The gaps in modern marketing attribution are constantly challenging marketers and advertisers left and right. From measuring indefinite metrics, and gauging ROI, to managing clients’ expectations, it’s a slippery slope that requires innovation, creativity, skills, and patience.
On today’s episode of Startups On Demand, I am joined by Noa Eshed, Co-Founder and General Manager at Bold Digital – a content marketing agency specializing in helping B2B companies build their brand, share their voice, establish authority, become industry leaders, and grow through the power of content.
Today, we share our thoughts on navigating the metrics of marketing, dealing with clients’ “ego,” the process of onboarding a new client, and the secret to dominating Quora.
Omri: Modern marketing attribution is kind of messed up right now. Can you take it away and walk us through your thoughts about it?
Noa: Basically, I think that a lot of the important marketing efforts are very hard to measure. And on the other end, there are these paid efforts that are fairly easy to measure but are inaccurate. If you’re paying a big tech, you’re getting some sort of impact with respect to what you see, but that’s just a partial picture, because at the end of the day, if you’re going on a podcast, arranging an event, investing in content, or if you’re doing social media, then how can you tell if that converted into clients? It’s very difficult, but it’s probably what’s working best for you. And in that sense, I think focusing on Google Analytics and the current attribution models is extremely blinding.
Omri: How do you explain to clients the metrics of marketing? What’s your go-to answer?
Noa: I try to show them the impact through harder-to-measure metrics, meaning overtime showing direct traffic to the website growing, and showing branded searches, meaning people looking for stuff related to the brand – that intuitively has something to do with thought leadership work. And then there are also signups to the newsletter and followers on social media. All these elements paint a picture of the actual impact.
Omri: What is your take on navigating the tricky landscape of measuring marketing effectiveness?
Noa: If you’re working with clients that micromanage the hard-to-measure metrics of marketing by demanding, it’s like having a sand clock that’s tipped, and it’s just a matter of time. And you can do your best to educate them, but it’s probably not going to work most of the time.
Omri: What are the first things you do when you onboard a new client?
Noa: It’s a process that’s been honed for years and is still being honed. But the truth is you can’t provide true value to a client if you don’t understand them in-depth. You should truly understand the product, and that sometimes can be very challenging because some of our clients are very sophisticated, like AI types of technologies. But there’s no way around it – the idea is to really understand what they do and how they do it and see what their product offering is in depth.
Omri: Can you talk about Quora and how you guys thrived in that environment?
Noa: Concerning Quora, the key is consistency. It’s about finding relevant information and writing opinions about those conversations. That’s the trick.
