digital branding strategies for emerging tech companies · 2016-09-13 · easier ways to prove (and...

#TTGTSummit | www.techtarget.com/ForMarketers

Andy Briney, SVP Brand and Custom Solutions

Digital Branding Strategies

for Emerging Tech

Companies

Branding is important… right?

2 © TechTarget

38% increase in brand searches over 4 weeks

27% increase revenue through the site

55% increase in time on the brand’s site

"why branding is important“ -49,200 search results

46% increase in site visits over 4 weeks2

“A brand for a company is like a reputation

for a person. You earn reputation by trying

to do hard things well.”

-Jeff Bezos

14,203 Branding Titles on Amazon

Houston, we have a problem

3 © TechTarget

Scale Mt.

Everest

Survive a

Crash

Get into

MIT

You’re more likely to…

… than click on a banner

Lower

CPMs Banner

blindness

Less

Interaction

5 trillion

ads served

last year

0.1%

average

CTR

Publisher use of

RTB, trading

desks etc. for

cheap inventory

Measuring

brand

impact is

hard

7 out 10 marketers

would spend more on

brand if it were easier

to tie to ROI

Where do we begin? With the end goal…

4

Frequent responses I’ve heard…

● Better banner performance (for starters)

● Better proof I’m reaching the right audience

● Easier ways to prove (and quantify the effect of) improved awareness

● Branding that more efficiently delivers desired actions

What does

“impact” mean to you?

“What’s the impact on the bottom line?”

5

● “Proof that an investment in branding will deliver me

(a) sales opportunities that (b) I would miss otherwise”

● Better technology is the genesis of every startup

- “I win when I’m sitting at the table”

● The problem:

Online ROI Summit | © TechTarget

70% Of the buyer

journey is

completed before

they ever contact

you…or anyone

else

Ok so that’s where we want to end up….

But where do we begin?

6 Online ROI Summit | © TechTarget

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

Awareness

Branding is a “full-funnel”

consideration…

…Let’s start by looking at

the benefits (and

challenges) at each stage

Branding Value & Challenges: Top Funnel


Branding creates a

cognitive association

• …in the context of a problem

• …as a solution to that problem

• This is the first step to getting on

more short lists

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

Awareness

Challenges

• Operates on the subconscious

level

• Impact manifests later

• Hard to track


Awareness

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

Awareness Branding prompts

qualification activity

• Participation/learning

• Define my problem

• Clarify my strategy

• Select a tactic/solution

Challenges

• Creating a personal connection

with each user

• Not always conversion-focused,

and hard to measure impact if not

directly tied to a conversion action

Branding Value & Challenges: Mid Funnel

Branding Value & Challenges: Down Funnel


Branding prompts

conversion

• Direct response…

• To lead

• To opportunity

• To sale

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

Awareness

Challenges

• Cost/benefit relies on a lot more

than the banner creative

• There are other establishes ways

to accomplish this goal

5 advancements that will change the way we

think about brand

10 © TechTarget

The New Brand Strategy

Data-activated

Personalized

Demand-focused

Goal-oriented

Metrics-driven

Advancement #1: Data-driven branding


Advancement #1: Data-driven branding


What is data-driven branding?

Data analytics approach to audience creation and brand

targeting

Has its roots in demand generation methods

Leverages data and insights about audiences from both

supply-siders (publishers and third-party sites) with

demand-siders (you)

Delivers rich, actionable audience segments, better overall

brand performance…yielding an overall more efficient

spend

Segment/Site Targeting


Your Brand

Pros

● Super cheap

● Great if all you care about is volume

Cons

● No brand/site/audience alignment

● Terrible CTRs

Site/Topic Targeting


Your Brand

Site/Topic Targeting


Your Brand

Pros

● Better contextual alignment

● Stronger CTRs and awareness lift

Cons

● Higher CPMs

● Audience is still anonymous

Data-driven audience targeting:

Publisher model


Demographics

● Industry

● Geo

● Co. size

● Title

● Role

● Function

Behavior

● Browsing activity

● Social activity

● Download activity

● Purchase stage

Cookies

Reg Data

Audience network

● O&O sites

● Affiliate network

Targeting options

● Individuals by demos & activity

● Accounts & intenders

● Purchase stage

● Banners, videos

Results

● 2-4x CTRs

Publisher DMP

User targeting based on multi-party data

aggregation


Applications

● Augments what

you know about

users in your DB

● Supplements

audience targets

with third-party

lookalikes

● Allows for a richer

set of data

modeling and

message/offer

management

First party data

● Your CRM data

● Activity patterns

● Purchase history

● Account targets

● Solution cross-sells

Second-party data

● Exposes additional

lookalike users

● Supplements

advertiser first-party

data on audiences

Demos from Publisher A

Activity from Publisher B

Data from Publisher N

Advertiser DMP

● 78% of marketers said data-driven branding increases

acquisition and conversion

● 71% said it enables the delivery of more relevant

messaging to more finely segmented audiences

● 68% said it drives an increase in clicks and traffic

generated

● 63% said it increases efficiency in media buying and

planning

Source: BlueKai

18

The impact of data-driven branding

Case study: Zero Turnaround

● 5,079 clicks

● CTR 300% higher

than industry

benchmark

● High conversion

rate

19 © TechTarget

Advancement #2: Brand Personalization


● The number one challenge in branding is creating an

emotional connection between you and your target

audience

- That’s me! (identification)

