5 ways to aid campaign engagement

As media partner to some of the biggest B2B trade shows we get lots of opportunity to meet our online readership face to face. Equally as important, we also get to catch up with other exhibitors, a large volume of whom are advertising clients of ours - and last week's Learning Technologies event was no different.  Speaking to marketing managers from a range of leading B2B brands it appears there are common themes for discussion, most of which seem to be around optimising online engagement. The term 'engagement' has been a talking point in the online world for some time now, but the methods to get generate and measure engagement is evolving.
What follows is by no means a comprehensive list of the most important campaign considerations, but a highlight of recent conversations around engagement we've had with advertisers...

Improved insight for better targeting
One way that’s likely to improve the results of any campaign is to increase the accuracy of your targeting. For years we've delivered campaigns that reach direct to specific audience sectors through solutions like sponsorship of dedicated zones, ads around topical/annual industry events as well as targeted emails. While things like sponsorship of The Budget on our AccountingWEB site will always deliver great results, now, with the help of some of the latest applications, we can put your on-site creatives directly in front of professionals that have previously visited specific pages or searched for specific terms. Contact our campaigns team for more details.

Onsite creative continues to come of age
You don't have to spend much time looking around any of our titles to notice there are many subtle yet effective creative formats available these days.  Of course leader boards, sky scrapers and MPU ads make up the mainstay of onsite inventory across our titles (and continue to deliver strong results), but be a little more creative and you could see big differences in your click-through rate (more about CTR in next week’s blog). So whether you want your brand to dominate the whole background of a site (like this homepage takeover), you want something interactive like a survey or you want to gain intrigue with a peel-back that reveals more detail about your product, there are more options now than ever before.
And while we’re discussing formats… the digestion of video content online exploded in 2011 and with the ever growing use of tablets and smartphones it will prove to be a great engagement tool for brands into 2012.

Get mobile
Video may have been a big feature for online advertisers in 2011, but 2012 is to be the year of mobile advertising. With mobile specific sites for each of our titles already delivering a significant volume of traffic we’re really excited about the opportunities this will have for our advertisers this year. Whether as part of a standalone campaign or as part of an integrated cross-platform solution, mobile not only extends reach to those on the move, but is proven to engage better than any other online format (source).

Social integration
It feels as if B2B marketers have been talking about embracing social media for years, and frankly that’s because we have.  Things are slowly starting to mature however, with more structure behind corporate twitter feeds, greater alignment between business functions such as customer service and social platforms, and more consistent messaging between the marketing department and use of social media.
Last year some of the most successful campaigns hosted on Sift Media titles were those supported by the advertisers social channels. Examples include Yell’s Twitter promotion of The Pitch and Renault’s Facebook support of their Formula 1 campaign on BusinessZone.co.uk. This doesn't have to invovle a significant volume of additional activity for the advertiser - the integration of a few Teets or Facebook updates can have a noticeable impact.
Whatever size budget and however grand your campaign, using channels such as Twitter will not only help communicate your message, but also (managed well) will open two-way conversation with your prospects and nurture sales leads – at the very least it’s likely to gain your brand more followers or ‘likes’ for ongoing interaction!

Write for your specific audience
As something we’ve recommended to advertisers since we started in 1997 this one isn’t exactly ground breaking, but when it comes to engaging your audience online this will always make a difference. Whether you’re writing a 50 word insertion in an email bulletin, editing copy for a campaign landing page or even producing a detailed whitepaper, remember who you’re writing if for. Be careful with the use of jargon, consider the tone of your copy and how formal or informal it should be, and always remember to use an appropriate call to action. It may be that you already have a document to make available for prospects to download which you’ve used for a previous campaign, but take a read through and consider whether any content needs editing for the new audience.
This final area for campaign success warrants its own book, but for now I’d certainly recommend our recent blog ‘The power of words: Writing for the web’.

We'd love to hear your thoughts on any of the above so feel free to add your comments below. Alternatively if you'd like to know how we can help with your campaigns this year just drop us a line.