When To Build An In-House Team And When To Hire A Marketing Agency
November 14, 2023
Here, we will take a look at the benefits and drawbacks of these two options and what you can do to get the best results from both.
Setting Goals for a Marketing Team
When determining marketing team goals, each role has its unique objectives. From content creators aiming for engagement to advertisers focusing on Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and branding teams promoting awareness, there are plenty of objectives. So, how do you harmonise these different goals in your marketing strategy to hit important targets and achieve overall business success, whilst ensuring each role plays its integral part effectively?
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What Should Content Marketing Teams Prioritise?
Content teams should primarily focus on boosting user engagement. The more engagement, the better, as this is an indicator of a loyal, invested audience who truly cares about the brand. But how can you drive engagement? Here are some tips:
Quality
Deliver valuable content that is relevant to the brand and the audience. There’s no shortcut to this, so it’s worth taking the time to create high-quality content. Have a look at competitors’ content and see what drives the most engagement, using this as inspiration.
Consistency
Regular content updates to maintain audience interest. Develop a content calendar and use some scheduling software to make sure your high-quality content is going out on a regular basis. Decide what volume of content works for you and stick with this.
Diversity
Using a range of formats like blogs, videos, and infographics helps keep your content calendar varied and interesting. Remember, content can be easily adapted and repurposed into different formats, e.g. info from a blog post can also be used as a basis for a video or image carousel.
How Can Advertisers Maximise ROI?
Advertisers’ main objective revolves around maintaining an optimal Cost Per Acquisition, or CPA. Minimising the CPA means you’re gaining customers at a lower cost, which contributes to a healthier return on investment (ROI). Key steps include:
Targeting
Before launching any campaign, it’s crucial to understand who your audience is. Break down your audience into segments based on demographics, behaviours, and purchasing habits. It can be helpful to create some customer personas to help you really get under the skin of your target audience.
Optimisation
Regularly check the performance metrics on current campaigns, and tweak those campaigns based on this data. Use A/B testing to check various elements like headlines, imagery, and call-to-action phrases to determine which combinations perform best. You could use a marketing KPI dashboard like Google Analytics or Facebook’s Ad Manager to analyse data and gain valuable insights on user behaviours and ad performance.
Budget Allocation
Keep an eye on daily spending, ensuring that no single campaign exhausts the budget. Periodically reassess and reallocate spending based on campaign performance. You can also set daily and lifetime limits on ad campaigns to stay within budget.
Selecting a Platform
Not all advertising platforms yield the same results. Determine which platforms (e.g., Facebook, Google Ads, LinkedIn) offer the best ROI for your target audience and business model. Scheduling your ads during optimal times when your target audience is most active helps achieve maximum visibility and can save costs too.
How Does Branding Enhance Customer Perception?
Branding isn’t just about designing a cool logo or having a catchy tagline. It’s about creating an easily recognisable identity for your company. Successful branding can effortlessly translate across all platforms and media, from a pen or product packaging to the side of a lorry or a billboard. This consistent and positive perception helps build awareness and loyalty among consumers. Here’s how different facets of branding influence customer perception:
Identity
Regardless of where customers encounter your brand, whether it’s on your website, social media, or even offline at a physical store, the messaging and design elements should be consistent. This repetition solidifies your brand image in their minds.
Beyond visual elements, branding also entails defining your company’s core values and mission. When customers understand and resonate with what you stand for, they’re more likely to develop loyalty and trust.
Your brand’s tone of voice should echo through every piece of content you produce. Whether you aim to be more formal and authoritative, or friendly and fun, having consistency in your tone helps by setting clear expectations for customers. Think about the tone of voice used by some of the most well-known brands and how instantly recognisable it is.
Reach
While it’s essential to identify where your target audience spends most of their time, it’s equally crucial to have a presence on multiple platforms. This ensures that potential customers encounter your brand regardless of their preferred platform.
By collaborating with influencers or other brands, you can reach their audiences and introduce your brand to a new set of potential customers.
Offline branding efforts like events, workshops, or physical store experiences can leave a lasting impression on potential customers and enhance brand recall.
Engagement
Instead of just broadcasting messages, interact authentically and engage in two-way conversations with your audience. This could be in the form of social media interactions, customer surveys, or community forums.
