I’m gonna take it back with this one.
Do you remember PEMDAS? Most Americans recognize this as a short hand way of remembering the proper order in which your mathematical calculations should be executed.
PEMDAS stand for…
“Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”
which mathematically translates to…
“Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction”.
Fast forward man years later and I have found the importance of order is just as critical in marketing automation as it is in mathematics.
When executing your marketing strategy…order is everything
I recently had the opportunity of helping a small business owner map out the strategy of a new venture. They were looking to grow a list and use Twitter as the means of lead generation and engagement.
They showed me what they had planned and I was able to quickly identify an area of concern.
Order.
It wasn’t what they were planning on doing that was wrong it was the order in which they planned on doing it.
Keeping all actions the same and rearranging the order would get them much closer to the results they desired. Before they brought me in it looked something like this…
I’ve seen many people make this mistake. Build their social following before they build their list. Giving a social media platform more control of their contact database than they have.
Instead, you should always put your business first. Think of ways that you can capture the lead in a database you own and have control over BEFORE you push them to a platform you don’t.
Just a simple re-ordering and you have a much stronger strategy…
If you look at the analytics to any website that has a decent amount of traffic you will realize that your Thank You page is one of the top 5 most visited pages on your site. A prime spot to put your secondary call-to-action.
By placing a social Thank You page on one of the most visited pages of their site, I increased the probability that they will gain both a lead and a Twitter follower.
A true win-win.
As basic as this may seem it makes a world of difference when you start driving heavy traffic to a landing page vs. a social media platform.
But it’s not just for basic implementations and social media. The importance of order ranges from the most simplistic to the most advanced marketing campaign.
Take a second and review a list of some other areas in your marketing where order is important…
- The order of the checkout elements on your payment page can increase sales conversions
- The order in which you send your follow up emails will impact engagement
- The order in which you deliver your LeadMagnets can make you follow up sequences more effective.
- The order that you build your funnel (LeadMagnet, follow up emails, and sales page)
I’ve reached the point in my marketing that checking the order in which things are done is often my starting point when it comes to optimization.
Something not working right? Check the order of operation.
Until next time my friends!
