At our recent Executive Education Insight Series event, Dr Dawn Holmes led an engaging Digital Marketing masterclass.
The event brought together the AMBS Alumni and Executive Education communities for an in-depth discussion on effective digital marketing strategies.
The key insights centred around:
- Optimising the customer journey
- Understanding media choices
- Setting the right goals and metrics
- Experimenting with digital marketing strategies to achieve better outcomes.
In this write-up, we'll give a rundown of the main takeaways from the session, covering the key points discussed.
Customer journeys and the 'RACE' model
Central to this session and serving as a foundation for the themes discussed, was the exploration of the customer journey using the ‘RACE’ model. This model provides an understanding of the different stages of the customer journey: Reach, Act, Convert, and Engage.
Each stage represents a different aspect of the customer's interaction with a brand, whether online or offline.
- Reach is the initial phase where brands seek to attract new customers by increasing awareness. This can be achieved through advertising, social media campaigns, or search engine marketing.
- Act involves encouraging interaction and building initial engagement. Here, a brands main aim is to create a positive user experience and prompt customers take action - for example, subscribe to a newsletter or download a brochure.
- Convert is where a customer takes the desired action, such as making a purchase. Effective calls-to-action, user-friendly websites, and secure payment processes play a vital role here.
- Engage is the final stage, where the goal is to foster long-term relationships and encourage repeat business through follow-up communications, loyalty programmes, or community-building efforts.
Unlike traditional linear models, the customer journey is dynamic, with individuals moving between stages in a non-linear fashion.
It’s also important to remember that customers may skip a stage, revisit a previous stage, or engage with multiple stages simultaneously.
For example, a customer's journey could be:
- Seeing an online advert (Reach)
- Directly making a purchase (Convert)
- Later returning to engage with the brand on social media (Engage).
Recognising this fluidity helps marketers understand the complexities of customer behaviour and better tailor their strategies to meet evolving needs.
Choosing the best platforms for each stage
The session then moved on to explore the use of media platforms. Different platforms serve different purposes throughout the customer journey. Understanding which to use at each stage can significantly improve marketing outcomes.
Here are some examples of media platforms that can be beneficial at various stages of the customer journey:
- During the Reach stage, social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram are ideal due to their broad audience reach and targeting capabilities.
- For the Act phase, platforms that facilitate user interaction are recommended - for example, company blogs or content-sharing sites.
- For the Convert stage, buying platforms such as Amazon, eBay, or even a company's own e-commerce site can effectively facilitate purchases.
- In the Engage stage, platforms like TripAdvisor and other review websites and forums provide valuable opportunities to interact with customers who are already familiar with the brand.
Whichever phase you focus your efforts towards, consistency in branding across platforms is essential to maintaining a cohesive image and reinforcing brand recognition.
Marketers should also consider how and why customers consume media on each platform. They should look to understand whether they have their audience's full attention or if they're multitasking. This can help tailor content to customers for maximum impact.
For instance, attention-grabbing visuals work well on social media at times where users might be scrolling quickly. However, more detailed reviews are better suited to platforms where users tend to take more time to browse and digest more long-form content.
Goals and metrics
Arguably the most crucial step in making your digital marketing efforts successful is setting clear objectives for each stage of the customer journey.
While it may be tempting to skip the planning phase and jump straight into action, Dawn highlighted that developing a marketing plan doesn’t have to take much time. Just an hour of focused planning can make a big difference in the results.
Referring back to the RACE framework, each phase of the journey should have specific goals:
- Reach: metrics could include website visits, number of accounts sign posting your content, or social media impressions.
- Act: focus on understanding behaviours and tracking metrics such as how customers search for your website, the overall time they spend on the site, and which pages they visit.
- Convert: metrics could include the cost per conversion, conversation rate, and other sales data provide valuable insights.
- Engage: metrics could focus on repeat purchases, customer retention rates, or reviews that created by customers post-purchase.
By tracking these metrics at the different stages in the customer journey, marketers can understand whether their efforts are reaching the right audience. They can ensure they're delivering a high return on investment by moving the audience through the customer journey.
Experiments and A/B testing
Experimentation was another central theme during the session, with a focus on A/B testing as an example for optimising digital marketing strategies.
Dawn emphasised that when conducting A/B experiments, it’s best to change only one variable at a time to accurately assess its impact. Other tests, such as multivariate tests or even testing completely new website designs were also discussed.
It's also important to run all tests on a small sample of the audience to minimise risk before making wholesale changes, and to consider the whole customer journey. This will help prevent unintended consequences for other stages in the customer journey process.
Baseline measurements should be taken before any changes are made to provide a point of comparison for evaluating results.
The value of iterative testing also plays a key role, where continuous small improvements can add up to significant enhancements in marketing performance over time.
Wrap up
Overall, this insightful masterclass highlighted the need for refining digital marketing strategies through thoughtful planning, setting targeted goals, and continuously experimenting to optimise results.
The introduction of the RACE model highlighted four key takeaways:
- The importance of tailored media strategies and specific metrics.
- Choosing the right platforms at each phase ensures a cohesive brand message and deeper insights into customer behaviour.
- Setting clear objectives and tracking the most relevant metrics helps marketers move beyond vanity metrics to focus on what truly drives business success.
- Testing approaches, such as A/B experiments, allow for fine-tuning tactics and identifying the most effective strategies.
If you want to improve your overall marketing knowledge, join Dr. Dawn Holmes and Professor Panos Sarantopoulos on their four-day professional development course, Digital Marketing Essentials for Leaders.
In the course, you'll explore the essential strategies leaders should integrate to maximise their team’s marketing impact.
