Key Strategies for Success: Lessons from a Top APAC Digital Marketing Agency

In a highly competitive digital marketing landscape, K. M. Wade has emerged as one of the best APAC digital marketing agencies, as recognised by Design Rush. While we’re incredibly proud of the work we’ve done to achieve this testament to our commitment to excellence and customer service, the reason I’m writing this article is not to share this news. Instead, I want to share the top three strategies we use to delivery great results for our clients, so you can use them to achieve remarkable results in your own business. And I hope that our recent honour will act as proof that these strategies actually work and therefore encourage you give them a try.

Strategy 1 — Work hard to deeply understand your ideal customer

The first and most crucial strategy we use at K. M. Wade is to really get to know our clients’ ideal customers. This involves more than just demographic data; it’s about understanding their needs, desires, pain points, and behaviours on a deep level.

We begin with detailed market research and customer profiling. This can include conducting or accessing surveys and interviews, reviewing feedback and testimonials, researching keyword and other search data, sifting through forum discussions, and analysing customer data to create comprehensive buyer personas. These personas help us visualise and understand the specific traits and preferences of the target audience, so we can create strategies and assets that are specifically tailored to the people we want our messages to reach.

Knowing your ideal customer or client can just as easily help you craft personalised marketing strategies that speak directly to their needs and desires. It will ensure your content, ads, and overall marketing approach are relevant and compelling, leading to higher conversion rates and customer loyalty as well as reduced marketing and advertising expenses and resources (because there’s less waste from failed or less successful campaigns).

An example for the value of understanding your ideal customer

All good marketing is built on an understanding of the ideal customer. But producing sponsored content introduces the additional challenge of meeting the needs to two sets of ideal customers — the publishing brand’s and the sponsoring brand’s. This sponsored article we produced for QUT and Cosmos illustrates the value of rising to that challenge, which we did by researching both audiences and finding the common ground that would enable the article to appeal to, and be compelling for, both. 

Within weeks of publication, the time on page for the article was triple that of any other sponsored article published by the highly experience media buyer who led the broader campaign. The number of clicks through to the QUT website also far exceeded the project goals, ensuring QUT benefited from an exceptional ROI for this project.

Strategy 2 — Make data-driven decisions

At K. M. Wade, making data-driven decisions is at the very heart of our approach. By leveraging data, we ensure our strategies are based on solid evidence rather than assumptions. This approach enables us to fine-tune our campaigns for maximum effectiveness.

We start by collecting and analysing data from a wide range of sources, including customer behaviour, market trends, and SEO metrics. Tools and data sources like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Answer the Public, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, testimonial sites, forums, and statistical services provide valuable insights that guide our decisions.

Data-driven decision-making also involves A/B testing different versions of ads, landing pages, and email content to determine what resonates most with your audience. While data-based strategies and assets usually perform better than those based on ‘a gut feeling’, this iterative process ensures continuous improvement and even better results over time.

Using data to guide your marketing and advertising efforts will not only improve performance but also provide clear, measurable outcomes for benchmarking and assessing your performance. Sure, it takes time and resources to gather data and measure changes, but it saves much more in the long run because it allows you to maximise the return you can earn on your investment into your marketing and advertising activities.

An example of data-driven marketing

There are countless examples of how A/B testing improves conversion rates in ads and on landing pages etc. So, I’m sharing an example of a data-driven blog post we created for Salesforce. The media buyer that commissioned this piece for Salesforce wanted us to cover a broad topic — lead management — to produce a ‘comprehensive lead management guide’. There was no way we could cover all aspects of lead management within a single blog post and keep it a manageable size, so we focused on collecting and answering the most common questions people have about the topic. The result was a blog post the Salesforce team was so happy with they also converted it into a PDF for use on sales calls.

Strategy 3 — Focus on value first (not features or even benefits)

You may have read or heard the advice to focus on the benefits not the features. But there’s a lot of pushback on that advice when it’s not fully explained. I hope to convince you it’s worth trying 😃 

Most people make decisions based on emotion first and then justify them with facts later. And it can be challenging to change someone’s opinion once they’ve made an emotional one, no matter what facts you throw at them. As two examples, that’s partly why cults and conspiracy theories gain traction.

You can leverage that in your marketing and advertising by ensuring your first message is about the value your product or service delivers to your ideal buyer — how it resolves a pain point for your audience. That gives them an emotional reason to buy. Then you can tell them about the features of your product/service and the benefits those features deliver, and that information will be what they use to justify their purchase — to themselves and to anyone else they feel they need to present justification to.

Let’s take Apple’s 2024 iPad Pro as an example. iPads are portable devices. That means some people use them outdoors. And when it’s sunny, it’s hard to see what’s on most screens. The 2024 iPad Pro enables users to watch videos, read books, and do work outdoors in full sun without losing colour accuracy or other measures of visual quality. To some people, that’s of great value, so focusing advertising and marketing on that value is an effective way to sell to a specific market segment. How did Apple achieve that innovation? They introduced two light-emitting layers into their screens which deliver a peak brightness of 1600 nits (the feature). This produces a much brighter display, improving visibility in bright environments and making colours appear more vibrant and lifelike (some benefits).

Can you see how the focus of the marketing is on the value delivered to potential iPad buyers? But that value message is followed up by a description of the feature that delivers that value and the benefits of that feature. The message would not be nearly as compelling without all three aspects delivered in that specific order.

When crafting marketing messages for our clients, we do the same thing. We start by identifying the core value our clients’ offerings provide. This involves understanding the end results and transformation the customer will experience. We then communicate this value clearly and compellingly, ensuring it resonates with the target audience.

We don’t ignore the features and benefits of those features. And we don’t focus on the benefits first either. We include all three, but place the focus on the value first and foremost.

To effectively communicate value, we use language that addresses the customer’s needs and desires. We paint a vivid picture of how the product or service will make their life better or solve their specific problem. Once the value is established, we then highlight the features and benefits that support this value.

Focusing on value will help you build a stronger connection with your potential buyers, as they’ll be able to see the direct impact of your offerings on their lives and on their businesses. This approach will not only enhance engagement but also drive higher conversion rates and customer satisfaction too.

An example of value-first marketing

As an example of this value-first approach to marketing, take a look at this property listing K. M. Wade created. The owners of the property needed a quick sale to avoid the cost and hassle of maintaining a property in a sale-ready state when they moved interstate. By crafting listing copy that focused on the value — what a new owner will experience once they own the property — we created a property listing that sold the property in less than 7h. The average time on market in the area at the time of sale was 65.5 days, so that was a phenomenal achievement that really proves that a value-first approach to marketing does work.

Achieve remarkable results with the top strategies used by award-winning marketers

K. M. Wade is one of the best digital marketing agencies in the APAC region because of our focus on deeply understanding our clients’ ideal customers, making data-driven decisions, and focusing on the value delivered to the buyer. By implementing these strategies, you can enhance your own marketing efforts and achieve significant improvements in performance and outcomes.If you don’t have the in-house resources to implement these strategies, or you need guidance on how to integrate these strategies into your marketing and advertising activities, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help you out.