address or disclosure, but in the end, went along with it up on reassurance of its legalities. That’s a reasonable call to make in my opinion as an agency owner. If they did not suggest taking off the return address or omitting the disclaimer, the fault, in my opinion, lies with the client. I hope that the agency asks for the fine to be repaid, counts its blessings, and moves on
An Overview of Marketing Tactics - Use the Right Marketing Tool for the Job
Are you using the right marketing tactics to achieve your business goals?
The right tool for the job makes the task easier. The same goes for marketing. Choosing the correct tactic to achieve your goals is vital to your overall marketing plan success.
Too many executives, however, hear or read about a particular tactic, and then it becomes their pet tactic. They go to a seminar that talks about Facebook advertising, and suddenly, they want their marketing team to enact a Facebook marketing plan immediately – even though their target customer is on LinkedIn or the company has already tried Facebook advertising and gotten no results.
I can’t tell you how many meetings I have sat in as a consultant and heard company leaders demanding to know why this tactic or that one isn’t being done as if a particular tactic is a magic bullet that will fix their marketing problems.
There’s no magic bullet, and there is no one ‘right’ marketing tactic to solve your particular problem. However, there are some guidelines about what tactic to choose based on the specific situation you want to solve. Below is my list. It is not the only list. However, it should serve as a sound general guideline for those who wish to use it. As with all things in marketing, test, measure, repeat what works, and discard what doesn’t. Give any campaign enough time to make an impact before changing things. And always – without exception, without fail – focus on your audience and where and how they like to receive information.
Examples of Marketing Tactics and The Goals They Achieve
Advertising
Print, television, radio, display, digital, social media ads
Best for lead generation, direct product sales, and acquisition marketing (such as building up an email list for future marketing). It can also be used for branding and product awareness.
Direct Mail or Email
Direct mail (old-fashioned “snail mail”), email marketing
Best for direct product sales and lead generation. Email marketing through newsletters is good for retention, i.e., “keep in touch” marketing with your customers.
Content Marketing
Blogs, articles, case studies, white papers, videos, podcasts.
Best for thought leadership, awareness, and branding. It can be used for acquisition marketing but is usually not an immediate lead generation or sale opportunity. Excellent for brand awareness, building brand loyalty, and developing an audience.
Events and Conferences
Exhibiting at a trade show and attending industry events.
Best for networking, brand awareness, and long-term acquisition and retention.
Marketing Tactics – The Right Tool for the Job
Again, let me stress that the list shared above offers guidelines rather than rules about which marketing tactic to choose for your needs. Often, these tactics are adapted or adjusted to support various strategies. Multiple tactics are used together (called an omnichannel marketing strategy or an integrated strategy) to produce the desired results.
This is where choosing the right marketing tools becomes an art rather than a science. Companies that struggle to solve a business problem, such as lead generation, high customer churn, or poor brand awareness, should work with an experienced marketing consultant. Experienced marketers have faced similar problems and have seen which campaigns worked (and which didn’t) to solve the problem. They can apply these learnings to your business and make better, informed suggestions.
So before you insist that “we should be doing a podcast” or “we should start a blog,” sit down with your most experienced marketing person and instead state the problem to be solved. Don’t try to guess the tactic or use the tactic in vogue. Not every marketing approach fits every situation. Pick the right tool from your marketing toolbox to achieve the desired result.
Let’s talk results—I’ll help you craft winning marketing strategies!
Contact Us
Phone: (434) 574-6253
Email: info@sevenoakscontentmarketing.com
Marketing Strategy Review: Are You Stuck Doing Pot Roast Marketing?
Here at Seven Oaks Consulting, “pot roast marketing” is an in-joke. It refers to how companies often fall into the trap of doing the same marketing year after year just because it’s always been done that way.
- They go to the same trade show every year because they’ve always gone…despite the fact that they haven’t gotten a lead there in years.
- They produce YouTube videos because someone said “everyone in your industry does this” and so they do them even though it’s a struggle.
- They send the same emails out because the CEO loves them.
The Marketing Metaphor of the Pot Roast
The term pot roast marketing comes from an old story I was told many, many years ago. In this story, a young bride cooks a pot roast for her husband for the first time. As he bites into the first forkful, he chews thoughtfully and says, “Honey, this is the best pot roast I’ve ever eaten. But why did you cut the roast in half before cooking it?”
“I don’t know,” she answers, “but my mom always cooked it this way, so that’s what I do, too. Let me call her and ask.”
So the woman phones her mother, and her mother doesn’t know the answer, either. “Well, that’s the way Grandma always made it, so that’s how I make it, too. Let me call her and ask.”
When the two women get on a call with Grandma, Grandma bursts out laughing. “Oh my dears,” she laughs, “the only reason I cut the pot roast in half is because I didn’t have a pan big enough for the full piece. I had to cut it to make it fit. Don’t tell me you were making it this way all along and didn’t know why?”
That’s what happens in marketing departments. The “pot roast” is a project, perhaps a campaign, that someone initiated years ago. Once, it was successful, and so it became standard operating procedure. No one has questioned it since. But, when examined carefully, it reveals itself as a drag on time and resources, and underperforming activity that can either be set aside or changed to go with the times – and be a productive campaign once again.
