Scaling a SaaS company from startup to enterprise is no small feat. While landing the first 100 clients is a significant milestone, the strategies that worked early on won’t necessarily sustain growth. As the customer base grows, marketing efforts must evolve to support scalability and segmentation. This blog explores how SaaS companies can transition their marketing strategies to thrive in their next phase of growth.
From Startup to Scale-Up: Evolving Your Marketing Mindset
The journey from startup to scale-up requires a fundamental shift in marketing strategy. In the early days, growth often relies on founder-led sales and grassroots efforts. But as the business matures, a more structured approach becomes essential.
Understanding the Shift
Scaling up means moving beyond ad hoc tactics to a professionalized marketing framework. The focus expands from simply acquiring customers to also retaining and growing their value over time.
Aligning Marketing with Growth Goals
Growth at scale demands a balanced approach:
- Acquisition: Attracting new customers through targeted campaigns.
- Retention: Ensuring existing clients stay engaged and loyal.
- Expansion: Upselling and cross-selling within the customer base to maximize lifetime value.
Building a Scalable Infrastructure
To enable this evolution, companies must invest in:
- Robust marketing automation tools.
- Data platforms for real-time insights.
- A talented team with expertise in segmentation, content, and demand generation.
Scaling Your SaaS Marketing Strategy
Once the infrastructure is in place, scaling marketing requires refining and expanding foundational tactics. Here are key areas to focus on:
1. Refine Your Value Proposition
As the company grows, so does its customer base—and with it, the diversity of customer needs. Tailor messaging to address specific pain points for different audience segments. For example, startups might prioritize cost-effectiveness, while enterprises may focus on security and scalability.
2. Segment Your Audience
Advanced segmentation enables personalized marketing efforts that resonate with diverse customer personas. Use data to group customers by:
- Industry or vertical.
- Company size.
- Product usage patterns.
- Stage in the customer lifecycle.
3. Expand Distribution Channels
Early-stage companies often rely on a few channels like paid search or organic social. Scaling up means diversifying into:
- Content marketing for thought leadership.
- Paid media campaigns for wider reach.
- ABM (Account-Based Marketing) strategies targeting high-value clients.
- Partnerships and co-marketing initiatives.
4. Automate and Optimize
Automation tools are critical for scaling campaigns efficiently. Automate workflows for:
- Lead nurturing.
- Email marketing.
- Social media scheduling and monitoring. Additionally, continuously test and optimize campaigns to ensure maximum ROI.
Advanced Segmentation: Targeting Clients at Scale
Effective segmentation is the backbone of scalable SaaS marketing. By leveraging customer data, companies can craft hyper-targeted campaigns that drive results.
The Role of Data
Customer insights are invaluable for understanding behavior and preferences. Use tools like CRM systems, analytics platforms, and surveys to gather actionable data.
Personalization at Scale
Modern buyers expect personalized experiences. Dynamic content and tailored outreach can help balance automation with the human touch.
Lifecycle Marketing
Adopt a lifecycle approach to ensure clients receive the right messaging at every stage:
- Acquisition: Highlight your unique value proposition.
- Onboarding: Simplify adoption with clear guides and proactive support.
- Upselling: Identify opportunities to promote premium features.
- Retention: Maintain engagement through value-driven communications.
The Metrics That Matter: Measuring Growth Beyond the First 100 Clients
As marketing strategies evolve, so should the metrics used to measure success. Focus on these KPIs to gauge growth:
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Monitor how much you spend to acquire a new customer and ensure it’s sustainable as you scale.
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Track the total revenue a customer brings over their lifecycle.
- Churn and Retention Rates: Keep a close eye on customer turnover to identify potential issues.
- Net Promoter Score (NPS): Measure customer satisfaction and likelihood to recommend your product.
By focusing on these metrics, SaaS companies can gain deeper insights into their performance and make data-driven decisions to fuel growth.
Preparing for Sustained Growth
Scaling a SaaS company’s marketing strategy requires more than just increasing spend; it demands a strategic shift. By refining value propositions, leveraging advanced segmentation, and investing in scalable infrastructure, companies can position themselves for long-term success.
The journey doesn’t end at the first 100 clients. With the right approach, SaaS businesses can not only sustain growth but thrive in an increasingly competitive market.
If you’ve ever launched a digital marketing campaign, you know how much time and attention is poured into the creative, copywriting, and media placement strategy. And once you’ve finally reached the finish line, eagerly awaiting the results and new leads to pour in, you’re met with: crickets. Plenty of impressions, and plenty of clicks, but crickets of silence when it comes to conversions. You’re left scratching your head wondering where the drop-off has occurred. Chances are, your landing page may not be optimized to meet expectations. Conversion rate optimization is a complex process that involves multiple variables and often a great deal of testing. However, the form UX is a consistent driver of campaign success or lack thereof. Bluetext, a leading digital marketing & campaign agency, breaks down some contact form best practices that can help ensure the success of your next marketing campaign.
