“Execute with purpose”
I was watching these odd NBA playoffs the other day when Miami Heat head coach Erik Spolestra said something that resonated with me. He said that the team was playing “there game” but they needed to “execute with purpose” in order to get back in the game. My first thought was this is an interesting to thing to say. If the team is playing as he wished why were they not executing with purpose. Turns out that just going through the motions (no matter how correct) is not enough to win at a professional level.
In order to win at a professional level you need to “execute with purpose” in everything you do. This applies to running media campaigns as much as anything. All too often I see teams, clients and managers going through the motions but not executing with the purpose it takes to set a campaign apart. All this led me to think “how do you execute with purpose in digital media?”
I could probably write a post just as long on what not to do but I want to focus on a few things I think have lost purpose. This is not an exhaustive list but I thought it would be a good start to think about the big buckets of media and how we can add some more meaning to delivering results.
Focus on the win - not a single possession
Goals - What are your goals? I don’t mean CPA or the dreaded CPC but what is the purpose of this activation. Very often between writing the brief to delivering the digital impressions much is lost. If your goal is to sell more widgets then you need to look at all the things that assist the widget’s sale. For example, how many exposures of an ad is optimal before someone visits the site. Then further to that how many times does someone visit the site before the buy. It could take 5 exposures to an add but 3 visits before purchase to reach your goal. If this is the case, it is important not to look at the data in silo. One way to get around this is to constantly be looking at journeys to conversion. By analyzing the full path to conversion you won’t be bogged down in the weeds.
Know your opponent
Data - When formulating your data strategy it is important to think about a few critical items so that you can set yourself up for success long term. For example, know what data you have right now sets a good baseline. I suggest auditing your digital properties to understand better who your existing customers are and what data crumbs they are leaving as they come to your site, click on your paid media or interact with your social media. This way you can understand better how to formulate your strategy to meet your goals better. And when you start to build that strategy, remember your customer so that you can effectively build data segments that are relevant to them. Ensuring relevant targeting allows you to tailor messages and avoid burnout from over exposing on particular user to too many ads.
I am not talking about content strategy here but this is perhaps the single most important part of executing well. If you are doing all this work to build an online presence you better make sure the content you have is relevant your customers!
Stick to your game
Message - What is your message to achieve the goals? This is one of the most important questions you can answer. Consumers will have potentially multiple touch points before they take an action. Are you owning the message all the way through your lifecycle? And, is that message the right message at the right time? Too often, I have seen brand messages that are meant drive performance. This is mostly because getting creative right is hard and refreshing it routinely is even harder. I suggest a quarterly summit where you look at all your messages and placements to assure alignment in the lifecycle. Additionally, this is a good time to built a creative testing strategy. This would the grounds to continuously build out your user journey better with tweaks to your message and image in creative.
Play your game
Although this looks like a ton of work (and it is) the reward after setting up this properly is great. I suggest you follow all these recommendations and it will help you execute with purpose like Coach Spo says.