Planning Your Integrated Digital Marketing Strategy for 2022

Digital-Marketing-strategy

The new year is the perfect time to change up your digital marketing strategy. If you haven’t done so already, you will want to analyze your digital marketing efforts and outcomes for 2021. Not only will this show you your marketing successes and areas of improvement, but you may use this to create a strategic plan for the new year. Here are some tips to help you plan a digital marketing strategy for 2022. 

Research Your Industry or Niche

Industry research is key no matter the type of brand or business you manage. Staying up to date on the latest advancements and trends in your niche can help you better prepare for the future. Reading through specific topics or keywords on news.google.com is an easy and free way to stay updated on news within your niche. 

You will also want to spend time performing keyword research on Google. While this is helpful for SEO purposes, reviewing these queries can help you better understand the current state of your industry. Take note of the top results shown by Google when you search different industry keywords. You can also use this method to see the most searched questions regarding your business. While you may use the keyword planner tool in Google AdWords, you can also search different questions into Google and see what the search engine suggests. See below.

For products and services specific to a location, try Google searching geo-targeted phrases like, “lawyers in St. Louis” and analyze the top results. Additionally, try to find what your competitors show up for on Google, and what kind of content they post online to attract these results. 

Research Your Target Audience

There are many creative ways to conduct target audience research in 2022. However, one of the best tools today for demographic research are forums, more specifically Reddit. This is especially true for service-based businesses or businesses that solve complex or difficult issues.

For example, if you are a financial advisor, there are hundreds of subreddits with members asking questions exclusively about personal finance. These are members of your audience exposing their pain points, confusions, and frustrations right in front of you. You may use this research to better approach your clients during introductory calls and consultations. 

Additionally, answering questions on subreddits relevant to your services is a great way to establish yourself as a leader in the field. Since your target audience is asking for help, why not answer them directly? What better way to prove your value and expertise than helping a potential client quickly, online, and for free? 

Talk to Your Audience

While audience research is imperative for any business owner, speaking directly with the client is an invaluable practice. Even if you operate a business that is not client-facing, like an e-commerce store, speaking to a member of your target demographic will give you real-life insight that you can not copy and paste from the internet. There are also engineering as marketing tools you can implement. Specifically, converting your existing video content into video-lead-generation tools by adding forms on top of video.

If you’re a marketer that works with individual business owners, a great way to do this is by hopping on a client call with your client’s client. Pay close attention to the conversation between your client and their own client. What kind of questions is your client asking? How is their client reacting? Does the client seem pleased? How can your client create a better experience for their own client? This interaction is an opportunity to uncover a different side of your audience that can not be replicated online. It will also help you to create better, more relevant campaigns that are aligned with your client’s target audience.

Implement New Social Features

Your digital marketing strategy in 2022 should progress with the times. In the last 2 years, we have all seen the explosion of TikTok and Instagram Reels, and the power of video marketing only seems to be increasing. While it may seem scary to begin posting videos online for your brand or business, it could be what it takes to blow up your brand or business. 

However, it’s also okay to be realistic. If after some time you realize this form of marketing doesn’t quite relate to your target audience at the moment, that’s okay, too! Maybe you don’t need a TikTok, but creating a few Reels each month is necessary. It’s important to try new things and test out new features, but it’s also crucial that your marketing efforts make sense to you and your brand. 

Like any other social media campaign you create, your video marketing ideas and posts need to have a goal. If you’re posting videos for your brand without a true intention, then it is likely this platform will not work for you. Each video must have a goal, information or benefit for the user, and/or a call to action. If you’re unfamiliar with video marketing for social media, spend some time on both TikTok and Reels and try to see if any of the sounds or trends can be used for your business.

Best Email Marketing Tips for Medium-Sized Companies

Best Email Marketing Tactics for Medium Sized Companies

4.3 billion people use email, which is more than half of the world’s population! That’s also more than the number of users on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other social media platform. It’s proven to be effective for marketers and business owners, too! In 2021, the average return on investment for an email marketing campaign is about $42-$50 for every $1. Creating and maintaining an email marketing list can sound like a daunting task, but it’s truly transformative for small-mid-sized businesses when executed correctly. Here are the best email marketing tips for medium-sized businesses.

Grow Your Email Marketing List

It’s common for businesses to offer a free resource such as an ebook or download. While these strategies may have worked in the past, it’s better to focus on providing your potential customer with information that is not only resourceful but applicable. This should be something that they can not only read, but also use.

For example, a physical checklist for an SEO manager or a list of approved vendors for an event planner. These two offerings not only provide the user with information but also a call to action or task.

Another easy way to grow your email marketing list is by placing an email opt-in for online orders on your website. This ensures that you’re adding quality leads to your email list that are already engaging with your brand. However, it’s important to ensure the email field contains an “opt-in” to comply with email marketing and spam policies placed by both the government and various email service providers. 

