Why businesses must take the performance marketing route to digitization?

In a world economy buffeted by pandemics, slowdowns and everything else that looks mostly gloomy, going digital can no more be a matter of contemplation, it must become a ‘living, practicing truth’. Whether it is an existing business so far operating physically without any digital component, or whether it is a new business wanting to attract customers and lay the foundations for a strong and abiding customer relationship, taking the digital road must be on top of their to-do lists. Make no mistake; it is what will separate the winners from the also-rans.

Performance marketing, a sure-shot digital deliverable

First and foremost, in a highly result-oriented world where end results are often more valued than the processes, it is performance marketing that emerges as the safest bet for companies. Against the traditional digital marketing strategy of depending on vanity metrics, somewhat intangible and difficult to measure from the end-business standpoint, performance marketing helps businesses optimize their costs and bring in concrete measurable benefits. Going a step ahead of merely generating awareness and engagement, ensures that businesses improve their top lines and bottom lines in the real world. In other words, businesses don’t just gain clicks, impressions, and visits, but experience conversion in the forms of actual leads, sales, booking, downloads, upgraded pay-offs, among others, while also boosting customer acquisition and retention. In a way, taking to performance marketing itself is a way to digitization.

Performance marketing: Demand Generation behemoth

While most advertisers who look at digital performance marketing miss out on the fact that performance marketing while delivers on sure-shot KPIs it also delivers high brand visibility for which most organizations don’t pay directly. The entire essence is digital performance marketing is to do with distribution and the more data-oriented distribution the more intended audience will also get to visually discover you’re the advertisers’ product of services. Most advertisers forget this. In the blind-sighted approach to performance marketing, the opportunity to see is huge and needs to e factored in at the time of planning the distribution strategy. It does not matter if the currency being used is CPM/ CPC / CPL or CPS (Cost per mile/thousand, cost per click, cost per lead or sales, for the uninitiated) it is the consumers’ journey & funnel management that delivers on the KPI. The better that is the better performance marketing will deliver on the sure-shot goals.

Backing digitization with a solid strategy is crucial

Second, the digital drive (or overdrive) must not be done blindfolded. This transformative initiative must be backed by solid and a well-thought-out strategy. Depending on the nature of business one is in, the sector one operates in and the nature of product or service that one brings to the market, the scope of the market, and the rules and regulations in that market, among other factors, a business’s digital strategy must be tailored accordingly.

Embryonic relationship between Content marketing and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO)
Third, businesses must know that in the digital space, content marketing is a powerful tool that enables capturing of customers’ attention and mindshare, sustainable customer engagement, improvement of brand recall, and loyalty thereby driving sales and revenues. The more personalized and appropriate the content is, there will be better connection with customers and therefore better conversion. And conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of optimizing that content. In fact, content marketing has an embryonic relationship with conversion rate optimization (CRO) strategy. The landing page design, the navigation experience, the catchiness and clarity of headlines and text, the Call-To-Action (CTA) tools are all ways to optimize conversion rates. So, the content must be tailored suitably for a channel, whether it is search marketing (SEO and PPC), or email marketing, or when taking recourse to native advertising, depending on the needs and priorities of a business.

Social media turning into a signpost for performance marketing

Fourth, businesses will do well to understand that social media is not merely social anymore. Social media for all purposes has also turned commercial. And as such, they become a perfect signpost for measuring conversion and thereby implementing performance marketing strategies. Whether it’s Facebook, or Twitter, or Instagram, a brand must fine-tune its marketing and advertising plan depending on the platform it is targeting and its end goal. When deploying social media in their digital strategy, businesses could also consider roping in relevant influencers and digital opinion leaders to create a buzz around their products and services, effectively employing what is called an influencer marketing strategy. Or they could even create communities around their products on different platforms. In recent times, Instagram marketing has exploded. The cliché that a picture speaks a thousand words has been proven by the fact that the conversion rate of e-commerce businesses from the photo and video-sharing site is 1.08%, much better than other social media platforms.

Preparing a digitally-trained workforce is a must

Fifth, no business can advance or prosper without adequately skilled and trained human capital. As such, businesses must set aside a part of their digitization budget to invest in the skilling, re-skilling, and upskilling of their employees. With remote work emerging a plausible option in near future at least for a part of their workforce and operations, businesses must also ready themselves accordingly.

In the end, while formulating their digitization strategy, businesses must make a comprehensive assessment of the tech landscape and carefully weigh different options – keeping the immediate, the medium, and the long term in mind. Simultaneously, taking the performance marketing route to digitization ensures that they have a Long-term investment strategy linked with concrete KPIs, and are not aimlessly ‘shooting in the dark.

About the author:

Shaan Raza, Dy. Managing Director, India Operations, Optimise Media