A popular tactic to increase the likelihood of form completion is minimizing the number of fields to make your form seem as quick and efficient as possible. This means reevaluating what information is critical versus what is nice to have for your sales team. For most companies, more information than just a name and email address is necessary for lead qualification and to begin sales reach or retargeting. Eliminate any fields that aren’t required from your default contact form and consider additional UX tricks to make a form seem less intimidating.
- Adjusting the form layout to improve scannability. While a double-column form will decrease the length, research shows that single-column formats are faster for users to complete and easier for the eye to scan (not to mention they are more compatible with mobile devices).
- Consider the order in which you are asking for the information. Ask the easier questions up front (like first and last names) and more specific information (like company revenue size) later. This makes the form appear more manageable at first glance.
- Group related information together in steps, and if the form is progressive or contains multiple steps be sure to indicate what steps have been completed and which remain.
- Make field labels clear and concise to describe the information requested and indicate whether it’s mandatory or optional.
- Leverage easy radio buttons for questions where you want a single answer from a limited number of possible options (for example Yes / No questions or “Pick from these choices” )
- Using a colorful background to your form also can increase the completion rate, as it creates more contrast between the information field and page. It draws the eye to the form and can build stronger brand associations.
- Implement error handling in-line and early on. Check for potential problems with the data immediately as the user enters text into a form field and presents any errors and solutions at the moment, rather than waiting until later (post-submit). Error messages should be visible, provide sufficient visual identifiers (the color red, error symbols), and articulate the problem in plain language and how it can be resolved.
- Provide key proof points & relevant benefits directly next to the form – this positions the persuasive information directly next to the action, making the requested next step (completing the form) as convenient and easy as possible.
If your landing pages need some love, or perhaps just a third-party eye with conversion rate optimization (CRO) expertise, contact Bluetext to learn about our campaign services.
Imagine you’ve just launched your latest advertising campaign. After months of conception, perfecting your ad creative, crafting a compelling message, and putting together a thought-through media placement and budget, you’re confident this campaign will convert. But after a couple of weeks of monitoring, your KPIs aren’t meeting expectations. Or at least the ones that matter to your business’s bottom line. Investing more media dollars, refining the target audience, and maybe adding some new placements, is yielding more impressions and clicks, but no conversions. It seems users are interested in your offer, but not willing to take the next step. So where is the disconnect? It may be time for a more critical eye to review your landing page and engage some experts with conversion rate optimization services.
Digital marketing campaigns have a wide range of key performance indicators (KPIs) that define what is considered a “conversion”. Therefore, the first step to any successful advertising campaign is to determine a single goal. The two most common campaign goals are brand awareness and lead generation. Both are equally important, however have key differences in both tactics and intended results.
Lead generation is the process of capturing critical information from potential customers, usually by means of a contact form, to move them into a marketing funnel for retargeting or sales outreach. Lead generation is used to build lists of people who have expressed some sort of interest in your product or services, and provides an opportunity to engage them with the next steps. Brand awareness, on the other hand, is more geared toward making an initial introduction of your brand to a potential customer and educating them on products and services that they may not yet be familiar with. If you imagine it like a cocktail party, brand awareness is the “nice to meet you” handshake, while lead generation is going in for the friendly hug with an acquaintance.
Establishing these goals is a necessary step to any campaign, even required by many platforms in the initial setup. Regardless, if your campaign entails a landing page outside of the advertising platform (ex. social media feed, or Google search), it’s critical to consider what you intend the user to do after seeing or engaging with your ad. That’s where landing page conversion optimization comes into play. The content hierarchy and UX of your landing page is just as important as the ad headline or creative, especially if your goal is down-funnel lead generation.
Bluetext offers a range of conversion rate optimization services and conducts regular and thorough performance analyses of landing pages to improve the effectiveness of any digital marketing campaign. Below are a few best practices to follow as you continue to monitor and optimize your landing page performance.
Optimizing Form Strategy
The primary means of generating sales leads and obtaining information from a user is through contact forms, which may be offering a demo from your sales team, a consultation, a free trial, or an exchange for a downloadable asset. Now more than ever, users are hesitant to give up their information, so you must exchange something of value to them. To entice a user to willingly give up their contact information, you have to balance the level of effort with value. To minimize any friction, your landing page should make your form as simple as possible. That’s why so many businesses embrace the trend of first viewport form placement, which means either all or part of your form is visible upon the initial page load. It requires no scrolling or page engagement to find and complete the form.
Another popular tactic to increase the likelihood of form completion is minimizing the number of fields and making your form seem as quick and efficient as possible. This means reevaluating what information is critical versus what is nice to have for your sales team. Optimizing your landing page contact forms is another highly effective tactic to improve conversion rates.
Improved Information Hierarchy
The most common pitfall marketers tend to make with campaign landing pages is overestimating the user’s attention span. In the eyes of a sales or product team, all information is good information; everything they have to say is interesting and relevant to a potential customer. And yes, providing full information is crucial to closing a sale, but those nuggets of information have a time and a place. In the initial stages of a prospective customer’s evaluation, it is critical to focus their attention on the most pertinent information that would persuade them to complete the desired action (usually a form completion).
