Spoiler alert: It starts with your paid media budget
Think of the most successful B-to-C marketing campaigns you’ve come across—the ones that really resonated with you.
One consumer example I loved was Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign. This campaign focused on confidence and self-love. Dove showed exactly how much work goes into making a model ready for a billboard—from the hours she spends in a makeup chair to the amount of photoshop editing. Accompanying this video was a series of additional ads and videos that used real women—not models—to promote their brand. Thanks to Dove, we saw women of all shapes, sizes, and races happy and confident in their own skin.
The genius of the Real Beauty campaign resulted in a near doubling of sales—from $2.5 billion to $4 billion, according to PR Week.
B-to-C has been nailing synchrony for a while. Consumer brands are experts at targeting their audience when they are most attentive with complimentary tactics and messaging.
Are your investments synchronized with your campaign goals?
Consider how much you invest in paid media each year – paid search, social, retargeting, ad-words, content syndication – all of it. How much of your media spend is outside of a dedicated program goal? How many impressions are you paying for that are not associated with a particular campaign theme, or working in conjunction with a broader outcome?
And that’s just paid media – think of all the “random acts of marketing” that cost money but aren’t operating in conjunction with other channels as part of a synchronous campaign?
When marketing is siloed, it’s impossible to realize the best return on investment because the tactics aren’t set up to be as impactful as they could be.
A Price is Paid for Lack of Alignment
Today’s audience experiences a brand as one entity. They don’t care if “The Email Person” is sending them an email, but the “Webinar Person” is sending them a webinar invitation, and the “Digital agency” is running the ads they see. Today’s audience expects a seamless brand experience that transcends tactics and channels. What’s more, your ability to deliver synchronous marketing can translate to your solution’s ability to deliver on its value proposition. Can you think of a time when a deal was lost, or stock took a hit, due to bad marketing? (I can.)
Take a long hard look at your paid media spend, your marketing budget, and your campaign plan and look for places where your investments may not be aligned to specific program goals. This is a good starting point to tightening up the messaging and themes, and ensuring everything is working together toward a shared outcome.
