Have I got a Deal for You: A Bridge in the Sonora Desert

When the yellow page, TV station or local newspaper comes to you with a digital marketing campaign, ask yourself some questions before signing up. And get some answers to those questions, most of which you should be able to answer for yourself, before you meet with the sales rep or agree to anything. Don't let that advertising salesperson pat you on the back only to apply that piece of paper that says, 'kick me'.

What is your goal? Is it impressions (how many people see the ad), clicks to a page on your website, number of leads or something else?

In some cases you may already have the analytics in place to measure ad success so you won't have to rely solely on the reports the advertiser provides. But in any event, have a clear, measurable goal in mind for the campaign before you start discussing what the campaign will consist of.

Is the advertising campaign redundant? Are you already paying for a resource that you are not leveraging?

We see this often, particularly where social media posting is concerned. Check with your current vendors and providers and see if they have a similar program that you aren't taking advantage of or are taking advantage of but have forgotten about.

Who is your audience? Can the advertiser reasonably reach this audience?

A banner ad on AOL might not be the best place to get in front of Millennials, for example.

On the topic of audience...be specific and define your target using attributes that can be reasonably used as filters, that is, data that is available. Some examples in the personal insurance arena:

• Income
• Age (don't be too broad - think in terms of generations)
• Education
• Home ownership
• Home value

Some examples in the business insurance arena:

• Business Type (SIC code)
• Number of employees
• Annual revenue

Generally speaking, using an insurance product to define your market will be too broad for you to really evaluate the likely success of an ad campaign. Almost everyone needs auto insurance for example but not every generation thinks about or shops for car insurance the same way. Similarly, underwriting guidelines are usually not good attributes for defining your target audience and many attributes, such as credit score, are not readily available to advertisers.

What is the geographic area you want to penetrate with your message?

Digital advertising often permits a high degree of control over where viewers live or ply their trade and often a concentrated campaign in a smaller geographic area can be more effective than a campaign covering a large geography.

What is your message? Does it meet a perceived need or do you need to educate to create the perception of need?

Will the ad campaign create that perception or lead prospects to educational material that will create that demand? If you need to educate, you may need to prepare some blog posts or videos and lead prospects and use the ad to lead prospects to your educational content.

What is your call to action? Does it stand out clearly on your advertising collateral? Can you fulfill it?

Too often we see digital ads with multiple logos that are impossible to decipher on a mobile device with either no call to action or one that can't be fulfilled (like 'Learn More' with no link to any informational content). By the way, your website home page is almost always a horrible landing page for almost any digital ad campaign.

Who is your competition? Will they also have ads that rotate or display alongside yours? Are they well known, well funded and technically sophisticated?

If answers to questions like these are yes then you will really need to come up with what sets your insurance apart from this competition. If you can't, this might be a good time to walk away this ad campaign.

What other advertising and marketing campaigns are you running now? Will this one reinforce, contradict, or be irrelevant to those other campaigns?

Often, there is an opportunity to create cross-campaign synergies with a little coordination.

What is your time frame? Will this be a one-time campaign, something that runs continuously or something that runs intermittently?

Campaigns that appear to be unsuccessful may just require a little tweaking or the creation of a missing element (see blog post or video above). Setting clear objectives up front and identifying how you will measure goal achievement are crucial here.