2013 budget white paper

8/12/2019 2013 Budget White Paper

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10 Proven Ways to

STRETCH YOURMARKETING BUDGET

WHITE PAPER


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White Paper10 Proven Ways to Stretch your Marketing Budget

Introduction 4

Dont skimp on content 6

Turn your spokespeople into assets 8

Nurture your brand ambassadors 10

Find your rich seam of data 12

Eliminate bad event habits 14

Choose your reporting and monitoring tools wisely 16

Ensure your web site isnt leaking leads 18

Get smart about SEO 20

Start a social advertising program 22

Make your marketing truly global 24

Conclusion 26


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INTRODUCTION


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During budget-planning season, marketing teams are often faced with the

challenge of how to achieve more with less. Given the increased scrutiny

of marketing budgets in these tough economic times, it is no surprise that

every dollar, pound or euro allocated toward marketing efforts needs to be

attributed to direct results that impact the companys bottom line.

Today, marketing must clearly demonstrate return-on-investment by generating

leads, cross-selling additional products and services to existing customers

or improving the overall customer experience.

As a marketer, if you are deep in your planning and budget exercise for the

next year be sure to consider these approaches for extracting the maximum

value from your spend.


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DONT SKIMP ONCONTENT


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Do you have a line item in your budget for content generation? If not, you

may be creating a false economy.

We live in an age of brand journalism and a strong ow of original content

allows you to get far greater bang for your buck. A single piece of unique

research, for example, can be turned into PR material, an email campaign,

a landing page, a Webinar and a blog post. It may take time and investment

upfront, but great content will deliver much further-reaching benets than

simply populating all of these channels with traditional promotional messages.

Too often content is seen as a nice-to-have. Its something to focus on after

you have the basics in place. But today, content IS the basic requirement.

Make sure you have some budget built into all your campaigns for content.

Better still, create a central content budget and create materials that can

feed all your channels and programs.


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TURN YOURSPOKESPEOPLE

INTO ASSETS


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There is a fundamental, and costly misperception about spokesperson training.

80 per cent of the time is usually spent on coaching spokespeople how to

avoid answering questions. The reality is, most spokespeople will never be

in a confrontational media interview so their carefully constructed and highly

expensive armor will never pay its dues.

Instead, most of the interviews your spokespeople do will be opportunities

to deliver value. A good spokesperson knows what a reporter is looking for

and concisely delivers it to ensure inclusion in the article. But more than

that, a spokesperson that is an asset can spot other potential opportunities

and think on their feet to turn a so-so article into a great one. And, a reallyvaluable spokesperson makes such a positive impression that they become

a regular source of expertise for the reporter and of ideas for you.

Not all of this can be trained of course. So dont waste precious budget on

training large numbers of spokespeople simply because they have the right

title or experience. But if you have someone with great spokesperson potential

in your company, its worth investing in regular practical coaching to turn

them into a valuable asset.


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NURTUREYOUR BRAND

AMBASSADORS


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Your brand ambassadors comprise your employees, your executive team,

your customers, your partners, your vendors and any other individual that

interacts with your company in a positive manner.

Leverage the ambassadors you currently have and amplify them through

content. Get them to write and speak about core company news, customer

stories or other industry events. For example, if you have a product team in

your company, get them to create content for your corporate blog, or create

videos of them discussing your newest product in a passionate way. Distribute

this content across all your channels. Have each employee set up Google

author tags in Google+ and encourage them to interact on other industry

blogs and forums.

Unless these ambassadors are already social media savvy, youll need to

allocate some budget to training them on social media governance mattersso that employees are comfortable with the dos and donts of interacting on

social channels.

This investment will pay off if youre successful in getting ambassadors to

contribute content. But getting them to do so frequently can be a challenge.

Here are some easy tips to consider:

Publish a list of topics or suggestions for content and ask for volunteers

who feel comfortable creating content for each topic. If no volunteers

come forth, recommend certain individuals based on their area of expertise.