- I have that problem! (challenge association)

- That’s a good approach! (solution association)

- I should try that! (conversion action)

● Data-driven audience targeting helps you identify the

right audience groupings for this experience…but does

nothing to foster the experience itself

Personalizing the brand experience


User Attributes

Brand Personalization

User Actions

Today



User Attributes


● Direct browsing history

● Social connections

- Facebook Sponsored

posts

- Google Shared

Endorsements




User Actions

● Participatory branding

- Content interaction in a

branded context

- Tailored content

offerings based on

user inputs

- Drives awareness &

solution consideration

at the same time

Today

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/2240178356/Automation-cloud-platform-built-around-modern-IT-security-protocols?ses=vmware300x600nonexpanding

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/2240178356/Automation-cloud-platform-built-around-modern-IT-security-protocols?ses=cisco300x600showcase

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/2240178356/Automation-cloud-platform-built-around-modern-IT-security-protocols?ses=tlb728x315

http://searchcio.techtarget.com/news/2240178356/Automation-cloud-platform-built-around-modern-IT-security-protocols?ses=microsoft35x310noteaser



User Attributes


User Actions

User Attributes & Actions

● Data-driven brand/content/messaging experiences

● Based on real-time lookups of user profiles

● User initiated, automated, intelligent, dimensional

Emerging

Today

Personalized Site & Content

Experiences

• Site personalization based on

LinkedIn profile

• Stronger conversion rates through

user-specific content offers

How we doing?


Top-funnel challenges & outlook

27

Challenge

● CTRs are plummeting because

we’re not reaching the right

audiences (or, at a minimum, we

don’t know if we are)

New data

● User/topic segmentation improves

CTRs by 80%

● Data-driven user targeting improves

CTRs by 200-400%

Outlook

● Better targeting, better performance,

more efficient

● Better chance of being top-of-mind

as users shift from research to

vendor outreach

Online ROI Summit | © TechTarget

Awareness

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

Mid-funnel challenges & outlook

28

Challenge

● Difficult to create an emotional

connection and drive impact when

most users are anonymous

New Data

● Content-embedded branding

closes the gap

● Personalization through

participation and data insight

● Consistently yields 30%+

increase in awareness and

consideration

Outlook

● In the near future we’ll use

personalization strategies to

inform both outbound targeting

and creative/content CTAs Online ROI Summit | © TechTarget

Awareness

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

That leaves us with…Down Funnel


Branding that prompts

conversion

• Direct response…

• To lead

• To opportunity

• To sale

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

Awareness

Challenges

• Cost/benefit and proof of impact

on conversion/post-conversion


• E-mail drives 80-90% of leads

today

• What will that look like in 5

years?

• Data-driven targeting and

brand personalization will

yield better overall CTA

performance

• Advancements in landing

page optimization will

accelerate conversions

• Branding vehicles will also

have a bigger role in post-

conversion lead qualification

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

Awareness

Advancement #3: Brand will increase its role

and impact on demand generation


Landing pages are your most important brand

vehicles

• Opportunity to build a connection with your prospects,

optimize conversions and amplify your content via social

channels

http://pro.techtarget.com/Intel_MS_BYOD

Branding has historically focused on

pre-conversion


Awareness

Education

Consideration

Preference

Decision

$

The Point of

Conversion

to…

• Respondent

• Lead

• Qualified lead

• Opportunity

• Qualified opportunity

• Pipeline…

…then $

Branding as post-conversion nurturing


Education

Consideration

Preference

Awareness

Conversion

Nurturing

Re-engagement

Endorsement

Advocacy

● Many marketers look at lead

conversion as the end goal

● This misses the opportunity to

build brand equity and nurture

prospects at the point of

conversion (they’re a lead…but

they still haven’t decided to buy

from you)

● Content-embedded branding

activates respondents and gives

them the tools to qualify

themselves and become

advocates for your content and

company

Brand boosts post-conversion qualification


● Levels-up brand message

- 35%-45% of leads interact with the unit

● Prompts user self-nurturing

- 15-20% of leads download additional content

● Provides a post-download opportunity for social amplification

Advancement #4: Goal-Oriented Branding


● Branding shouldn’t be so scary!

● Unlike other forms of advertising (TV, radio, print), the tools of digital

branding have matured to the point where you can tailor specific tactics

to specific goals

● “What do I invest in to achieve XYZ result?”

