When embarking on a marketing campaign for your company it is a wise decision to make sure you’re not just blowing your money on smoke and mirrors. There has been quite a number of ‘marketing trends’ which do not stand up to valuation simply because there is no reliable method to quantify their results. Yes, I’m talking specifically about social media, how can you quantify Tweets to the bottom-line? After all, that’s what senior executives, or anyone running a business frankly, wants to know. When deciding on a marketing agency, it’s important that you find a marketing firm that’s going to do attain not only exposure, but a real audience that translates into customers. This is the sort of effort that will deliver basic bottom-line results.
Why Discover an Audience
Why does a company need an audience? What exactly is an audience anyway? Well, we can knock of these two questions with one fell swoop of the answer scythe. A company audience refers to both customers and prospects, by building an audience we are essentially interested in building relationships with customers that will last. Finding the appropriate audience will take some effort, and this is why seeking the services of a marketing agency is very important.
You may think that you know your business inside and out, and chances are that you do. But a business and its operations are only one aspect of the larger picture. Some owners know exactly how to operate their business in an efficient and effective manner but they’re still struggling to operate and many fail. This is simply due to the fact that they have not developed an appropriate audience for their business; it is also why many successful businesses will make a point to invest heavily in a skilled marketing agency, even if that marketing may exceed their service capacity.
Audience Discovery
Discovering an audience can be approached from a variety of perspectives. If a company already has begun their own audience discovery and development process then a marketing firm may decide to simply build on that previous success but with a much more strategic and tactical approach. Some other businesses may need to start from the ground up, developing an audience from scratch with renewed vigor. Alternatively, other businesses may already have very well established audiences and may need to diversify their audience – seeking out new audiences in the fringes of their market or in areas outside of the mainstream.
A marketing agency that really knows their stuff will be able to aid a business in any one of these situations. Whether a business is starting from scratch or already has an established audience. The goal of any marketing firm is to promote a company and improve their market share; building out audiences by promoting a company in innovative and unique ways will be necessary to accomplish this task. It will be critical to make an effort to keep current audience members interested but also engage those who have yet to get on-board.
The Results
Well, many people can sit back and say that building an audience is a good idea, just like they can say that social media has a huge impact on brand exposure and recognition. But the truth may be illusive at times. What is clear is that whenever a company expands their audience they will be spreading their message to a larger group of people who will then be made aware of your business. Essentially, a greater awareness means a greater number of potential customers and word of mouth promotion. While there is some discontent regarding quantifying aspects of digital marketing and content promotion, one thing is clear – the more people know about your business the more people will be buying from you.
So can audience development be quantified? Yes, of course it can. It’s as simple as tracking standard metrics before and after campaigns. Depending on the exact nature of the development plan, these metrics may vary, but some of the most obvious will be leads generated, associated revenue generated, unique visits to websites or properties, unique visitors to assorted content, spread/propagation of content, and other standard metrics such as feed, email, and social account subscribers. A complete quantification of the results can be difficult as there is no way to tell if six months after the campaign has finished whether or not a sale is the results of the original campaign. But gains associated with the audience development work should be clear when conducted by a professional marketing agency.