Rithum, a leading e-commerce platform, engaged with Bluetext’s digital orchestration & conversion rate optimization services. Since then, thorough A/B testing and landing page variations have been implemented to continually optimize the page towards the key KPI: high-value form fills. Let’s investigate the landing optimization process and key insights:
Initially, a series of landing pages were launched with corresponding PPC campaigns to create brand awareness around a newly formed company. Following a merger of two industry leaders, ChannelAdvisor and CommerceHub, Bluetext & Rithum collaborated on a brand announcement landing page. This featured a brand video as the highest priority on the page, followed by key benefits, value to core audiences (retailers & brands), and promotion of their full platform’s e-commerce ecosystem. It was a long, yet important story to tell so the landing page was geared towards upper funnel awareness.
In the months that followed, lead generation became the goal, as that initial introduction was made and now it was time to convert users into prospects. The PPC campaign remained focused on brand terms, but the landing page needed to be optimized to the why rather than the how. To minimize distractions, the page was simplified to prioritize the Request Demo form in the first viewport, with supporting copy that emphasized the short amount of time a sales consult would take out of a user’s day (who doesn’t have 15 minutes?) and the top five pain points that Rithum solves for customers. Much of the previously displayed information was also distilled down to two of the most important points: the benefits of the platform & wide breadth of international marketplaces customers obtain access to. The page is now short and sweet, without any distractions and off-page CTAs. As for the previous page context? Still important, but can be delivered in the sales consultation or on the main website pages.
If your landing pages could benefit from conversion rate optimization, consider these best practices:
- Prioritize lead generation opportunities (for example, demo request forms) at the top of the page, ideally within the first viewport
- Eliminate any CTAs that may drive a user off the landing page
- Distill critical information to only 2-3 components
- Position the key value drivers or proof points that would capture a user’s attention next to contact forms or within the first viewport
- Hide the main website menu to eliminate chances of leaving the page
- Incorporate compelling copy that will hook the end users to convert – “Have 15 minutes?” is a clever hook because it sets an expectation for the call and leaves little room for the excuse of too little time.
If your landing pages need some love, or perhaps just a third-party eye with conversion rate optimization (CRO) expertise, contact Bluetext to learn about our campaign services.
In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, businesses are constantly seeking innovative ways to cut through the noise and capture the attention of their target audience. With the myriad of marketing channels available, from social media and paid media to content marketing and public relations, crafting a cohesive strategy that seamlessly integrates these elements has become more crucial than ever. Welcome to the world of digital orchestration, where the art lies in harmonizing these diverse channels to create a symphony of success.
Understanding Digital Orchestration
Digital orchestration is more than just managing individual marketing channels; it’s about orchestrating them in such a way that they work together harmoniously to achieve a common goal. It’s about creating a unified brand experience across all touchpoints, whether it’s a tweet on X, a sponsored post on Facebook, a blog post on your website, or a feature in a leading publication. By synchronizing your efforts across various channels, you can amplify your message and increase overall impact.
The Power of Social Media
Social media has transformed the way businesses connect with their audience. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn offer unparalleled opportunities to engage with customers in real-time and build meaningful relationships. By incorporating social media into your digital orchestration strategy, you can leverage its reach and influence to amplify your message, drive engagement, and foster community.
Social media is not just about broadcasting your message; it’s about engaging in two-way conversations with your audience. By actively listening to their needs and preferences, you can tailor your content to resonate with them on a deeper level. Whether it’s sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of your business, responding to customer inquiries, or soliciting feedback, social media allows you to humanize your brand and forge genuine connections with your audience.
Leveraging Paid Media
Paid media, including pay-per-click advertising, display ads, and sponsored content, allows you to reach a targeted audience with precision and scale. By strategically allocating your budget across various channels, you can maximize your ROI and drive measurable results. Whether it’s promoting a new product launch, driving traffic to your website, or generating leads, paid media plays a vital role in amplifying your brand’s visibility and reach.
One of the key advantages of paid media is its ability to provide instant visibility and results. Unlike organic methods that may take time to gain traction, paid media allows you to jumpstart your marketing efforts and quickly generate momentum. By leveraging advanced targeting options and analytics tools, you can optimize your campaigns in real-time to ensure maximum effectiveness and efficiency.
The Importance of Content Marketing
Content is king in the digital age, and content marketing is the fuel that powers your digital engine. Whether it’s blog posts, videos, infographics, or whitepapers, valuable content serves as the cornerstone of your digital strategy. By creating high-quality, relevant content that resonates with your audience, you can establish thought leadership, build trust, and drive engagement. Integrating content marketing into your digital orchestration strategy ensures that your message is not only heard but also valued by your audience.
