Our Secret Formula is Super Dull
… But it DOUBLED Our Client’s Revenue
More than once now, we have managed to double our clients’ revenue after just 18 months working with them. In one case, Jack, my head of marketing, is convinced that we actually tripled their revenue (compared to before they started working with us).
While every client situation is a unique challenge, we have managed to come up with a consistent methodology to hit our numbers. The thing that all of our competitors want to know is how we manage this.
Besides the obvious fact that there is a lot of hard work and money spent on paid ads, the question is: where do you put in the work, and how to do you know the best way to spend your ad budget?
The answer: we let the market tell us.
A Lesson in the Basics – the Nineteenth Century
Despite what people want you to think, there is no “magic” to marketing. There is very little “art” to the process and when it’s done properly, marketing is about data and process. Proven methodology based on experience and knowledge is what delivers reliable results.
In the late nineteenth century, E. St. Elmo Lewis, an American advertising advocate, wrote the following in one of his publications about advertising and communications:
The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.
Thus, the AIDA model was first introduced. Since the early version, scholars have studied the model and expanded on variations of it but the basic AIDA has been around for over a century and is still relevant today.
What The Heck Does a 19th Century Advertising Model Have to Do With Internet Marketing?
The key thing that most people forget is that human behaviour hasn’t changed as much as we think it has in the last few decades. I talk to a lot of people in my industry at all stages of their careers and I often come across “growth hackers” who are always scrambling to find the latest and greatest thing. I have also met social media influencers, other SEO and SEM people, ad tech folks, and CMOs of large organizations.
The thing that I’ve noticed, over the years, is that small companies and start-ups tend to chase after the latest-and-greatest thing while large, stable organizations with seasoned CMOs tend to look at consistency and process. They are focused on numbers and understand market cycles. In short, the experienced guys are old-school.
The thing that’s useful with new platforms and technology is the vast amount of data we have access to today. This is the difference-maker.
If we could go back in time to tell an exec, from the cable TV days, of the amount of information we can gather today, they would be salivating. Imagine what a game-changer that would have been for them to know exactly who their demographic was, how long each group was watching their programs, which ones leave after x number of minutes or seconds, and even where these viewers are coming from and going to.
The metrics and strategies are largely the same but we can now operate more efficiently. This means that we can test out theories with much smaller budgets, reach more people for less ad spend, and make quicker, data-driven decisions than previous media channels.
So How Does Drive, Specifically, Leverage All of This Know-How and Information?
We figured out a way to take modern data, from Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc., and fit the information into an AIDA model. This means that we can actually measure Attention / Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action.
By measuring this model in a tangible way, we can see which campaigns are running well and on their way to hitting their targets, and which ones are never going to resonate.
How do we measure each step?
Attention: what is the organic reach and click-through rate of our ads? Is our messaging resonating with the right audience? What is the relevancy score that we’re seeing?
Interest: how are people engaging with our content? Is there enough content for them to stay on our landing pages? Are they leaving the page via a bounce or through a micro-transaction?
Desire: this one is tricky because it’s so closely related to interest and action. We’re not giving away all of our secrets, and this is one we’re keeping to ourselves.
Action: simply put, are people taking the intended actions? If we’ve done a good job with the first three and the action isn’t taking place, this is usually a technical or UX/UI issue.
Going One Step Further (This is the Sales Pitch)
We like to work with our clients as if they are partners. This means sharing information and making sure that the left hand knows what the right hand is up to.
To make sure our clients are up-to-date with what’s going on with their campaigns, we created a custom dashboard that outlines each campaign we are running on their behalf and shows, in clear graphics, which step along AIDA each campaign is at.
This allows our clients to monitor ad spend, understand our process, and see tangible details about our work without having to wait for our monthly reports.
Each client has an assigned project manager that knows their account intimately and knows their clients by name. Each quarter, we discuss upcoming strategies, potential pitfalls, and content creation to make sure both sides are firing on all cylinders.
Our processes have been proven to work, time and time again. We haven’t reinvented the wheel but we have improved on it. Contact our sales team today to find out more
