Having been working in marketing and recently digital marketing for the past 6 years, yet the digital world never ceases to amaze me for how fast it grows and changes through time – like a sassy and unconquered-yet lady. From simple media buying to search marketing, social media, and lately either “creative-centric” or “performance-based” by requests from clients.
For an SME marketing agency, I believe the good strategy is to follow either one of these two extremities, rather than stretching thin all resources then falling apart. Strategy is always about focus and a good tagline!
Simply put: “If you give us $1, we will give you more than $1 back.” We set this Principle forward and follow it strictly.
Unlike big MNCs, my SME clients have a different way of budget planning. If being asked, “What is your marcomms objective?” the answer is usually, “To gain sales and brand awareness.” Simple as that – straightforward – no fancy – and very digital superhero! They know their budget is not big enough to endure long-term brand building so they need fresh cash from sales. Based on that requirements, I and my coworkers recently worked on the new Performance eMetrics to help us more accurately measure the efficiency of our campaigns and got quite good case studies afterward.
The eMetrics comprises 50-and-increasing indexes categorized in 4 marcomms objectives which are thoroughly measured before/during/after the campaigns. Some of them are
- Brand awareness: website ranking, branding keyword volume, reach, frequency, impression etc.
- Brand preference: bounce rate, time-on-site, CTR, engagement etc.
- Sales conversion: sales lead, payment, digital ROI, digital ROAS etc.
- Sales on loyalty: database increase, upselling volume, CLV, etc.
Not for all, but eMetrics have been applied nicely on our loyal clients and pay back approximately 4 on 1 for every dollar they spend with us. But please wait!!! I’m not saying digital is yet a solution for “ideal ROI marketing.” The distance to get there only can be covered by mutual trust in which clients are supportive and confident to grant marketing agencies full control to measure the customer journey from awareness to real payment. When they do, we fulfill our commitments for sure!
If you are from client’s side and still looking around for low-price agency, STOP THAT! Instead, look for value-matching partners who can confidently commit real ROI in long run. Partnership is the 8th and most important P adding to the Service Mix. By doing so, you are helping to build a mature marketing industry in Vietnam too – which is now quite chaotic I suppose.
My conclusion: “If you want to do digital marketing good, then rather than CHANGE, please STICK!”