Download Optimizing Marketing with the Marketing Optimization Matrix

Optimizing Marketing with the
Marketing Optimization Matrix
Sitecore Business Optimization Services
Ron Person, Sr. Business Optimization Consultant
Marketers sometimes need a MOM who can tell them how to improve their marketing.
Most marketers face the task of improving hundreds, if not thousands, of campaigns. With that
many campaigns to sort through marketers need a MOM to help them decide which campaigns are
the best to leverage and repeat and which campaigns can be optimized with a small amount of work.
A good MOM should help marketers answer questions such as,
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Which campaigns produce the greatest impact and should be repeated and leveraged?
Which campaigns could be great with a few small changes?
What change is needed to move a specific campaign from good to great?
Which campaign will give the greatest impact for a small marginal effort?
Meet MOM – the Marketing Optimization Matrix
MOM stands for the Marketing Optimization Matrix. The marketing optimization matrix contains
four quadrants, Heroes, Converters, Attractors, and Nulls. Each of these quadrants represents a
different class of campaign and each bubble in the matrix represents a specific campaign.
The vertical axis is the Engagement Value a campaign produces. The horizontal axis is the number of
visits for that campaign. The location of a campaign in the matrix shows you how much marketing
impact the campaign has had and how you can improve that campaign.
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The Marketing Optimization Matrix (MOM) show a campaign’s impact and identifies how it can be
improved to optimize your digital marketing.
The vertical line that runs parallel to the vertical axis in the MOM chart is the average number of
visits. The horizontal line that runs parallel to the bottom axis is the average value. All campaigns
above the horizontal line are above average in Engagement Value. All campaigns to the right of the
vertical line are above average in visits.
Heroes, in the top right quadrant, produce high Engagement Value and a high number of visits. That
means high marketing impact. Star campaigns should be repeated and leveraged as much as
possible.
Converters, in the top left quadrant, convert well, but they don’t attract many visitors. They need
their attractiveness increased. A list of best practices for increasing attraction can tell us what the
best actions are for improving campaigns in the Converter quadrant.
Attractors, in the lower right quadrant, attract a lot of visits, but they don’t convert well. They need
their conversion rate increased. A list of best practices for increasing conversion can tell us what to
change to increase attraction.
Nulls, in the lower left quadrant, have either run only a short time or they are not doing well. Most
often they are a waste of marketing resources. If a Null campaign has run long enough that you are
satisfied that it should have produced results, then you should stop the campaign and put your
marketing efforts elsewhere.
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MOM Helps Marketers Take Action
What is very important about MOM, the Marketing Optimization Matrix, is that each quadrant helps
a marketer decide what action to take to optimize their digital marketing,
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Heroes should be repeated and leveraged
Attractors should have their conversion rate increased
Converters should have their attractiveness increased
Nulls should be removed if they have been tested adequately
The websites MarketingSherpa.com and MarketingProfs.com reveal a number of best practices,
shown in the following figure that marketers can employ to improve campaigns depending upon
their quadrant. The following sections of this best practice paper describe what marketers can do to
improve marketing impact depending on a campaign’s quadrant.
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The quadrant in which a campaign appears in the Marketing Optimization Matrix identifies the
action marketers should take to optimize their digital marketing.
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Heroes
Heroes are campaigns with high Engagement Value and high visitors. Heroes get it right. They
produce high marketing impact. The following list has a few ways you can repeat and leverage
campaigns that are Heroes.
Repeat and leverage your Heroes by taking actions like these,
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Repeat in a different media, context, or format, e.g., if it is a webinar, chunk it into YouTube
segments. If it is a best practice paper, then put it in a webinar
Create an overview of a detailed topic for entry-level customers
Drill into an overview and create detailed or niche topics for customers farther along the
funnel, e.g., segment a single paper into a nurture series with detailed “how to” instructions
Segment generic topics into specific niches, verticals, industries, demographics, or
psychographics
Create “panels” or interviews with experts on the topic
Open the topic up to Twitter conversations or forums to engage more social marketing
activity
Pose the negative point of view to stir up controversy
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Attractors
Attractors are campaigns that attract a high number of visits, but they don’t convert visitors well and
produce lower than average Engagement Value. With attractors you need to find ways to improve
the conversion rate of high value goals. Work first on those Attractor campaigns that are close to
becoming Heroes so that a small increase in conversion rate will push them into the Star category.
Increase the conversion rate of Attractors with these techniques,
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Check your Calls to Action
o Use a strongly worded text call to action in a different color, then repeat it in text at
least twice more, as well as having a highly visible Call to Action button.
o Use text on the Call to Action button that is imperative and clear, e.g., don’t use
“Submit”, instead use “Get Your Subscription Now”
o Put the Call to Action on multiple separate lines.
Use an offer (ethical bribe), such as a white paper, that has a greater value. Combine a high
attraction title and topic with a high Engagement Value offer.
Monitor your marketing funnel’s abandonment rates. Find where the leaks occur and stop
them.
Segment the visitors to discover if there is a segment or niche that has high Engagement
Value. Perhaps there is a segment among this high volume of visitors that produces high
Engagement Value. Refocus on that high value segment.
