Martin McGuire

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Dublin 2, D02 EW25, Ireland

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SEO & UX: The Perfect Partners

It&#8217;s Time to Step Away &amp; Put Your Users at the Centre of Your Content Strategy
For many businesses, creating content can be an arduous task. Usually this is because in-house resources are rather tight when it comes to creating content on a regular basis. Or sometimes, the skillset simply isn’t there. However, another barrier I come up against, or more slows the process down in the beginning, is the lack of understanding in the value of creating content. When I say “value” I do mean revenue!
For an Ecommerce business, for example, the primary goal is transactions and revenue generated. It’s totally understandable. You’re in business to make money!
Where’s the value in creating content? Oh yeah, for SEO. I did that in the beginning, but it took up too much time and I didn’t see the return I wanted.
If you have been creating content (or none at all in many cases), with the sole purpose of your business revenue goals in mind, rather than the user, you could be in for a bumpy ride down the rankings.
Graham said it perfectly in his blog “<a href="https://friday.ie/blog/building-trust-into-the-customer-experience/">your customer’s goals should be your goals</a>.”
<div style="width: 100%; height: 0; padding-bottom: 75%; position: relative;"><iframe loading="lazy" class="giphy-embed" style="position: absolute;" src="https://giphy.com/embed/xUNd9GIay1fKQTSWIM" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></div>
<a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/soultrain-soul-train-don-cornelius-xUNd9GIay1fKQTSWIM">via GIPHY</a>
<h2>Google’s Algorithm Update (March 2019)</h2>
On March 12th Google confirmed that it had made an <a href="https://searchengineland.com/googles-march-2019-core-quality-update-stories-of-recovery-314347">update to its core algorithm</a>. Targeting predominantly those that fall under the Your Money Your Life (YMYL) category, essentially websites that fall under the health segment. As a result a lot of websites saw their traffic deteriorate dramatically. Phew! I hear you say. But wait there’s more.
The algorithm update seemed to favour and reward websites that had content optimised to Google&#8217;s E-A-T standards. These standards put an emphasis on the overall Expertise, Authority and Trustworthiness of a site. The higher Google scores you in these areas, the greater the reward.
Although many of the websites initially affected were health centric, there were a large number of other sites across a variety of industries affected by the update. I think it’s important to read between the lines here. Google’s goal, from a user point of view, is to return the most relevant search results to a user’s query. It’s that simple. With artificial intelligence becoming more advanced and user’s expectations of search evolving, your content has to go beyond trying to rank just for those high volume, high value keywords.
<h2>Content Experiences</h2>
Content marketing, it’s about simply creating &amp; distributing, right? Unfortunately not. It’s about creating an experience. A <a href="https://hub.uberflip.com/blog/what-is-content-experience-definition">content experience can be defined as</a>, the environment in which it lives, and how it engages users to take action on your site. 
In layman&#8217;s terms, it is the experience you get, both good and bad, when you interact with a piece of content.
<h3>What’s A Content Environment?</h3>
The environment in which it lives. Essentially the aesthetics of the content. It relates to the overall presentation of the content. Is it structured in a digestible and easy to navigate format? Is it in line with the brand? It’s all about creating attractive content that users want to consume and engage with and ultimately give them a positive user experience. It is about integrating relevant copy, image and video with good quality UX.
<h3>Engaging Users</h3>
You want your content to serve a purpose, for both you and the user. It is important to create content that is as relevant as can be to the user’s query. Once you’ve given them a positive user experience, the next step is for them to engage with you (all going well). 
The more personal the experience the better. User’s want to feel as if the messaging has been tailored to them. If you want to bring your user on a content journey, or simply want to generate leads, then make sure your CTA’s are relevant and natural. Think about what is relevant, and better yet, what fits contextually.
<h2>Creating A Content Experience</h2>
Creating incredible content isn’t about finding high volume keywords and churning out a long-form blog once a month. To create an experience, you need to begin by diving deep into that particular topic and consider all the possible needs your potential customers may have related to that topic.