Create an editorial calendar. Share it with each contributor, and assign

on his or her Outlook calendars deadlines for when their content is due.

Dont try to do too much; keep the calendar simple. Even getting a post a

month from each individual is a win.

In some cases, have your marketing or PR team create outlines or story

shells that your subject matter experts can then expand upon. That wayyou get the benet of more contributors without putting excess burden of

responsibility on them.

Stuck for content ideas? Search your social channels and your competitors

channels and uncover topics and areas of concern your prospects and

customers are experiencing in your industry. Assigning people to respond

to questions in LinkedIn discussion groups, for example, is an easy way to

generate relevant content.


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FIND YOUR RICHSEAM OF DATA


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All companies have data or research that is unique to them and that can be

leveraged as a strategic secret weapon to unlock new opportunities. It is

well worth investing time in examining your data assets. For example, a cloud

computing company may possess a wealth of data on load volumes that it

can then aggregate and extrapolate into unique talking points on customer

adoption of the cloud. By publishing this data in a unique and compelling

manner, they have just created shareable content that will generate greater

awareness for them. Whats more, as media outlets increase their focus on

so-called data journalism, this is exactly the type of information that can form

the foundations of an outstanding PR campaign.

Because there is now greater access to this kind of data, survey-based research

is starting to lose some of its appeal. Theres something less credible about

ndings based on what people say they do in a survey versus what they

actually do. If youre going to spend budget on research for PR and content

marketing purposes, make sure you have identied a truly unique angle.

Similarly, there are many other options today for conducting market research

without having to default to expensive surveys or focus groups. Social media

listening tools are a great place to start and are a fraction of the cost. If you

have already built a sizable community, you can tap the expertise and views

within that group to get feedback on a topic.

Some suggestions for leveraging what you already have to gain valuable insight:

Talk to your nance and operations departments about the Key Performance

Indicators your company uses already. The systems will already be in

place to track this data and there may be some compelling trends hidden

within them. For example, if you use downloads as a KPI, are there peak

times of year or days of the week for downloads? If so and assuming

you can make some intelligent observations about these trends you

have a potentially valuable source of data for all forms of content marketing,not to mention some essential proof points for PR.

Identify the feedback mechanisms you have, including community

forums, support desks, social channels, customer advisory boards and

newsletter subscribers. Each of these is a potential source of insight and

opinion that can be turned into compelling evidence for your marketing

programs. For example, perhaps youre a consumer electronics manufacturer

and you spot an increase in set-up queries every year on the day after

Black Friday. You might launch an integrated Set-Up Saturday campaign

to attract more customers this year.


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ELIMINATE BADEVENT HABITS


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If your company regularly participates in high prole events, conferences or

seminars (or perhaps you are planning to create and host an event of your

own), including a budget for PR and social media activities at these events

will help increase the success of your event. The key is to not be formulaic

in your approach to events. There are more ways to generate visibility at an

event than tchotchkes and press releases.

Dont assume for every event that you will automatically secure a certain

number of media briengs, or a guaranteed number of attendees. Few media

outlets cover events per se anymore so its rare to see reporters churning out

multiple news stories from vendors during a conference. That function is now

provided by social media. Instead, they tend to focus on extrapolating one

or two key themes so your goal should be to be included in some of those

stories. Having some news to announce at the event will help, but be sure to

get the information to your media contacts well in advance. Leverage videos,mobile apps, surveys and Twitter streams before, during and after the event

to maximize effectiveness. Train your event attendees and prepare them to be

ready to engage with journalists and attendees with key messages that tie in

to your overall promotion. Amplify your content through event-specic landing

pages and Twitter streams. Live social media engagement (including

live Tweeting, videos and Q&As) will increase the reach of your event.

Here are additional, proven event marketing ideas leveraging social media

and PR that get results:

Print small cards with a QR code and distribute to attendees at the

door. Have them scan the code on their phone. The resulting landing

page can promote your event, your product or encourage the visitor to

stop by your booth for a chance to win a small prize.

