Having a good understanding of your business is a key first step to knowing what digital channels will work best for your marketing campaigns, according to Ballistic Arts Media Studios
The company has built a reputation as a “marketing department for local business,” with a Greater Vancouver client base that includes construction firms, home builders and real estate developers. Clients must come prepared to compete.
“I can make anyone look good,” said Ted Lau, CEO of Ballistic Arts, “but if you can’t deliver at the end of the day, don’t bother.” Lau considers digital marketing channels as just another way to communicate – another set of tools within an overall marketing strategy.
Ballistic Arts delivers a full range of marketing services, from developing strategy to developing traditional and digital marketing tools. For Lau, the work process doesn’t change with the decision to start using digital marketing channels.
“The first step is to evaluate your business,” said Lau. “Can you compete in the current market?” Clients must have a solid business plan, and a commitment to deliver. From there, an overall marketing strategy identifies the most appropriate tools for communication, usually a mix of traditional and digital.
As part of a digital strategy, Lau believes in social media’s instant and two-way communication.
“Social media gives regular folks a way to interact with businesses and gives savvy businesses the opportunity to be more transparent and more human with customers,” said Lau, citing the example of one of his own staffers who was stranded in Calgary due to a cancelled flight. She tweeted a major airline to ask what they could do to help, and soon found herself on a flight back to Vancouver. The delay was averted and customer loyalty retained.
Cecilia Lu, vice-president of business development and marketing of Gloo Studios, agrees that all marketing tools affect a company’s brand, for better or worse. The Burnaby-based film studio specializes in corporate video and visual effects for the web, with a focus on animation.
“Video directly affects your brand,” said Lu. “If it looks like it was shot in your basement, it implies that the product might also be a knock off.” With video, a company has seconds to impress, so presentation must be spotless. Video can keep people on your website longer, which will positively impact your presence in search-engine results.
A common misconception about video is that it needs to “go viral” (multiple online views over a short period of time) to be successful. Gloo Studios helps clients use video as part of an overall marketing strategy, basing success on views by the target audience.
“A local transportation company was having difficulty recruiting new drivers,” said Lu. Gloo created a hiring video featuring the company’s own drivers who gave testimonials about why they liked their jobs. The video was available for the website and recruitment fairs, but also got shared with potential employees through social media by the drivers themselves.
Videos can also increase exposure to your company through planned sharing, or “developing channel relationships.” Gloo Studios produced a social media drip campaign for a large produce wholesaler with a customer base of large-chain grocery stores. Fifteen-second videos offering quick tips for selecting, storing and serving fruits and vegetables were shared with their target audience. The grocery chains, in turn, linked to the videos on their websites for their own audience of store customers.
Identifying your target audience is the key component of developing a successful marketing strategy. Mhairi Petrovic’s team at Out-Smarts Marketing Inc. spends considerable time working at a granular level to compile an audience persona, akin to the subject profilers on criminal investigation dramas. For Petrovic, founder and chief marketing officer of Out-Smarts, audience is a given in developing digital marketing strategy.
“The idea that a whole new digital marketing strategy is required is a lot of hooey,” said Petrovic. “Overall marketing strategy hasn’t changed, just the way we use the tools we’ve been given.” That said, she believes the local market is in an “adoption curve” of using digital channels for business marketing.
“People are only halfway there using the new tools, but in an old-fashioned way,” said Petrovic, who believes that there is not enough attention being paid to listening. Entering into digital channels means two-way communication, with an expected response. Listening to other business’ conversations can help to define trends, expectations, depth of content, etc., and provide guidance for appropriate channels for your own business, she said, adding that if no one is dedicated to listening – and responding – to the channels, then it’s not a good fit for your company.
Social media is a necessity for businesses who have identified 20-somethings as their target audience, said Petrovic.
“People under 35 are living and breathing those technologies,” she said. “If you want to interact with this consumer group, you need to use their channels of communication. They don’t want to use email, and they certainly don’t want to phone.”
Digital channels take communications further, and faster, than a digital answering machine with a catchy greeting. But, whether high-tech or printed on a copier, all tools extend from a solid business plan and a high-level marketing strategy. Audience rules, and if they’re not at the other end of your message, you’ve dialled the wrong number.
