Digital Branding Strategies for Emerging Tech Companies · 2016-09-13 · Easier ways to prove (and...
Transcript of Digital Branding Strategies for Emerging Tech Companies · 2016-09-13 · Easier ways to prove (and...
#TTGTSummit | www.techtarget.com/ForMarketers
Andy Briney, SVP Brand and Custom Solutions
Digital Branding Strategies
for Emerging Tech
Companies
Branding is important… right?
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38% increase in brand searches over 4 weeks
27% increase revenue through the site
55% increase in time on the brand’s site
"why branding is important“ -49,200 search results
46% increase in site visits over 4 weeks2
“A brand for a company is like a reputation
for a person. You earn reputation by trying
to do hard things well.”
-Jeff Bezos
14,203 Branding Titles on Amazon
Houston, we have a problem
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Scale Mt.
Everest
Survive a
Crash
Get into
MIT
You’re more likely to…
… than click on a banner
Lower
CPMs Banner
blindness
Less
Interaction
5 trillion
ads served
last year
0.1%
average
CTR
Publisher use of
RTB, trading
desks etc. for
cheap inventory
Measuring
brand
impact is
hard
7 out 10 marketers
would spend more on
brand if it were easier
to tie to ROI
Where do we begin? With the end goal…
4
Frequent responses I’ve heard…
● Better banner performance (for starters)
● Better proof I’m reaching the right audience
● Easier ways to prove (and quantify the effect of) improved awareness
● Branding that more efficiently delivers desired actions
What does
“impact” mean to you?
“What’s the impact on the bottom line?”
5
● “Proof that an investment in branding will deliver me
(a) sales opportunities that (b) I would miss otherwise”
● Better technology is the genesis of every startup
- “I win when I’m sitting at the table”
● The problem:
Online ROI Summit | © TechTarget
70% Of the buyer
journey is
completed before
they ever contact
you…or anyone
else
Ok so that’s where we want to end up….
But where do we begin?
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Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
Awareness
Branding is a “full-funnel”
consideration…
…Let’s start by looking at
the benefits (and
challenges) at each stage
Branding Value & Challenges: Top Funnel
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Branding creates a
cognitive association
• …in the context of a problem
• …as a solution to that problem
• This is the first step to getting on
more short lists
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
Awareness
Challenges
• Operates on the subconscious
level
• Impact manifests later
• Hard to track
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Awareness
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
Awareness Branding prompts
qualification activity
• Participation/learning
• Define my problem
• Clarify my strategy
• Select a tactic/solution
Challenges
• Creating a personal connection
with each user
• Not always conversion-focused,
and hard to measure impact if not
directly tied to a conversion action
Branding Value & Challenges: Mid Funnel
Branding Value & Challenges: Down Funnel
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Branding prompts
conversion
• Direct response…
• To lead
• To opportunity
• To sale
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
Awareness
Challenges
• Cost/benefit relies on a lot more
than the banner creative
• There are other establishes ways
to accomplish this goal
5 advancements that will change the way we
think about brand
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The New Brand Strategy
Data-activated
Personalized
Demand-focused
Goal-oriented
Metrics-driven
Advancement #1: Data-driven branding
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Advancement #1: Data-driven branding
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What is data-driven branding?
Data analytics approach to audience creation and brand
targeting
Has its roots in demand generation methods
Leverages data and insights about audiences from both
supply-siders (publishers and third-party sites) with
demand-siders (you)
Delivers rich, actionable audience segments, better overall
brand performance…yielding an overall more efficient
spend
Segment/Site Targeting
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Your Brand
Pros
● Super cheap
● Great if all you care about is volume
Cons
● No brand/site/audience alignment
● Terrible CTRs
Site/Topic Targeting
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Your Brand
Site/Topic Targeting
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Your Brand
Pros
● Better contextual alignment
● Stronger CTRs and awareness lift
Cons
● Higher CPMs
● Audience is still anonymous
Data-driven audience targeting:
Publisher model
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Demographics
● Industry
● Geo
● Co. size
● Title
● Role
● Function
Behavior
● Browsing activity
● Social activity
● Download activity
● Purchase stage
Cookies
Reg Data
Audience network
● O&O sites
● Affiliate network
Targeting options
● Individuals by demos & activity
● Accounts & intenders
● Purchase stage
● Banners, videos
Results
● 2-4x CTRs
Publisher DMP
User targeting based on multi-party data
aggregation
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Applications
● Augments what
you know about
users in your DB
● Supplements
audience targets
with third-party
lookalikes
● Allows for a richer
set of data
modeling and
message/offer
management
First party data
● Your CRM data
● Activity patterns
● Purchase history
● Account targets
● Solution cross-sells
Second-party data
● Exposes additional
lookalike users
● Supplements
advertiser first-party
data on audiences
Demos from Publisher A
Activity from Publisher B
Data from Publisher N
Advertiser DMP
● 78% of marketers said data-driven branding increases
acquisition and conversion
● 71% said it enables the delivery of more relevant