Set-up a Foursquare account at your event and encourage visitors to check-

in. Publish content on Foursquare and offer discounts or contests at specictimes during the event when attendees check-in with your company.

Consider creating a small mobile app or widget for attendees to download

on their mobile device. The app can point to your own company event

page, where they can receive exclusive offers, discounts, information or

opportunities to win prizes for participating in the event.


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CHOOSE YOURREPORTING AND

MONITORINGTOOLS WISELY


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While there are several great tools out there that can really dive into very

detailed analysis of your marketing efforts, a large investment in these

tools is not always mandatory. Using what you already have in place in

your organization or leveraging many free tools (such as Google Analytics)

can help you uncover opportunities to inject content or interact with new

audiences. Simply setting up Google Alerts can help identify relevant

topics or opportunities to react to items that your competitors are currently

engaging in. The key is having a plan in place and using what you do have

so that you can act on the data you capture.

Its also worth considering limiting the number of metrics you actually

track, and instead focusing on those metrics that effectively drive or impact

your business. Companies often ood their reports by tracking unnecessary

metrics that have little impact on business outcomes. For example, measuring

how many new followers you have on your companys Twitter or Facebookpage may look impressive, but the true measurement of success is how

those followers are actually engaging with your company. A more effective

approach is to try and simplify your reporting into areas that are meaningful.

Some good questions to ask yourself are:

Am I effectively measuring and capturing new customers?

Do I know they are real customers (because they have actually purchased

from me) or are they still prospects or simply passive visitors?

What else can I do to turn these visitors/prospects to customers, and

am I measuring the effectiveness of those activities?

Once they are customers, am I measuring how I am deepening our

relationship? At the same time, am I monitoring and responding to

any servicing issues that will ensure I do continue to deepen customer

relationships?


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ENSURE YOURWEB SITE ISNT

LEAKING LEADS


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You know the scenario: The current website has been around for several

years. Pages are added frequently, many different authors contribute

content and the whole experience is starting to creep slightly off-brand.

Its a common problem, as few companies ever budget to make periodic

refreshes to their existing web properties.

Having a budget item to audit and refresh your website can be extremely

benecial. A website audit will uncover areas where navigation and site links

may be broken, where content is stale or off-brand or where there are current

opportunities (such as links to new social channels) that are currently overlooked.

Some of these challenges may be technical and may need to involve your IT

team or a vendor. But it is worthwhile to review your website periodically and

x any technical issues. Review the content on your website and if there are

gaps that are obvious, a budget should be set aside to create new content.

In many instances, even enhancing blog content can be an effective solution

in updating your site if adding new page templates is cumbersome.

Some common website tweaks that are often over-looked, and yet could

yield rich results in your lead generation efforts include:

Simplify the number of elds a prospect has to enter in order to nd

out more information. All you really need is name, company, email and

phone number anything more may feel too intrusive and scare your

prospects away.

Alternatively, consider util izing Facebook Connect as a single sign-on

for your users.

Make sure your home page (and all key pages) has visible calls to

action only one-click away. Dont make it difcult for your visitors to

contact you at any point during their stay on your website.

Ensure your social channels are all fully connected and linked, and that

buttons identifying them are clearly visible on your home page. Validate that your back-end tracking system is accurately capturing

and tracking leads. Omniture, Google Analytics, Salesforce whichever

system you are using, periodically audit it to make sure leads are

accurately tracked and data is effectively mined.


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GET SMARTABOUT SEO


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Studies have demonstrated that a majority of major purchases (especially

in B2B procurement cycles) begin with an online search in many cases,

as high as 80 per cent of purchase decisions begin on a search engine.

In addition, visitors tend to place greater importance on natural search

results versus paid search ads, based on the fact that Google, Yahoo and

Bing are valuing companies enough to place them so high on the page one

results for that search term.

Yet many companies treat their organic search engine optimization effortsas an after-thought or assume search results will happen naturally without

having to place dedicated resources or effort behind it.