Remember, you don’t have one type of customer. Your content has to satisfy a wide range of user needs. These needs can be transactional, but also informational.
For me, a content experience doesn&#8217;t have to begin when a user visits your site. It can now begin on the search engine results pages. With SERP features like Featured Snippets, it gives businesses an opportunity to entice and engage users before they even click. As users enter the top of the funnel and begin their research, you can seize the opportunity to be top of mind.
Consider an online retailer selling laptops. Now consider all the different types of information a user might search for around the keyword “laptops”.
They may be interested in;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Brands</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Software</li>
<li>Comparisons</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Reviews</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Storage</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Speed</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Use cases &#8211; for designers, college students</li>
</ul>
User research is a crucial part of developing a content strategy. There are numerous data sources you can use to help research what type of content to create. It’s about thinking outside the box. 
<ul>
<li>Focus Groups</li>
<li>Customer Personas</li>
<li>Your Employees</li>
<li>Keyword Research</li>
<li>Forums</li>
</ul>
<h3>Focus Groups</h3>
If you can, start with a research focus group. This is particularly beneficial in highly competitive, niche markets where there might not be many product or service variations. Getting your customers in front of you can reveal a lot about their needs.
At Friday, one of the first steps we take in the beginning of any project is carrying out user research. Whether it’s driving a UX project, a new web build or a content strategy, research helps create that roadmap. 
<a href="https://friday.ie/blog/importance-of-ux-research/">Don’t base your decisions on assumptions</a>, it’s far more beneficial to just ask.
<h3>Customer Personas</h3>
If you can’t access a focus group, then try and get into the minds of your customer personas. What way do they think? What needs do each of them have? It’s not just about providing a product or service that they need. They may have had a particular thought process justifying why they need it. They may have gone through a series of events which led them to come looking for your product. Whatever the needs, each user has their own unique situation.
<h3>Employees</h3>
Talk to the people that deal with your customers on a daily basis. They will have a wealth of insights into what your customers needs are. 
<h3>Keyword Research</h3>
This should all be supported with in-depth keyword research. In particular, more long-tail keywords and queries. As long as it makes contextual sense. Start with your core keywords and work out. 
Gathering, grouping and categorising all of this data can then help mapping out your content pillars and calendar. The real work begins when it comes to creating and publishing.
<h3>Forums</h3>
Get on to forums relevant to your industry. See what everyone is talking about. They can be a goldmine of information. If you can&#8217;t get in front of your customer&#8217;s this is the next best thing.
<h2>Expertise + Brand = Trust (A Winning Formula)</h2>
When you gain trust, you build valuable, long-lasting relationships. 
Creating content that covers the length and breadth of a particular topic showcases your knowledge, experience and expertise. When your content is in-depth and consistently provides users with exactly what they want, it will positively effects for your brand
When you build your brand and establish yourself as the expert, you’re not only gaining the trust of the user, but you’re also gaining the trust of Google. 
From an SEO perspective, even if you’re not appearing in first position, if your brand is strong enough, and recognised as an authority in a particular field, users are more likely to click on your search result. Why click on a result from a brand you know nothing about, when you know you’ll get exactly what you want from the link in position 3?
<h2>User Intent</h2>
Does your page solve the user’s problem? Does it meet, and hopefully, go beyond their expectations? When you’re content matches the intent of the user, you’re providing them with positive user experiences. 
We don’t just love positive user experiences, Google loves them too. Positive user experiences translate to positive user signals. It’s these <a href="https://www.searchmetrics.com/glossary/user-signals/">user signals</a> that can benefit your organic visibility. Examples of these signals are; 
<ul>
<li>Click Through Rates</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Length of Time on Site</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Lower Bounce Rates</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Number of Pages Visited</li>
</ul>
Of course, these metrics are case dependent. Sometimes a user gets what they need and leaves. There’s no need for any further action. For example, looking for the contact number of a business.