A Real-Life Example of a Pot Roast Marketing Strategy
Company Made 5X Investment Once They Fixed Their Marketing Problem!
I experienced the phenomenon of pot roast marketing many years ago. A company I was working with had a direct mail piece that was a ‘prime’ example of pot roast marketing. It was stale and tired. It cost them a bundle to mail each year – and lost around $30,000 in the process. But they insisted, to the last breath, that they had to keep sending out that mailer ‘because it’s always been done this way and everyone in our [target market] expects it.”
Even though it’s not considered best practice to change multiple things in a direct mail piece at one time, I did it with this one because they had nothing to lose – it was costing them money and they weren’t getting the desired results. I asked their creative director to change the appearance of the piece, giving it a modern edge. Their list broker cleaned the list, removing duplicates and adding new audience segments. We even changed the timing of the piece, moving it back a few weeks.
The results? This old pot roast that originally cost them $30,000 each year now made them over $500,000! In simple terms, for every $1 they invested in the production of the direct mail piece, they received $5 back in product sales. And we saved $100,000 in mailing costs by cleaning up the list.
This small example shows you how pot roast marketing can stall even the best companies. This company was supportive of their marketing and invested heavily in all channels, including direct mail. Yet they had a pot roast on their hands. It took an outside voice – me, a marketing consultant – to help them sniff the pot roast out from their midst.
Key Marketing Insights: Takeaways
Look for every opportunity to get the pot roast out of the oven – to identify marketing activities that are among the annual tactical plan simply because it’s always been done that way or it’s a pet project of an executive. Question everything. Analyze the data. If it’s not helping you meet your acquisition, retention, or brand loyalty goals, change it or sunset it. But don’t keep doing a marketing activity because “it’s always been done that way.”
Let’s talk results—I’ll help you craft winning marketing strategies!
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What Is Brand Equity?
Brand equity refers to the intangible value that a brand adds to a product or service. It represents the perception and attitudes consumers have towards a brand, and it can significantly influence their purchasing decisions. Like many aspects of marketing, equity is built over time through various marketing and branding efforts, and it reflects the overall strength and value of a brand in the marketplace.
What Are the Key Components of Brand Equity?
There are numerous components that build equity in a company's brand.
Brand Awareness
The degree to which consumers recognize or are aware of a brand. Higher awareness often leads to higher equity.
Brand Associations
The mental connections and associations that consumers make with a brand. These can include attributes, benefits, values, and even emotions linked to the brand.
Perceived Quality
The perception of the quality or superiority of a brand's products or services. If consumers believe a brand consistently delivers high-quality offerings, it contributes positively to the brand's value.
Brand Loyalty
The level of customer loyalty and repeat business a brand enjoys. Strong brand equity often results in increased customer loyalty and a willingness to choose a particular brand over competitors.
Brand Image
The overall impression or reputation of a brand. A positive brand image contributes to higher equity, while negative perceptions can diminish it.
Brand Identity
The visual and symbolic elements that represent the brand, including logos, taglines, and other brand elements. A cohesive and well-defined brand identity contributes to its equity.
Brand Personality
The human-like characteristics and traits associated with a brand. Establishing a unique and relatable brand personality helps build a stronger connection with consumers.
Brand Trust
The level of trust consumers place in a brand. Trust is crucial for building and maintaining a brand, as it influences consumer confidence in the brand's promises and consistency.
Brand Differentiation
The distinctiveness that sets a brand apart from its competitors. Brands with a strong point of differentiation often command higher brand equity.
Market Positioning
The position a brand occupies in the minds of consumers relative to competitors. Effective positioning contributes to brand equity by establishing a clear and favorable space in the market.
Brand Equity, Your Most Valuable Asset
Equity is a valuable asset for companies as it can positively impact business performance, market share, and the ability to command premium prices. Companies invest in building and maintaining brands through consistent branding strategies, marketing communications, product quality, and customer experiences. A strong brand can also provide a buffer during challenging times, helping companies recover more quickly from setbacks or crises.
What Is B2B Marketing?
B2B is an acronym for “business-to-business,” meaning businesses market products and services to other companies as opposed to the consumer segment. B2B marketing means "business to business marketing" or selling products or services from one business to another business.
Examples of B2B Marketing Companies
Here are a few examples of B2B companies:
- An accounting firm that works with corporate accounts
- A commercial real estate company
- A commercial print shop
Elements of a B2B Marketing Plan
A Business-to-Business (B2B) marketing plan is a strategic document outlining the marketing goals and strategies for a business that sells products or services to other businesses. The components of a B2B marketing plan typically include:
Executive Summary
Briefly summarizes the key points of the entire marketing plan, including business objectives, target market, and major initiatives.
Business Overview
Provide an overview of the company, its mission, vision, values, and key differentiators in the market.
Market Analysis
Analyze the industry and market conditions, including trends, opportunities, and threats. This section may include a competitive analysis to understand the positioning of the company relative to competitors.
Target Market and Buyer Personas
Define the specific businesses or industries the company is targeting. This may include creating detailed buyer personas to understand the characteristics, needs, and challenges of the target audience.
