If We Were You: Our Experts Recommendations for the New Year

Hire a talented digital manager, place the SEO under the product managers, connect the offline and online data and start looking at customer service as content work – Our Experts offer their recommendations and what you should focus on next year

Dar Perlmuter, VP Performance and Digital Strategy
If I were you I’d make sure to start the new year with a manager in my organization wholly dedicated to digital work. There’s no need to overstate the importance of online activity during COVID-19 time, and in the coming year this trend is expected to grow even stronger. It isn’t just a matter of sales – but rather closing all the loose ends in the triangle that begins with marketing strategy, moves through creative/content creation and ends with the correct promotion. The person who’s supposed to operate this orchestra is the digital manager, who is well connected to your data, and knows how to navigate the media correctly. In the past half-year Google and Facebook alone have launched a large number of new tools for online sales, and strengthening the connection between brands and users. If there isn’t someone at your organization entirely dedicated to swift and professional acquaintance with these tools, not only will you be stuck in place but you’ll truly be left behind. In this context it’s important to note that digital marketing is no longer a copy of your overall offline strategy. Your online strategy should be integrated into your marketing plan. It must speak your digital language just as it speaks your brand language. In this regard, digital management is a profession in itself. It requires experience with media (PPC), in-depth knowledge of the world of content, social networking and the SEO. Digital managers will tell you when you need to and should use external companies that can bolster the in-house professional knowledge. From our experience, when an organization lacks someone who’s in charge of this function, it doesn’t matter how well you work with your agency, you may miss out on the profit potential of digital channels for your business.

Michael Gold, SEO Department Manager
SEO tends to be thought of as part of the marketing department, and so, the people who usually work with it are marketing/digital managers. But if I were you I would assign my SEO team to the Project Manager’s supervision. Why? Consider the organic search result performances as a benchmark of your online relevance, i.e your ability to fully answer. For that they must understand the Internet’s content on the one hand, and the “intent” or the “need” behind the user’s search parameters on the other, and find the best response online for the user’s need. For this reason, SEO always tries to understand the user’s “need”, and locate the places where the product can provide a better response to that need. In doing so you will succeed better in being relevant to users which can results in better ranking in SERP. If you think about it, this is exactly what the product managers want – to improve the product’s response for the users. During the COVID-19 our habits in almost every field have changed. An excellent way to identify such changes in your niche is through identifying changes in the search patterns of users or the results that search engines present. So if the organic channel is significant for you, now more than ever the connection between product managers and SEO will help you ensure you recognize these changes, respond to them and continue to provide the best possible solution for your target audience.

Tal Levin, Content and Creative Department Manager
If I were you I’d hire content creators for my customer service department. 2020 was and still is a year in which the burden of operations in organizations conducting sales online fell on two primary departments – logistics and customer service – the ones that send the product to the clients, and the ones contacted by clients who don’t receive the merchandise on time. But customer service has long ceased being something that exists purely to deal with customer complaints, it’s something that must be integral to marketing strategies, and more specifically part of the content strategy. Why? During COVID-19 the brands that preserved their power and even increased their sales were those who opened as many communication channels as possible – Facebook, WhatsApp, phone and e-mail. Those who were particularly successful were the ones who integrated efficient service and distinct language, understanding its target audience while also representing the brand. No more “All our operators are busy at the moment”, but much more “Sorry bro, I was on the line with another client – but I’m all yours now.” For those who provide responses, especially via written channels, there is a need to deeply understand the language of the brand, to know how to create a trusting relationship with clients, and represent your brand faithfully. Believe it or not, they’re your real marketers, your influencers, the ones who will be remembered fondly (or less so) on social media. True, not every brand should have that kind of buddy-buddy dialogue with clients, and not every target audience wishes to be spoken to via Messenger, but the way in which you phrase your statements is critical. Customer service isn’t just about the service itself, but also (and perhaps first and foremost) about the clients – their painful points, their desire to be part of a community around a brand they recognize as being good for them. If you can talk to them correctly, you’ll win the jackpot. And administratively, it’s easier to teach content specialists to do customer service than it is to teach customer service representatives to create content.

Coral Chicheportiche, Performance Department Manager
If I were you, I would invest in creating awareness for your brand and product. Yes, yes, even now of all times. On paper it’s a bad time to be spending money on Awareness Campaigns that don’t always generate a positive ROAS but those that do, will profit in the long run. Use of social media increased by 70% during the COVID-19. We’re all quarantined at home and whether we like it or not, we’re spending more time on shopping apps and networks.
This is our time to provide brand awareness and to relay a stronger message to all users that today you don’t need a physical store for purchases. The COVID-19 has given the entire online field an enormous opportunity – there has been an increase by hundreds of percents in online sales. This is the time to preserve and grow those means! In The long run it will pay off and in one day.

Ranny Tzadok, Analysis Department Manager
If I were you I’d connect my offline data to Google Analytics. 2020 and the COVID-19 proved to everyone that it’s a mistake to “put all your eggs in one basket”, and businesses that mostly operated offline must readjust and adapt themselves to a changing reality, promoting themselves and selling online as well. You might ask yourself – let’s say I decide to integrate online and offline activities, how can I analyze the sum total of data and make data-based decisions about my marketing activities? If I’m looking at Google Analytics now, why am I only getting information about online activities?
The answer is – Measurement Protocol – Google Analytics’ measurement protocol, which enables sending HTTP requests with the interaction data (leads/sales) of users directly to the Google Analytics servers, and from there to your personal Google Analytics account. This protocol allows business owners to measure how users communicate with their business, and tie online behavior to offline behavior. Add call monitoring systems that can tie incoming calls to relevant destinations, and we can receive a full and complete picture of our business’ data. Thus we can make smart and data-based decisions that will cause our business to jump a few steps and adapt itself to the new technological age.