<h2>So What Next?</h2>
Making the shift to creating high quality, user-centric content will pay dividends in the long-run. We’re living in a digital world saturated with advertisements and what sometimes feels like too many options.
Why would you want lots of options, when there could be one choice that solves everything?
If you want to avoid slugging it out in the trenches with growing numbers of competitors and rise to the top, then you need to put your efforts into positively strengthening your brand. You need to gain the trust of your target audience. Once you have that, a lot of the work is done for you in terms of consumers deciding whether to choose you or your competitors.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-9153 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top.jpg" alt="the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top" width="642" height="361" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top.jpg 642w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top-250x141.jpg 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top-120x67.jpg 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/the-cream-always-rises-to-the-top-80x45.jpg 80w" sizes="(max-width: 642px) 100vw, 642px" />
How do you get there? Start by giving your users exactly what they want, and then give them more. There’s potential customers out there, that you didn’t even know you had. Give them positive, unforgettable experiences and become ‘the’ expert in what you do.
If you&#8217;re curious about creating a user-centric content strategy or would like to know more, then feel free to <a href="https://friday.ie/contact/">get in touch with the team at Friday</a>.

It’s Time To Start Creating User-Centric Content

Whether you’re going through a rebrand, developing a new digital strategy or investing in one for the first time, it’s safe to say that social media will have a part to play.
Before you start to implement your Social Strategy, there are a number of things you will need to consider and our checklist below will help to get you started.
<h2>1. Review Your Current Social Setup</h2>
You can’t create a strong strategy without having a strong foundation to build upon.
Whatever networks you’re focusing your efforts, make sure your social bios are all up to date.
It might sound obvious, but you’d be surprised how often it is overlooked.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8703 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37.png" alt="social-bio-example" width="411" height="389" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37.png 411w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-250x237.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-120x114.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.36.37-80x76.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 411px) 100vw, 411px" />
Update all of your locations and contact details. Depending on the size of your organisation, you may have multiple social pages to edit.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8706 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31.png" alt="social-profiles-locations-example" width="412" height="255" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31.png 412w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-250x155.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-120x74.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.45.31-80x50.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 412px) 100vw, 412px" />
Make sure all links are up to date and pointing to the correct pages. I’ve seen this on numerous occasions, particularly when there are a number of older pages that have been forgotten about. Maybe there was a previous subdomain used for a specific area of the business that’s no longer in use, but has now merged under the parent domain or simply non-existent anymore.
Use consistent and “on-brand” imagery across all networks for your profile images and wallpaper. There may be variants of your logo that have evolved over time, so make sure everything is consistent and in line with your current strategy.
<h2>2. What have you learned from previous efforts?</h2>
It’s important to assess what has been working up until now. Analysing the performance of previous strategies &amp; tactics is essential. This can involve collating a lot of numbers if there is a lot of historical data, but it is worth the effort. Diving down and getting dirty with your data will pay dividends when done correctly.
Being critical of your efforts can be difficult, especially for smaller organisations, as there can be an emotional investment. The numbers don’t lie, but it is important to remember the overall objective. Here are a few questions you should look at answering to help you understand performance to date.
<h3>What content has been getting the most engagement?</h3>
Review all of your previous posts and ads across all your networks. You should start to see some sort of a trend. What posts did people like, comment on or share?
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8707 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24.png" alt="social-engagement-metrics" width="726" height="296" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24.png 726w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-250x102.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-700x285.png 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-120x49.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-09.56.24-80x33.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px" />
<h3>What content has been driving the most traffic to your website?</h3>
Similar to above, analyse the posts and ads that drove the most traffic to your site. Depending on the content, you may start to notice some differences between content that is good for overall brand awareness and content that is better at driving traffic….and hopefully conversions.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8716 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28.png" alt="social-posts-driving-most-traffic" width="662" height="302" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28.png 662w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-250x114.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-120x55.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Screenshot-2019-01-21-at-10.07.28-80x36.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 662px) 100vw, 662px" />
<h3>What messaging has been engaging audiences?</h3>
From the data already collected, you could dive down a little deeper to assess was there particular messaging that differentiated those that performed well and those that didn’t. Was it the tone of voice or a particular call-to-action.