With the abundance of data available, brands can tailor messages to individual customers. Personalised experiences often lead to improved brand perception.
Actively seek feedback and show your audience that you value their input. When customers see their suggestions being implemented, they feel valued, fostering a deeper connection with the brand.
How Do Different Goals Influence Overall Marketing Strategy?
For a holistic marketing strategy, integrating the objectives of each role is pivotal. Whether you’re in eCommerce, finance, or fashion, understanding your audience’s needs and preferences will dictate your strategy. A synergy between content, advertising, and branding ensures that:
- Content resonates and engages.
- Advertising is cost-effective and reaches the right audience.
- Branding solidifies customer loyalty and trust.
What Key Performance Indicators Should Teams Monitor?
Setting measurable KPIs aligned with each team’s goals ensures accountability and progress tracking. Making sure these measurements match the team’s main goals helps keep them on track and ensures they get the results they’re aiming for.
Web Content KPIs
‘Time spent on page’ indicates the relevance and engagement level of your content. Longer times usually suggest that visitors find the content useful and engaging. The bounce rate reveals the percentage of visitors who navigate away from the site after viewing only one page. A high bounce rate might indicate irrelevant content or poor user experience.
A high number of social shares typically signals that the content resonates with the audience and is seen as share-worthy. Page views indicate the popularity and effectiveness of content in drawing visitors.
The conversion rate is a big key performance indicator. For content aimed at conversion (like landing pages), the percentage of visitors who take the desired action is crucial for defining the success of your marketing strategy.
Advertising KPIs
The CPA, or Cost Per Acquisition, represents the average cost to acquire a customer, and the goal is to keep this as low as possible while ensuring the leads are of high quality. A high-quality lead is a customer who has already converted, i.e. bought the product or service, or a potential customer who has a high likelihood of converting in the near future.
CTR, standing for Click-Through Rate, gauges the effectiveness of an ad by determining the number of clicks it receives every time it’s shown. ROAS, which is the Return on Ad Spend, provides a clear picture of the campaign’s profitability by quantifying the revenue generated for every pound invested in advertising.
Another essential metric is impressions, which count the number of times an ad is viewed, giving an indication of its reach, regardless of whether it’s clicked or not. Lastly, the conversion rate is a crucial measure, highlighting the percentage of users who engage in a desired action after interacting with an ad.
Branding KPIs
Observe brand mentions by tracking how often your brand is mentioned across various platforms, which can provide insights into its popularity and reach. Make sure those mentions are positive with sentiment analysis. This uses data analytics to gauge public sentiment towards your brand, helping you understand areas of improvement.
Positive testimonials and reviews from customers are a powerful form of social proof which can significantly boost brand credibility, while negative ones can offer insights into areas needing attention. Periodic surveys can help ascertain how easily target customers remember your brand without prompts.
A Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric that assesses customer loyalty by asking one simple question: “How likely are you to recommend our brand to a friend or colleague?”
How to Streamline Goal Setting in Marketing?
A successful marketing strategy hinges on clear objectives. Without these guiding objectives, even the most resource-intensive campaigns can stray off course or fall short of desired outcomes. To streamline goal setting, try these methods:
Collaboration
Encourage cross-team communication with workshops and brainstorming sessions. Invite team members, regardless of their specific roles, to share their insights. Open channels of communication ensure that everyone is aligned and can contribute to goal setting.
Regular Reviews
Regularly revisit and adjust goals at regular intervals, using data analytics to gauge the success of campaigns and strategies. It’s important to remain flexible and be willing to adjust goals based on current results and future projections.
Innovation
Keep updated with industry trends and adjust strategies accordingly. Whether it’s new social media platforms, changing consumer behaviours, or emerging technologies, staying updated ensures your goals remain relevant.
Regularly invest in training sessions for the team to help them gain knowledge about the latest trends and techniques. It also helps to monitor what competitors are doing. Their strategies can offer insights, inspire innovation, and help in recalibrating your own goals.
Final Words
Understanding the specific goals of each marketing team role is essential for creating a cohesive strategy. It ensures alignment with the overall business objectives, relevance to the target audience, and adaptability to the realm of marketing and the world in general. If your marketing goals are clear and tailored to your team’s roles, success becomes not just a possibility but an achievable milestone.
Reach out to us for more personalised guidance on setting marketing team goals tailored to your industry and audience.
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