If you had a list of things you wish your digital marketing partner would do in the coming year, what would be on it?
Borrell Associates asked that question during its fall survey of local advertising buyers. Here were the top 10 responses to an open-ended question answered by 593 respondents:
Would any of those be on your list? Anything you would add?
I’m especially interested in two of the "wishes." The first is building a partnership with my clients. One of the most satisfying and difficult things about providing marketing is adopting a client’s business as my own.
I love learning about my clients’ businesses (see No. 5 on the list) and trying to figure out the most effective ways to attract new customers (See No. 3). It’s difficult because I feel like I’ve got a stake
in the business, and attracting new customers isn’t easy.
I’m also constantly trying to find ways to talk with clients about what’s new and what they need.
Is AI Impersonal?
The artificial intelligence thing surprised me at first. I’m looking forward to using artificial intelligence to help clients in 2024 so why would local businesses want to avoid it?
I’m guessing there’s concern that agencies will use AI to treat their clients like just an account number on a spreadsheet. Of course, businesses don’t need AI to be robotic about customer service.
I expect the use of AI tools to eliminate repetitive drudgery, thus allowing more time for creativity and personal attention to clients. AI and a personal touch are not mutually exclusive.
What Does That Mean?
Sometimes the metrics we use to measure our digital marketing don’t have much value. But "cost per acquisition" is a metric that allows you to dig deeper into the effectiveness of your marketing.
When you look at cost per acquisition you’re figuring how much it costs to acquire a lead, a customer, or a subscriber, for example. Here’s a basic example. Let’s say you spent $1,000 in marketing and that led to 100 new customers. The cost per acquisition was $10.
As long as those customers spent an average of $10.01, you’re in the black (not accounting for the cost of goods or services sold).
Knowing your cost per acquisition helps in several ways. It’s reasonable to extrapolate that if you increase your marketing spend to $1,500, you’ll attract 150 new customers.
You can also factor your cost per acquisition into your pricing to increase profitability. If you increase your price by a dollar, you know that the same $1,000 in marketing will generate an extra $1,000 in profit. Likewise, if you can reduce the cost per acquisition by $1, you will generate an extra $1,000 in profit.
The next newsletter arrives Jan. 16. I don’t know about you, but I’m relieved to be past all of the holiday stuff. The season had some highlights – some nice family visits, and my cookies this year were especially good (really) – but I’m ready to focus on some projects in the new year.
As ever, be grateful. Be generous. Be patient. Love.
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Thanks for spending some of your time with me, . I appreciate you.
Mark
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