4 Questions Every CMO Should Ask Their Digital Marketing ... · Every CMO Should Ask Their Digital Marketing Agency ... (SEO), we will recommend SEO. If we sell only Pay-Per-Click

4 QuestionsEvery CMO Should Ask TheirDigital Marketing Agency

set, measure, and hit digitalmarketing goals

Table of Contents4 Questions Every CMO Should Ask Their Digital Marketing Agency

Introduction.............................................1

How are you helping us meet our quarterly business goals?.................2

Are your services competing with other digital marketing efforts?..............5

How are you helping me communicate results?.......................8

Does your workstrengthen our brand?..........................10

Next Steps.............................................13

t Workshop Digital, we believe in targeted, measurable digital marketing results. We also

believe in empowering clients to communicate those results.

Getting more from digital marketing efforts—more valuable, more persuasive results, and greater transparency—requires knowing which questions to ask your agency, and which answers to demand.

For CMOs, these answers are the difference between defending qualitative results versus proving quantitative ones to the rest of the C-Suite.

Achieving the latter starts by asking your agency four questions.

What’s the Point?

ATARGETED,MEASURABLERESULTS

page 1workshopdigital.com | (804) 303-2883

How are you helping us meet ourquarterly business goals?1.

Site visitors are not a business goal, nor are clicks, form fills, or any other data point. Just because there are more visitors or more case study downloads doesn’t mean a digital marketing campaign is successful.

So how should you measure success? By connecting data to broader business goals. If your quarterly marketing strategy is focused on qualified lead generation, why is your digital marketing agency harping on an increase in blog traffic? If you’re trying to build brand awareness, why does your content marketing campaign target low-volume keywords?

Digital marketing strategies should be developed collaboratively between CMOs and the agencies they hire. Every conversation should start with your near-term and long-term business goals, and the role you

expect the digital channel to play in reaching them.

Aligning these goals and establishing expectations for future digital marketing results lead to more targeted agency efforts and create a better framework for agency accountability.

Otherwise, you’re left with an agency that measures success by framing past results in the context of contemporary goals.

Rather than squeezing historical data into current accountability demands, shape future digital marketing decisions with a proactive conversation.


Digital marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) turn data into analytics. Top-level data points, like total visitors or leads, can obscure important connections.

If visitors are up 30%, which visitors are they? What value do they have if, say, they’re primarily new site visitors when the near-term focus is customer retention?

Similarly, effective content marketing could undermine a site-wide conversion rate—its success in building awareness dilutes the pool of conversion-ready site visitors.

Effective digital marketing KPIs extract value from data and provide actionable analytics, segmenting Web traffic by stage of interaction and touchpoint in the consumer journey:

What are digital marketing KPIs?

Effective KPIs

extract value from

data and provide

actionable analytics

Points in Consumer Journey

1. Awareness

3. Consideration

2. Familiarity

4. Purchase

5. Loyalty


Stages of Online Interaction

1. Acquisition: getting to the site

2. Engagement: moving through the site

3. Conversion:performing a specific action on the site

A KPI Case Study

A luxury high-rise residential tower in Chicago was focusing on lead generation during Q3 2015.

Their site had several conversion opportunities, from generic contact forms to tour scheduling to downloading a guide to the community. Historically, website performance was measured by top-line metrics like total traffic and on-site conversions.

However, a successful content marketing strategy had overweighed the site with top-of-funnel users unlikely to convert on their first visit.

Simultaneously, lead generation data was muddled by generic contact forms that spiked during offline marketing of community events, as well as a periodic stream of job applicants.

As a result, we narrowed our KPI to downloads of the community guide—the most highly qualified subset of conversions—and excluded users who entered

through the blog.

We further narrowed that KPI to focus on conversion rate, rather than total conversions, which fluctuated from the ebb and flow of offline marketing efforts.

The result? Through a targeted campaign to create compelling calls to action for guide downloads throughout the site, we generated a 328% increase in conversion rate over a four-month period.

The experience was also an example of how improper measurement risks obscuring outcomes. The chart above compares our targeted segment, in blue, to all search engine traffic, in orange. Without segmentation, the results are far more ambiguous.

And while, in this case, the results were a clear opportunity to celebrate success, muddled data can also obscure efforts that aren’t working—draining the marketing budget for phantom returns.