Content marketing is not just about creating content for the sake of it; it’s about delivering value to your audience at every stage of their journey. Whether they’re seeking information, entertainment, or inspiration, your content should address their needs and provide meaningful solutions. By focusing on quality over quantity and delivering content that educates, entertains, or inspires, you can position your brand as a trusted resource and build long-lasting relationships with your audience.
Amplifying Your Message with Public Relations
Public relations (PR) plays a crucial role in shaping public perception and building brand credibility. By securing media coverage, managing crises, and cultivating relationships with key stakeholders, PR helps enhance your brand’s reputation and visibility. Incorporating PR into your digital orchestration strategy allows you to leverage earned media to amplify your message and reach a wider audience.
In today’s crowded marketplace, earning media coverage can be a powerful way to differentiate your brand and stand out from the competition. By crafting compelling stories, building relationships with journalists and influencers, and staying ahead of industry trends, you can position your brand as a thought leader and gain valuable exposure in relevant media outlets. Whether it’s securing a feature article in a leading publication, appearing on a popular podcast, or participating in industry events, PR can help elevate your brand and generate buzz around your products or services.
The Synergy of Digital Orchestration
The true power of digital orchestration lies in its ability to create synergy across multiple channels. By synchronizing your social media, paid media, content marketing, and public relations efforts, you can amplify the impact of each individual channel and create a unified brand experience for your audience. Whether it’s increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, or generating leads, digital orchestration allows you to achieve your marketing objectives more effectively and efficiently.
When executed properly, digital orchestration can yield remarkable results for your business. By aligning your messaging, targeting, and creative across all channels, you can create a seamless brand experience that resonates with your audience and drives action. Whether you’re launching a new product, promoting a special offer, or raising awareness for a cause, digital orchestration allows you to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time, maximizing your impact and driving measurable results.
Digital Channels Working in Harmony
In today’s hyper-connected world, digital orchestration is the key to unlocking the full potential of your marketing efforts. By harmonizing your social media, paid media, content marketing, and public relations strategies, you can create a symphony of success that resonates with your audience and drives tangible results for your business. So, embrace the art of digital orchestration and watch your campaigns soar to new heights of success.
Looking to take your campaigns to the next level? Contact us to get started.
In the fast-paced world of modern marketing, orchestrating digital campaigns requires a diverse set of skills and expertise. Just like a symphony conductor brings together different musicians to create a harmonious masterpiece, digital marketing conductors play a pivotal role in coordinating various channels, strategies, and technologies to achieve marketing success. This blog post aims to shed light on the different types of conductors you might encounter in today’s marketing enterprises, each with its unique strengths and approaches to digital orchestration.
From the search maestro who commands the realm of pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization to the social serenade conductor who creates captivating brand symphonies on social media platforms, there are specialized conductors for every aspect of digital marketing. The content virtuoso excels in crafting compelling and valuable content, while the automation maestra leverages technology to streamline processes and enhance efficiency. The experiential composer, on the other hand, creates immersive brand experiences that leave a lasting impact on the audience.
However, the ultimate conductor possesses a rare combination of superpowers from each specialized conductor. They possess the media mix prowess to seamlessly blend diverse marketing channels, the ability to rebalance resources and optimize campaigns across channels, and the holistic view to orchestrate synchronized touchpoints and deliver consistent messaging. This ideal conductor combines the best practices and strategies from each type, creating a marketing symphony that resonates with the audience, drives results, and takes your brand to new heights. Join us in exploring the world of digital marketing conductors and uncover the key qualities that make the ultimate conductor a force to be reckoned with.
Search Maestro
The Search Maestro is a digital marketing conductor who conducts symphonies of success using the search landscape. With brands like Google and Bing in their repertoire, they skillfully navigate the realm of pay-per-click advertising and search engine optimization (SEO). They meticulously research keywords, optimize landing pages, and fine-tune ad campaigns to ensure their audience finds them effortlessly. Utilizing analytics, they track search performance, measure conversions, and continuously refine their strategies for maximum impact.
Social Serenade
The Social Serenade conductor is a masterful orchestrator of social media platforms, enchanting audiences with brands like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Meta, TikTok, and Pinterest. They harmonize engaging content, captivating visuals, and strategic ad campaigns to create a captivating brand symphony across various social channels. Leveraging analytics, they gain insights into audience behavior, preferences, and trends, enabling them to refine their approach and create personalized experiences. Additionally, they embrace the power of micro-influencers to amplify brand messages and foster authentic connections with their target audience.
Content Virtuoso
The Content Virtuoso conductor is a maestro of compelling and valuable content. They compose blog posts, videos, infographics, and more, interweaving brands like Google and Bing to create a harmonious blend of information and creativity. By utilizing analytics tools, they track content performance, measure engagement, and gather valuable insights about their audience’s preferences. Leveraging personalization techniques, they deliver tailored content experiences that resonate deeply with their audience. Furthermore, they understand the power of short-form and 15×9 video strategies to captivate attention in a fast-paced digital landscape.
