{"id":170,"date":"2013-04-22T07:43:31","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T11:43:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seanowen.wordpress.com\/?p=170"},"modified":"2021-05-22T21:53:18","modified_gmt":"2021-05-22T21:53:18","slug":"tools-dont-make-you-talented","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/?p=170","title":{"rendered":"Tools Don\u2019t Make You Talented!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grab the baseball bat \u2013 now play in the Majors.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a scalpel \u2013 go operate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last night, I purchased a baseball bat. I\u2019m very excited. Now that I have the right tool I\u2019m going to play in the majors. Did you just chuckle? OK, maybe that\u2019s farfetched. Perhaps, I will go purchase a scalpel. Then I can be a doctor. These may be extravagant examples of how having a tool doesn\u2019t make you an expert, but think closer to home. What tools do you use everyday as a professional? If I purchase those, can I do your job?<\/p>\n

Digital advertising works the same way. Yes, Google will tell every business owner that they can easily place ads with AdWords. Facebook will get in on that action too. What they fail to share is that these tools don\u2019t make you an expert. Sorry, Charlie.<\/p>\n

Strategy and Leverage. These are two words my office is singing every day. You must be exceptionally smart in today\u2019s digital world. The number of media options and their complexity is overwhelming. Not to mention they change literally every day. We see clients waste time, energy and budget dollars, trying to execute digital campaigns in-house or candidly engaging the wrong talent. If you do not live in digital world, and I mean live there, you cannot do it well.<\/p>\n

This world is still relatively new and is definitely still evolving. You must have a very well defined strategy when you start. Occasionally, a conversation will get struck up at a social gathering where some business person (or even marketer) remarks, \u201cWe tried Google advertising, but it didn\u2019t work for us.\u201d I casually sound surprised, and inquire a bit further, \u201cReally? What part of AdWords did you use? PPC only or did you try display network ads? What about remarketing? What did the analytics show for conversion levels and where were the prospects dropping?\u201d This is where the other party usually asks an important question, \u201cCan I get anyone a drink at the bar?\u201d as they slowly depart.<\/p>\n

Damn, I didn\u2019t even get to ask about impressions vs. clicks. vs. conversions. Let\u2019s not even start chatting about mobile advertising. The tools supplied by Google or any platform are great. We love them, as professionals. If you\u2019ve tried digital ads and they haven\u2019t worked, ask yourself one question. \u201cDo 99.9% of my target audience never go online, never use Google, never search, never use mobile devices?\u201d If you answer yes, I will agree \u2013 digital advertising will not work for you.<\/p>\n

There are tools beyond the platform itself that you use in advertising. Beyond Google\u2019s AdWords or Facebook\u2019s Ad Manager. Tools such as Google Analytics, SproutSocial, SocialBro, Hootsuite, HubSpot, Zuum, Raven, Radian6\u2026 and the list goes on. Every tool has a unique purpose, and is extremely valuable. Here are a few areas to consider when selecting tools:<\/p>\n

–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Identify target markets and where they live online.
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Measure sentiment and response rates based on messaging not numbers.
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Measure activity beyond click.
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Determine the buying habits as driven by digital ads.
\n–\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Review cross-channel changes when running digital ads.<\/p>\n

Tools don\u2019t make you smart, and they don\u2019t give you talent. You must still have exceptional knowledge on creative, copywriting\/messaging, user behavior, audience demographics and socialgraphics, numbers and analysis, and much more. Frankly, you must also know what\u2019s possible in the digital world. Here are two examples that I\u2019ve encountered in the last month:<\/p>\n

REAL ESTATE \u2013 A high-end builder had several properties they had constructed near a lake region. They were targeting individuals who would most likely purchase the homes to be used as second homes or vacation spots. The sales cycle for these homes was anticipated to be long. They were targeting affluent purchases out-of-area (within reasonable drive), and knew that given the remote area, seasonality, etc. it would take quite some time from inquiry to purchase and sale. <\/span>What they did wrong:<\/i><\/i>Remarketing was not being employed. They were driving people from their PPC campaign on Google to the web site. That\u2019s great for step one, but what about all the people who did not complete a form? Remarketing allows the builder to target their ads across a network while the user surfs other sites on the web. A constant reminder that they were interested in this luxury lake property. Simple and effective, yet the builder had no idea.<\/p>\n

MANUFACTURER \u2013 A very specialized commercial equipment manufacturer was attempting to drive leads for its <\/span>salesforce through PPC advertising in Google and Bing. The statistics were very disappointing. They were successful getting visitors to the web site, but yielded no conversions in the form of inquiries. A closer look revealed that the messaging was targeting users of the service of the equipment they manufactured. The ads were not speaking to the businesses which would purchase and use the machinery to provide that service. The campaign message was not correctly drafted to target the right audience.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure I would have encountered these people at a networking event or social gathering and they would have said, \u201cWe tried that, but it didn\u2019t work for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be strategic in this realm you must have exceptional knowledge and talent. It is highly complex and still evolving. The reason you see some businesses knock it out of the park is because they leverage their assets. We firmly believe that every action should yield a measurable reaction, and every great action creates a series of subsequent actions. Leveraging your campaigns and the efforts you invest in developing and executing these campaigns is essential to getting yielding even greater return on the investment.<\/p>\n

We believe tools provide leverage. Perhaps it\u2019s the ability to distribute content further and faster. Maybe they provide measurement and reporting which then improves campaign performance. These are great assets to increase efficiency and information gathering and use.<\/p>\n

Tools fail to give you the strategy and talent you need to do marketing well. Just as a surgeon cannot operate without a scalpel or MRI, marketers cannot be successful without our tools. But you better be smart and talented to be any good. You do what you do best, and we\u2019ll do what \u201cwedu\u201d best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grab the baseball bat \u2013 now play in the Majors. Here\u2019s a scalpel \u2013 go operate. Last night, I purchased a baseball bat. I\u2019m very excited. Now that I have the right tool I\u2019m going to play in the majors. Did you just chuckle? OK, maybe that\u2019s farfetched. Perhaps, I will go purchase a scalpel. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,6,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/causingreality.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}