It is also important to not cut corners when it comes to growing your list. In order to actually see a return on your investment and efforts, you need an engaged audience who actually wants to hear from you. Because of this (and many other reasons) do not buy or “rent” an email marketing list. This one mistake may lead to low open rates, no sales, and possible fines from Google or the government.

Email Marketing & Audience Segmentation

Once you’ve grown your email marketing list, it’s time to implement a maintenance plan. Over time, you will notice contacts that repeatedly bounce or ignore your emails altogether. These contacts take up space within your audience, lower your engagement and click-through rate, and do not provide any value. Because of this, you will want to clean your email marketing list every six months. 

In order to increase your engagement, click-through rate, and general sales, you will need to segment your email marketing list. In fact, 77% of email marketing ROI comes from segmented campaigns. Segmentation sounds difficult, but it’s a super simple concept.

For example, say you own a company that buys businesses from those ready to retire. However, your service also includes finding a young entrepreneur to buy that business. Here, you’d have two completely different groups within the same audience that you are targeting: the buyer and the seller. The message, information, and resources you provide with the older business owner will differ from that of the young entrepreneur. 

When you consistently send the wrong segment the wrong message, they will likely unsubscribe or ignore your emails.

There are two popular ways to segment your audience: demographic and behavioral segmentation.

Demographic segmentation includes factors like location or a company’s size. Behavioral segmentation includes actions like previous purchases, lifecycle stages, and customer loyalty. In short, this kind of segmentation allows you to cater to your audience based on their previous actions.

Avoid Spam and the Promotions Tab

When an email falls into the spam or promotions tab, the likelihood of obtaining an open or sale drops dramatically. Think about it, when was the last time you clicked on either of these tabs? Most users will either ignore or mass delete any messages that land in these two areas of an email account. 

Unfortunately, a lot of business owners will spend time and effort on an email marketing campaign only for it to land in the spam or promotions tabs and go completely unseen by its audience. Luckily, we know a few tips to help you avoid the graveyard that is the spam and promotions tabs:

Audience Engagement: Each time a user ignores, deletes, or does not open an email sent from your address, the user’s email provider essentially counts that as a “mark” against you. Meaning, over time, if users are consistently ignoring your messages, the email provider will recognize that your emails are not resonating with the user. Then, the email provider will begin to place your emails into the spam folder. This is another reason why email segmentation and tailoring your message to different groups within your audience are extremely important. 

Avoid Spam Trigger Words: Using particular words and phrases like ‘free’, ‘best price’, ‘cash’, ‘no obligation’ in your subject line can raise spam flags and cause your campaign to be filtered out of your recipients’ primary inbox. For more examples of words that can land your hard work right in the spam folder, check out this HubSpot article. False promises from the subject line can also have the same effect and make your message appear spammy.


Set Email Address: Oftentimes, you’ll see emails from companies that look something like “contact@apple.com” or “hello@apple.com.” For small-mid-sized businesses, it is best to steer away from the corporate or formal feel of these addresses to avoid falling under the promotions tab. Instead, try using something more personal by using a real name, like “steve@apple.com.” This has also been shown to increase user engagement because the user feels that they are speaking to a real person instead of an automated message or robot.

How to Plan A Successful Holiday Marketing Campaign

holiday-marketing-campaign

It’s basically a fact of life that the holidays arrive more quickly when you are in marketing. As we get ready to flip the calendar to November, if you’re not already organizing your holiday marketing campaigns, now is time to jump on it!

With U.S. holiday retail sales predicted to increase by 2.7% to $1.093 trillion, just about every business owner should be in the midst of planning a holiday marketing campaign. A smart and strategic campaign positions your brand for an increase in traffic, sales, and brand awareness. Before you begin your journey, here are a few tips to help you plan out a successful holiday marketing campaign.

Planning a Social Media Holiday Campaign

Social media is one of the most powerful marketing tools in 2021. However, it must be used correctly in order to see a gracious return on your investment. When it comes to planning a social media holiday campaign, you may want to first ask yourself the following:

  • What is the reason for this campaign? What is our main goal?
  • Who are we trying to reach?
  • What social media channels does our audience use?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you’ll have a better idea of where your campaign will exist online as well as a set of solidified goals. Remember, any digital marketing campaign you create should support your brand’s main goals and objectives. Campaigns without an intended objective in mind become confusing, convoluted, and muddled.

If you’re lost on content ideas or don’t know where to begin when it comes to creating a social media holiday campaign, we suggest digging into your competitors’ past campaigns and analyzing the content they’ve previously posted around the holidays. Make sure to consider both successful and unsuccessful campaigns and try to take note of what element impacted the success of these campaigns. 

