Harvest
February 01, 2019
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Do Your Marketing Due Diligence

By Yosef Levenstein 

 

 

'Due diligence is commonplace in financial services. However, the information gathered isn't the same in each area. For example, a financial advisor will want to know which security is suitable for their client whereas a bank will want to know more about the validity of that client. But the end goal is the same: to really 'know your client.'  in an effort to understand the nuances of their expectations and to provide the most effective services for them. The same commitment to 'knowing your client' should extend to marketing as well.

 

To effectively connect with your target audience, it is critical to get deep into the data -- and the good news is that new marketing analytics gives you the data at a sufficiently granular level to create a composite picture of your client as never before. So, how complete is your client 'due diligence' concerning your marketing?

 

Classically, companies set broad goals when defining their marketing objectives. Agencies serving clients wanted to reach a specific audience but were often unclear about the definition of the audience, resulting in overly broad definitions such as “financial advisors.” We often hear clients say they want to reach financial advisors when questioned about what that means the description tends to be ambiguous. That’s where the data comes in. Through that data, you gain insights to objectively “know your client” before they ever know you.

 

Depending on what goal you are looking to achieve, it is critical first to define what the top and bottom of the customer journey look like. Who are you looking to reach, and what does your sales qualified lead look like? What kind of data are you looking to glean about your prospect and what is your strategy for engaging with your new relationships once acquired?

 

Finally, and this is critical, what are you willing to invest in this process of creating valuable engagement? If you believe that you can reach financial advisors who are engaging at below median CPMs, I’d recommend auditing the source of this traffic and data. Whether the price point is based on CPM, CPC or you have a holistic view of your marketing strategy and marketing spend; you need to define these values internally before embarking on your digital journey. The landscape is changing in digital marketing, and if you’re still focusing on banner impressions and clicks, you may end up getting left behind. Your competition is investing aggressively on advanced digital marketing initiatives to enhance their knowledge of their clients further.

 

 

 

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