How to get better at digital effectiveness
We get it: digital can feel complicated sometimes.
It’s a fragmented channel with a lot of competing theories and voices.
Not to mention we’ve seen a few people ready to play with the “truth” when it comes to KPIs.
But let’s be real. Digital effectiveness is not rocket science. Here are a few pointers to get you started.
What is digital effectiveness?
Broadly speaking, it’s simple: it’s when you put digital channels to the same scrutiny we’d apply to other comms channels.
The words “digital effectiveness” shouldn’t be needed. It’s all effectiveness, right? But for now, they can be useful in marrying both these worlds and become a better strategist in the process.
Why is digital effectiveness so complicated?
There are a few reasons:
It’s a fragmented space. The problem with this is everyone needs to show service, and that’s how you get to having 5 different effectiveness models (one for email, one for social, one for the website, etc).
Lack of understanding. Lots of practitioners and gurus mistake understanding how digital channels work, with making them effective in terms that businesses will understand. We call this “cowboyland”. (PS: “Engagement rates” are not terms that serious business leaders will understand, or care about.)
Lack of discipline. Often people can assume it’s not necessary to define this upfront, as long as you get some “content” out the door. (TL;DR: Yes, it’s very necessary.)
Lack of time. We’re all time-pressured to do our jobs, and sometimes we end up defaulting to having loads of metrics, instead of picking the ones that matter.
Hiding inconvenient stuff. Got some news for you… ad fraud is a thing. Let’s move on.
How to get better at digital effectiveness
Below are five tangible things you should do to get better at digital effectiveness:
Keep it real. Channels change, fundamentals don’t. Learn the basics of evidence-based marketing, and go from there. BBH and Born Social are fantastic places to get started with this.
Fuck the myths. It’s our job to educate clients. Does this mean you’ll have a few difficult conversations along the way? Yeah. But at our best, that’s what the real role of a strategist is. Your clients will thank you later.
Think efficiency AND effectiveness. It’s very easy for digital channels to be measured purely in terms of output (X new posts) or channel performance (Y cost per engagements). At its best, you want to equip yourself with ways to measure not just how many people saw an ad, but also what they took from it (e.g. via Brand Lift Studies, or an equivalent tool).
Less is more. When agreeing objectives and KPIs, pick a few and focus hard on them. There is an inverse correlation between the number of objectives and KPIs and how successful a campaign tends to be.
You’re not a robot. Best practices are important, but remember: if everyone blindly follows best practice, everyone will feel too much like the same. We’re in the difference business, so remember to fight for creativity as well.
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