Automation Maestro
The Automation Maestro conductor is a wizard in orchestrating efficient marketing workflows. They seamlessly integrate automation tools and platforms like HubSpot and Marketo to orchestrate personalized, timely interactions with their audience. By utilizing analytics, they gain deep insights into customer behavior, allowing them to automate lead nurturing, email marketing, and personalized campaigns. They leverage account-based marketing strategies to target high-value accounts and enhance customer experiences throughout their journey. Their expertise lies in utilizing data-driven insights to optimize their automation processes continually.
Experiential Composer
The Experiential Composer conductor is a visionary in creating immersive brand experiences. They compose multisensory journeys that incorporate digital touchpoints with offline interactions, utilizing platforms like Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. They understand the power of personalization and leverage analytics to craft tailored experiences that resonate deeply with their audience. By harnessing the influence of micro-influencers, they amplify their brand’s reach and foster authentic connections. Their strategy includes capturing attention through short-form content, utilizing platforms like YouTube Shorts, and leveraging the emotional impact of 15×9 videos.
Throughout all these personas, analytics plays a crucial role. By utilizing analytics tools and platforms, they gain valuable insights into campaign performance, audience behavior, and content effectiveness. These insights inform their decision-making process, allowing them to optimize their strategies, refine targeting, and enhance overall marketing orchestration.
The digital marketing conductors described above each excel in their respective domains, showcasing their expertise in search, social media, content, automation, and experiential marketing. However, the ultimate conductor surpasses them all by demonstrating mastery in the media mix, rebalancing, cross-channel optimization, and a holistic approach to orchestration.
The Ultimate Prodigy
The ultimate prodigy conductor is a virtuoso in the media mix, seamlessly blending different marketing channels and mediums to create a harmonious symphony of marketing efforts. They understand that no single channel can achieve optimal results on its own, and thus they skillfully combine the power of search, social media, content, automation, and experiential marketing to create a cohesive and impactful strategy.
Moreover, this conductor possesses a keen sense of rebalancing, continuously monitoring and adjusting the allocation of resources across various channels based on performance and changing market dynamics. They have a deep understanding of the importance of staying agile and adaptable, redistributing budgets, and optimizing efforts to maximize ROI and overall marketing effectiveness.
Cross-channel optimization is at the core of the ultimate conductor’s approach. They understand that each channel has its unique strengths, audience preferences, and engagement patterns. By utilizing analytics and data-driven insights, they orchestrate campaigns that deliver consistent messaging, seamless customer experiences, and synchronized touchpoints across channels. This conductor ensures that each channel complements and reinforces the others, resulting in a cohesive brand presence and enhanced customer journey.
Lastly, this conductor possesses a comprehensive view of the marketing landscape and actively seeks out innovative and emerging channels and strategies. They stay updated on industry trends, technological advancements, and consumer behavior shifts. By being forward-thinking and open to experimentation, they embrace new opportunities to connect with their audience and adapt their orchestration approach accordingly.
In summary, while the individual conductors excel in their specialized domains, the ultimate conductor goes beyond by excelling in the media mix, rebalancing, cross-channel optimization, and maintaining a comprehensive perspective of the entire marketing ecosystem. Their ability to synchronize and harmonize diverse marketing channels enables them to create an impactful and cohesive brand presence, deliver personalized experiences, and achieve exceptional results.
Want to learn more about the conductors operating in your enterprise? Contact us today.
In today’s business climate, companies face fierce competition to capture the attention of their target audience. To succeed, it is crucial to leverage multiple marketing channels effectively. Four key components of a comprehensive marketing strategy are SEO, Paid Media, Social Media, and Content Development. Here at Bluetext, the integration of these marketing strategies is known as digital orchestration. In this blog post, we will explore each of these services and discuss the benefits of hiring a marketing agency like Bluetext to manage them in an integrated fashion, maximizing your business’s online presence and driving success.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the practice of optimizing a website to improve its visibility and organic search rankings on search engine results pages. A marketing agency can help businesses develop a comprehensive SEO strategy, including keyword research, on-page optimization, technical SEO, link building, and content optimization. By achieving higher search engine rankings, companies can attract more targeted organic traffic, increase brand visibility, and establish authority in their industry.
Paid Media
Paid media involves running targeted advertising campaigns across various digital platforms, such as search engines, social media, and display networks. Bluetext can expertly handle the planning, execution, and optimization of paid media campaigns, ensuring maximum return on investment. By leveraging data-driven insights, audience targeting, and ad optimization techniques, businesses can reach their target audience, increase brand exposure, and drive conversions effectively.
Organic Social Media
Social media has become an integral part of modern marketing strategies. A marketing agency can manage a business’s social media presence across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and more. They create and curate engaging content, interact with the audience, monitor brand mentions, and run targeted social media advertising campaigns. Social media management helps companies build a loyal following, increase brand awareness, drive website traffic, and foster meaningful customer relationships.
Content Development
Content development involves creating high-quality and engaging content that resonates with the target audience. A marketing agency like Bluetext can develop a content strategy aligned with the company’s goals, target market, and SEO strategy. This includes creating blog posts, articles, infographics, videos, and other forms of content. Compelling content not only attracts and engages the audience but also supports SEO efforts, drives organic traffic, and establishes the business as a thought leader in its industry.
