Back for another year, the 2016 Canadian Internet Marketing Conference (CIMC) will feature a powerhouse line-up of more than 30 of the world’s top minds and movers of the digital marketing industry. FreshGigs.ca got the awesome opportunity to have a pre-conference brain-picking sesh with each of the keynote speakers and panelists. Today’s Q & A is with Melissa Mewdell, Marketing Manager at O2E Brands.
What exactly does reporting digital marketing entail? Why should the public be interested in it?
Reporting on digital marketing entails tying dollars spent (usually on driving traffic of achieving impressions) to results achieved (sales, leads, other actions taken online), and ultimately, revenue earned from those results. When you say “the public,” you mean “the type of people attending the conference,” yes? In that sense, they should care about reporting on digital marketing because strategic reporting will ensure a few things:
(a) that all areas of opportunity are highlighted and monitored
(b) that you can justify continued spend on your initiative
(c) that your stakeholders are managed well – they understand that their investment has worked to grow the business, and they are happy with your work
Reporting digital marketing sounds very mathematical and analytical. What aspects of it would you say are fun and user-friendly?
Reporting is about results. You might need to do math and analysis to understand your results, but there are infinite ways to present data, and usually creating and delivering presentations is fun and creative. We like to have fun with our presentations at O2E Brands, especially in our quarterly meetings with our CEO and COO, and with our regional and kickoff meetings with our franchise partners.
Giving customers what they want, through using the data they provide to you, can improve the user experience on your website, and your conversion funnel, removing obstacles from your customers.
Normally analytics are recorded and reported to clients. What, if any, value is there in sharing this information with customers (members of the general public)?
At O2E Brands, we are in the business of selling franchises in any of our four franchise systems: 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, You Move Me, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING, and Shack Shine. Most of our value propositions to potential franchisees have to do with the competencies of our head office staff and the expertise, specifically, on the marketing team.
To that end, I have been working on some initiatives at the company to share some of our traffic and conversion stats with prospective franchisees during the sales process to highlight the work we are already doing in their market before they even launch the business – showcasing our expertise through our results in a way that is meaningful to them.
If your data backs up your expertise, and can show a potential customer why they should choose you, you should use it (if it’s legal to do so). 🙂
However, from my experience, it is often not legal, or advisable, to share your data with the general public since it’s the property of the company and does’t do much good in the hands of a competitor under most circumstances.
What’s the best way to use analytics tools to facilitate customer engagement? How can companies best encourage media-savvy customers to engage with them in the digital realm without appearing to be manipulative?
I would say that we use our analytics data to better target our content and our ads to our customers’ preferences and search behaviour (on our consumer side). On our franchise development side, we’re engaging in customized email campaigns and remarketing, which allows us to display ads to people who have already visited our web properties – a branding play. Are these tactics manipulative? I don’t think so; giving customers what they want, through using the data they provide to you, can improve the user experience on your website, and your conversion funnel, removing obstacles from your customers. There isn’t anything wrong with that.
What are some of the fun ways in which you can distill and use analytics data?
On our consumer-facing side, we use our data to manage the expectations of our franchise partners. Without it, we’d be fighting a war of opinions. I think integral analytics helps keep the peace, and keep business moving forward. You never want the highest ranking opinion in the room to rule – you want the data to ultimately make decisions.
Melissa Mewdell’s work in online marketing, content strategy, and analytics have taken her from the cut-throat online gaming industry, to the team that redesigned and re-launched the City of Vancouver website, to her current role as Marketing Manager at O2E Brands, the umbrella organization for such world-class brands as 1-800-GOT-JUNK?, You Move Me, WOW 1 DAY PAINTING! and Shack Shine. A steadfast innovator, Melissa has lead initiatives to remodel how O2E Brands thinks about reporting results, resulting in new opportunities for system-wide growth.
The CIMC runs April 14-15, 2016 at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park in Squamish BC, Canada. For more conference and ticket info, click here.