When it comes to owning a digital marketing campaign - building the strategy, managing the execution, and being held accountable for results - many people will want to tell you that it's as simple as following steps 1, 2, and 3.
While there are certainly digital marketing strategies that need to be built, specific areas of focus to consider, and metrics that should definitely be tracked, what truly makes a campaign successful is the mindset held by those charged with its management.
Being a successful manager of a campaign requires a set of simple rules that go beyond campaign tactics. It requires an understanding of the expectations of all stakeholders involved, from the company's executives to the market and audience they're targeting. It requires a deep understanding of how their work and systems connect to and affect other elements of the business. It requires an intimate knowledge of the digital landscape and where the campaign currently lies within it.
At Revenue River, we've established 2 high-level rules that when followed, can be associated with the health and ultimate success of a digital marketing campaign. All account managers are tasked with keeping a mindset that is open to these 2 items above all else. As we've found success with this approach, we're now sharing it with you.
Know What's Important & Expected So You Can Filter All Decisions Through Them
While many believe that success within a certain project or activity, especially within the marketing field, comes down to metrics and numbers the truth is that success is whatever those above you say it is. Understanding that will allow you to focus your time initially on clearly establishing success metrics, goals, and overall visions before then filtering all decisions and activities through them.
If you've been hired to implement a digital marketing campaign for your business, it can be very easy to assume that success will look like a cohesive brand established across your website, social, and email channels. This assumption could be very off-base and only after speaking to your executive team would you find out that the most important thing to them is generating sales qualified leads for a specific new business unit.
No matter if you're just starting a campaign or half way through one, ask yourself these questions to better understand if you truly know what's important and expected of you and your marketing activity:
- Are clear goals established and are the prescribed activities that are aimed at hitting those goals making progress towards them
- Is all campaign activity being held against the standards demanded by all stakeholders, both internal and within the market?
Understand How Everything Connects So That You Can Promote Accuracy & Transparency
Having a system in place for accurately reporting on all areas of significance within the campaign (established above) is crucial to ultimately driving success through your work. By reviewing your current systems, tools, and processes to understand how all of these elements connect, you can establish a baseline to compare against future growth while also mapping out how you can properly report on different areas of your campaign and the business to help in campaign analysis and proof of progress and overall success.
Only after you review your website's lead generation system (landing pages, forms, contact property fields, etc.), marketing automation tools, sales process, and CRM set-up will you be able to piece together how information is currently being collected, what metrics you have to work with from different systems, and what blind spots will need to be accounted for within your campaign. All of this can be used to ultimately build an analytics and reporting system that helps you show progress and pitfalls within your current campaign and systems.
In order to promote accuracy and transparency in your analysis and reporting, no matter if you have a well-built out marketing automation and CRM environment or simple spreadsheet tracking, ask yourself these questions to better understand how everything within your campaign and business connect:
- Are the internal systems and data sets properly built out so that all information and reporting from them is accurate?
- Is this system continually being monitored and tweaked to allow for change and greater detail in transparency and reporting?
Success within the digital marketing arena does not just come to those that follow playbooks and jump on trends. Success comes from those who truly understand what's important within their campaigns and objectives. By following these 2 rules, you will put yourself in a better position to make decisions that will drive activities and results expected from all parties connected to your campaign.
Don't believe you have the time or skill set to implement these 2 rules within your campaign? Let us show you what your marketing could look like if driven by them.