Digital Orchestration: Benefits of Integrating Marketing Services
By hiring a marketing agency like Bluetext to orchestrate these services in an integrated way, companies can enjoy several key benefits:
- Holistic Marketing Approach: An integrated approach ensures that all marketing efforts are aligned and work together synergistically, reinforcing each other’s impact and maximizing results.
- Consistent Brand Messaging: An agency can develop a cohesive brand voice and maintain consistent messaging across all marketing channels, enhancing brand recognition and maximizing customer trust.
- Efficient Resource Allocation: Outsourcing marketing services to an agency allows businesses to focus on their core competencies while leveraging the expertise of professionals dedicated to driving marketing success.
- Enhanced Data Analysis: A marketing agency can provide valuable insights and analytics across all marketing channels, enabling businesses to make data-driven decisions and optimize their strategies for better performance and ROI.
- Cost-Effectiveness: Outsourcing marketing services to an agency can be more cost-effective than hiring an in-house team, as agencies have the expertise, tools, and resources necessary to deliver results efficiently.
An integrated marketing approach that combines SEO, Paid Media, Social Media, and Content Development can significantly boost a company’s online presence and drive success. By hiring a marketing agency that specializes in these services, businesses can benefit from a cohesive strategy, consistent brand messaging, data-driven insights, and cost-effective resource allocation. Looking for an agency to lead the orchestration of your digital marketing channels? Contact Bluetext today.
When it comes to digital marketing analytics and tracking, there’s a clear winner of the worldwide popularity contest. With use on over 50 million sites, Google Analytics is the most popular tracking and analytics platform available –and for good reason. With detailed insights and reports, Google Analytics gives marketers a comprehensive look at how effective their website and/or application is as a marketing tool. As a DC marketing analytics company, Bluetext has worked with countless brands to set up their Google Analytics and make use of its insights. Along the way, we’ve learned many lessons from best practices to little-known tips and tricks. In the setup process, a key step is properly defining and deploying goals in your Google Analytics instance to better report on conversion actions. As a dc marketing analytics company, we know that defining these goals is a foundational aspect of any analytics and attribution plan, so we’ve outlined the fundamentals of Google Analytics goals below.
How Do Google Analytics Goals Work?
The beauty of Google Analytics is that it’s never a one-trick pony, or built for a specific type of business. The analytics platform is highly adaptable to any company’s business goals and creates custom dashboards to visualize your specific objectives. Google Analytics goals are uniquely customizable and can track many different actions, from specific page views, how long users stay on your site or application, form submissions, and more. Goals, additionally, can have a monetary value assigned to them, which allows you to track general ROI, ROAS, and countless other marketing metrics. The goal and conversion data computed by Google Analytics also allows you to define a series of reports to dive deeper into your website and paid marketing metrics. The chart below helps further define the four-goal types in Google Analytics:
How Can I Start And Be Smart About Their Goals?
If you aren’t tracking explicit conversions yet, Google’s “Smart Goals” are a simple way to help optimize your performance. Smart goals were developed by Google as a way for marketers to track the most engaged sessions on their website. With smart bidding, Google uses machine learning to identify and examine dozens of intent signals about your website sessions, assign each session a score, and determine the sessions that would be most likely to convert. While smart goals can be great for many reasons, there are limitations. For example, smart goals are not customizable, they are currently only available for websites (not applications), and they are not available for websites that receive more than 1 million hits per day. It’s like turning on autopilot for your tracking, great for a period of time to be a little more hands-off and let algorithms do the work, but eventually, you will want to drill down and focus on converting potential prospects. With these limitations in mind, we recommend working with a marketing analytics company, like Bluetext, to ensure you are able to track explicit conversions, making your data more valuable and accurate.
What Are Best Practices For Setting Up Goals?
When setting up your goals, consider these best practices:
- Give each goal a unique and descriptive name. Especially when your marketing analytics becomes more robust over time it pays off to be organized from the start.
- When possible, assign a goal value to help monetize and evaluate your conversions. You can also use a number scale to assign importance to your goals (low-value = 1 and high value = 10) if you are unable to assign a monetary value.
- If you ever need to change goals, keep track of when and what you did. Goals are not applied to historical data, so changing one will change conversion data from the point of the change.
- Before pushing your goals to the live environment, ensure you use Google Analytics’ “Verify this Goal” feature to see how the goal would have converted over the last seven days.
Setting up goals in google analytics can be frustrating and time-consuming. The work it takes to set up google analytics goals, however, is worth the time investment. Working with a marketing analytics company can be a great way to effectively implement goals and reduce the amount of time needed to do so.
Interested in working with a marketing analytics company to ensure your Google Analytics goals are effective and properly set up? Contact us here!
