Part Two
IN last week’s column, we got a dose of the very basic things you need to know as you prepare to use digital platforms for your communication. As with any campaign, you don’t just throw everything in, including the kitchen sink. Considering how scarce financial resources are and how much clutter there is in the online space, communicators and marketers have to be smart about their strategies, which include platform choices.
Here are the digital channels that marketers and communicators can use to reach their audiences.
· Content marketing
This is one of the most important channels that you can use, as this can drive your whole inbound marketing strategy. Content allows audiences to learn more about your brand: your values, your solutions, your entire universe. Good content will tell them what your product or service can do to solve their problems. It is also a great way for you to make your brand relatable to your target market, to create a relationship with them. Your content strategy will impact all stages of the buyer’s journey, so make sure you are prepared to provide content that they can relate to, wherever they may be in their journey.
· Display advertising
The general concept is similar to your traditional TV commercials, but instead of targeting the mass market, display ads are highly targeted to your desired audience segments. I’m sure you’ve experienced this: while browsing a website or watching videos on YouTube, you eerily get a very relevant ad. Maybe you’re not in the market yet for that product or service, but it’s something that you actually have use for and have the potential to buy. This is because of display advertising’s targeting capabilities. Your ads can be placed onto thousands of websites and even mobile apps. These ads will be shown side-by-side with content relevant to your offering, to audiences whose characteristics and behaviors you’ve identified yourself. Two of the most popular providers of display ad solutions are Google Display Network and Facebook.
· Email and automation marketing
If you have a credit card, bank account, or online shopping platform account, you are very familiar with marketing emails. Notice how many emails you get from online shopping platforms in the run-up to double days (did you splurge on any 9/9 sales last week?) and paydays? Or if you’ve left some items in your cart without checking out, I’m almost absolutely sure that you’ve received an email prompting you to: “Check out now! Stocks are running out!” Email marketing campaigns are typically used to convert customers to a sale and to gain brand loyalty.
Marketers cannot run their email campaigns alone. Email service providers (ESPs) are required to run massive campaigns—those targeting hundreds to even millions of customers. These ESPs provide contact database management, segmentation, personalization, automation, tracking, unsubscribe management, and email and landing page creation. Examples of ESPs are Mailchimp and Hubspot.
· Organic search or search engine optimization (SEO)
Simply put, this exercise entails making your brand, product, or service more discoverable on search engines without having to place ads or pay for clicks. Contrary to popular belief, however, SEO goes beyond just using the right keywords. SEO or organic search has three pillars: technical, on-page, and off-page optimization. The most popularly known pillar is on-page optimization, where the right keywords are placed in the right positions on a page’s content to increase its searchability. Technical optimization has to do with the site itself, outside of the content: site speed, mobile friendliness, and security through migration to HTTPS. Off-page optimization is mainly driven by backlinks, or other sites linking to your site, thus building your site’s reputation.
· Paid search or pay per click (PPC)
On the flipside of SEO is paid search or PPC, which, as its name implies requires marketers to pay for clicks from an interested audience. If you’ve noticed your search results on Google, some of them appear with an “Ad” icon right beside the site link or URL. These are the ones that appear on the very top of search results. Your ads appear to people who are actively looking for your brand, product, or service. As these users are already actively searching for what you’re offering, there is a high chance of conversion when they see your website on the top of their search results.
· Social media marketing
This is used to drive awareness and interest—or top-of-funnel buyer’s journey points—in your brand, product, or service. Marketers use social platforms to show content and create social engagement that will influence these top-of-funnel activities. Through social media marketing, brands can build relationships with their publics, leverage organic feedback through social listening, offer positive customer experience via instant and genuine feedback, and build the brand story through content.
· Website optimization
An optimized website provides an environment that’s conducive for visitors to engage with the content there. The design and the content of your site will depend on your objectives for setting it up: for awareness and interest (also called a portfolio or brochure site), for generating leads, or for e-commerce. Optimizing your website means getting rid of these friction points: confusing navigation, slow checkout process (for e-commerce sites), unclear or no benefits to converting, and slow website.
· Using them together
HAVING these digital platforms is not necessarily a death knell for so-called traditional media. There are campaigns now that run almost solely on digital, but there are programs that still require the more traditional media types. The same way online publications have not killed newspapers (yet), digital and traditional can co-exist and provide better coverage for many communicators and marketers.
One of the most important things to consider is consumer behavior and media consumption. Where are your audiences getting their information and media fix? Do they have access to the platforms you would like to use? Access includes device and connectivity. Do they know how to use your chosen platform, particularly digital? Do your research before deciding on the channels that you will use.
Budget is another key consideration. Placing an ad on TV or a national broadsheet is cost-prohibitive. For some brands though, these placements are unavoidable. If you do not have much advertising budget, shifting your spend to digital may be more cost-efficient. Placements can complement each other, too, if you have cash to burn. For example, the launch of a TV ad can be accompanied by a digital campaign that can prompt viewer action—taking advantage of a now-common behavior of simultaneously viewing from multiple screens.
Know-how is also important. Do you have a team who can maximize the use of certain platforms, particularly digital ones? It’s not necessary to have this knowledge in-house, as there are agencies that can run these omnichannel campaigns for you. Just prepare to fork over a fairly significant amount, not just to pay your agency, but to ensure optimal media buys.
And do not forget your objectives. What outcomes do you want to see from this campaign? These will dictate your spend, your platform, and your metrics.
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the United Kingdom-based International Public Relations Association (Ipra), the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Abigail L. Ho-Torres is AVP and Head of Customer Experience of Maynilad Water Services, Inc. She spent more than a decade as a business journalist before making the leap to the corporate world.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.
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