Katie Capka is the Inbound Marketing Manager at Kaspien, an eCommerce platform that helps brands sell on marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart. Kaspien has a large database of resources for eCommerce merchants, ranging from a blog to podcast, webinars, eBooks, videos, and more.
Katie uses different content experiments and quick pivots to find out how to improve their funnel conversion rate and track leads through their buyer journey. Read on to learn how Kaspien runs marketing tests to learn what works and measures the results.
Starting without any internal data
Kaspien started doing B2B inbound marketing in 2020, with Katie leading the entire inbound marketing team and launching a new ad strategy. Prior to that, they worked on inbound marketing on behalf of Kaspien clients, so it was all client-partner facing. That means for Kaspien’s marketing, Katie had to start from scratch.
When you don’t have any data to compare, how do you make decisions?
Katie’s team would research competitors, discuss ideas with the team, and uses external data to gain support for a test. Once they got approval, they ran small tests, measured results, and then either scaled or pivoted from there.
Running tests and moving quickly
“It all starts with a test, and we pivot really quickly when we see it’s not working.” – Katie Capka
It came down to the number of hours the team had to invest versus their revenue generated. Katie studied how many touchpoints people saw before someone converted, how to set up their attribution model, and the conversion rates from different sources.
For example, she would look at the cost to acquire a customer through social and Google ads, and if it was high compared to their average, with no significant increase in conversion rate through their funnel, she would shut the test down.
“It takes around a month to see what’s working, and if the initial results aren’t super compelling, we move on.” – Katie Capka
Katie notes that a month is usually enough time to gauge initial results, but it also depends on your time to convert. If your funnel is a little longer, take that into consideration when setting your testing timelines.
Why a podcast?
Although Katie’s marketing team supports the company’s podcast, they don’t run it. Since it’s so difficult to attribute concrete data from a podcast, they aren’t sure how much they want to focus on it this year. For a data-driven marketer like Katie, “it’s my nightmare because I know that it helps, but I can’t prove it.”
Kaspien decided to produce a podcast because their CEO, Kunal Chopra, wanted to increase thought leadership. He continues to run the podcast today, finding guests and interviewing them, with the marketing team promoting it.
Tracking funnel conversion rate
“Not everything is black and white. Paid social is especially difficult because sometimes they see an ad, then go to your site without clicking it, or they see an ad five times, then a newsletter brings them in… Sometimes it impacts them on their journey, but doesn’t end up as their attribution.” – Katie Capka
Kaspien uses HubSpot to track their leads through different deal stages. They can see how a lead discovered them, their referral sources, and how quickly they move through their funnel.
“Our blog viewers convert to customers 60% more than our overall leads. Webinar attendees convert at 24% higher.” – Katie Capka
Katie uses this data to gauge how well different marketing initiatives assist in generating net leads and converting existing ones.
Using webinars to acquire high-converting users
As a marketer, Katie likes webinars and has attended a few, but they never pushed her over the line to convert, so she didn’t have high expectations when undertaking webinars for Kaspien. However, she was pleasantly surprised by what she saw and how it impacted their sales cycle.
Kaspien began to host more webinars in 2020, paying greater attention to how webinar registrants reached conversion through their funnel. People who attended a webinar moved through their sales funnel at a 24% higher rate, which meant they could obtain qualified leads who closed faster by hosting webinars.
Katie also noted their joint eCommerce webinars resulted in more leads with a higher chance of converting. Kaspien now runs one webinar each month, and wants to ramp it up even more.
Tip: Run a Facebook ad for the webinar two weeks before the event date to generate some top-of-funnel leads through your event. You can invest as little as $50-$100 to test out this channel initially, and review the results after the first one or two webinars. Look at the lead quality that comes in from a Facebook ad versus what you acquire organically, how quickly they move through your funnel, and the total revenue from that group.
Katie’s advice for other marketing teams: Start with research
“Do a lot of research.” – Katie Capka
Katie says in order to run successful webinars and other initiatives, you need to do your research.
- Know who your competitors are.
- Watch what competitors are doing.
- Look at what your audience is interested in.
- Make sure your content is relevant.
- Look at everything from your customers’ perspective.
She recommends checking out your competitors’ social media ads, like in their Facebook ad library, to see what resonates.
What’s next?
“Things are booming in eCommerce right now.” – Katie Capka
Kaspien is focusing on their retail and agency divisions so they can be any brand’s ultimate online growth partner.
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