Who, what and when: targeted, relevant and timely marketing

Back in April, we wrote about research from Bain & Company, in partnership with Google, focusing on the timing of marketing communications.

Now, writing for the Think with Google blog, Matt Lawson – Vice President of Ads Marketing at Google – gives a fresh perspective on the results. He also takes a deeper dive in to the results with an interview with Laura Beaudin, Partner at Bain & Company.

Matt begins: “leading marketers have found a way to truly get time on their side: they’re using technology and digital insights to help them be faster and smarter.”

Right person, right message, right time has always been a classic marketing maxim – but now marketers are able to integrate a plethora of data to adhere to this more than ever. Personas based on demographics – ‘lookalikes’ – are old hat. New data such as search terms, browsing behaviour and engagement are being added to the mix.

Laura explains why this might be an advantageous strategy in the current climate: “focusing only on demographics or lookalikes means you actually narrow your audience over time... To keep moving up the maturity curve and get more value, you have to find new ways to expand your audience efficiently.”

Integrating new forms of data capture appears to be a good route to audience expansion. In fact, marketing leaders – defined in the report as the top 20% of marketers – are 1.6x more likely to put a priority on integrating technology. This is allowing them to build a more comprehensive view of their customers.

However, with all this data, many marketers are identifying shortfalls in their creative work – without dazzling creative, the results simply won’t come. Laura comments: “people are starting to realize that if the copy is no good, even the best technology is no help… we’re coming back to a healthy balance of math and magic”.

With a blend of data wizardry and creative flair, marketers can make progress with audience expansion, creating better campaigns that are ultimately more effective over time.

To read Matt Lawson’s full interview with Laura Beaudin, head to: https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-resources/experience-design/relevant-timely-marketing/

To read the research report from Bain & Company, head to: https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/report-bain-marketing.pdf