Do A/B testing on your web form. Always be testing!
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Converters
Converters are campaigns that produce better than average Engagement Value, but they attract
fewer than average visitors. You need to find ways to make Converters more attractive. Look for
Converters that are on the edge of becoming Heroes. With a small increase in attractiveness you can
nudge them into becoming Heroes.
Converters need to attract more visitors. Here are some ways you can improve the attractiveness of
campaigns,
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Write captivating titles. What type of titles catch your eye at the grocery store checkout?
Challenge or question the visitor’s common knowledge, “Three Fatal Content Management
Mistakes that Kill Careers.” Begin your titles with numbers and imply “secret” tips, “7 Hidden
Tips That Supercharge Digital Marketing.”
Use SEO techniques to identify the top keywords for the topic and use those keywords near
the front of titles and subtitles. Correlation studies show a high correlation between
keywords, SEO ranking, and conversion.
Align the contents of the title, landing page, and content to stay on topic and deliver what’s
promised.
Analyze the audience segments to learn if the campaign is a Star for a segment or persona.
Create a focused marketing program for that audience.
Create more attractive ad banners that have the top keywords at the front.
Test banner placement to find locations with higher attractiveness.
Use professional artwork and layout.
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Nulls
Nulls are campaigns that waste your resources. Nulls don’t have a lot of visits and they don’t
produce Engagement Value. If a campaign in the Dog quadrant has run long enough that it should be
showing results, but it is not producing visitors and has low value you should probably stop it. Put
your resources and audience eyeballs where they will do some good.
Where Should You Put Your Efforts?
Be precise about selecting the campaigns where you put your effort. Put your effort on campaigns
that are on the margin and with a nudge can be pushed into becoming Heroes. Look at a collection
of campaigns on the margin, check out their landing pages, forms, and titles and put your work into
campaigns you can clearly improve. Don’t try to improve campaigns that need a lot of work.
Segment, Segment, Segment
Just like the well-worn real estate adage of location, location, location, any good marketer should be
thinking how to segment their audience. With the Engagement Intelligence Analyzer it is easy to add
tables of segments to the dashboard that make it very easy to click and see how to optimize
campaigns for specific segments.
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Using MOM with the Executive Insight Dashboard
The Executive Insight Dashboard (EID) shows a big picture view of your marketing. Even though it
doesn’t show campaign data in the MOM matrix format you can still use the EID to identify
campaigns you can repeat, leverage, and improve.
Heroes - Repeat and Leverage Heroes
In the screen below campaigns are sorted by Engagement Value. The Engagement Value earned by a
campaign appears as a gold bar. The number of visits appears as a gray bar. Because the chart above
is sorted by Engagement Value all the high value campaigns appear at the top.
Find Heroes in the Executive Insight Dashboard by first sorting by value and then looking for
campaigns that also have high visits.
Although you don’t know where the average line is on the EID you can see that campaigns with both
high grey bars and high gold bars are Heroes. These are campaigns you should repeat and leverage.
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Converters - Increase their Attractiveness
Campaigns with high Engagement Value, the gold bars, and mid-level visits are Converters. To find
converters, sort by value so the high Engagement Value campaigns are topmost as shown in the
following screen shot. Look for Converters near the top of the list with a mid-level number of visits,
the gray bars. These are campaigns that should focus on improving their attractiveness which will
increase the number of visits and simultaneously the Engagement Value.
Find Converters in the Executive Insight Dashboard by first sorting on value and then looking for
campaigns with mid-level of visits.
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Attractors - Increase their Goal Conversion
In the screen shot below, the campaigns have been sorted by visits so the campaigns with the most
visits, the longest grey bars, are at the top. Attractors are those that have high visits, but mid-level
value. Attractors need to improve the conversion rate on high level website goals.
Find Attractors in the Executive Insight Dashboard by sorting on visits and looking for campaigns with
mid-level values.
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Using MOM with the Engagement Intelligence Analyzer Dashboards
Using MOM with the Engagement Intelligence Analyzer (EIA) is very straightforward since the
dashboard displays campaigns in the four quadrants of the Marketing Optimization Matrix.
Segments are easy to create by dragging a Dimension (data category) on to the Criteria Bar or by
adding a table which allows data filtering.
In the following figure the Paid traffic channel is selected so the MOM quadrants show only
campaigns that have come through that channel. You could just as easily segment by adding a table
to filter by visitor profile, geographic region, keywords, referral sources, screen resolution, or more.
This Engagement Intelligence Analyzer dashboard displays campaigns in a Marketing Optimization
Matrix with a table used to filter by traffic type. Information on a specific campaign appears when
you mouse over the campaign’s bullet.
By moving the mouse over a campaign bullet in the chart we can display the campaign name, its
value, and the number of visits. You can also export a list for each quadrant containing the campaign
name, value, and visits.
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MOM can Help Optimize Any Online Marketing Department
Whether you use the Executive Insight Dashboard that comes bundled with Sitecore’s Customers
Experience Platform (DMS) or you use your own analytics or Business Intelligence tool, you need to
take advantage of the Marketing Optimization Matrix. Let MOM tell you where to optimize your
marketing!
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