1.50%

0.75%

March 2015 May 2015 July 2015 September 2015


Con

vers

ion

Rate

t Workshop Digital, we believe in targeted, measurable digital marketing results. We also

believe in empowering clients to communicate those results.

Getting more from digital marketing efforts—more valuable, more persuasive results, and greater transparency—requires knowing which questions to ask your agency, and which answers to demand.

For CMOs, these answers are the difference between defending qualitative results versus proving quantitative ones to the rest of the C-Suite.

Achieving the latter starts by asking your agency four questions.

Are your services competing with otherdigital marketing e�orts?2.

or many CMOs, this is a question they’ve never considered, mainly because it requires a nuanced understanding of how individual

digital marketing services interact. Here’s an example of why it’s a critical question:

You hire SEO Company Y and PPC Company X. Both are leading industry experts. As SEO Company Y makes progress and works your key pages up the organic charts, more users see and click the organic listing.

Meanwhile, PPC Company X endures a drop in leads because the clicks they once purchased now flow through organic channels. Their response? Increase bids on branded terms to balloon visibility and win more clicks—clicks you could get for free. (SEO leads, by the way, are down again, and you’re beginning to question its value.)

FHow do your

digital marketing

services interact?


A client in the automotive industry, after months of solid year-over-year organic traffic gains, suddenly experienced a traffic drop.

They had recently relaunched their site platform, which correlated almost perfectly with the dip in traffic. But there was no corresponding decline in search impressions or rankings—virtually all the decline was concentrated in branded traffic to the homepage.

The mystery was quickly solved by looking at a separate paid search campaign, which had spiked dramatically. In addition to an increase in spend in Google, the client had also recently launched ads on Bing and Yahoo, search engines that

devote larger amounts of real estate to advertisements. Sure enough, organic traffic had plummeted most dramatically on those search engines.

Though resolution came quickly, it revealed how essential collaboration is between digital marketing channels, and that measurement of digital marketing success may not be possible when viewing traffic separately on each channel.

Since the organic dip occurred almost exclusively through branded traffic to the homepage, it meant that the PPC campaign was paying for clicks already flowing through a free, organic channel. Bidding on branded terms could be reallocated to non-branded terms where organic performance lagged.

Channel Competition Case Study

January 2015 April 2015 July 2015

Sessions (organic traffic) Sessions (paid traffic)


These situations exemplify how transparency and efficiency are sacrificed in siloed services, which incentivize conflict rather than collaboration between digital channels.

After all, if we sell only Search Engine Optimization (SEO), we will recommend SEO. If we sell only Pay-Per-Click (PPC) services, we will recommend PPC. Selling one piece of the digital marketing puzzle creates friction between agencies and clients because, at one point or another, achieving overarching client goals will work against the self-interest of an agency, as each is held accountable for its individual contribution.

Digital marketing has crossed a threshold where expertise requires collaboration:

For us, the answer has been integrated digital marketing—cross-service teams of analysts that collaborate to ensure that services build on, not compete with, one another—as well as close client relationships that establish our role within the larger marketing mix.

1 2 3PPC campaigns send traffic

to pages enhanced by Conversion Rate

Optimization efforts

Content marketers rely on promotion by social

media teams

SEO ensures a technically sound site to make content

visible to search engines

Are your services competing with other digital marketing e�orts?


Are your services competing with other digital marketing e�orts? 3. How are you helping mecommunicate results?

The biannual CMO Survey, conducted by Duke University, reveals that the two greatest concerns CMOs have about digital marketing are:

1. The ability to provide quantitative results to stakeholders.2. Evaluation by objective marketing data.

For example, in 2015, 92% of CMOs reported using more data, and 58% reported greater pressure to deliver accountable results. But some 87% reported no known or only a qualitative impact from social media marketing.

And in the age of analytics, qualitative impact means no impact. Even if data is true, that doesn’t mean it’s persuasive, especially for CMO reports to the C-Suite.

What The CMO Survey reveals about digital marketing

A deeper dive into The CMO Survey reveals two consistent trends. First, digital marketing is the primary growth channel for marketing spend, consistently outpacing all other channels and overall growth. The chart below compares digital, total, and traditional marketing spend, which has remained relatively flat.

Second, there has been no corresponding increase in digital channel integration. Take, for example, social media marketing. Actual spend reporting during the past three years shows consistent growth, with spend hovering between 5.6 and 8.4% of total marketing budget.

