Spray and Pray doesn’t work
An interview in Canberra Business News
According to Jason Perelson, Creative Director at Zoo Group, in a traditional advertising agency the stereotype of a Creative Director has always been the guy who wears converse sneakers and graphic t-shirts, sits on a bean bag and thinks of cool ideas all day.
However, that’s changed over the last couple of years and its going to change exponentially going forward. Creative Directors are less and less likely to be the person sitting in a back room thinking of how you can change the world with a cool slogan but rather the strategic thinkers and client service and implementation people.
The role of the modern Creative Director is the person who is able to step back and say ‘what we’re doing - is it cool for cool’s sake or is it actually going to do something for the client’.
“It’s not about above the line or below the line, it’s about the bottom line,’ says Jason.
“Because when a client says ‘I want to market my business’ they’re not saying, ‘I want an awesome looking poster’. They’re saying ‘I need to put bread on the table at home and my livelihood is dependent on what comes out of this meeting’ and more often than not, particularly when working with SMEs, the person sitting across from you has invested their time and money and if your advertising campaign fails, there’s major fallout for them”.
Jason says that’s why Zoo Group has developed a new service specifically to assist those organisations that need to make every marketing dollar count, helping them to design and implement a lead generation solution that translates awareness into conversion. A system like this incorporates everything from managing the media spend to designing the ads, videos, social media graphics, any other content required as well as the data analysis, tracking, reporting of results and adjustment to the campaign.
Jason offers three tips for any business needing a marketing solution focused on ROI rather than simply pretty pictures.
Without a sufficient number of leads, you can’t achieve your sales targets. However, it’s not just about quantity; it’s also about the quality of the leads. Mapping the right content to the right people at the right time is the most effective way of generating sales-ready customers without wasting your time and resources.
Today’s customers have started the buying process long before they pick up the phone. They’re on social media, have read the blogs, reviews and comparison shopping online before contacting you. It’s therefore really important to invest the time to understand, measure and track your customers’ buyer behaviour so that you can provide high quality content that your customers want to engage with.
You need to know what you want them to do. A clear call to action at each step of the buyer’s journey is essential. Decide what success looks like at each point.
According to Jason, lead generation is just as important for big brands as it is for small businesses. While big brands might have a budget of a few $million they also have huge expectations in terms of KPIs. The shotgun spray and pray approach of the past no longer works. And while it used to be a milestone to be on TV, now you want to see the spike in sales.
Authored by Lighthouse Business Innovation Centre