Above all, your social media campaign needs to offer your clients and audience some sort of value within a definitive timeline. Without a value or incentive, your holiday campaign turns into general social media posting. A few ways to provide incentives during a social media holiday campaign include:

  • Seasonal products that are removed after the holiday season
    • Hint: Introduce a holiday edition of one of your best-selling products
  • Partake in consumer holidays and big sales days like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, New Year’s Day, and Boxing Day
  • Special gift items with purchases
  • Offering additional membership points or rewards

Planning an Email Marketing Holiday Campaign

When it comes to email marketing, knowing your audience is crucial. If you use an email marketing management system like MailChimp or HubSpot, you know the importance of a properly segmented audience.  

If you currently have different audiences, groups, etc. in your email management system, it’s a good idea to create individual campaigns for each audience. Different segments of your audience have different needs and will likely respond better to messaging that is targeted to them specifically.

If you’ve never segmented your email marketing audience before, now is a good time to start! Consider the different demographics and groups within your audience, and how you can craft content that each group will respond to.

When you begin creating your email marketing holiday campaign, it is crucial that you optimize for the mobile experience. According to Email Uplers, mobile opens account for 46% of all email opens. Additionally, studies have shown that 69% of mobile users delete emails that are not correctly optimized for mobile viewing. So, if you spend time and effort on a beautiful design but it’s not responsive on a mobile device, you may not see much of a return on your investment. With over 62% of U.S. consumers aged 21-45 saying they rely on just their mobile device for their entire shopping journey, companies and brands need to pay close attention when it comes to mobile design and optimization for their email holiday campaigns. 

Planning an SMS Holiday Campaign

Not many business owners think of adding an SMS or texting messaging campaign into their holiday marketing efforts, but you’d be surprised by the tactic’s results. In fact, 72% of retailers have increased their advertising investments for holiday mobile marketing this year. Not only is an SMS campaign easy to implement, but its results are also rapid-fire fast. According to Klaviyo, 90% of text messages are read within just 3 minutes. 

If you’re struggling to find content for an SMS holiday campaign, you may want to alert your clients of:

  • A new product launch
  • A special promotion code available for SMS subscribers only
  • New product launches
  • Pop-up events
  • Digital or physical events

Planning Your Paid Social Media Campaign

Sometimes pushing out organic posts on social media isn’t enough during a noisy holiday season. While you might need to stretch your paid social media budget to outperform your competition during this period, your return on ad spend can be quite high. Having an idea of your goals for your KPIs prior to launch will help you know if and when you may need to pivot or readjust throughout the season.

As we’ve pitched throughout this article, having a plan for your audience and timing can make or break your campaign. Start your advertising early! With customers being pulled in many different directions this time of year, it’s often the case that the more they see your ads, the better.

If you have data from your CRM about customers who have previously purchased during holiday seasons past, take that information and create an audience! While remarketing to these individuals can likely prove lucrative, consider expanding beyond them to a lookalike group as well.

Pintler Group Digital Marketing

The Pintler Group is the leading firm for medium to large companies and organizations that do not have a full-time digital marketing team of their own. We get seriously thrills from planning and executing superior campaigns – whether it’s during the holidays or not! From content and email marketing to paid search, social, and podcasting, our integrated strategies drive real results for our clients.

Asking the Right Questions: How to Better Navigate Google Analytics

beginner-to-intermediate-google-analytics

If you own or manage a website, you likely know the power behind Google Analytics. While the powerhouse platform is still largely misunderstood, its vast capabilities allow business owners to monitor the success of their digital presence and online marketing efforts. 

In truth, Google Analytics is a lot more robust than most people think. The platform provides comprehensive data tracking and analytical reporting to solve or improve almost any question or issue circulating within your business’ digital marketing efforts.

So, how does one use Google Analytics to solve issues or confusion that are hindering progress and goals? By asking the right questions, of course!

Question 1: How can I use Google Analytics data to track the progress of company goals?


Answer: Set up goals in Google Analytics.


The goals feature in Google Analytics allows users to track specific patterns and behaviors taken by users visiting the website. Goals can help account owners track contact form submissions, conversion rates on purchases, and more. By configuring goals, it becomes easier to monitor progress and discover what is hurting and helping the current strategy. Additionally, Google Analytics allows primary and secondary goal tracking, which are also labeled macro and micro conversions. Generally, there are five types of goals in Google Analytics:

  1. Smart goals: Goals generated by Google Analytics when an account does not have enough data to complete optimization.
  2. Destination goals: Loading a specific web page.
  3. Pages per session: The number of pages viewed by a single user in a single session.
  4. Event goals: Sharing, button clicks, adding items or services to a cart, etc.
  5. Duration goals: Session times that last over a certain amount of seconds or minutes. For example, users on the page longer than two minutes.

Question 2: How can I use Google Analytics to better track the effectiveness of my email marketing campaigns?


Answer: Utilize the campaign tags feature.


