Using Data and Awareness for a Progressive Digital Marketing Strategy

Marketing teams are increasingly under pressure to stand out from their peers at a time when the proliferation of consumer platforms complicates outreach efforts. With the rapid evolution of technology, many digital marketers advocate a more progressive and experimental approach.

That’s the view of Karen Naves, vice president of global demand generation for marketing technology specialist Tealium, who said that when she hears the phrase “progressive digital marketing,” she thinks of how whose world – and consumer preferences – were constantly changing. “It’s whether it’s a new gadget, a social media platform, or how consumers want to consume information,” she said.

What is a Progressive Digital Marketer

A progressive digital marketer is one who strives to reliably anticipate their clients’ needs and is positioned to pivot quickly when new industry trends emerge. They also constantly reflect on their go-to-market strategies, with an emphasis on making sure their target audience feels the content presented to them is relevant. “Progressive marketers are always thinking about how they create trusted digital customer experiences with their brand and how they take their customers on a journey – and that involves both their messaging and the martech stack that supports load their digital programs,” she said.

Find support

Shachar Orren, chief marketing officer and co-founder of EX.CO, an online publishing platform, said building support for an experimental marketing campaign starts with finding budget support. “It starts with talking to your finance team and understanding how to build a marketing budget with room for experimentation and room for error,” she said. “Leave 20% of the budget to try new things, like testing new platforms, messages and ideas from the team.”

According to Orren, the most progressive thing you can do is recognize the fact that you can’t plan much in advance, and always be ready for change and listen to what’s going on around you. “In 2021, the death of the third-party cookie was going to be a big topic, but then Google pushed the deadline, and all of a sudden it became a low priority, and we had to change our messaging accordingly – be prepared for that in our mindset really helped,” she said.

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The shift to content consumption

Anthony Gallo, chief product officer at Tenovos, a digital asset management company, said digital marketers need to understand that web usage has shifted from basics like the usefulness of websites to the consumption of contents. “We need to be more progressive in how we think about this digital storytelling content because it contributes more to the customer journey,” he said. “Look at Instagram and TikTok – we see content consumption as the primary use of these devices.”

He championed the use of big data analytics tools and artificial intelligence (AI) as tools for marketing teams to help them recommend the right content at the right time: the key is to collect as much data as possible. “If you only have a little bit of data, you’ll get an AI tool that’s not as effective,” Gallo said. “The more data you can get, the more efficient your algorithm will be at the end of the day, and that means you need to experiment at scale.”

Start by finding a problem to solve

Naves’ advice to digital marketers looking to try something new is to first determine what challenge you’re trying to solve, because to be successful you need to prioritize and focus. “Then you need to understand industry KPIs,” Naves explained. “Different industries have different environments and contexts, so having a frame of reference is essential when building your company’s baseline metrics and KPIs. Reach out to your agency and software partners for case studies to get new insights here. »

Once you’ve narrowed down the problem you’re trying to solve and the hypotheses you want to test, you create audience segments to target. This means thinking about how your customer data and marketing technology tools can optimize test support, for example website crawlers, CDP or website personalization tools.

“The big takeaway is to understand the problem, figure out what you want to test, understand your data and know your tools and platforms and get more minds to make the most of testing opportunities “, Naves said.

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Improve your automation strategy

Gallo pointed to automation as another key tool to enable progressive marketing strategies, allowing marketing teams to test assumptions, try out different approaches and validate their effectiveness. “Testing these scenarios isn’t done very often, and the experimentation isn’t there, because when you think about data management of all data and images, it goes far beyond typical web pages and applications. “, did he declare. “Automation is the key to all of this work.”

Look outside the box

Naves emphasized the importance of tapping into multiple resources to find new inspiration for digital programs, such as joining a peer group focused on new digital strategies. “Network and follow digital marketers you respect, read books and articles on brand storytelling through digital channels, join associations or sign up for Google Alerts on certain topics,” she said. . “Overall, get involved in the digital community, whether virtual or in person.”

Embrace first-party data

If digital marketers or CMOs haven’t started exploring the loss of third-party cookies, Naves said they should start thinking about it and preparing for it. “If you want to drive trusted customer experiences, you will need a first-party data approach in the future to power your experimental digital programs as well as report on your attribution and ROAS,” added Ships. “And don’t get me wrong, it’s not all catastrophic – with the right planning, any business can overcome the loss of third-party cookies with a first-party data strategy.”

Experimentation means failing fast and learning

Creating a place where experimentation and learning happens means being okay with failure, as long as you glean all you can and apply those lessons learned to your strategy. As for her own personal learnings from progressive digital marketing strategies, Naves admitted that there were times when she felt like she was going to knock a digital experience out of the park. “It didn’t always happen and it was okay,” Naves said. “As long as your fundamental digital programs are working, trying new things, whether they’re exceptionally successful or epically unsuccessful, is okay. You always learn from both and improve your craft.

Orren agreed that there will always be room for error, but directly reaching your audience and listening to customers and customers is crucial. “Marketers make so many assumptions based on research, articles and data when we can just ask our audience directly and get the data straight from the source,” she said. “There’s no replacement for the first-party data companies always crave. It’s there to teach you what content your audience is engaging with.