We Topple the Traditional Marketing Funnel to Strengthen Digital Marketing Strategy
Welcome back! You’re here because you read our blog on the first digital marketing relay leg, brand awareness. (If you haven’t head over there now for context.)
Today, let’s talk about research, the leg of the marketing relay in which the customer is actively looking at your services or products – and probably those of your competitors!
At this stage, your potential customer is thinking about making a purchase or signing a contract, so it’s up to you and your digital marketing strategy to reel them in and usher them to the next leg of the relay.
Here’s the great and challenging part about the relay concept: it’s possible that your potential customer is in the research leg of the race, but they don’t even know about your brand’s existence. Remember, the relay race doesn’t have to be run in order, and the baton gets passed among the legs in any order.
That’s why it’s vital that your marketing efforts be holistic with budget across every point of the relay – and why the relay race is a better metaphor than the traditional marketing funnel when it comes to working with a Kansas City digital marketing agency like iFocus.
Why It’s Important
In the research leg of the relay, you must tell the consumer why they want what you’re offering, and not what your competition is offering. It’s where your potential clients begin their evaluation of your business.
This is your time to showcase your authority in your industry. To do this, you must have a value proposition for your business and content of all kinds that is also worth viewing.
Metrics and measurements you’ll want to watch for include:
- Click-through rates
- Website traffic
- Time on page
Our Digital Marketing Agency Recommends These Channels for the Research Leg of the Relay
Focus on potential customers who may already be interested, or at the very least intrigued, by what you offer.
Stand up and be considered during the research leg:
- Content Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Geofencing
- Social Media Ads
- Programmatic Video
- Online Reputation Management
Remember that your digital marketing strategy can’t be single-channel; your customer can move in any direction in the relay at any moment, so keep your brand visible by using omnichannel tactics for every leg of the race.
Content Marketing and Search Engine Optimization
Content marketing includes the words and graphics on your website, plus any blog articles you’ve written. This ties into search engine optimization, which is a major factor in whether your potential customers can find you online. They go hand-in-hand, as Google crawls your website for keywords that people use to search online.
Keyword-rich content on your website continues working for the long-term, making it one of the most cost-effective ways you can support the research leg of the marketing relay. And it’s meaningful, too: 8 in 10 Google users click on an organic search result, rather than a paid search result. Getting your website into the first page of the SERPs could yield you many more clicks than you’d have simply using a paid search strategy.
In-Market Display Ads and Event Targeting Using Geofencing
Geofencing is particularly influential because of the relationship your service or product has with another business. Using this tactic, your display ads are served on a user’s mobile device when they’re near a competitor or other relevant area of your city.
Geofencing is also ideal for event targeting. Your retail business can use geofencing to advertise your latest sale or promotion to consumers who are geographically nearby. This also captures the IP addresses of the mobile devices that enter your location, so you can serve them with ads for your business for the next 30 days. You’ll also see increases in direct and organic search traffic as a result.
Social Media Ads
The perfect mid-cycle tactic, social media ads target your audience based on demographics and interests, so you can serve ads to people who are already interested in similar products and services. Even if users don’t click on your ad, they can be subliminally influenced by it, and may later use search engines or social media to find you again.
Ecommerce businesses are a natural fit for social media advertising, because photographs of products are a powerful sales tool. Even B2B businesses have found success in social media advertising because of its targeting capabilities and the chance to tell their story through video and other artistic means.
Programmatic Video and OTT Video Ads
This channel serves your business’s 15-to-30-second video commercial to users within your demographic who are surfing the web or using ad-supported apps. The more impressions a consumer receives, the more likely they’ll be conscious of your message.
Our goal is to serve 15 to 20 impressions of your video per person every 30 days. In general:
- Impressions 1 through 7 are subconscious impressions, with the consumer not necessarily recognizing or registering your messages.
- Impressions 8 to 15 are conscious impressions, with the consumer gaining awareness of your ad and message.
- Impressions 16 to 20 are influential and elicit a desire for your product or service.
As more impressions are served, the consumer is more likely to visit your website or use a search engine to learn more about your brand. (So make sure your search engine optimization is working well.)
Online Reputation Management
Eighty percent of consumers trust online reviews as much as in-person recommendations, and only 13 percent will use a business with a one- or two-star rating. Because nearly all (93 percent) of online users read reviews before buying, online reputation management is more important than ever in the research leg of the marketing relay.
Online reputation management provides a single platform to review any comment posted about your business across a range of channels, so you can thoughtfully respond to those reviews or ask satisfied customers to leave their feedback.
An unanswered negative review is easily neutralized when you respond kindly and offer solutions. So, if you want your business to grow, nurture a positive online reputation.
Here’s Your Research on Marketing Agencies Near You
If you’re still reading, we’re guessing you’re here because you’re researching Kansas City ad agencies who may be able to help you with your digital marketing strategy.
Let us help you out.
You want to work with iFocus Marketing because we:
- Provide boutique service with a dedicated account manager for your business.
- Develop custom marketing strategies, never cookie-cutter tactics.
- Deliver in-depth monthly reporting on all our services, even more than our competitors – and know how to analyze and interpret that data.
- Are Google Partners; nearly 100 percent of our team holds a minimum of one Google certification.
- Have the case studies to back up our claims of just how effective our strategies are.
Request a discovery call now so you can see how iFocus Marketing can help you reach your business goals and connect with consumers looking for your products and services. Call us at (913) 708-8567, or send us a message to get started.
Jenifer Calandra is an award-winning digital copywriter and copy team lead at iFocus Marketing with 12 years of marketing experience. She curates copy from conception to completion, capturing client voices, and building their authority in their industry. Her knack for storytelling is deeply rooted in journalism, and you’ll find her work published in various regional newspapers and magazines. At home, dogs and a never-ending cascade of home-improvement projects rule her life.