Email campaign tracking is a bit different in Google Analytics than one might expect. With properly implemented campaign tags, account owners can track accurate referral data. However, without campaign tags, it becomes hard to accurately track a website’s referral data. For example, visits from desktop apps such as Outlook tend to appear as direct traffic in Google Analytics. Instead, this visit should be calculated as a referral. Similarly, visits from webmail providers that default to a secure server like Gmail also do not appear as referral traffic in Google Analytics. This small misunderstanding can lead to inaccurate data when tracking the success of email marketing campaigns. 

Question 3: Is there a way to track how much of a blog post visitors are actually reading?


Answer: Yes, by installing Google Tag Manager.


Google Tag Manager is a tag management system used to track different tags on a website. A tag is a snippet of javascript that collects data from the website that is then sent to Google Analytics. So, if you’d like to track how much of a blog post visitors are reading before exiting the page, you may want to install a scroll depth trigger using Google Tag Manager. With this tag, you’ll be able to track where users exit the page when reading the blog post.

Question 4: How can I more closely monitor transactions completed on my website?


Answer: Set up Ecommerce Tracking.


If you own an Ecommerce website, implementing Ecommerce tracking is essential if you would like to more closely monitor your website’s value. With Ecommerce tracking, website owners can see:

  • The total revenue generated by each product
  • Revenue total
  • Total number of products sold
  • Quantity of specific products sold
  • Conversion rates
  • Total transactions
  • Number of unique purchases made
  • Average price per product
  • Average value of orders
  • Date wise performance data
  • Number of days and sessions leading to a transaction

By tracking these metrics, account owners can better assess the overall effectiveness of their marketing campaigns and the progress on their goals, thus leading to healthier conversion rates.

Question #5: Is there a way to find out what users are typing into Google before they visit my website?


Answer: Yes, by linking your Google Search Console and Google Analytics accounts.


Google Search Console is a free service that provides loads of vital insight for website owners, SEO specialists, and digital marketers. Once the Google Search Console is successfully linked to Google Analytics, account owners can better understand how their website is performing in organic search results on Google.

They may also better track which pages of the website are shown in search results, which pages are most visited, and who is visiting on desktop vs mobile. These metrics can help account owners better optimize their content to increase traffic from Google.

YouTube and Display Ads Upgraded to Include Data-Driven Models

Google Ads Updates

Google makes adjustments to its algorithms at least once, if not several times a day. But how often do they make adjustments or upgrades to their most important source of cash, Google Ads?

The frequency might surprise you, but Google is always looking to make sure that the ads delivered to users of its search engine continue to have the best experience possible.

If you’re looking for ways that Google has been improving both the advertiser’s and the user’s experience, here are some of the most recent updates that are worth special attention.

Attribution Models Now Support YouTube and Display Ads

When it comes to the buyer’s journey, many people who are conducting searches will interact with many different types of ads from the same or multiple advertisers.

The journey may even look like this: say a potential buyer is looking for a new washer and dryer. He sees multiple YouTube ads from different companies, reads customer reviews on competitor websites, and then ultimately uses Google to search for brand names or features of specific appliance sets that he likes. 

In that last step, they’re more than likely going to click on a display ad or text ad through Google’s SERP (search engine results pages) or on the partner display network.

Google Ads could not attribute the impact of other ads that were a part of the same campaign until August 9th, when they upgraded non-last click models, including data-driven automation, for YouTube and Display ads.

Now an advertiser will see how much of an impact each channel within their campaign is.

The new model will even measure how many engaged views a YouTube advertisement gets, which helps marketers understand how long potential buyers are paying attention to their video.

Using Data-Driven Attribution with Google Ads to Improve Conversion

Okay, YouTube and Display ads can show their full impact with this new upgrade. So what? How does that make the advertiser’s life better?

For the advertiser, this will show more data points within the attribution models, which allows them to see which ads have been the most effective throughout the campaign.

It also means that automated or manual bidding strategies can help drive additional conversions at the same cost per acquisition (CPA) compared to the last click when coming from those sources.

But what about the user?

With any Google ad, the user is the single most important person. Google will even deliver better-performing ads at a CPA less than their competitors to ensure that searchers will have the best experience.

Enabling attribution for YouTube and partner Display ads means advertisers can make even more adjustments to their campaigns, showing less of what isn’t being interacted with and more of what users are looking for before completing a purchase.

To deliver a better experience, Display ads or YouTube videos with poor engagement will be shown less often.

Compare Attribution Models to Increase Conversions

Now that an advertiser can see all the different attributions from YouTube and Display, they’ll also be able to compare which attribution models will have the best success for their campaign.

The “Model comparison” report looks at the return on ad spend and how each model’s cost per conversion is different. 

That way, they should easily understand which of the pieces of their campaigns will have the most significant impact on their conversions.

Which Attribution Model Is Right for Me?

There are a handful of attribution models: last-click, first-click, linear, time decay, position-based, and data-driven.