Reach Target Engage Convert

High volume,

Low CPMs

Demographic,

topical and

behavioral

targeting

Branded content

interaction that

drives consideration

Disruptive ways

to tie brand to

purchase intent

• TechTarget delivers a

spectrum of branding

solutions to meet

your objectives

• Focus your branding

investment on the

tactics that best

meets your goals

TechTarget Branding Solutions

CTRs average 80% higher than

industry averages

CORE NETWORK TARGETING Access downstream buyers across

100+ topically aligned Search sites


Buyer-centric targeting delivers

50% higher CTRs than industry

average

SPOKE AUDIENCE NETWORK Target active buyers on extended

network based on project activity


30% more effective at driving

awareness than traditional

banners

CUSTOM BRAND ENGAGE Custom-created rich media banners

drive branded content engagement


Strong awareness-to-action:

30-40% of clicks deliver an asset

download

ESSENTIAL GUIDES Own 100% SOV on editor-curated

content; drive awareness and leads


200% more effective than standard

tech microsites at driving solution

consideration

SPONSORED COMMUNITY SITES Custom-built web sites driving

social/content engagement & leads


Drive full-funnel impact and 30%+

increase in purchase intent

NATIVE ADS, SITES & BLOGS Featuring immersive leadership

content and editorial site integration


Advancement #5: Better brand metrics will help

you validate your investment and ROI


● Traditional digital brand reporting focuses on a limited number of performance-based statistics: CPM, CTR, CPC…

● The rise of data-driven branding, brand personalization and demand-driven branding will enable a much richer set of metrics about…

Who is viewing and engaging with brand placements?

Individuals, industries, companies

What are they doing when they engage?

- Evolution from aggregate activities to individual behavior

● Benefit: better visibility and understanding of how well branding engages desired audiences and motivates desired actions

TechTarget’s 3 Sponsored Community Formats

44 © TechTarget

• Targeted, tactical,

concentrated

• Strategic, layered,

comprehensive

• Editorial, educational,

immersive

• Focus on a single

solution

• Focus on a theme or

portfolio of solutions

• Focus on thought

leadership, strategy

• Template design,

Single page

• Unique design, Multiple

pages/tabs

• Custom design based

on content

• Embedded in editorial • Standalone URL • Embedded in editorial

• 4 week build • 6-8 week build • 4-6 week build

UniSites Custom Sites Native Sites

TechTarget Brand Intelligence™

Traffic/performance stats

Benchmark comparisons

Snapshot of companies

interacting with content

Understanding what content and

site features drive the most

engagement

Heat and scroll diagnostics plus

mapping

Social user profiles

Engaged User Rate: measure

content’s power to encourage

visitors to spend time on the

content,

45 © TechTarget

Brand X Site

Performance Summary

46 © TechTarget

TTGT

Benchmark

Brand X

October Performance

Page Views 26,206

(79% to goal)

Page Views

per Visit 0.84 - 1.24 1.38

Exceeds

Benchmark

Dwell Time 2:30 - 3:00 04:22 Exceeds

Benchmark

Content CTR 12 - 15% 15% In Range

Social Share

Rate .05 - .25% 1.1%

Exceeds

Benchmark

ANALYSIS: Above average PPV and Dwell times suggest readers are increasingly

satisfied with content and format when compared to competitive online communities

Social Share Rates are also above the TechTarget benchmark, driving high reach and

engagement, complementing the sales cycle by nurturing prospective leads

Business Services

14%

Retail 9%

Education 9%

Computer Related

16% Financial Services

9%

Telcom 17%

Information Technology

25%

Government 2%

Account Intelligence: Industry & Company Size

47 © TechTarget

47

Industry Company Size

Less than 250 4%

500 to 999 4%

1,000 to 4,999 19%

5,000 to 9,999 13%

10,000 to 24,999

17%

25,000 to 49,999

9%

50,000 to 99,999

13%

100,000+ 21%

48 © TechTarget

Company Name # Activities

FedEx 49

University of Colorado 37

Duke University 19

CVS 12

Walgreens 12

Pottery Barn 9

Farmers Insurance 6

Account Intelligence: Activity

49 © TechTarget

Social Activity & Profiles

Social Network # Shares

Facebook 57

Email 52

LinkedIn 37

Twitter 17

10%

4%

45%

41%

Engaged User Ratings

50 © TechTarget

-40% -20% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

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• Measures and compares %

of unique visitors who were

engaged users

• Engagement defined as a

measure of:

- Dwell time

- PPV

- Click rate

- Social Share rate

Page Scroll Map

51 © TechTarget

Users are self nurturing as they scrolling through 75% of each article’s

content and hover over the recommended reading widget/section of the page

Page A Page C Page B Page D

Click Heat Map

52 © TechTarget

Page A Page C Page B Page D

Users primarily click their mouse on the social share icons within each page,

validating site content is driving high reach and social engagement

#TTGTSummit | www.techtarget.com/ForMarketers

Andy Briney

[email protected]

Twitter: @andybriney

Thank You!

digital branding strategies for emerging tech companies · 2016-09-13 · easier ways to prove (and...

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