Steve Hammer, president and co-founder of Rankhammer, a Dallas-based Internet marketing agency, took the stage next to share his four tips for survival in a digital marketing landscape.
Here are your takeaways:
-
Start with a goal.
“This is the first and most important thing,” Steve said. And likes and followers are not a great goal.
“Facebook likes don’t really matter. it’s somebody walking by a window in a business sense, and smiling,” he said. Though it makes them pause and take notice of you, the impression doesn’t last and doesn’t always lead to actionable results. First and foremost, relate your goal to your core business: what is it that you do?
“If you lose sight of that and just take an easy metric, you are missing the point,” Steve said. “Immediacy is not the goal here; long-term value is.” -
You need a central data source.
Again, this is not going to be Facebook or Twitter. Facebook and Twitter, Steve said, give very isolated metrics. Twitter metrics only help you get better at Twitter. Facebook metrics only help you get better at Facebook. These are both very different from understanding what actually happens to your business. You want to get people to your site.
“The moment you get them to your site, that’s where your magic happens,” Steve said.
Put links in everything you do that lead back to your site. Boosting your post on Facebook will keep the user on Facebook, but won’t drive them to your site. -
It’s easy to look and say everyone is the same – but they’re not.
Your segments don’t have to be advanced – segmenting simply allows you to make instant comparisons. One way to do this is cohorting. This means watching people who started on day one, to see what happens with them on day three – regardless of when their day one was.
-
Recognize the assists.
Everyone remembers the quarterback who threw the winning touchdown – but what about the other players who contributed? People have a tendency to only notice the last click that sealed the deal, Steve said, which is a major mistake.
“Of course it was the last click, that’s the whole point,” Steve said. “But what got them there in the first place?”
Social media is rarely going to be the “last click” but often introduces people into the channel.
To read more about Steve visit his bio page. To connect with Steve, follow him on Twitter or LinkedIn, or visit the Rankhammer website.