<h3>Which media is most effective? Images, Video, Blogs etc.</h3>
Were there particular media that performed better than others? Did your video posts have better engagement than static images? It is important to be honest with yourself as well. Has your media creation up until now done your brand and product offering justice? Did enough thought go into it? You may have tasked the new intern with creating a video for an ad-hoc campaign, and it never lived up to everyone’s expectations. If this is the case, don’t let it deter you from video content.
It doesn’t have to cost a fortune or need a full film crew, but it does need time to plan and to execute correctly. If the recent trends are anything to go by, then you should be investing in video content. According to a report by Cisco, <a href="https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/service-provider/visual-networking-index-vni/white-paper-c11-741490.html">by 2020 82% of both business &amp; consumer web traffic will be from video content</a>. Focusing solely on the benefits of video in your social strategy &#8211; video <a href="https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/03/08/video-marketing-statistics">generates 1200% more shares than text and images combined</a>.
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-8696-1" width="382" height="746" autoplay="1" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4?_=1" /><a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4">https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_.mp4</a></video></div>
</div>
<h2>3. Who are your audiences?</h2>
This question can sometimes cause divide&#8230;hopefully not too much. As an established organisation you will have a lot of existing customer data you can assess.
&#8220;Differentiating your audiences is crucial. When you start to create your messaging, you’ll need to tailor it to each audience&#8221;
You may have a CRM which has a wealth of information on who your existing customers are. You may have existing intelligence from previous <a href="https://friday.ie/expertise/strategy/research/">market research</a> initiatives. Use this! You could start to see clusters of information that make up several audience groups. Differentiating your audiences is crucial. When you start to create your messaging, you’ll need to tailor it to each audience.
Not all businesses have to a CRM database. Either way, you should be diving into your analytics (and layering this on top of your CRM data if you have can). I’m a big advocate of combining as many data sources as possible.
Use Google Analytics to give you insight into demographics, locations, devices, referrals, interests etc. Combine this with your social analytics data. If you have advertised previously, you could break down the various targeting attributes of the ads that performed best. Dive into this further to see what pages these users like as well.
Sometimes this is just a reaffirming exercise if you feel you have a good grasp on who your target audience is, but you can find some golden nuggets from time to time.
If you don’t have a lot of historical data, you can play around with insight tools based on the knowledge you have obtained, and start getting creative. Combining both cookie-based and user-based data can give you a bit more clarity. Rather than relying on a single data source.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8732 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400.png" alt="social-media-audience" width="760" height="400" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400.png 760w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-250x132.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-700x368.png 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-120x63.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/6-Things-to-Keep-in-Mind-When-Researching-Your-Audience-on-Social-Media-760x400-80x42.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 760px) 100vw, 760px" />
<h2>4. What Social networks should we invest in?</h2>
It’s easy to dive straight in and start creating profiles across as many networks as possible. After all, you need omnipresent in an omnichannel world, right? Using your audience research, you should have a better idea of where they like to hang out. If you have been active on numerous networks already, assess which ones have been driving the most traffic or have contributed the most conversions. If you have enough data in analytics, you should be able to get some clarity on this.
Your product offering or service will also play a part in this decision. Perhaps your target market is young, but maybe Snapchat isn’t the best platform to consume your content. It also could be simply down to resources. Do you have the team, the time and the content to publish across all the platforms you’d like?
<h2>5. What are your competitors doing?</h2>
It goes without saying, but it’s important to be aware of what your competitors are doing. It’s not about following their shadow. It’s about taking note of what they’re doing or more importantly what they are not doing. You can both be on Instagram and Facebook, but using their advertising features completely differently. For example, rather than showcasing your product lines in a carousel ad, why not offer an immersive experience with Instant Experience ads. Bring those potential customers on a journey, rather than showing them static images that they’ll forget by the next ad.
