Article
Taking the guesswork out of an online campaign
Experts offer insights and tips on how to build a successful digital marketing program.
August 25, 2009
Gold Star Chili has relied for years on local broadcast and outdoor advertising to reach its customers. Now, the small Cincinnati-based chain is adding online marketing to extend its reach.
"Digital marketing campaigns are a trend that can't be ignored," said Charlie Howard, Gold Star's marketing director. "We are looking to reallocate 10–15 percent of our traditional advertising budget to digital media in the year to come."
Gold Star is developing company-wide online campaigns, but in the future, foresees individual operators coming up with their own e-mail and social media campaigns. The company's latest effort is an online dance video contest pitting two local high schools against each other.
Howard said the company finds digital marketing especially helpful for those stores outside its main market areas where it's not cost-effective to purchase traditional media on such a small scale. "It allows us to increase our brand footprint (overall) and gives us the tolls to better support our outer markets."
As much potential as the company sees in online campaigns, Gold Star is aware of the drawbacks due to the nature of technology — and its own adoption process.
"Rapidly changing technology, applications and trends may make a new digital medium already obsolete by the time we are able to fully embrace it," Howard said.
Online marketing evens it out
Gold Star is one of many small brands finding that digital campaigns suddenly even the advertising playing field.
"They have the ability to compete with anyone on a particular query or search term," said Sam Sebastian, director of local and business-to-business markets for Google Inc. "All of a sudden, it's a little more even."
Sebastian said he has seen quick-service restaurants and their creative agencies increasingly test online advertising campaigns as brands try "to do more with less and track a lot of accountability of their marketing dollars." A number of tools and technologies provide nearly immediate results on number of impressions and other metrics.
QSRs are increasingly offering downloadable coupons and special offers as consumers are using the Web more to make dining choices, he said. And the campaigns include a mix of tactics, from geographically targeted search and display ads to YouTube and social media.
ROI in online marketing
Greg Weyman, director, digital integration for Strata-G Communications, said one of the key benefits of an online campaign is the data that naturally results, allowing companies to test the campaigns more quickly than traditional media.
"Digital campaigns can essentially serve as the data collector for any offline campaign," he said. "Because of the real-time metrics available for any digital component, the name of the game is 'test, test, test' to really see what is validated with a response."
Strata-G pairs online campaigns with traditional — or offline — marketing for its clients. The online component becomes a way to test consumer response to various offers, promotions and even new menu items by the way they react online, such as through downloads or online redemptions.
The offline campaign's goal is to create or increase awareness while the online program should spark consumer engagement or involvement, Weyman said.
Traditional marketing is a "one-way, outbound communication," he said. But online, QSRs can connect with their super fans and empower them to become advocates for the brand. Digital campaigns should allow the brand to connect with those fans to seek their point of view — and lend to their spreading their opinion as well as the special offer virally.
"Online isn't about awareness but the power of the positive review and opinion," he said.
A number of online tactics and tools are available to QSRs, and here's what marketing and industry experts had to say about them:
The value of search
Google and other search engine companies push the value of keyword search campaigns. With Google, companies bid weekly on specific search terms in an auction format, with the winners earning the top three slots in the search results page.
John Tedstrom, director, insight and strategy for direct marketing agency hawkeye, said chains with a small online presence will likely have to conduct paid search campaigns. But as their online presence grows and more visitors click on their Web site, companies will find their site ranks higher in organic searches.
"So you need to watch where you are (in search results) and build your content and try to get other sites linking to your sites," Tedstrom said. "As you do that and start raising your ranking naturally, you can start backing off your paid search."
Strata-G's Weyman, however, believes paid search is not as important for QSRs because consumers tend to know the chain they are searching for online.
"So they search branded terms because they want to find a location or proximity, special offer, menu item, etc.," Weyman said. "Unlike other verticals, it's a convenience or craving purchase in QSR, and a search engine is never going to make a decision for the user" such as searching "cheeseburger" when looking for someplace to eat.
Online local search campaigns
Targeted search campaigns should include a call-to-action, such as coupons, messages for local restaurants or invitations to sign up for e-mail clubs. Here are the various types and tips for making the most out of them:
- Key-word based location — searching for "Dallas restaurants" or "restaurants near Coors Field." Hawkeye's Tedstrom recommends a restaurant's Web site content uses proximity to neighborhood landmarks as well as popular category names, such as Italian, Mexican or burger.
- IP-based location in desktop search — search engine infers user's location from his computer's IP address. For example, a search for restaurants by a user in Dallas will result in display ads targeted to that city. Sebastian recommends brands create search campaigns that use key terms from national broadcast messaging to drive online consumers to local store special offers.
- Location-focused content aggregators — food blogs or restaurant locators, such as Deal Chime, Citysearch, Zagat, Urbanspoon. Sebastian recommends brands use IP-based location campaigns to post display or banner ads on these sites.
- Customer-identified communications — use cookies to identify repeat visitors to a brand's Web-site. Theron, president of software provider PostClick, says his company has custom-built technology that offers coupons for local stores based on individual's past behavior.
- Demographic-focused campaigns — banner ads placed on sites known to be frequented by a target demographic. Krystal, for example, recently launched a banner ad campaign for its new Blitz energy drink on gaming sites. Brian Hemsworth, president of marketing and brand consulting firm Newman Grace Inc., recommends such ads had immediate relevancy. "'Free' and 'win' worked for decades in direct mail and work now on the Web," he said.
Tips, trends and tools:
Run two — Hemsworth also recommends: "Never run a single Internet ad . . . always run two. This mantra means always test offers against one another, keeping the best as the control."
Technographics — Hemsworth, an adjunct faculty member of Pepperdine University who teaches advertising media, said a new trend is targeting customers by a chosen technology. "My university students buy things based on Internet offers, mobile phone ads and Twitter 'specials.' They don't listen to radio, don't read newspapers and wouldn't know a Yellow Pages if it hit them in the head."
Versioned campaigns — Instead of recreating the wheel, take advantage of tech tools to reversion a national campaign for a location-based search offer. Smart Versioning by Eyeblaster allows marketers to easily modify images, text, video, sound and languages to turn a national campaign into a local online offer.
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