Have you ever attended a conference and learned some amazing new tools, tactics, tips and ideas and were excited to get back to the office and share them with your co-workers? Our commander in Chief, Todd Meisler, recently attended Blitz University, which was led by Facebook Guru’s Dennis Yu and Alex Houg. He returned with pages and pages of notes he wanted implemented and tested here at ZD Design.
The first task was for Todd to teach me Dennis’ Viral Cycle and implement it in our marketing as well as one of our clients’. The cycle boils down to a 5 Step process and the key is, if one of the five steps is weak, or isn’t implemented, the process will fail. No pressure, right?
Goals – Content – Target – Amplify – Analyze
So, along with proving to the boss man that I can pull this off, why don’t I blog about it too? Here is part one of a 4-part series on how to implement the Blitz University Viral Cycle!
Okay, Dennis, Alex and Todd…. Here I go! My marketing cycle will primarily focus on the use of landing pages and Facebook ads to meet determined goals. I chose to work on the viral cycle campaign for a client in the sporting goods industry who sells a rotary fly tying vise called Norvise. The Norvise was designed by avid fly tier and research engineer, Norm Norlander and is known for not only turning the hook, but also for spinning the hook in perfect alignment on the axis of rotation, so fly tiers can tie flies better and faster.
This post, naturally, will start with the first step of the viral cycle: goal setting based on the MAA (Metrics-Analysis-Action) method. This is a way to determine and refine goals by analyzing the numbers and data and determining clear solutions. As Dennis says, “if you don’t have a goal, all roads look as good as any other.”
Here are the tools I am using to begin the goal setting process.
Step 1: Review Current Statistics (for Measurement in step 5)
1. Analytics.
Review traffic from social, Adwords, page views, bounce rate, behavior flow, and page drilldowns.
The Good: *Facebook Traffic: Bounce rate is low, session duration good, multiple pages visited good.
*The Bad: The number of sessions and traffic to website from Facebook is low.
2. Audience Insights in Facebook.
By inputting general information I use for normal targeting such as age, location, and basic interests and input them into Audience Insights to determine any demographic goals. Audience Insights will be a much bigger tool for the Targeting step of the cycle.
3. E-Commerce.
Reviewed sales for the previous 3 months and the previous year, with a focus on; average sales amount, average items sold in each order, products sold, and top sellers.
4. Facebook Page.
Review and document how many followers there are as of July 1st.
5. Email List.
Reviewed current email list performance and the number of subscribers and segmentation.
6. Current Content.
Review current content used and determine if any is viable for use in the campaign.
Step 2: ZD Staff Meeting & Client Consultation
1. Review all above data with ZD Design Agency marketing team. Determine which areas of marketing to focus on and which goals will be most beneficial to client goals.
2. Discuss & diagnose current pain points (or issues) and goals with the client. Nail down specific targeted goals for the campaign.
3. Send client their checklist of items to complete and follow during the campaign.
4. Marketing Calendar. Set the budget and time frame of the campaign.
Step 3: Goal Setting
1. Increase sales by 30% on the Norvise.
2. Increase sales by 30% on Bundle.
3. Grow Opt-In Email list by 10%.
4. Reach Fly Tyer Groups for Brand Awareness.
5. Gain Facebook fan likes. Goal: 3,000 likes to page.
How am I going to reach these goals? Stay tuned….. I’ll be sharing Step 2 of the viral cycle which is content development in part 2 of this article series.