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<div style="width: 346px;" class="wp-video"><video class="wp-video-shortcode" id="video-8696-2" width="346" height="670" autoplay="1" preload="metadata" controls="controls"><source type="video/mp4" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4?_=2" /><a href="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4">https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/martin_fb_jeep.mp4</a></video></div>
</div>
Better yet, why not bring that customer-centric, personal marketing approach up a notch and start using chatbots in your Facebook ads.
<h2>6. What are your goals? What should you be measuring?</h2>
Your social marketing goals should be aligned with your overall business goals. These goals can vary greatly depending on your product or service offering, the industry you operate in, competition etc.
Goals can be split between Branding and Revenue-based. In many cases, you will be combining both. Of course, you will want to see a positive ROI and ROAS, but you will want to see your brand grow.
Examples of Branding-based goals include;
<ul>
<li>Awareness</li>
<li>Sentiment</li>
<li>Loyalty</li>
</ul>
Examples of Revenue-based goals include;
<ul>
<li>Sign-ups</li>
<li>Leads</li>
<li>Sales</li>
</ul>
Now that you’ve decided on what goals align best with your overall marketing objectives, you need to decide what metrics you should be analysed in order to measure success. One thing to note is that you will more than likely be analysing data from multiple data sources. For example, Google Analytics and Facebook. There can be discrepancies when comparing both data sets. Google Analytics by default will report last non-direct, while Facebook&#8217;s UI will be solely reporting on Facebook data. In other words, Facebook will report on a conversion, even if the user interacted with one of your search ads after the initial social interaction. Make sure you&#8217;re set up correctly for this otherwise your numbers won&#8217;t add up.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="image-border--black aligncenter wp-image-8737 size-full" src="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493.png" alt="social-media-metrics" width="1138" height="493" srcset="https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493.png 1138w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-250x108.png 250w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-768x333.png 768w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-700x303.png 700w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-120x52.png 120w, https://friprod2022bak.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/important-social-media-metrics-min-1138x493-80x35.png 80w" sizes="(max-width: 1138px) 100vw, 1138px" />
Some basic metrics you will be most likely analysing will include;
<ul>
<li>Reach &#8211; The number of users that saw one of your ads. It’s a great way of measuring awareness.</li>
<li>Engagements &#8211; These can be anything from Likes, Shares and Comments.</li>
<li>Traffic &#8211; Number of sessions, number of new users and bounce rate.</li>
<li>Revenue metrics &#8211; sales, leads, Cost per Acquisition (cost per sale, cost per lead etc). ROAS is hugely important in an ecommerce setting.</li>
</ul>
If you are tracking sales or other conversions, you should also be mindful of the attribution windows that are set up. For example, will you be giving a 30-day attribution window to Facebook ads or 7 days? This will depend on the complexities of your overall campaigns.
When analysing the performance of your campaigns you want your data to tell a story. Understanding this story will help you understand your audience, understand what worked and what didn’t.
Tip: To really understand your customer’s journey and to get a better insight into your marketing spend, play around with your attribution models. They can reveal some incredible insights&#8230;and in some cases justify that spend when everyone else doubted it. You will also benefit by ensuring your channel groupings are customised so that everything can be tracked and measured as accurately as possible.
<h2>7. What are your capabilities? What’s your capacity?</h2>
Now that your research is done, and the foundations are laid, you’ll probably start having a few ideas on the approach to your strategy. You need to be realistic. You may have the passion and the determination to get it started, but does your team mirror this? Are the time, resources and skill-set available?
Before you go getting budget sign-off, you need to factor in content creation. You may have a hefty monthly advertising budget to spend, but do you have the content to stand-out and get noticed in a user’s, already saturated, feed? Your targeting may be close to perfect, but if your content isn’t, then the horse may fall flat before even reaching the water.

Author: Martin McGuire

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