Last-click

This attribution model gives all the credit for a conversion to the last advertisement clicked.

Considering this method was one of the very first attribution models available to marketers, it’s no surprise that many companies still use it.

The most significant problem with last-click is that it doesn’t give marketers a great understanding of their customers.

Most of the time, people who make purchases don’t base their decision only on the last touchpoint of the campaign, so giving credit to only the last clicked channel can be misleading.

This attribution model could be appropriate for commodities like laundry soap or a toilet bowl cleaner with very low involvement in the buying decision.

First-click

Opposite of the last-click attribution model, the first-click model gives the first point of engagement all of the credit for the conversion. 

Identifying that point is essential if a company wants to determine what method or strategy drives the most new customers.

Linear

This is where all of the attribution credit for a conversion is evenly throughout the entire campaign.

If multiple channels are pulling in conversions, this is a great model to look holistically at all channels simultaneously.

Over time, a marketer will see trends as to which channels are converting the most successfully.

Time Decay

Most marketers are really interested in conversions. So it’s vital to know which channels are delivering the most conversions regularly.

Time decay is helpful because it increases the credit given to each channel, which drives a customer closer to the actual conversion.

It’s an excellent method to understand which channels are driving conversions and which are, more often than not, top-of-funnel channels.

Position-Based

A campaign is launched that gets users from Google Ads onto a landing page. They go through the landing page to download an eBook. In exchange for the eBook, the user gives up their email address, which is added to a drip campaign. Miraculously, they convert on the first email sent.

This particular model gives partial credit to each of the points between the first and last clicks but gives most of the credit to the first and last points of the campaign.

Data-Driven

Now for the mother load: the data-driven attribution model.

With all the other models, there have been weights set for individual channels that aren’t necessarily showing which of those attributions are having the most impact on conversions.

That’s where the data-driven model comes in.

Using technical algorithms and weighted credit, this model gives credit to the channels that are driving the most success in getting conversions.

Data-driven attribution is the most effective model in identifying which channels are a waste of time or are driving conversions and increasing ROI.

Advertise Online With Pintler Group

Pintler Group is based in Missoula, Montana. We’re a performance-based marketing shop with expertise in paid search, paid social, email marketing management and retargeting. Our superpower is designing customer marketing solutions for mid-size clients looking to grow.

Marketing Techniques Perfect for Fall

Road surrounded by fall trees.

As the person in charge of marketing your small business, it can be easy to fall into a rut of doing the same marketing every day, all year round. You might be using the same copy and sticking to familiar channels day in and day out, but the quick approach of the holidays is a great time to mix things up to gain new customers, followers and fans.  Here are a few, simple ways you can change your marketing plan to fit the season. 

Fall leaves, pumpkin and socks

Seasonal Products

Once you see Starbucks start to promote their Pumpkin Spice Latte, you know it’s time to jump into fall. As seen with this special, seasonal drink, people are so excited about the changing of the seasons and the start of sweater weather. Take advantage of this excitement by offering a seasonal product or simply making a seasonal twist to one of your products. This might be a new flavor, a new color or a new service specific to the needs of your customers in the fall. 

Where Your Customers Are

Chances are, your customers aren’t on the ski hill quite yet, but they also aren’t spending as much time on the beach. Understanding how the weather and season affects your customers location, both physically and digitally, can help you reach them more effectively. For example, your customers might be college students who are heading back to school for the year or stay-at-home moms who are spending more time on Pinterest looking for Halloween costumes. Recognizing the location and attention of your customers allows you to create relevant ads, place them on platforms they are using and geotarget their physical locations. 

Coffee Shop

How Your Customers Feel

As I mentioned above, fall is full of strong emotions. Some people might feel cozy with their chunky sweater and apple cider, some might feel spooky with their Halloween decor and pop-culture costume, while others might feel dread with the promise of winter around the corner. Understanding your specific customers and how they feel about fall can help you speak their language in your digital marketing efforts. It also allows you to easily address the pain points and fears your product or service is designed to fix. 

Nurture the Giving Spirit

Fall also brings around feelings of generosity and thankfulness as holidays like Thanksgiving sneak up on us. One way you can use these happy feelings to impact your marketing efforts is by partnering with other companies. Once you find a company who has a similar customer base as you, consider partnering up to host a giveaway to your audiences.  Another way to use these feelings to impact your marketing efforts is to make your product or service an easy and desirable gift.  Maybe you give a free $5 gift card for every $20 gift card purchased, or maybe you offer a unique gift wrapping option. 

Creating a Marketing Plan Perfect for the Season

Whether you decide to offer a seasonal product, partner with other local businesses or offer gift incentives, creating a marketing plan specific to the fall season is an important way to grow your business. It is estimated that over $1 trillion is spent on Christmas gifts each year in America alone. By segmenting your marketing based on demographic, location, and yes, season: you’ll stand out and gain a competitive advantage from the marketers of the world that set it and forget it. If you have any questions, be sure to reach out to our team! 

