Ben Foster

A lot of brands don't realise how messed up their MMM is. Here are some tell tale signs: 1. Your media contribution doesn't budge much, even though your tactics have. Both at channel level, or overall brand level. 2. Your spend has scaled significantly, but your contribution hasn't. 3. Lower funnel channels are not showing relatively higher ROIs vs UF channels. MMMs tend to favor DR metrics usually, and these short term ROIs are usually higher. 4. Has your media contribution evolved if your Spend: Revenue ratio has? If you have been looking at the same numbers for years, its easy to believe that reality. But sometimes, it helps to get an outsider's perspective on the benchmarks and industry to see, where we stand in our MMMix. Thoughts? #mmm #marketingmix Naavics

3

1 Comment

Key trends shaping email performance in 2024. The DMA (Data & Marketing Association) UK Benchmarking report is now out. And for the first time launched with a summary and context of findings from Ian Gibbs as well as a really interesting panel discussion. ▶ B2B delivery rates have plummeted ▶ Open rates have a 'new normal' average with the impact of Apple's MPP ▶ B2C click rates have increased with utilities showing a significant spike As a member of the research hub for the Email Council, it's great to see this work published - and always nice to see your considerations agreed with by fellow members. To get a copy of the report go to dma(dot)org(dot)uk/research _________ 📧 Email is easy. Great email isn't 🏆 I help double CRM performance for brands (and their agencies) YoY ✔ Follow me to find out how

7

SEO insight: Over 50% of keywords used are four words or longer. Tailoring to long-tail searches can be your gateway to better visibility and conversions. #UKBusiness #LongTailStrategy www.ruddledigital.co.uk

1

CAPACITY VS. CAPABILITY Antonia Wade bought up an interesting topic in her recent (very good) interview with Jon Evans. On the topic of brand marketers using agencies - she said some buy in capacity and some buy in capability. It might sound obvious - but it’s a really important point and something I think both Agencies and Client-side B2B marketers don’t think enough about. Are you fixing a capacity or a capability problem? For Agencies - this means you need to really think about your positioning. How are you actually helping? Both are fine but you need to be clear. As Chris Wilson used to say - are you a ‘think for me’ or ‘do for me’ agency? For Brand Marketers - what is it you’re actually expecting from your agency and are you sure you’re on the same page? I’ve seen all too many times marketers saying they want the thinking but actually want the doing. They had a capacity not capability issue. I think this was summed up nicely recently by a desiger who said ‘I don’t know if I’m being used to give me design opinion or because the client just can’t use illustrator’

58

11 Comments

You’re about to find out exactly how mail has helped five top marketing icons achieve tough marketing targets, and here they tell us in their own words how they Totally Mailed It. If you’re ready to Totally Mail It for your brand, read their full stories below. ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eH4b_Zzs

10

If you've tried generating high-value sales through Meta Ads in the past and it's not worked. This is how we generate sales up to the value of £250,000 using the platform. Some folk think of Meta Ads as a platform to drive awareness. It can be used for that but you get quicker wins if you leverage the functionality that lets you target people in the market for your product or service. This is how you do it: 1. Research your target audience so you know which pain point they want to solve or desire they wish to fulfill 2. Create ads that grab your target audience's attention and then speak directly to that audience - you need a good copywriter and graphic designer for this 3. Run conversion-focused (not traffic, reach or awareness) campaigns that focus on a cold audience (people who have not thinking of buying from you right now) The next time you run Meta Ads, especially if you do it for a test, try not to overcomplicate the funnel. Aim to target people already in the market for your product or service. Once you can get those people to buy, that's the time to test more complex funnels that bring new prospects into the market. This strategy has been used to sell underwear, golf clubs, digital display screens kitchens, summerhouse and much more.

9

Our Croud report in partnership with Raconteur | B Corp™ is LIVE! We surveyed 1,000 CMOs and CFOs across the UK and the US to understand how as marketers we can unlock greater budgets and achieve more, working with the Raconteur team to write up a tidy report to digest easily for senior marketers. *Key themes include*: 💰 Which digital marketing channels are delivering results? 📈 Demonstrating incrementality: equipping the Senior leader for success with the CFO 🚀 Understanding and conveying the value of brand-building 🤖 Practical and valuable applications of AI for marketers Of course, this report doesn't just apply to CMO. Other senior marketers looking to prove commercial value against marketing activity and essentially look amazing in front of senior stakeholders - this also applies to you. Hope you enjoy. #CroudxRaconteur #CMOguide #MarketingInvestment Shout out to digital marketing evangelist and our Chief Strategy Officer Avinash Kaushik who features heavily in this report. As well as Carly Price and Rebecca Edge for working on pulling this all together with team Raconteur. https://lnkd.in/ewCRy-YP