In true Google fashion, Google Ads is changing the way you can advertise again. Previously, you were able to create Expanded Text Ads (ETAs), but beginning June 30, 2022, all of your standard search campaign ads will need to include at least one Responsive Search Ad (RSA) per ad group. The good news is this can improve your search campaign’s performance if managed correctly. And at least for now, ETAs are not fully leaving. In fact, Google even recommends having two ETAs along with an RSA for each ad group. Diversifying your ad groups sounds great in theory, so maybe Google is doing digital marketers a favor. Nevertheless, change is change, even in the most advantageous versions. So let’s break down why including RSAs can help your business achieve campaign objectives.
First, What Are RSAs?
RSAs could be considered within the next-generation tech wave of AI marketing, almost like a self-driving car for your search campaigns. Responsive search ads let you create an ad that adapts to show more text—and more relevant messages—to your customers. Enter multiple headlines and descriptions when creating a responsive search ad, and over time, Google Ads will automatically test different combinations and learn which combinations perform best.
How do RSAs differ from ETAs?
One of the key differences between ETAs and RSAs is that RSAs are more dynamic. Rather than creating multiple ads for different users, now you can create a single RSA with various headlines and descriptions, then Google will automatically tailor the ad to fit the user’s needs. RSAs allow you to set up to 15 different headlines and up to 4 different descriptions. The drawback to this new method is that you can’t preview the exact combination of text users will see, so you need to ensure your headlines and descriptions can all work together. But more on that later!
While ETAs give you more direct control over your ads, they also require you to update them more frequently to remain relevant. RSAs however require fewer updates since they can provide fresh combinations of headlines and descriptions to users on each visit. This ensures your ad copy doesn’t go stale and can match up top-performing headlines to the potential customers. The tradeoff for this benefit is that RSAs typically take longer to set up, as they require more thought initially.
So how can you prepare?
One of the things you can start doing is experimenting with RSAs for testing purposes. Meaning, you should continue creating your ETAs for now, but supplement them with RSAs to get the hang of the upcoming change. This combined approach allows you to experiment with your optimal ad copy while also leveraging Google’s machine learning insights. Beyond that, you can experiment with pinning headlines in your RSAs. This gives you similar control of your ads to ETAs by ensuring specific copy appears in the first, second, or third position of your headlines.
Machine Learning-Based Recommendations
Google’s shift towards RSAs is pushing advertisers to rely on Google’s machine learning algorithm more and more. A benefit of this change is more relevant recommendations for your account’s performance. While these recommendations can help you discover new relevant features and improve your bidding strategy, an experienced digital marketing agency such as Bluetext can help steer your campaign to success.
Ongoing Performance Monitoring and Improvements
While the recommendations page can assist you in finding some trends based on historical data, you’ll still need valuable data to base those decisions on. That’s why any good campaign should utilize ad variants to test different messages. That way your historical data can reflect a range of ad variants and you can determine which combinations work best. This also allows you to determine the best way to tweak each ad for ongoing performance optimization.
When it comes to these ongoing performance-based adjustments, you should do your due diligence in checking the data. But data is data, without proper interpretation of insights, there are no actionable changes to truly optimize your ad spend. That’s where digital marketing expertise can make a difference. Bluetext’s search campaign experts are skilled at sifting through marketing data to identify trends and recommend areas for improvement. Want to learn more about how Bluetext can help your ad campaigns thrive? Get in touch with us here.
Search marketing has powerful potential with infinite nuances. This digital marketing medium has an unmatched ability to reach mass users at a macro level on the basis of targeted browsing & interest. Search marketing is a demand-driven opportunity to engage in individual conversations at a mass scale. Just like the phrase implies, the ‘world wide web’ is an incredibly complex and interconnected ecosystem of users, websites, search queries, and advertising. So how and where should you start to navigate the infinite avenues of search marketing? First, consult a digital marketing agency, especially one which specializes in marketing analytics & paid media strategy like Bluetext.
A digital marketing agency can offer search marketing services that you help identify: your website user personas, what organic keywords are bringing traffic to your site, what keywords & phrases have the optimal cost-per-click (CPC), and competitive density for paid search efforts.
Automation: the Answer to Search Marketing
Basic search marketing strategy connects a user’s intent to an ideal and relevant response. Automated search marketing strategy uses automation to constantly improve and become more efficient and effective over time. A basic search strategy can be simple to set up and understand, but results may flatline without consistent nurturing. Automated search marketing can be complex and intimidating, but when set up correctly, can yield impressive and compounding results.
Some search marketers have been hesitant to embrace automation and trust algorithms and data processing power. However, avoiding the advancement of automation only hurts your strategy and puts you at a competitive disadvantage in comparison to more future-focused competitors.
Search engine tools have matured over time to provide increased control, transparency, and tangible results than ever before. Real-time automation has evolved to be the foundation of the search engine ecosystem. What was once an analog concept (imagine a physical directory) has been transformed into a dynamic digital medium. The modern search marketing experience is an always-on, cross-device experience capable of delivering almost any type of content a user is looking for.