If your company is in such a predicament, planning for SEO can be one of

the most effective marketing strategies you undertake. If you are currently

utilizing SEO tactics as part of your marketing spend, it may be worthwhile

to set aside additional budgets to:

Audit your web site for broken links and x on-page technical SEO issues

Begin a link-building outreach plan to increase your SEO rankings with

third-parties

Improve your overall SEO by integrating existing or new social channels

and blogs into your SEO mix

Update your keyword list to ensure your site is optimized for any changes

or trends within your company or industry

If you can only focus on a limited number of items, the simplest and fastest

way to improve your SEO results should be:

Develop a keyword list of high-performing keywords relative to your

business that you want to rank for. Incorporate these into your web site

structure and content in a natural way (never keyword stuff!).

Create content that is valuable to your audience and create and x

page titles, ensuring they are consistent. Try to capture as many quality inbound links to your site as you can

and ensure links are working correctly.

Fix your URL structure and make sure you are consistent with the URL

structure across all your pages.

Publish content frequently. Keep your site fresh and keep it growing. If

your site structure does not easily enable creating additional pages of

content, then leverage your blog to its fullest extent.

Time it is your greatest ally, and the longer your site has been around, the

greater emphasis Google will place on it as a site of trust and authority.


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START A SOCIALADVERTISING

PROGRAM


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You may already have had success using paid search ads on Google and

Bing, but have you considered alternative paid advertising opportunities?

Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook all offer advertising capabilities

that, depending on who your target audience is, could become a prime

source for new leads if executed effectively. Social advertising can be an

easy (and often necessary) way to drive trafc and a base of active followers

on a social channel.

Display ads were once denigrated as being no better than invasive pop-

up ads, but the choices today for effective display advertising are quite

diverse and effective. Many display ad networks allow for site and social

retargeting which provide for an even greater network of possible targets

and a higher return-on-investment. Display advertising and social advertising

programs can also be extended onto the mobile platform, so that when

prospects are utilizing mobile search or mobile social channels, serving a

relative and insightful ad for your company at that time may yield successful

results.


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MAKE YOURMARKETING TRULY

GLOBAL

White Paper 10 Pro en Wa s to Stretch o r Marketing B dget


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If your company has a global presence, make sure your marketing allocation for

global efforts is really serving your needs. For instance, targeting Europe

is not the same or as effective as targeting the specic countries withinEurope you want to reach. A realistic approach that takes into account

geographic and language nuances within each country is far more effective

than blanket marketing campaigns that blast content that may not be relevant

from country to country.

Experience also proves that having one global agency support you in

your global marketing efforts is far more efcient than trying to manage

multiple agencies in every individual market. By partnering with a single

global agency, you have access to country-specic expertise and content

strategies that will resonate in their markets. Some of the ways to ensure

this approach is delivering efciencies include: centralized reporting, true

collaboration at the strategy-setting stage and ensuring you have local

spokespeople and materials before embarking on an international investment.

White Paper 10 Proven Ways to Stretch your Marketing Budget


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CONCLUSION

Planning your marketing spend can be a juggling act especially today,when the range of available tactics is so great. But, whatever your mix of

tactics, certain elements need to be prioritized, such as strong PR and

marketing content, a well-optimized website and effective monitoring

and measurement. These basics will form a foundation for all your other

marketing programs, ensuring a higher return overall.

White Paper 10 Proven Ways to Stretch your Marketing Budget


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Contact us

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Blog: http://blog.lewispr.com

Email: [email protected]

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Copyright LEWIS Communications. 2012 all rights reserved.

About us

LEWIS was founded in 1995 by a former journalist and, since then, it has grown to over 300 employees

based in 24 wholly-owned ofces across the US, EMEA and Asia Pacic.

Its regional headquarters are in London, San Francisco and Singapore. LEWIS is known for delivering

bold digital communications campaigns that enhance revenue, value and reputation for global brands.

Digital communications services span PR and media relations, social media marketing, search engine

optimization and digital content production.


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2013 budget white paper

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