Your Content Is Outdated — Start Testing With Data-Driven Creatives
As a business owner, you’re probably already creating content all by yourself.
But, are you producing enough content and doing it consistently? Are you measuring the right metrics and iterating content to optimise conversation rates?
If you’re already doing all of the above, and you’re still not getting the results you want — STOP.
Think about what was the number one “hair on fire” question that you were trying to solve for your customers.
Why did you want to solve it for them? And why specifically, YOU?
For us, it was clear in Q4 last year that to be a leader in your market today, you’ll need to respond to increasing consumer demand for more engagement and authenticity. You’ll also need to be able to scale your content engine without paying a fortune.
This is why you don’t want to only sell your product, you need to consistently build a connection and stay on trend. Showcasing why you want to solve their problem is a good start.
Many e-commerce businesses we’ve met have had a hard time juggling this. They’re making mistakes like focusing on their product features when they should really be showing customers how to solve their problems.
Their customer testimonials are long and boring. They’ve got content in the pipeline, but they’re not maximizing wins based on data. They’re measuring conversion rates, but not optimizing their content enough.
In this article, we’ll share why you need to start testing with data-driven creatives.
1. Building a data-driven process
A robust data-driven content process defines how your customer should see your product vs. relying on gut feelings to drive decisions. You’ll need to make use of every marketing channel in your strategy to provide insights into your customers’ persona.
Remember, the goal is to answer the number one “hair on fire” question which keeps them awake at night. What’re they curious about? What’re they not understanding about your product? What’re they saying in your reviews? These questions will frame the building blocks of your initial hooks, which are visual and thumb-stopping.
That also means that while your beautiful website photography may have stood out from a brand perspective, they may not necessarily be the same creatives that will drive conversions.
The idea is to get into the mindset of who the purchaser is — not who the brand is, based on the data that you have. We always start by amplifying what’s already working (it may sometimes be a piece of content that’s an extension of your brand, and that’s okay too). Whatever your winning content is, it’s crucial to edit it with a laser-focus on conversion.
2. Your must-have elements for data-driven content
Our approach in data-driven content ensures that our ads are always results-focused and have a unique competitive advantage online.
Appeal to the right persona in the first 3 seconds
You only have about 3 to 5 seconds to grab their attention, so make every second count. For Facebook/Instagram ads, be sure to look at your 3-second video view ratios — it tells you whether your initial hooks are engaging enough.
From our experience, some of the ingredients your ad content should include are: the product in actual use, an open question to pull emotion, an authentic pain point/review from a customer, or even showcasing your perspective on why you want to solve your customers’ problems.
For example, for a home-cleaning brand like Da Bomb, we noticed from the comments on our ads and in almost all of their customer reviews that no matter what people bought, it was the products’ scent that appealed the most to their main consumer group of mums. After initial rounds of creative testing, Da Bomb’s “fragrance story” then became a winning formula for all of the brand’s creatives.
Create a series of hooks that lean into your niche
Once you’ve mapped out your exact persona, it’s time to test a series of hooks that would appeal to them. This series should allow you to create multiple iterations of the same concept, so you can extend the shelf-life of your content and repurpose them. For example, Annie Abbott, founder of Australian designer shoe brand habbot, launches a “designer chat” series each time a new collection drops. While Annie doesn’t play into trends, it’s the original perspective behind every unique design and the strong colour story are what appeal to her consumer group.
Double down on repetition
In the world of social advertising, repetition is powerful. Once you’ve found your winning creative, don’t make additional edits until you know for certain what aspects of the ad need changing based on the data. Be specific on the context of why you’re testing — what variations of your current creative do you need, dive deep into why it worked or didn’t work, and be specific on which segments of your audience will these cater to. Again, this is not a process that’s driven by your gut feeling.
Finish with a strong Call-To-Action (CTA)
In most of our content audits, one of the elements that’s always overlooked upon is your CTA. Without a strong CTA, your audience may not realize what you have to offer and how to take action. You may think the CTA always has to say “Shop Now”, but it really depends on where you’re at in your sales funnel and what segment of your audience you’re targeting. If you’re running ads for your top of funnel, are you asking them to learn more about your product benefits on your website? If you’re selling a digital service, are you asking them to contact your sales rep? Adjust your CTA according to your conversion goals, and reiterate it in your ad using text, animation or voiceover.
For example, instead of a boring CTA that reminds people of a promo, Good Pair Days weaved in their product positioning in the CTA for their video ad to remind people why they’re different.
3. Shoot, launch and repeat (with minimal effort)
Once you’ve experienced what a creative engineered for performance looks like, you’ll now need to make more of it!
Content Mogul can help you craft the right mix of data-driven creatives, compelling offers and strategic media buying to reach your audience effectively.
We’ve set up our team to be able to produce a high volume of quality data-driven content in a cost effective way for our clients as this is now what it takes to beat your competitors.
We brief your photographers and videographers exactly what they need to shoot, and we handle the shoots as well if you don’t have this capacity internally. We also provide the data you need to adjust your strategies for the best results.
Here are some examples of ad creatives we’re producing for our clients at a lower cost than what you’re currently paying: https://www.contentmogul.com/sample-creatives
Book a call with our founder, Lionel Jackman, to learn more about our content strategy services.
Got a question? Follow us on social media @contentmogul and share your thoughts.