messaging to more finely segmented audiences
● 68% said it drives an increase in clicks and traffic
generated
● 63% said it increases efficiency in media buying and
planning
Source: BlueKai
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The impact of data-driven branding
Case study: Zero Turnaround
● 5,079 clicks
● CTR 300% higher
than industry
benchmark
● High conversion
rate
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Advancement #2: Brand Personalization
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● The number one challenge in branding is creating an
emotional connection between you and your target
audience
- That’s me! (identification)
- I have that problem! (challenge association)
- That’s a good approach! (solution association)
- I should try that! (conversion action)
● Data-driven audience targeting helps you identify the
right audience groupings for this experience…but does
nothing to foster the experience itself
Personalizing the brand experience
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User Attributes
Brand Personalization
User Actions
Today
Personalizing the brand experience
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User Attributes
Brand Personalization
● Direct browsing history
● Social connections
- Facebook Sponsored
posts
- Google Shared
Endorsements
Personalizing the brand experience
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Brand Personalization
User Actions
● Participatory branding
- Content interaction in a
branded context
- Tailored content
offerings based on
user inputs
- Drives awareness &
solution consideration
at the same time
Today
Personalizing the brand experience
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User Attributes
Brand Personalization
User Actions
User Attributes & Actions
● Data-driven brand/content/messaging experiences
● Based on real-time lookups of user profiles
● User initiated, automated, intelligent, dimensional
Emerging
Today
Personalized Site & Content
Experiences
• Site personalization based on
LinkedIn profile
• Stronger conversion rates through
user-specific content offers
How we doing?
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Top-funnel challenges & outlook
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Challenge
● CTRs are plummeting because
we’re not reaching the right
audiences (or, at a minimum, we
don’t know if we are)
New data
● User/topic segmentation improves
CTRs by 80%
● Data-driven user targeting improves
CTRs by 200-400%
Outlook
● Better targeting, better performance,
more efficient
● Better chance of being top-of-mind
as users shift from research to
vendor outreach
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Awareness
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
Mid-funnel challenges & outlook
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Challenge
● Difficult to create an emotional
connection and drive impact when
most users are anonymous
New Data
● Content-embedded branding
closes the gap
● Personalization through
participation and data insight
● Consistently yields 30%+
increase in awareness and
consideration
Outlook
● In the near future we’ll use
personalization strategies to
inform both outbound targeting
and creative/content CTAs Online ROI Summit | © TechTarget
Awareness
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
That leaves us with…Down Funnel
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Branding that prompts
conversion
• Direct response…
• To lead
• To opportunity
• To sale
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
Awareness
Challenges
• Cost/benefit and proof of impact
on conversion/post-conversion
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• E-mail drives 80-90% of leads
today
• What will that look like in 5
years?
• Data-driven targeting and
brand personalization will
yield better overall CTA
performance
• Advancements in landing
page optimization will
accelerate conversions
• Branding vehicles will also
have a bigger role in post-
conversion lead qualification
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
Awareness
Advancement #3: Brand will increase its role
and impact on demand generation
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Landing pages are your most important brand
vehicles
• Opportunity to build a connection with your prospects,
optimize conversions and amplify your content via social
channels
Branding has historically focused on
pre-conversion
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Awareness
Education
Consideration
Preference
Decision
$
The Point of
Conversion
to…
• Respondent
• Lead
• Qualified lead
• Opportunity
• Qualified opportunity
• Pipeline…
…then $
Branding as post-conversion nurturing
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Education
Consideration
Preference
Awareness
Conversion
Nurturing
Re-engagement
Endorsement
Advocacy
● Many marketers look at lead
conversion as the end goal
● This misses the opportunity to
build brand equity and nurture
prospects at the point of
conversion (they’re a lead…but
they still haven’t decided to buy
from you)
● Content-embedded branding
activates respondents and gives
them the tools to qualify
themselves and become
advocates for your content and
company
Brand boosts post-conversion qualification
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● Levels-up brand message
- 35%-45% of leads interact with the unit
● Prompts user self-nurturing
- 15-20% of leads download additional content
● Provides a post-download opportunity for social amplification
Advancement #4: Goal-Oriented Branding
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● Branding shouldn’t be so scary!
● Unlike other forms of advertising (TV, radio, print), the tools of digital
branding have matured to the point where you can tailor specific tactics
to specific goals
● “What do I invest in to achieve XYZ result?”
