BMW plans to use more customer engagement metrics to steer content drive
Clicks and impressions are no longer enough to measure the success of BMW’s marketing and so it’s on the hunt for what it calls “consumer engagement” metrics to validate its push into content.
The German car marque is on a mission to build more of its marketing in the UK around content, looking to other industries like retail to make it accountable. It’s being done in order to spend longer time with content on its national platforms like BMW site, which repurposes a lot from its German headquarters.
“Old school metrics come into play but we’re moving toward the metrics of consumer engagement, said Matt Baldwin, UK digital marketing manager at BMW. “We need to look at time on the site, bounce rates; those kind of metrics which actually show that the consumer is coming to our website and actually taking in our content and engaging with it rather than them just having a fly-by visit.”
With the path to purchase a car being one of the most complicated, it’s unsurprising that automotive marketers are scrambling to align business goals to their content marketing. From converting leads into customers to convincing a driver to keep buying the same make, BMW hopes to pull away from the pack with upcoming efforts that will also lean heavily on personalisation and CRM.
Agency Oliver was hired to aid the transition, working across its digital footpath including social, creative and production. “We need to make sure that we’re always in a consideration space in the digital sphere with relevant content,” said Baldwin.
Like other advertisers, the business wants to understand the individual role all its channels play in the customer journey and how they mesh together in order to understand that while a TV ad plays a role further down the funnel it may also play a pivotal part further up.
“Our content strategy is going to be absolutely key for us in 2016,” said Baldwin. “There’s a real opportunity to set ourselves as a leader. I don’t think there’s on manufacturer that’s got it 100 per cent right and so I think there’s an opportunity to take the lead with what we’re doing.