When it comes to digital marketing you need to accept as unfortunate truth: the most profound, creative and popular marketing plans are not always the most effective.
The biggest pitfall of a poorly designed online video marketing plan is the ignorant assumption that more impressions will always equate to more conversions. To design an effective marketing campaign you need to begin with specific goals in mind. Increasing your bottom line is always a by-product of meeting these goals.
A recent example of this comes from Old Spice. Despite their tremendous video ads featuring Isaiah Mustafa going viral, garnering well over 60 million views on YouTube alone, the company experienced a 7% drop in sales as a direct result. The problem stemmed from a lack of understanding of their market.
A large portion of Old Spice’s market consists of aging white males who have used the product for the better part of a century. It is harder for them to identify with a quirky young black male, to the point of refusing to buy Old Spice products.
Old Spice alienated a large portion of their customer base in an attempt at claiming a portion of the younger market who has been duped by their competitor’s aerosol cans of stink.
To ensure you don’t fall into the same pit your online video marketing plan needs to be carefully crafted to achieve specific goals, without tearing down the foundations of your current success. If your goal is to reach out to a new demographic you have to do so without alienating your current customers.
If that’s not a possibility you need to focus on increasing your current customer’s loyalty and frequency of sale. If you have no customer base and are looking to start growing, your entire plan should be catered around branding and awareness, forgoing the hard sale until you’ve built a foundation of trust.
More impressions always equal more clicks, but more clicks from an unqualified audience aren’t synonymous with more sales. While big numbers look impressive in marketing reports, at the end of the year all that matters is if the money you spent on marketing accomplished your goals. If your goals were appropriate for your company and market you’ll see your success directly reflected in your bottom line.