Digital Marketing in Montana

Sunset over mountains.

From the towering Rocky Mountains of the west to the rolling plains in the east, Montana is a beautiful state home to wonderful people and thriving businesses. Montana residents take pride in their slower-than-the-coast way of life and love to support small businesses. When it comes to marketing to these 1 million residents, here are three things to keep in mind.

 

Montana Landscape

No. 1: Montanans Love Local Businesses

Montana is a state full of small, local businesses and supportive consumers who do their best to purchase from these local businesses. When marketing to these consumers, focus on how buying from your company will support other Montanans. Here are a few ways you can do this:

  • Highlight local employees on social media to share how a purchase directly impacts a real Montanan.
  • Use words like “Montana Made,” “Locally Sourced” and “proud Montanans” in your copy and advertisements to relate to your audience. 
  • If you use local materials or ingredients to build a product, share where they are from and why you chose to support that brand.

Partner with other local businesses to host events or giveaways to show you are serious about supporting other Montanans yourself.

 

Boutique Interior

No. 2: Montanans are Diverse

Montana is home to city dwellers and rural ranchers alike. The state is also home to 7 Indian reservations and many unique cultural pockets, such as the Irish population in Butte. Because of this, marketing campaigns targeting Montanans can not be one-size-fits-all. Here are a few ways you can appeal to the diversity of Montana in your marketing:

  • Know who your target customer is and where they are likely to live. If you are targeting college students, spend more of your time marketing in Missoula and Bozemen, while if you are targeting ranchers you might want to exclude the larger cities from your marketing.
  • Take some time to learn about the cultures in Montana and represent them respectfully in your website copy, social media posts and advertisements. 
  • Use a website geopersonalization software to show relevant information to relevant website visitors. 

 

Old Barn

No. 3: Montanans are Spread Out

With over 147,000 square miles and just over one million people, there are only seven people per square mile in Montana. Many Montanans have to travel an hour or more to get to their nearest shopping mall or big-box store. This means that when these people trek into town to shop they likely won’t be back for a while. It also means that online orders are growing in popularity as companies begin to deliver more frequently to rural areas. Here are a few ways you can address this unique situation in your marketing:

  • Be straightforward about your locations and shipping abilities so Montanans know what to expect when buying your product. 
  • If your target customers live in a rural area, put effort into marketing in their area so you are sure to be on their shopping list next time they go into town. 

Create partnerships with small grocery stores, gas stations and other rural businesses so your product is easier to purchase.

Marketing in Montana

From loving local businesses to embracing diversity and long drives to the grocery store, Montanans are quite a unique group to market to. Here at Pintler Group we love marketing in Montana and are proud to call ourselves residents of the state. With a small office in central Missoula and clients all over the Big Sky State, we are the team you want to work with when choosing a marketing firm who knows and understands the unique Montana market.

Tourism Marketing: Tracking Actions

Woman being photographed in front of hundreds of hot air balloons.

You’ve taken the time to brainstorm, strategize, and build your digital campaign. You’re now able to see how people are interacting with your ads. But what about the campaigns that drive traffic to your website? Ever curious about what actions users who clicked on ads are taking?

Tracking actions, such as button clicks or form submission, on your website can inform you a lot about web visitors. It signals an activation of interest in your services or products. To track actions, you will want to have a Google Tag Manager account. Tags are segments of code that you can configure and track actions like button clicks. With tags, you can track how many times a button for Australia trips is clicked or see how far down on a Travel Package page a user scrolls down.

This article will focus on how to track a form in Google Tag Manager and how to monitor the tracking in Google Analytics.

Form Tracking in Google Analytics

Step 1: Create new tag

  • Under Tag Configuration, select Google Analytics: Universal Analytics tag type
  • Track Type: Event
  • Event Tracking Parameters: Here you will create how Google will identify the tag. What you put into these fields will be how to find this tag in Analytics, so make sure it is clear what you are tracking.

  • Under Google Analytics Settings, select your Google Analytics Tracking Variable.
    • If you don’t have one set up in Tag Manager, select New Variable on the drop-down list. Name the variable “Google Analytics Tracking ID” and add the tracking code to the Tracking ID field. To find the tracking code, open a new tab and go to Analytics, Admin Settings, Property Settings, Tracking Info, and select Tracking Code.

Step 2: Create new trigger

  • Select Form Submission as the trigger
  • Select Some Forms
  • Here is where you determine how the trigger will fire. For form submissions, there are a few ways to accomplish this. One way is to find the form ID within the web page code.
    • Open a new tab and navigate to the page that has the form you want to track. Right click on the form and click on Inspect. This will open up the site code. You want to search for where the code refers to the form. It should be encompassed within a <form> section.
    • Look for id = “contact_form ” or class = “contact-form” that falls within the <form> section
    • Copy the text within the “ ”

    • Set the trigger to fire whenever the Form ID contains “contact_form”

  • If you don’t see any Form variables, you will need to enable variables in the list of built-in variables. To do so, click on Variables on the left sidebar, click on the Configure button under the Built-In Variables section, and select the variables you would like to turn on.