Marketing Objectives
State measurable goals the marketing plan aims to achieve. Objectives should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART).
Positioning and Value Proposition
Articulate how the company wants to be perceived in the market and communicates its unique value proposition—what sets it apart from competitors.
Product or Service Description
Provide detailed information about the products or services offered, highlighting key features and benefits relevant to the target audience.
Marketing Strategies
Outline high-level approaches and tactics the business will use to achieve its marketing objectives. This may include content marketing, digital marketing, events, trade shows, partnerships, and other channels.
Sales and Distribution Channels
Describe the channels through which the company's products or services will be sold and distributed to businesses. This could include direct sales, partnerships, distributors, and online sales.
Budget
Set the budget allocations to different marketing activities. This helps ensure that resources are allocated effectively and in alignment with strategic priorities.
Timeline and Milestones
Break down the B2B marketing plan into a timeline with key milestones and deadlines. This helps in tracking progress and staying on schedule.
Metrics and Measurement
Identify the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will be used to measure the success of marketing initiatives. This includes metrics such as lead generation, conversion rates, customer acquisition cost, and customer lifetime value.
Implementation Plan
Detail how the marketing strategies will be implemented, including responsibilities, timelines, and any specific action plans for each marketing initiative.
Monitoring and Adjustment
Outline how the plan will be monitored and evaluated regularly. In addition, include how you plan to address issues that arise from performance data.
By including these elements in a B2B marketing plan, businesses can create a comprehensive and strategic roadmap for reaching and engaging their target audience, ultimately driving growth and success in the B2B marketplace.
Tactical Ideas for B2B Marketing
Marketers should use a variety of strategies to reach decision makers in the B2B space. The most effective approach is considering those that cater to your specific needs and target audience.
Examples of B2B Marketing Tactics
- Email marketing
- Content marketing
- Social media marketing
- SMS marketing
- Direct mail
Regardless of your combination of methods or approaches, an intentional approach to B2B marketing is key to success. That can mean taking these steps in this order:
- Develop a vision
- Define your target market
- Identifying marketing tactics and channels
- Launch your campaign
Success of any B2B marketing campaign hinges on knowing the frustrations and goals and of their target audience. Cost savings and ROI are usually the primary motivators in this context. However, these drivers come with unique set of challenges. B2B marketing speaks to the impact on the bottom line. That means marketing teams need to concisely and authentically communicate value to the decision maker.
What Is Affinity Marketing?
Affinity marketing, also known as co-branded marketing, means that two organizations join forces. It has the potential to elevate awareness, exposure and the overall stature of both brands. In some cases, the two parties might launch one product or service together. This arrangement is known as “co-branding” and can be an effective way to reach current or new audiences in different or new ways.
Affinity Marketing Best Practices
Choose the Right Partner
Company leaders should consider whether the other business owners share similar values, customers, or offer products that align.
Ensure the Partnership Serves Both Interests
The best arrangement is fair to both partners. If either feels like the other is benefiting more or not contributing, it’s not going to be sustainable.
Define Roles
As is the case with any business endeavor, it’s important that both partners grasp and agree to the outlined roles and responsibilities for the sake of clarity and curbing potential conflict. Two entrepreneurs who might want to plan and execute a trade show event, for example, must discuss who’ll pay for the display and any marketing material.
Examples of Affinity Marketing
Sometimes it's easier to understand a concept when you see examples. Here are several examples of affinity marketing.
Affinity marketing involves creating partnerships or collaborations between brands with similar target audiences but non-competing products or services. These partnerships aim to leverage the existing customer base of one brand to benefit the other. Here are three examples of affinity marketing:
Starbucks and Spotify
Starbucks, a global coffeehouse chain, partnered with Spotify, a music streaming service, to enhance the in-store experience for customers. The company's rewards program members were given the opportunity to influence the music played in Starbucks stores and create personalized playlists on Spotify. This collaboration allowed both brands to tap into each other's customer bases, as coffee enthusiasts could discover new music, and music lovers could explore Starbucks offerings.
Uber and Spotify
Uber, a ride-sharing service, collaborated with Spotify to offer passengers the ability to control the music during their rides. Riders who connected their Spotify accounts to the Uber app could play their favorite music from the moment they stepped into an Uber. This partnership enhanced the overall customer experience for both services, making the ride more personalized and enjoyable for passengers while promoting Spotify to a broader audience through the Uber platform.
American Express and Airbnb
American Express, a financial services company, teamed up with Airbnb, a platform for short-term home rentals. The partnership allowed American Express cardholders to link their cards to their Airbnb accounts, providing them with special offers and discounts. This collaboration was designed to encourage American Express customers to use Airbnb for their travel accommodations while providing Airbnb with exposure to a segment of financially affluent travelers.
Affinity Marketing - Beneficial to Brands
These examples illustrate how affinity marketing can be mutually beneficial for brands by allowing them to reach new customers, enhance their offerings, and create unique experiences that resonate with their shared target audience. Affinity marketing relies on the principle that the customers of one brand are likely to have an interest in the products or services of the partnered brand, creating a win-win situation for both parties involved.