13

1 Comment

📣 In March 2024, Google was the most popular search engine in the UK, holding a market share of 93.61 percent across all devices. [Statista] What difference would it make to your business if you were on page 1 for key commercial search terms ⁉ Position 1 organically can expect an average click rate of 39% [Smart Insights (Marketing Intelligence) Ltd] 🏆 Want to know more? 🙄 #SME #SEO #DigitalMarketing #Strategy #Page1 #Google

5

Exciting news from Microsoft Advertising - Maximise Conversion Value is now available for all search and shopping search campaigns, not just smart shopping campaigns. With this bid strategy, your bids will be optimised in real-time to maximise total conversion value within your budget. Additionally, you can choose to set Target ROAS if you have specific ROI goals. Don't miss out on these new features! Read more: https://bit.ly/3vZnaiY How do you maximise conversion value? #MicrosoftAdvertising #MaximiseConversionValue #AIImageCropping #ClickID

1

The brilliant James Morrison sharing the headlines of the Laithwaites Wine Medialab Group adam&eveDDB double gold winning IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) effectiveness award at the Effectiveness Conference 2024. Great debate with simeon duckworth Jo Arden Becky France Jennifer Shaw-Sweet around the topic of ‘Seize what’s starting: the role of experiments’ Headlines from the talk: - many brands are missing an opportunity to run more experiments. - keep asking yourself what the control is. What are you comparing your test result to? - keep the story simple to get wide buy in. - commit to the journey. It will take time. - Experiments create the space to be creative! So be brave! - Use experiments as one part of a holistic measurement learning agenda. - Laithwaites have shown there is no excuse not to make a start, anyone can do it. - Download the paper! Amen! Over many years Medialab Group have established a best in class unified measurement approach and I’m always chuffed to help brands put it into play. Extra legendary status James Morrison for coming on stage holding a Medialab Group branded note book! 😎🙏

62

7 Comments

One of the key facets of search in AI Overviews and regular SERPs: more personalisation. I'm seeing more and more of these 'You visit often' labels on Google Search Results in the UK. - Purpose: Highlights websites frequently visited by users. - Benefit: Makes it easier for users to find their preferred sites quickly. - Rollout: Began in December 2023 in the US, but now in the UK? - Goal: Enhances personalised search experience by prioritising frequently visited sites in search snippets.

5

Lead Gen for agencies has been slow in 2024 - what can you do about it? Most agencies we speak to are struggling to generate and convert pipeline this year… So what can you do? Firstly, don’t panic. It’s not necessarily a YOU problem. The industry is finding things slow and the fact you’re there working on solutions is good. Second, get the basics right. Focus on what you know works. Exceptional client service. Building strong internal, client-first, culture. Looking after your A-Players. Nail retention before taking any other action. Third, assess your positioning. Are you truly communicating something different? Are you genuinely differentiated from other agencies. If you’re not, this needs to be fixed before you consider other marketing activity. Find your unique point of difference and build your brand around that. Reminder: The world doesn’t need another ‘creative’ agency, or another ‘PR’ agency, or another ‘Brand Strategy’ agency… Don’t build your difference on your service - build it on the client you serve, the problem you solve, the way you see the world or a combination of all three. Forth, post personal content on LI. If you’re going to activate one marketing channel, make it the Founder/CEO brand on LinkedIn. It’s the quickest and most effective way to build Audience and Authority at the same time. If this is consistent and there are other leaders in the agency that want to, encourage them to build their brand too. Fifth, build audience. Look for ways to build audience in the short and long term. Short term audience building: Find relevant podcasts, stages, guest blogs for you to be on or write for. These channels must be popular with your target audience. Don’t stop when you don’t get any responses at first, keep asking and you’ll be booked on. Long term audience building: Reach out to and connect with relevant prospects on LinkedIn. Aim to connect with 10+ per day. Sixth, build email list. Once everything above is running, you need to build your own audience - the email list. Create a high value, easy to consume lead magnet that your audience will go crazy for. Build a funnel to promote it and give it out in exchange for email addresses. Seventh, start a newsletter. Once you have the email list, nurture them. Start with a 6 email Welcome Series that will be sent to new subscribers as soon as they give you their email address - the 6 emails should be sent over 14 days. Then follow up with a newsletter. At least 2 emails per week - 1 long, high value, another shorter, more conversational. Finally, COMMIT! Commit to the above for 12 months. Doing that for 12 months and you WILL build pipeline. There is no economy that will stop the above from delivering leads to you if you continue to work on all those above steps. There’s nothing to stop you executing this… Apart from you. And if you don’t think you can commit, let us do it for you. Send me a DM.

52

18 Comments