Step 3: Testing the Tag

  • Go back to the Tag Manager Dashboard
  • Click on the Preview button on the top right – this puts your browser into Debug Mode

  • Open the web page with the form you want to track in a new tab
    • A second window should pop up on the bottom half of the web page. If not, then there is an issue with the way the Analytics tag was set up.
  • Test the tag by filling out the form and checking to see if the tag moves from the Not Fired section to the Tags Fired section

Step 4: Publish

  • After testing successfully, click on the Publish button (next to the Preview button) and write a description of the tag. Now tracking is live on the form!

Step 5. Create Goal in Analytics

  • In Analytics, click on the Admin Settings button (looks like a gear switch) on the bottom left sidebar
  • Select the correct Account, Property, and View where you want to create and track the goal. Under View, click on the Goals option.

  • Create a new Goal
    • Select Custom
    • Name your Goal
    • Select Event as your Goal Type
    • Goal Details is where you add the details for the tag you created. It is case sensitive so make sure that you input the exact information on the tag to the goal.
      • Keep the Event Value as Conversion turned on

Step 6. Monitoring After Tag is Live

  • Under Behavior, click on Events > Overview
  • Here you can monitor your new tag. Click on Event Label to identify the form and see how often the form is submitted.

Tourism Marketing: How To Find Qualified Audiences

View of sunset and plane wing from plane window.

You dove into the data and you read the industry reports. You talked to existing customers and got their feedback. It’s clear that you’ve done the research into determining who to market your travel destination services to. This now begs the question: how do you target these individuals digitally?

 

Digital marketing platforms, such as Google and Facebook, make it easy to target ads to your ideal audiences. This guide is designed to explain the targeting options available and how to acquire qualified customers through strategic targeting.

 

Google Audience Targeting

As of 2019, Google controls about 75% of search share on the internet. For those using Google Ads, paid ads convert 50% better than organic search results. It’s safe to say that Google Ads is a powerful platform for targeting ads and reaching the right people at the right time. 

 

Google has spent many years improving and adding features to Ads, and its targeting options are no exception. Allowing for more options than just demographics, Google Ads can also help hone on interests and behaviors of potential customers.

 

Search Network

  • Affinity Audiences: What the user’s interests and habits are. This option focuses on patterns and behaviors of the user, such as noticing when someone travels a lot for work. Tourism-specific options include:
    • Business Travelers
    • Travel Buffs

 

  • In-Market Audiences: What users are actively researching or planning. Adding this audience option allows for your ads to potentially be shown to those seeking related services. Possible audiences for tourism agencies to focus on that fall under in-market include:
    • Air Travel
    • Bus & Rail Travel
    • Car Rental
    • Cruises
    • Hotel & Accommodations (include or exclude vacation rentals)
    • Trips by Destination (this option allows for you to break down by country, region, and major city)

 

  • Remarketing: How the user has interacted with your business. This option focuses on retargeting those who have already visited your website or have had some contact with your brand.

 

Display and Video Network

In addition to the audience options available on the Search Network, display and video ads also have the following option:

  • Custom Intent Audiences: Similar to in-market audiences, custom intent allows for you to compile a list of keywords related to your industry, brand, and services. These keywords can include ones you are not bidding on, as well as your paid keywords. 

 

Linked Sources

If your website is set up on Google Analytics, this can be another valuable source for remarketing audiences. When selecting the remarketing option in Ads, you can choose to select the audience from your Ads source or your Analytics source, therefore pulling from a pool of organic or paid traffic users.

 

Facebook Audience Targeting

With 2.5 billion monthly active users worldwide, Facebook is an almost unlimited source of potential customers. Similar to Google Ads, Facebook Ads allow you to target users based on demographics, such as age, location, and gender. However, it offers its own unique targeting options that provide you the opportunity to reach qualified prospects from another angle.

 

Custom Audiences

I consider this to be one of their best features for targeting. Facebook allows you to upload your customer lists directly and target based on personal information, like email addresses and phone numbers. With custom audiences built in Facebook, you can retarget existing customers, exclude existing subscribers when running campaigns for new subscribers, and expand your reach by including a custom audience.

 

Lookalike Audiences

An option only available thanks to Facebook’s matching algorithm, a lookalike audience is built off a custom audience and finds users that are most similar to it. Simple to set up, Facebook will give you the option to adjust the “broadness” of the audience from a range of 1% to 10%. The lower the percentage, the more strict the lookalike audience will be identifying similar users. The higher, the broader and wider the audience will be.

