marketing in traffic by brian branca

I should preface this by saying that unless you are productive & take initiative, no one is going to listen to anything you have to say. You may be right or have a great idea, but it will fall on deaf ears if people think you don’t know what you’re talking about.

This starts with your boss & possibly his/her boss. When you don’t have direct channels to the top-level decision makers, it’s important to have your voice represented by someone who does.  If you’re afraid your boss is going to take credit for your work, it would be smart to talk to the person to whom your boss reports.  This is also good if your boss is an idiot or inept. 

Numbers make decisions very easy.  The more data you have to support your thinking, the better your odds at convincing your company to approve it become.  If you’re looking to increase site traffic, are your campaigns consistently driving more people to your site?  Do these visitors spend more time on the site than the average visitor?  Are they converting at a higher rate?  Have they signed up to receive emails from  you or are they looking at things like the store locator?

Building on that, you are going to want to show your campaign’s visitors are converting on the site.  You will want to see if they are spending more per order than your site’s current average.  The more people you bring in to your customer retention pool, the better your chances for driving sustained, incremental revenue.  More sales proves that you have the ability to make more money for the company, making stockholders very happy.  See what you just did…the man appreciates that.

As long as you are making the decision for you company very easy, you stand a great chance of being heard.  Try to anticipate the questions they will ask after reviewing your analysis.  Whenever possible, you want to provide information directly to the source.  The side benefit of this is that you have gained great experience in presenting to the powers that be & establishing new connections.  Most successful people will tell you this is your foundation for success.

Like any relationship, the client/agency relationship has its ups & downs.  Each side’s view of the partnership is mainly attributable to how they collaboratively face & overcome the challenges presented.  Professionally, there isn’t much more satisfying than helping a client not only reach their goals, but exceed them.  A big part of which is scoping properly & setting the proper expectations, but I’m not delving into that right now (I smell another, future series of posts).  Conversely, there is nothing more frustrating than a breakdown in communication or execution that leaves the client short of their goals. 

The client is pissed & the agency is left to pick up the pieces internally while externally determining what is necessary to reassure the client that everything will be just dandy.  Usually, an amicable resolution can be reached.  Objectives & goals may need to be reset, strategy & tactics are adjusted &, consequently, the client gets what they need.

Waste of money…on both sides.  The agency eats the time they spend finding a resolution & will most likely credit the client for time spent on what did not work.  The client misses opportunities to build/promote their brand, drive more sales, respond to negative press in a timely manner, etc.

Over the next few weeks, I will delve into the bulleted topics below.  I feel there is a lot a client can do to set themselves & their agency up for success.  Yeah, I know this works both ways; read on.  This series will be mainly geared towards ecommerce (one of my specialties), but the astute reader will be able to draw parallels across the entire digital space. 

• Getting Yourself Connected – At least one person on your marketing team should have a reliable contact on the following teams: Merchandise, IT (web development, help desk, product development), Creative, PR, Customer Service, front desk (if for only the fact that you see this person more than most people you love)
• Aggregating & Analyzing Data – Become one with it; everyone above you has a background in concrete numbers & has planned & made decisions according to what the numbers tell them.  Think they’re wrong?  Prove it…with numbers.
• Internally Selling Upward – Both yourself & new ideas
• Effectively Leveraging Available Resources – We are all strapped for time; understanding how to get what you need when there is seemingly no help will set you apart from everyone else.
• Evaluating & Changing Process – There is nothing wrong with occasionally kicking the tires. 

The underlying theme is communication that enables client & agency to make informed decisions in the most efficient & effective manner possible.  It’s a lot of work, but this industry is not for the faint of heart.