6 KPIs of Responsible Digital Marketing Sigma: Ankoor Dasguupta

Authored by Ankoor Dasguupta, Vice President – Brand Solutions | Marketing | Special Projects, SHEROES

In this global zeitgeist of getting our message across to the consumers with the endeavour to reach them in their ‘moments’ and if possible, even while they are sleeping forms the pedestal to a successful campaign. Think – being able to do cognitive targeting of dreams, having a data base of dreams segmented into categories, duration, gender and how that dream may be able to take shape, influence the consciousness of that individual at their subconscious level, deeper persona traits and behaviour. I won’t be surprised if somewhere someone is thinking about this already.

Anyway, don’t go by the jargon of Sigma in the topic of this article. It is just to accentuate double impact of a marketing initiative as it has a value of 200 in Greek system of numerals.

In the 1989 movie, Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner plays the role of an Iowa farmer who hears voices that tell him, “If you build it, he will come.” From these voices, he understands that he should build a baseball field on his farm. He does this, and soon the ghosts of eight Chicago White Sox players that were banned from the 1919 World Series show up and start playing ball. I love this theory “If you build it, he will come.”

Having had the opportunity to see this dynamic ecosystem of advertising & marketing shape up since the past 2 decades, here are some of the Key Performance Indicators that may simplify some of the approaches. The good part is these are relatable, no rocket science, however, the not so good part, we tend to take our consumers, users for granted at times. Well, that too is because if a reason. We all are in a hyper connected, hyper-rush state of affairs and we avoid taking a step back to think many a times around not only the impact but the trigger.

KPI 1: Intent and Context before Content

This is where we would set the tone. Skipping this step is like skipping breakfast and directly doing lunch. Not good for us, not good for the consumer.

Every story, every campaign should start with being everyone in the team being cognizant of the Intent and context setting phase.

KPI 2: The Why of Things

WoT – well another acronym and jargon does not do harm I suppose. During all these years while working, there have been times when things would linger on while one question when posed, makes things so clear! And the question is – Why are we doing this? The catch is, the question is simple but makes all think for a unified direction.

KPI 3: Success Metric

What will be that one key success metric for the campaign. Defining this element is important at the initial planning stages of a marketing campaign. Here is also where choosing the right technologies will matter a lot for optimal traction and movement. In addition, the ecosystem should be more open to pilots and small experiments. The other day I took a sip of Red Bull Summer Edition. And guess what, I am buying more of these limited-edition cans.

KPI 4: Sentiment Analysis

SA is the computational treatment of opinions, sentiments and subjectivity of text. If done properly, social media sentiment analysis can improve your bottom line. I certainly don't want to be making business decisions based on 50% accuracy and I'm guessing you don't either. The study of sentiment analysis, if done properly, is exceptionally complex and is a field of study, not just a feature. Be it any aspect of marketing or social media, the ability to interpret human emotions, the significance of colours, mapping journeys is paramount for better chances of campaign success.

KPI 5: Trust and Responsibility

Even before marketing, building on the ‘voice’ and the ‘narrative’ builds a foundation. Whoever is reading this article, you are likely struggling with the usual challenges: generating leads, attracting new prospects, keeping existing customers, improving brand loyalty and boosting conversion rates, maximizing website rankings and likewise. While there are countless strategies and technologies to help address these challenges, securing your customers’ trust is an effective way to help address all of them at once. So, nurture credibility, personalize more, create evangelizers and fans. And yes ofcourse, more and more used cases or case studies along with taking every customer / user feedback seriously. We may not be always right, however, making ‘responsible marketing’ by shaping up ‘trust’ as pillars will only help.

KPI 6: Know your GIF

This one is my favourite. Be it any campaign or a campaign brief, if we can first visualize everything about it in one 300x250 LREC animated gif within 2 frames of 4 seconds gap with a clear CTA, the next steps become very simple. Just ask yourself one question ‘Is it compelling enough? Do try it once!

So, in this journey of life, as I keep saying, focus equally on Return on Relationship as Return on Investment. ROR before ROI. Even if you have few relationships, have meaningful ones that are high on quality and that means both sides feel happy to hear from each other every time., and that takes conscious effort to build. Dale Carnegie once explained “Personally I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I have found that for some strange reason, fish prefer worms. So, when I went fishing, I didn’t think about what I wanted. I thought about what they wanted. I didn’t bait the hook with strawberries and cream. Rather, I dangled a worm or grasshopper in front of the fish and said:” Wouldn’t you like to have that? “Why not use the same common sense when fishing for people?

To close this, keep going the extra mile and use time wisely. Not philosophy, this is reality. This moment will not come back. And that is exactly the reason why we all focus on ‘micro-moments’. Till the next moment, enjoy this moment! Have a great start to Gudi Padwa, Baisakhi, Bohag Bihu, Poila Boishakh, Ugadi, Vishu, Puthandu, Pana Sankranti, Cheti Chand. Best Wishes.

About the Author

A passionista at heart, Ankoor believes in the power of Energy & Energize. He brings with him a pedigree of 19 years across the full spectrum of print, digital, mobile, event productions along with C-Suite relationship. From Brand Solutions, marketing, operations, client servicing from processes design, change management, pilot project and evangelizing, Ankoor drives Return on Relationships. An avid writer and a speaker, having spoken at DMA Asia, Marketing Analytics Summit, IAMAI Mobile 10-X, 81st DMA CXO Roundtable, Guest Lecture at NIT Trichy, Ankoor is working with SHEROES as Vice President -Brands, Marketing & Special Projects. Ankoor’s philosophy of life is make it simple and let the element of humour be alive.