Data-driven creative. The secret sauce to driving conversions in Q4 and beyond

Digital solutions consultant at Incubeta, Calvin van Rensburg, shares nine key strategies to optimising the success of your digital marketing campaigns and help you thrive in this competitive landscape.

Making creative content count

As brands and marketers, our challenge is clear: how do we rise above the noise, captivate our audience, and drive conversions? The answer lies in the transformative power of your creative elements. These serve as the foundation to elevating your campaigns, fortifying your brand’s identity, sparking engagement, simplifying complex information, forging emotional connections, and delivering personalised experiences.

Tailoring your creative approach to your specific audience and cultural context is key to achieving meaningful engagement. This can be achieved by:

1. Storytelling with a local flavour: Share stories that resonate with your local audience. Highlight your brand's connection to your community and how it adds value to local customers. Emphasise traditions and values that are important and relevant to your audience and/or current season.

2. Personalisation: Tailor your messaging and creative content to different segments of your local audience. Use data-driven insights to personalise recommendations and offers, making customers feel like their preferences are understood and valued. If a customer always purchases bread and milk, don’t waste time and money advertising something they’ll always purchase. Instead offer them complementing products such as coffee, cereal, hot chocolate or tea that would go well with their basket favourites. Use your budgets wisely while also tailoring your ads based on data-driven insights.

3. Mobile-first approach: Given the prevalence of mobile usage, ensure that all your creative content is mobile-friendly and loads quickly to avoid high drop offs, low engagement and budget waste. Remember, users' attention span is getting shorter and shorter, you need to get your message across quickly and effectively.

4. User-generated content (UGC): Encourage your local customers to create and share their experiences with your products or services. UGC builds authenticity and trust, and it allows you to leverage the creativity of your customer base. #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt

5. Interactive content: Engage your audience and encourage participation, leading to increased brand visibility and interaction. The Sanlam Savings Jar (an app that teaches kids about the value of saving while their very own dragon helps them grow and protect their treasure) is the perfect example of how to interact with your users in a fun and engaging way while actively keeping them connected to your brand.

6. Limited-time offers and promotions: Create a sense of urgency and excitement by offering limited-time promotions or discounts. Three-for-two specials have been a sure crowd pleaser locally and are sure to continue to be popular as we enter the festive shopping season. Use creative visuals and copy to emphasise the exclusivity and value of your offers.

7. Local partnerships and collaborations: Collaborate with other local businesses to create joint marketing campaigns or events. These partnerships can enhance your brand's visibility and demonstrate community involvement.

8. Video content: Use video creatively to showcase your products, share stories, and provide value to your audience. Live streaming, behind-the-scenes footage, and how-to videos are effective formats to consider. Social platforms have gained prominence as key places for brand discovery especially among Millennials and Gen Z’s - with users engaging more and more with video content. Don’t miss the opportunity to engage with your audience using authentic storytelling.

9. Data-driven creative (DDC): The holy grail, DDC utilises data to inform and enhance the creative aspects of your campaigns, rather than relying on assumptions. It involves leveraging data and consumer behaviour insights to shape various creative elements such as your ad copy, visuals, messaging, and content strategy to create more targeted, relevant, and effective marketing materials. DDC enables you to remain agile and aligned with local trends and preferences, enhancing connections with your audience. Additionally, it optimises budget allocation, improves customer experiences, and fosters lasting loyalty. Through A/B testing, DDC enables continuous enhancement, making it a catalyst for local brand success. In our recent project with Multichoice, we successfully achieved 94% conversions post click and a 9:1 Return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) by creating a hyper localised experience to drive awareness and gain new subscribers by leveraging data-driven dynamic creative.

With countless brands competing for consumer attention, creative content becomes your beacon, helping your brand stand out from competitors, especially during peak shopping seasons. It simplifies and clarifies your marketing messages, ensuring they resonate with your audience and incite action. As ad fatigue threatens to dull consumer interest, fresh and engaging creative revitalises the connection. Creative's adaptability shines in A/B testing, optimising conversions by uncovering what truly resonates. But its impact doesn't stop at acquisition - it extends to customer retention and fostering loyalty.

Ready to dive deeper into data-driven creative strategies and explore how it can benefit your business? Join us at our upcoming webinar ‘Creative Solutions for Peak Performance’ taking place on 5 October 2023 - and unlock the full potential of your marketing efforts.

Find out more: https://bit.ly/45WIant