The key aspect to keep in mind with search marketing is its dynamic nature. New features and improvements are constantly being implemented, with new queries and signals added every second. Hundreds of data points are aggregated for every interaction. The term “big data” is an understatement to summarize the sheer volume of data that can be collected and harnessed to provide the most personalized experience to users possible.
Finding the Right Search Strategy
Search marketing is not a one size fits all solution. The optimal strategy should be assessed by individual companies and use cases. To inform your strategy, it is key to fully understand how your paid or organic search terms have performed in the past. Past bidding and budget history can provide not only a baseline for improvements but insight into your audience and receptiveness to paid search advertising. If you’re not already doing so, separate campaigns out by specific audiences. This allows you to track isolated segments of customers or prospects and compare performance.
The beauty of search marketing automation is the paradox of scale and specificity. It allows companies to scale their messages and strategies to a massive audience, while simultaneously making users feel heard with personalized results.
If you’re ready to optimize your search marketing strategy and take your campaigns to the next level, contact Bluetext.
Marketing, unfortunately, isn’t an exact science. Nor is there ever a “one size fits all” solution to business objectives. There are hundreds of best practices when it comes to marketing, but sometimes those best practices aren’t the best fit for the goals you’re looking to achieve. To make sure you’re driving the strongest results, you need to test! You can’t optimize for the best results for what you don’t test.
At Bluetext, we are big advocates of A/B testing; we use the tactic across different marketing initiatives – from landing pages, email templates, call-to-actions, banner ads, and everything in between. And by hiring a marketing analytics agency, you can eliminate the guesswork around what tactics are the best fit for your business needs.
What is A/B Testing?
A/B Testing (also known as split testing) is a simple and effective tactic to use when you want to understand your audience better and improve overall campaign performance. A/B testing is an experiment where two (or more) variants of a specific asset are shown to users at random, and statistics help to determine which variant performs better for achieving your ultimate goal. Users start off with a control asset, and then run a variant alongside the control, measuring results accordingly. Sound familiar? It’s the exact same concept of scientific method you learned in primary school! The only difference is you can turn these stats into real business revenue, not a lab report.
A/B testing takes the assumptions and the ‘best practices’ out of the equation. Marketing, as we mentioned, isn’t an exact science; we don’t know what we don’t know! A/B testing relies on statistical data to help marketers understand and verify what resonates best with their audience.
How A/B Testing Works
A/B testing can be executed in several ways. If you’re running a display ad campaign and want to test animated ads vs. static ads, then perhaps you don’t necessarily have a ‘control.’ You launch both variants at the same time, and once you collect enough data for the test to be statistically significant, you pause the under-performing ad variant.
Alternatively, you may want to improve your landing page conversion rates. In this case, you take your current landing page environment – the control – and change one asset on the landing page; this page becomes your variant. The popular heatmapping landing page tool, Crazy Egg, notes that A/B testing landing pages is useful because it “lets you see what elements really click with your audience and which don’t. Changing just one word in your CTA can reveal nuances about your target audience that you never would have otherwise discovered.”
After your test has reached statistical significance, you have the tools needed to determine whether you should continue to keep your control landing page live, or if you should redirect all traffic to your new landing page.
The most beneficial aspect of A/B testing is that you will receive results: you will end an A/B test with a clear winner, and insights into what resonates more with your audience, arming you with the tools you need to improve your marketing performance.
You Have A Winner! Now What?
Once your test has run its course by reaching statistical significance, and you have a clear winner, what’s next?
Implementation to start! Don’t waste any more time – or money – driving users to a lower-converting landing page, or showing underperforming ads to your audience. Take the winner of your A/B test, apply it, and start to see your KPIs skyrocket.
Of course, testing is a marathon, not a sprint. Just because you tested one asset, there are still hundreds – thousands – of other tests you could (and should) run. A/B testing should be an ongoing tactic for your marketing efforts, not a one-and-done completion. Remember: you can’t optimize what you don’t test.
When determining what your next A/B test should be, make sure you’ve analyzed your most recent test, and understand why the winner actually won. What did you learn? Did a new call-to-action boost conversion rate? What did you change in your CTA, and why do you think that minor change helped to increase your conversion rate? If the CTA on that landing page helped to increase conversions, where else could you apply this change?
It’s critical to take time to ask yourself these small questions to help understand the bigger picture. Chances are, you will come away from your latest test analysis understanding your target audience even better, and will have an idea for your next big A/B test.
One thing we can’t stress enough: document your A/B tests! Document the setup, the control and variant, the winner, your analysis – everything. Save it in a safe place. As Medium states, documenting your tests “leads to deeper understanding and context. In turn, that understanding sparks new ideas causes stronger hypotheses, and prevents running similar tests twice.” You will absolutely want to reference previous A/B test documents before jumping into the next!
Now that you have an idea of what A/B testing is, how to approach it, and how to expand on your learnings – what will be your next (or first!) A/B test? Learn how Bluetext has helped clients achieve stronger KPIs and boost conversion rates through strategic A/B testing on our site.