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Digital has become shorthand for a sprawling series of specialist technological applications rooted in the online world, and an equally diverse set of approaches when it comes to finding your way around online environments. An abundance of content, and channels to communicate it, makes the promotion and clear signposting of your brand and its messaging ever more vital. And when it comes to achieving visibility and capturing the attention of existing and potential audiences, an integrated approach can help in sticking to the simple principle of helping people find your content.
Embracing the opportunities that digital comms offers for brands and organisations can make a measurable difference to the bottom line. But the best content is largely wasted if it cannot be easily found. Fewer than 1% of people click on a search result on the second page of Google, according to multiple studies of search behaviour, and the journey to making a decision on buying a product or service can take up to 500 digital touch points along the way, based on data from Google itself.
To make sure that stakeholders and consumers not only know about your content but can actually find it requires a combination of paid and earned social, SEO, UX, email and analytics, according to Lianna Kissinger Virizlay, Director Of Performance Marketing at Investis Digital.
“The modern consumer journey is extremely complex, it can take hundreds of digital touch points across different devices and channels before a consumer makes a decision.”
Organisations need to ask themselves “can the people you are trying to reach find you online?” and are you showing up, in the way that you want, on searches?
SEO and paid search were key elements of a piece of work for Wyndham Vacation Rentals, which resulted in a 21% surge in gross revenue. A project for underwear brand Fit for Me involved using selected social influencers to amplify messaging on their own channels to support the brand’s sponsorship of Full Figured Fashion Week. This helped drive a 1,088% increase in Facebook event engagement compared to the previous year.
Investis Digital has helped companies achieve dramatic results through performance marketing. In one such case, that of Anglo American, there was a 12% increase in page views, and a 28% drop in the bounce rate across its entire website, with 118% growth in traffic to a key content section focused on Sustainability. Another client, the basketball brand Spalding, had record revenue for a snap sale last year. The company’s mobile site saw record highs, with traffic up by 6,790%, a 1,182% increase in conversion rate and a 79,798% increase in revenue.
“Performance marketing relies on data, so the most “effective” approaches will depend entirely on what the data is telling us,” says Kissinger Virizlay.
This part of the digital comms mix cannot work in a vacuum and needs to be complemented by a clear brand vision and strategy, along with an audience understanding informed by data, she says.
There’s no “silver bullet” when it comes to getting results, and although there can be quick wins, the best results come over time - not least because of the way in which algorithms work. Integrating expertise that would otherwise be siloed underpins a holistic model created by Investis Digital through its Connected Content approach, which joins up areas such as website construction, performance marketing, user experience, and content development under the themes of ‘Build It’, ‘Find It’, ‘Run It’ and ‘Tell It.’
The ‘Find It’ area of work is “about getting an audience to take an action and to continuously build on a journey with your brand so therefore includes all digital marketing channels, from SEO and paid media to email marketing and conversion rate optimisation.”
Kissinger Virizlay says: “The lynchpin of it is analytics. Everything in performance marketing is data driven because the benefit of online and the way that our online channels have been developed is that they can give us really precise data.”
She adds: “Not only does “Find It’ allow you to take advantage of tactical opportunities, but joining it up with your brand vision also gives you the ability to grow and expand over time around those key pillars and so it provides efficiencies on both ends.”
Register here for the Investis Digital webinar 'Beyond the Buzzword: What Connection Looks, Feels, and Sounds Like for Brands & Businesses Today' which is now available to watch on-demand.
For more information on Investis Digital and Connected Content, see their website, LinkedIn or Twitter.
