By Yogeeta Chainani
In today’s fast-paced lifestyles, consumers are quick to modify and alter their spending habits overnight which in turn makes consumer trends extremely dynamic in nature. This vicious cycle demands digital marketers to not only adapt to such behavioral changes but at the same time also requires them to be able to help their brands navigate through different business scenarios including testing periods of a funding stalemate or resource re-allocations.
As we move ahead in 2024, marketers more than ever need to monitor the allocated finances to curtail the impact of the changing times- whether it’s driven by consumer trends or business operations. It is against this that partner marketing has come to the forefront. Let’s discuss some strategic steps that they can take.
Amidst a dynamic consumer-centric business environment digital marketers should evaluate whether to focus on short-term/interim or long-term lines of action on the sidelines of their digital marketing campaigns.
While focusing on increasing sales at a high speed as a natural short-term reaction to a situation of difficulty or changes could be pivotal for many businesses; marketers should refrain from switching an entire suite of offerings without having researched to understand the market and its consumers’ sentiments. Even while kick-starting promotions or offering discount coupons, marketers must ensure that there is no discrepancy between what their brand stands for and the value it offers to its end consumers. All in all, they should focus on giving a push to brand awareness and loyalty among consumers to ensure recall once the period of business stalemate ends.
If a situation demands, marketers must readapt data-driven decisions
Continuous analysis of real-time data allows marketers to identify emerging trends and shifts in consumer preferences. These data insights act as a goldmine empowering them to swiftly re-calibrate their strategies which also helps in better optimization of resource allocation. Embracing experimentation and innovation to test hypotheses and iterate on approaches as a focused approach often helps in sailing past periods of unexpected tribulations. Equally important is to cultivate a data-driven mindset to ensure decisions are grounded in insights rather than assumptions. Marketers must work towards enhancing resilience and fostering long-term sustainability in the digital ecosystem through adaptive decision-making
Marketers should pay only for results in scenarios of rising digital ad rates.
According to reports, up by 108%, Google stands with the highest cost growth, followed by Facebook with a spike of 89%. When the results achieved go against initial expectations, marketers end up investing more to obtain notable results. Marketers should therefore opt for more sustainable strategies that involve them in paying once for the result, for instance, affiliate marketing. They can set affiliate commissions in advance and pay only for what an affiliate sells.
Data rules supreme and digital marketers must depend on data performance to evaluate what is working for them and what isn’t.
Digital marketers must make data-backed decisions. Data insights allow marketers to understand what is working, according to which they can take forward and consequently let go of certain strategies. They can partner with new-age innovative tracking and attribution platforms that offer solutions for martech tracking, campaign management, attribution, and marketing analytics. Such players can handhold brands to embark upon a partner program flawlessly and get affiliates and influencers to work together with them. Based on their KPIs, digital marketers can set a commission base which in turn gives them more freedom when pitted against conventional modes of advertising. A robust partner program is a better strategic call to elevate results at a time when main marketing channels are experiencing persistent price spikes. The need of the hour for digital marketers is to place their brand in multiple channels and evaluate strategies- something which they can achieve with partners.
The martech and ad tech landscape will continue to evolve. While being careful in utilizing their budgets, they must not forget to leverage a prudent blend of both immediate short and long-term goals to reap maximum ROI for their brands. Partner marketing will continue to remain effective and relevant for those brands that are committed to nurturing significant relationships with their customers.
The author is co-founder and CEO, Swaarm