Factor 3: Applied Creativity

Optimisation - it's more than just Google SEO

  In my experience it matters not the size of the organisation or the attentiveness of its marketing department, there are many pitfalls businesses fall into when it comes to digital marketing and, in the coming months, I'll be prosing what is hopefully some food for thought. Let's kick off with one of the most under-applied terms in the digital vocabulary - "optimisation".

Of course, it applies to the realm of search engines, and ensuring your site and your digital footprint culminates in Google giving you prominence above your competitors - but there are other forms of optimisation which are equally worthy and certainly more foundational. Going back to basics, it all starts with your website.

Visibility is an uphill struggle that requires investment in terms of both time and money. Digital budgets are becoming a larger part of the overall marketing initiative for most organisations and in times like these, it's critical to ensure the you're getting the most bang for your buck. There are always 'new' and 'innovative' vehicles for web marketing and over the past few years, businesses have become better adopters of these mediums  and understand the concept of optimising 'campaigns'. However, in keeping up with these methods of exposure, it's easy to forget the basics. Optimisation needs to go further than the way your campaigns are conducted if you are to maximise conversion, or ROI.

Rather than getting all technical (which is a terrible habit of mine) I'll use a simple metaphor to explain... It's a digital extension of an age-old problem. A well known national network of motorway cafes saw custom dwindling away, and the perceived solution to the problem was "okay, we need to do a promotion", so an offer was created, giving 2-for-1 meals. An agency was engaged, the in-store advertising was created (equivalent: offer displayed on home page), direct mail (equivalent: email campaign) and billboard advertising (equivalent: PPC and Display Ads) were created and distributed, at great expense. The offer itself incurs a high level of cost, literally halving profitability for the duration of the offer. The marketer knows that footfall (equivalent: traffic) will ultimately increase, which MUST encourage some new business, right? Well sometimes, yes. But in this instance (and unfortunately many others) it was... well... Wrong. In this instance what happened was that twice as many people found out how terrible the food and the service was in only half the time it may otherwise have took.

The same forgetfulness of fundamental issues can be sucking the life out of your marketing budget. It's all well and good spending money to encourage people to your website, but how effectively are you engaging your audience when you've got them? What is your criteria for ensuring that the website is doing its job, whatever that job may be? Whatever language you use - conversion, targets, objectives, it matters not whether your website is a brochure or a fully fledged shop, it is critical that in the race for online supremacy, you are building your house on a good foundation, and for most businesses, the website is the cornerstone.

Optimisation... just as your business never rests on its laurels, neither should you rest on your web presence. This story will continue...