Meanwhile, when asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 7, how effectively social media has been integrated into a broader digital marketing strategy, that number has remained nearly constant, between 3.8 and 4.0.

-10%

-5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

Growth of Marketing Spend Aug 2008–Aug 2015

Total Digital Traditional


his is why it is so challenging to communicate value: The digital marketing

landscape contains disparate channels, operated by various agencies and in-house teams, with qualitative results that ignore or even cannibalize those on other channels.

We know that not every digital marketing metric will be positive in every report. Digital marketing requires experimentation, with success and failure. Your digital marketing agency should empower you to communicate results that validate your digital marketing investment.

This starts by measuring digital marketing success based on company-wide goals and ensuring all digital marketing arms row in the same direction, but it extends further: Persuasive digital marketing results draw a straight line from analyst actions to bottom-line growth.

They allow CMOs to win a bigger budget for what works, stop spend for what doesn’t, and win C-Suite buy-in for both.

T


0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Feb 11 Aug 11 Feb 12 Aug 12 Feb 13 Aug 13 Feb 14 Aug 14 Feb 15 Aug 15

Social Media Marketing

% of Total Spend Integration Rating (1-7)

4.Does your workstrengthen our brand?

Traditional media agencies operate at the strategy end of the strategy–services spectrum. They shape brands and drive awareness. Digital marketing started at the opposite pole, with a utilitarian focus on elevating the quantitative achievements of service offerings.

This came at the expense of integrating digital marketing services into a more holistic marketing strategy. For a while, more traffic and clicks were good enough, no matter how you got them, even if that meant adding unnatural, keyword-dense copy to your homepage, or cranking out two derivative, hastily written blog posts each month.

But search engines have gotten smarter, and digital marketing services should not neglect or diminish a brand through search engine–centric optimization and content development. Keyword research that identifies a pile of high-volume, low-competition keywords is not a content marketing strategy.

So how does brand development aid digital marketing efforts? Branded searches are legal monopolies protected from virtually any change to search engine algorithms. They are the most sustainable and valuable source of leads and customers for any business.

Moreover, a user clicking a branded PPC ad also costs less than a non-branded click from the same user—increasing branded query volume saves PPC budgets.

How does brand development aid digital marketing efforts?


These situations exemplify how transparency and efficiency are sacrificed in siloed services, which incentivize conflict rather than collaboration between digital channels.

After all, if we sell only Search Engine Optimization (SEO), we will recommend SEO. If we sell only Pay-Per-Click (PPC) services, we will recommend PPC. Selling one piece of the digital marketing puzzle creates friction between agencies and clients because, at one point or another, achieving overarching client goals will work against the self-interest of an agency, as each is held accountable for its individual contribution.

Digital marketing has crossed a threshold where expertise requires collaboration:

For us, the answer has been integrated digital marketing—cross-service teams of analysts that collaborate to ensure that services build on, not compete with, one another—as well as close client relationships that establish our role within the larger marketing mix.

Why brand building is critical for local businesses

or searches in which users expect a product or service within a specific geographic area,

Google’s algorithm relies on three variables:

1. Location – where are you?2. Relevance – how do you connect to the query?3. Prominence – how notable is your brand?

Most businesses that have Googled themselves online have seen “local pack” results, which display three local businesses above standard results. (Google previously displayed seven.)

To understand location, search engines look for consistency of three signals from trusted sources, like Google My Business and Facebook:

• Name• Address• Phone Number

Even minor differences generate ambiguity for search engines, reducing the likelihood of appearance in increasingly competitive local pack results.

Still, how does a business expand its reach after it ranks highly—perhaps even first—in relevant local packs? How does, for instance, a hospital system attract online users who live closer to other hospitals?

Ultimately, Google’s emphasis on the first factor, location, largely outweighs the other two. It has too much user data that suggests searchers are looking for the version of a product or service nearest to them.

local pack results from a search for “coffee”

The answer is brand. While ecommerce companies have a near-limitless source of potential new customers, local businesses, after saturating their immediate area, grow only by expanding their geographic reach. And brand building does just that.

An online presence that helps build a brand, with design and content that reflects and reinforces offline efforts, does not influence search signals.