Reach Target Engage Convert
High volume,
Low CPMs
Demographic,
topical and
behavioral
targeting
Branded content
interaction that
drives consideration
Disruptive ways
to tie brand to
purchase intent
• TechTarget delivers a
spectrum of branding
solutions to meet
your objectives
• Focus your branding
investment on the
tactics that best
meets your goals
TechTarget Branding Solutions
CTRs average 80% higher than
industry averages
CORE NETWORK TARGETING Access downstream buyers across
100+ topically aligned Search sites
TechTarget Branding Solutions
Buyer-centric targeting delivers
50% higher CTRs than industry
average
SPOKE AUDIENCE NETWORK Target active buyers on extended
network based on project activity
TechTarget Branding Solutions
30% more effective at driving
awareness than traditional
banners
CUSTOM BRAND ENGAGE Custom-created rich media banners
drive branded content engagement
TechTarget Branding Solutions
Strong awareness-to-action:
30-40% of clicks deliver an asset
download
ESSENTIAL GUIDES Own 100% SOV on editor-curated
content; drive awareness and leads
TechTarget Branding Solutions
200% more effective than standard
tech microsites at driving solution
consideration
SPONSORED COMMUNITY SITES Custom-built web sites driving
social/content engagement & leads
TechTarget Branding Solutions
Drive full-funnel impact and 30%+
increase in purchase intent
NATIVE ADS, SITES & BLOGS Featuring immersive leadership
content and editorial site integration
TechTarget Branding Solutions
Advancement #5: Better brand metrics will help
you validate your investment and ROI
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● Traditional digital brand reporting focuses on a limited number of performance-based statistics: CPM, CTR, CPC…
● The rise of data-driven branding, brand personalization and demand-driven branding will enable a much richer set of metrics about…
Who is viewing and engaging with brand placements?
Individuals, industries, companies
What are they doing when they engage?
- Evolution from aggregate activities to individual behavior
● Benefit: better visibility and understanding of how well branding engages desired audiences and motivates desired actions
TechTarget’s 3 Sponsored Community Formats
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• Targeted, tactical,
concentrated
• Strategic, layered,
comprehensive
• Editorial, educational,
immersive
• Focus on a single
solution
• Focus on a theme or
portfolio of solutions
• Focus on thought
leadership, strategy
• Template design,
Single page
• Unique design, Multiple
pages/tabs
• Custom design based
on content
• Embedded in editorial • Standalone URL • Embedded in editorial
• 4 week build • 6-8 week build • 4-6 week build
UniSites Custom Sites Native Sites
TechTarget Brand Intelligence™
Traffic/performance stats
Benchmark comparisons
Snapshot of companies
interacting with content
Understanding what content and
site features drive the most
engagement
Heat and scroll diagnostics plus
mapping
Social user profiles
Engaged User Rate: measure
content’s power to encourage
visitors to spend time on the
content,
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Brand X Site
Performance Summary
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TTGT
Benchmark
Brand X
October Performance
Page Views 26,206
(79% to goal)
Page Views
per Visit 0.84 - 1.24 1.38
Exceeds
Benchmark
Dwell Time 2:30 - 3:00 04:22 Exceeds
Benchmark
Content CTR 12 - 15% 15% In Range
Social Share
Rate .05 - .25% 1.1%
Exceeds
Benchmark
ANALYSIS: Above average PPV and Dwell times suggest readers are increasingly
satisfied with content and format when compared to competitive online communities
Social Share Rates are also above the TechTarget benchmark, driving high reach and
engagement, complementing the sales cycle by nurturing prospective leads
Business Services
14%
Retail 9%
Education 9%
Computer Related
16% Financial Services
9%
Telcom 17%
Information Technology
25%
Government 2%
Account Intelligence: Industry & Company Size
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Industry Company Size
Less than 250 4%
500 to 999 4%
1,000 to 4,999 19%
5,000 to 9,999 13%
10,000 to 24,999
17%
25,000 to 49,999
9%
50,000 to 99,999
13%
100,000+ 21%
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Company Name # Activities
FedEx 49
University of Colorado 37
Duke University 19
CVS 12
Walgreens 12
Pottery Barn 9
Farmers Insurance 6
Account Intelligence: Activity
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Social Activity & Profiles
Social Network # Shares
Facebook 57
Email 52
LinkedIn 37
Twitter 17
10%
4%
45%
41%
Engaged User Ratings
50 © TechTarget
-40% -20% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
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• Measures and compares %
of unique visitors who were
engaged users
• Engagement defined as a
measure of:
- Dwell time
- PPV
- Click rate
- Social Share rate
Page Scroll Map
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Users are self nurturing as they scrolling through 75% of each article’s
content and hover over the recommended reading widget/section of the page
Page A Page C Page B Page D
Click Heat Map
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Page A Page C Page B Page D
Users primarily click their mouse on the social share icons within each page,
validating site content is driving high reach and social engagement
#TTGTSummit | www.techtarget.com/ForMarketers
Andy Briney
Twitter: @andybriney
Thank You!