The curious case of modern marketing
Modern marketing is a curious one. Fueled in part by technological advancements, innovations today allow marketers to extend and optimise their reach and budgets.
The industry is filled with the latest solutions to maximise marketers’ efforts– programmatic and CRM systems, amongst others. We want to leverage on these solutions based on the success of our counterparts in other regions.
However, just having the newest technology does not necessarily translate into end results. It’s important to understand how it works as well.
With Asia being such a diverse region, it is important that marketers have intimate knowledge of their local or regional sphere and are able to translate this into the mapping of an online customer journey and digital strategy.
There is no one-size-fits-all strategy that can be applied to Asia. For example, social media reigns supreme in Thailand, with inbound traffic to sites mostly through the various social media platforms. Compare that to Singapore, where search still plays a big part in marketing, and programmatic is rising fast here too.
A recent Forrester study showed that marketers in Asia are keen on adopting programmatic. However, issues like complexity and shortage of skills are barriers to widespread adoption.
I believe that modern marketing should not be complex, and this can be seen throughout AdAsia from our product names to our solutions.
Likewise, the industry is becoming more complex and it may become hard for a marketer to keep up with everything that is happening.
I’ve had many conversations with marketers in Asia, and there’s a clear differentiation between early adopters of modern marketing and the rest of the market. The majority of marketers here are eager to integrate technologies like programmatic, but are unsure of how to approach it due to the aforementioned reasons.
This is why it’s important for marketers to take a step back first and rethink how your brand can approach the modern marketing journey. The key in all of this is to understand what has worked well in the past and build on it.
Know the various touchpoints
Marketers now have data readily available to find out points in which customers come into contact with their brand.
Physical store and call center interactions, website visits, social media, or memberships – are amongst many other touchpoints. Extend those efforts with today’s marketing tactics.
If you’re performing well on social media, why not seek the help of targeted influencers to drive even more traffic and engagements to your social media and other owned media.
Have a lot of users in your customer database? Reach out to them through email marketing. Even better, extend your reach using lookalike targeting, based on the data you own.
Looking at brand activation? Share this experience online too through a live feed.
Remember though, this is only just the first step – our ultimate goal is still to drive business results.
Action on them
Data gained across various organisational efforts will be very useful in understanding your audience – and programmatic is very relevant in this sense. Leverage on CRM data and the multitude of targeting options available, and send the right creatives to the right people.
Know your target and peripheral audiences, and target these users through demographics, interests or channels. If you want to target users who are near your physical stores, or in a particular area, geo targeting or hyperlocal targeting will be the go-to choice.
Compared to traditional advertising means, creative testing can now be done at a more cost efficient and measurable way too. Find out whether a display ad or video ad works better with your audience. Even better, test out various copies, images or call-to-actions. With just a simple click of the button, shift more budget onto creatives that work better.
However, programmatic advertising does not necessarily ensure direct business outcomes or conversions. A big part of the campaign’s performance still boils down to the strength of the creatives, landing pages and products.
Ultimately, it is vital to know what form of marketing works best in your locale, and look for ways to enhance those efforts. Modern marketing can definitely supplement your marketing strategy, although understanding how each part fits in is still the key to this.
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