Detailed Targeting

Facebook Ads have the advantage to better target users based on personal information since Facebook provides users a platform to follow, create and share personal content. Detailed targeting can include a user’s job title, company, what pages they follow, life events, behavior, and more. Here you can create an audience based on the personas you uncovered in your research.

 

Suggestions for targeting travelers using this option can include:

  • Followers of Facebook pages of competitors
  • Those who recently returned from traveling
  • Followers of travel-related Facebook pages

 

 

And there you have it! Now you can take the next step of reaching a more qualified audience by using any of these targeting options available through Google Ads and Facebook Ads.

Tourism Marketing: Getting Started with Data

Kayakers on an alpine lake surrounded by rocky mountains.

When vetting a new digital marketing scope, it’s common practice for us to always start by conducting research. It’s one thing to sit down and identify what the goals and objectives are of a campaign. It’s another to identify and develop personas of existing consumers in order to target a likely-to-convert audience. When faced with a scope specific to the tourism industry, we want to focus on understanding those who are currently paying to travel and visit specific destinations. This understanding of existing consumers can help expand into uncovering new markets of opportunity based on similar behavior and demographics.

 

So how can one uncover and support these markets with data? You analyze data sources you have access to, draw insights from existing audiences and develop strategies geared towards reaching these personas. 

 

Don’t Sleep on Descriptive Statistics

 

First things first – let’s look at the basics of data analysis. If you’ve ever taken a statistics course, there’s a good chance that you are familiar with what descriptive statistics are. If it’s been a hot minute, then here’s a quick rundown on what exactly descriptive statistics are.

 

As the name implies, a descriptive statistic is a single term that quantitatively describes, or summarizes, a piece of data. The plural form of descriptive statistics refers to the process of analyzing those statistics to learn about a  sample of data. The most common descriptive statistics derived from raw data include: mean, median, mode, count and standard deviation. 

 

When it comes to analyzing data, using descriptive statistics can really help paint a quick picture of the sample data. For example, say we have a data set on the demographics of those who have worked with a US tourism agency in the past five years. By getting descriptive statistics of certain fields, such as age or gender, we can see quickly what characteristics stand out and whether they appear to be a population more susceptible to using tourism agency services.

 

Where to Find Data Sources

Next, how do we find the right data sources? If you have access to your agency’s database, then great! You’re ready to dive into the data through a program of your choice.

 

If you don’t have access to internal data, then this next step may be a bit of a challenge. Depending on the industry, this can be either a very easy or a very difficult thing to accomplish. Data privacy is a concern that everyone is invested in and isn’t always available to the public, which can make it hard to find raw information on the industry. 

 

Thankfully, a lot of industries already do the work for you and often release reports that are available for the public to peruse. Statista is a great source for data across a number of industries, including tourism in the United States. These reports can get you started on the right path of identifying audiences in the industry.

 

Other sources for public data sets include: 

  • Census data. This can be a great place to start if you’re researching opportunities within the United States population.
  • US Government data. Covering a wide range of industries, this website contains a ton of data to analyze.

 

 

Use Your Digital Sources: Paid Search + Social Media

If you are using Google Analytics on your website, then you already have access to a valuable pool of data. Ranging from information on the audience of web visitors to specific actions taken on web pages, the amount of insights you can draw from this data source is incredible. If linked correctly, Analytics can help you dive further into your Google Ads campaign data. This allows you to understand where and how web visitors are being driven to your website.

 

The amount of data available in Analytics can quickly have you lose track of time going through each tab on the sidebar. To avoid getting overwhelmed, we prefer to connect this source with a data visualization tool, such as Google Data Studio or Tableau. These types of tools provide a better overview and allow for quick analysis.

 

Another valuable source of data falls under the realm of social media. If you have a Facebook or Instagram business account for your organization, then you have access to Insights. In the platform itself, you have the ability to browse data about your followers. From this source, you can see how your followers engage with your page, followers’ reactions to posts, where they are from, and more. As with Analytics data, you can take this data one step further and connect it with a data visualization tool. 

 

 

Data Visualization

Considering that our agency uses Google Suite programs, it’s no surprise that Google Data Studio is our data viz tool of choice. What’s great about Data Studio is its ability to seamlessly connect with a number of internal and external sources of data and blend sources painlessly. 

 

 

With this tool, you can build visually appealing and insightful reports that can answer questions about your existing audience quickly. Consider the following image. We can quickly see a snapshot of where our followers are, thus prompting us to consider expanding our efforts to these markets.  

 

 

Still not convinced? Try for yourself using one of our simple web traffic report templates.

Step 1. Go to this template report .

Step 2. Click on the Duplicate icon on the top right and on the pop up, select Copy Report.

Step 3. Select any graph and under the Data tab on the right side panel, click on the [Sample] Google Analytics data source, and click on the Create New Data Source at the bottom to connect to your Analytics data.