Instead, communicating a company or organization’s unique story drives up branded searches and increases click-through rates even when a site, due to its location, may never rank among the top results.

For local businesses, a digital marketing agency that neglects brand pursues a limited strategy. Long-term growth demands a local digital marketing strategy that is about more than just homogenizing name, address, and phone number on trusted web directories.

It’s about the name of your business meaning more than the number of miles between you and your customers.

F


The biannual CMO Survey, conducted by Duke University, reveals that the two greatest concerns CMOs have about digital marketing are:

1. The ability to provide quantitative results to stakeholders.2. Evaluation by objective marketing data.

For example, in 2015, 92% of CMOs reported using more data, and 58% reported greater pressure to deliver accountable results. But some 87% reported no known or only a qualitative impact from social media marketing.

And in the age of analytics, qualitative impact means no impact. Even if data is true, that doesn’t mean it’s persuasive, especially for CMO reports to the C-Suite.

What The CMO Survey reveals about digital marketing

A deeper dive into The CMO Survey reveals two consistent trends. First, digital marketing is the primary growth channel for marketing spend, consistently outpacing all other channels and overall growth. The chart below compares digital, total, and traditional marketing spend, which has remained relatively flat.

Second, there has been no corresponding increase in digital channel integration. Take, for example, social media marketing. Actual spend reporting during the past three years shows consistent growth, with spend hovering between 5.6 and 8.4% of total marketing budget.

Meanwhile, when asked to rate, on a scale of 1 to 7, how effectively social media has been integrated into a broader digital marketing strategy, that number has remained nearly constant, between 3.8 and 4.0.

Why brand building is critical for local businesses

or searches in which users expect a product or service within a specific geographic area,

Google’s algorithm relies on three variables:

1. Location – where are you?2. Relevance – how do you connect to the query?3. Prominence – how notable is your brand?

Most businesses that have Googled themselves online have seen “local pack” results, which display three local businesses above standard results. (Google previously displayed seven.)

To understand location, search engines look for consistency of three signals from trusted sources, like Google My Business and Facebook:

• Name• Address• Phone Number

Even minor differences generate ambiguity for search engines, reducing the likelihood of appearance in increasingly competitive local pack results.

Still, how does a business expand its reach after it ranks highly—perhaps even first—in relevant local packs? How does, for instance, a hospital system attract online users who live closer to other hospitals?

Ultimately, Google’s emphasis on the first factor, location, largely outweighs the other two. It has too much user data that suggests searchers are looking for the version of a product or service nearest to them.

The answer is brand. While ecommerce companies have a near-limitless source of potential new customers, local businesses, after saturating their immediate area, grow only by expanding their geographic reach. And brand building does just that.

An online presence that helps build a brand, with design and content that reflects and reinforces offline efforts, does not influence search signals.

Instead, communicating a company or organization’s unique story drives up branded searches and increases click-through rates even when a site, due to its location, may never rank among the top results.

For local businesses, a digital marketing agency that neglects brand pursues a limited strategy. Long-term growth demands a local digital marketing strategy that is about more than just homogenizing name, address, and phone number on trusted web directories.

It’s about the name of your business meaning more than the number of miles between you and your customers.


These questions start a dialogue between agencies and clients. They narrow the focus of online marketing efforts and provide a framework for forward-looking goals that deliver persuasive results in boardrooms.

But it is just the start. The most effective relationships require an ongoing dialogue. Integration across digital channels is part of the broader, essential project to integrate marketing across all channels.

A CMO’s confidence in results should match their increase in spending. Talk to your agency. Ask questions. Get answers—and the results to back them up.

Next Steps

page 13

Workshop Digital exists to help deserving brands connect online with their next customer.

We believe in custom, holistic digital marketing strategies created by real humans.

We don’t trumpet or excuse past results, and we don’t define client communication by a once-a-month report that means little to your business.

We collaborate closely with clients to establish forward-looking digital marketing goals that grow your bottom line.

That's our story. Let's build yours.

About Workshop Digital

workshopdigital.com | (804) 303-2883

Brian ForresterCo-Founder

[email protected](804) 303-2883

Andrew MillerCo-Founder

[email protected](804) 303-2883

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4 Questions Every CMO Should Ask Their Digital Marketing ... · Every CMO Should Ask Their Digital Marketing Agency ... (SEO), we will recommend SEO. If we sell only Pay-Per-Click