An integrated marketing strategy means every element of your marketing plan must contribute towards your goals and objectives, or be cut out of the day-to-day workload
Lack of integration between strategic vision and the tactics needed to get there is a problem I often find when reviewing marketing strategies. That's why I created the RACE Framework as a simple structure to unify your marketing strategy through goals, objectives, and KPIs. You can see table with an example of integrated marketing goals and objectives planning below.
This is true whether I'm reviewing student assignments or mentoring marketers creating real-world marketing strategies. More often than not, I find myself reading about different aspects of marketing objectives and tactics that just don't line up with each other - and leave you questioning why.
These issues can be magnified by marketing strategy structure - the way the document is split up into separate sections. Without a unifying…
From SMART to SMARTER marketing objectives: Discover how to define marketing objectives, measure your digital marketing goals, and use data to inform your marketing strategy
When identifying specific marketing objectives to support your long-term goals, it is common practice to apply the widely used SMART mnemonic. You will know that SMART is used to assess the suitability of objectives set to drive different strategies or the improvement of the full range of business processes.
By its simplest definition, an effective SMART marketing objective is:
Specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound.
But you will learn in this article that beyond this well-known acronym, there are different variations and nuances which you can apply to practice Smarter Marketing.
What is Smarter Marketing?
The SMART acronym is much more than a mnemonic since it defines a way of thinking about getting better results within business and marketing. This mindset is based…
Set the right goals for digital marketing using the 5Ss
Do your set of goals for online marketing cover all the bases? A good set of digital marketing goals covers a range of different measures to help set, review, and control performance across all digital marketing activities. In this article, we cover the 5S framework which are a simple method to gain more focus on how digital marketing can support a business.
The 5Ss are a great simple framework, as the examples show. It's worth bearing in mind that goals are broader than objectives which we recommend as essential for setting targets and reviewing performance using digital marketing dashboards. If you need to use a more data-driven approach to digital marketing, see these primers or our free template for more examples:
Setting SMART objectives for…
Set your Key Performance Indicators, make them SMART KPIs, and align your objectives using our RACE Framework to achieve YOY growth in key metrics for your business
KPIs are a useful way for digital marketers to set expectations and prove that their work is having a positive impact. To outsiders, the success of digital marketing activity can be seen as difficult to measure but this really isn’t the case. In fact, it’s normally easier to measure progress metrics for a digital campaign than an offline one.
The aim of this post is to help you set digital marketing KPIs to measure what really matters at the moment, in a way that all parties can agree on. Smart marketing planning is essential for measuring and tracking your progress, and demonstrating value. We’ll cover negotiating KPIs, budgeting, and how to tie your KPIs into the Smart Insights RACE Digital Marketing Framework.
What are digital…
Efficiency vs effectiveness definition and explanation
I think many would think the meaning of efficiency and effectiveness are similar terms for describing the performance of a business process.
If so, think again, since whatever the type of process you really need both types of measures when identifying the most suitable goals and measures to assess your marketing or business effectiveness. It's fine to say the difference doesn't matter especially, but I think that understanding the difference helps you create a better set of measures!
I hope to show why the difference is important in this article where I'll give a brief definition of each and show examples of efficiency and effectiveness measures applied to digital marketing KPIs.
Definition of efficiency
The simple, often used, definition of efficiency is ("doing the thing right").
We need this measure for marketing activities and business processes since it helps us see…
Without setting clear marketing objectives, you’re basically directionless – and working to achieve vanity metrics that don’t necessarily help you achieve your overall business goals
Digital marketing objectives underpin all marketing strategies. After all, how do you know what you're working towards without clear, actionable, and achievable metrics? Setting marketing goals should always be the priority as they will be the basis of your entire strategy.
By achieving your digital marketing objectives, you’re also helping reach your overall business goals, whether that’s boosting your overall sales or improving awareness of your brand.
Setting marketing objectives is, on one hand, a great way to motivate yourself and your team and work towards achieving better results for your business.
On the other hand, objectives and KPI-setting is about much more than just saying “I want to achieve that and that” – it’s how you can develop a plan or strategy that will help support your vision…
You need a digital product roadmap so your team doesn’t get lost in the tactical weeds. Here’s what a great one looks like.
As Lewis Carroll famously said, ‘if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.’ When it comes to digital product planning, unless you want to risk wandering aimlessly, you’ll need a product roadmap.
Besides keeping your team focused, a good product roadmap will help keep your work aligned with the expectations of your executive team. And it will show you’re keeping your eyes on the financial ball.
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Here, I share five essential traits of product roadmaps for owners of digital products, using examples from my experience that worked well. Take it, tweak it to make it your own, and use…
Metrics are your marketing strategy scorecard. Track the right UX and CX KPIs to truly understand your customers' experiences of your brand
Metrics are the ‘scorecard’ of your marketing strategy. When these metrics, also known as key performance indicators (KPIs), are moving upwards, you’re winning the marketing game. When your CX KPIs are trending downwards, you’re on the losing team (at least for now).
You probably know your conversion-related KPIs by heart: metrics like conversion rate, revenue per visitor (RPV), and average order value (AOV). And on the acquisition side: cost per acquisition (CPA), return on ad spend (ROAS), and marketing qualified lead rate (MQL).
But, to get a clear sense of what matters most in your customers’ minds, you need to include CX KPIs (customer experience) in your scorecard mix.
These CX KPIs measure your prospects’ and customers’ perceptions of your brand, judged after several interactions, or ‘touchpoints,’ with both your online and…
'Strategic marketing beyond a single campaign metric': Brand evaluation requires deeper analysis of your campaign KPIs
A single brand evaluation metric such as 'brand awareness' can get a bad press as a marketing KPI. It's easy to see why, after all, just because I'm aware of your brand, it doesn't mean your marketing has been all that successful in driving demand or sales for a product.
To give a trite example, I'm aware of Donald Trump, North Korea and Protein World. It doesn't mean I like any of them. Nor does it mean I'd ever buy from them. Oh and before you say 'You can't buy from North Korea Rob you idiot'- I think you'll find you can.
Strategic brand evaluation runs much deeper. It's time to aim for strategic marketing beyond a single campaign metric.
"Strategic marketing beyond a single campaign metric"
Boosting brand awareness isn't pointless, far from it.…
How to ensure you track performance against target
KPIs, we all have them, sometimes we set them for ourselves, often they are set for us! The question is, are the KPIs you are reviewing supporting your efforts into making the boat go faster? Are they translated from business goals or just a bunch of metrics someone thought they may as well stick on a weekly powerpoint dashboard because Google Analytics spits out a sexy graph?
This post explores how you can ensure you are using the KPIs that are helping you track performance in line with your business goals? KPIs give an integral pulse on the business that helps keep you be aware of what's really going on and they allow you to exert control to pull the right levers to keep on track according to what actually matters. For me, the key when setting KPIs for marketing and digital marketing is to start with the business goals.
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