Connecting pre- and post-sale attribution for marketing success
Most marketing campaigns utilise both online and offline channels to reach a target audience at varying points in the sales journey. With activities taking place on a variety of different channels, many brands struggle to track their customers across the full journey with a huge amount of uncertainty around which marketing activities are most effective in leading to a sale. There is also a failure to track customer interactions that occur after the sale, leading to budget being wasted on awareness activities targeted at customers who have already purchased. But how do brands overcome these challenges?
Understanding the point of sale
To determine accurate attribution of marketing channels within the customer journey, it is important to determine at exactly which point the customer converted on their journey. Another equally important factor is knowing how customers interact with your brand post-sale to help identify wasted budget or a change to improve the customer journey at a lower cost. Do you know how much of your awareness building PPC activity is actually driven by existing customers who are just looking to get in touch about their existing order?
Having a better understanding of the keywords, site usage, web pages viewed and customer intentions allows you to decide on alternative channels that could be used at each touchpoint in the customer journey for a lower cost. PPC brand terms can be used to protect your brand position, once you know how much of the brand term spend is being targeted towards those customers who have already made a purchase rather than attracting new business, then you can make better decisions or direct them to more relevant pages on your website.
Online channels now allow you to measure attribution at an individual level with customer identifiers available in email, display marketing, SEO, PPC and other online channels. Offline channels do not have the same tools but by feeding attribution models with relevant information such as periods during which TV, OOH and Press is active, you can measure the effect of offline activity on online behaviours.
In other cases, the customer journey might mean that customers identify themselves earlier on in the sales process. Insurance renewals, TV and Out Of House (OOH) viewing rates can be applied at postcode level, giving greater accuracy to the measurements. You can also include tracking codes within printed materials, allowing data links to be created. Having a greater understanding of the channels driving new or repeat business will give you the ability to determine the correct level of investment in each marketing channel.
What are the benefits of connecting data?
What if you could understand the role of each of your marketing activities within the customer journey, which attract customers, and which lead to sales? Data-driven attribution models are the answer! These models will reveal the role each channel plays in the customer journey, giving you the ability to send relevant content to customers at the correct point in their purchase journey. Attribution models may reveal that email communications are more effective at the end of the sales journey to help customers make a final decision to purchase. With the knowledge that these customers have clicked a PPC ad, viewed multiple pages on our site or have been exposed to a display ad, you can tailor your email content to recognise which stage they’re at in the purchase cycle.
At Jaywing’s we have developed unique tool, Almanac, successfully assists major brands on this journey. Almanac is a customer data platform which captures all online interactions and combines the data with offline data feeds from CRM and sales database, feeding into unique data-driven attribution models and overlaying our action optimiser tool to identify the next best action at a customer level.
To stay current and to compete in today’s market, attribution is essential. Customers have come to expect personalised and relevant customer journeys. Combining attribution results and insights with CRM and online programmes gives you the ability to deliver relevant communications to the right customers at the right time. Customers want you to recognise they have bought from you before, they also want you to know when they’re back on your site with an intention to re-purchase… and for you to know that they’re not quite ready yet. This is much more than just an abandoned basket email. With knowledge of how marketing events contribute to the customer journey, you can decide on the next best action in order to deliver maximum ROI.
Sarah Constantinou, senior marketing consultant, Jaywing
Content by The Drum Network member:
Jaywing
At Jaywing, we’ve made it our mission to help clients establish concrete foundations in a world of shifting sands. As a data-powered integrated agency, we bring...
Find out more