Marketing is an ever-changing industry. Content creators and SEO strategists are constantly revising their approach as new technology and consumer behaviors make for a dynamic business landscape. However, successful marketing teams do share a few traits that you can learn from.
High-performing content creators know how to conduct market research and typically use a data-driven approach to boost consumer engagement. Effective marketing teams are highly collaborative, too. Collaborative teams can spot trends before their competitors and can communicate effectively to ensure that campaigns stay on track.
Blending creativity and data analytics is essential for the long-term success of your marketing department. So, here are a few things to keep in mind when you start to assemble your team of content-creation specialists.
Data Analytics
Data analytics is the bedrock of any good marketing campaign. Without a clear data collection program, you can’t be sure that your ideas will land with potential consumers and convince them to buy from your brand.
Be aware that biases can influence your data collection strategy and may undermine the veracity of your insights. Overcome biases when collecting data by incorporating information from new sources. Taking in a range of data can help you spot anomalous results and overcome common biases like expectancy bias and confirmation bias.
Once you’ve collected “clean”, bias-free data, you’ll need to start putting it to good use. If you’re running a digital campaign and want to drive traffic towards a website, you’ll need to track data points like:
- Pageviews
- Bounce rate
- Return visitors
- Session length
- Conversion rate
These data points will give you a better understanding of your marketing campaign’s performance and can help you spot issues. Follow up on the data you collect by sharing your insights on shared platforms. This will encourage collaboration and improve interdepartmental communication.
Fostering Collaboration
Marketing is a highly collaborative endeavor. You’ll need to gather the insights of nearly every department if you want to craft campaigns that connect with consumers and reflect the core values of your business.
Start by hosting monthly meetings with a representative from the sales department. Sales and marketing share a symbiotic relationship, as the actions of one department will almost certainly impact the other. Effective cross-departmental collaboration can:
- Generate more consumer interest;
- Help salespeople develop a more nuanced pitch;
- Improve product knowledge and spark innovation;
- Give marketers a better understanding of their target demographic.
While your sales team should always be close at hand, you can also glean invaluable insights from customer service agents, finance and accounting, and product developers.
Key Metrics and Goals
Every marketer worth their salt understands the importance of goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). KPIs give you a deeper insight into the effectiveness of your campaigns and help you understand why your content is (or is not) working.
When building a new marketing team, there are hundreds of KPIs you can choose from. However, it’s best to start with some industry-wide marketing KPIs like:
- Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): CAC measures the amount of capital it takes to convert a potential lead. You always want this number to remain low, as high CACs will take a chunk out of your profitability.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Advertising is a great way to get your brand in front of consumers. However, your ROAS has to be high if you want to justify more Google ads or billboards.
- Referral Traffic: Referral traffic tells you how consumers found your business. This is particularly important if you are running omnichannel campaigns and want to ensure that each platform is performing well.
- Organic Traffic: High organic traffic is a sure sign that your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy is working. It ensures that your keywords are working and shows you how well your business is ranking in search engines.
These key metrics aren’t exhaustive but they will get you on the right track. Key insights, like referral traffic, can help you identify emerging industry trends, too, as you’ll notice a sudden spike or drop in user activity when new tech is released or consumer behavior suddenly changes.
Industry Trends
High-performing marketing teams know how to spot trends and adapt to new technology. Even emergent tech, like AI and natural language process models, have quickly made their way into marketing departments around the world.
Stay up to date with the latest trends in marketing by joining professional communities like the American Marketing Association. Word travels quickly in these groups, and you’ll quickly find that your network will keep you better informed than news cycles ever could.
Conclusion
Building a team of marketing professionals can be a daunting prospect. However, you don’t need to reinvent the idea of content creation and audience engagement to start a successful team. Instead, focus on the basics and foreground data analytics and collaboration. This will help you identify KPIs and keep you up to date with pertinent industry trends.
