Widgets are all the rage, but it's not a channel that marketers should enter into lightly. If you're not taking these points into consideration, your application will likely fail to meet its objectives.
It's that time of year again. Back-to-school ads are coming rapid-fire from every channel, courtesy of retailers eager to help me and the other supermoms (and dads) of America sort out the must-have sneakers, school supplies and snacks for our fall checklists. With so much to keep track of, as a marketer and a mom, I must admit I love a good checklist. Things seem much more manageable when I know that I have a comprehensive set of tasks and objectives to work with -- and let's not forget the inexplicable pleasure of checking an item into oblivion.
Of course, the best checklists are more than just lists; they provide a roadmap for organizing and successfully achieving a larger objective, whether that objective is getting your child off to the first day of school on the right foot, or running a marketing campaign.
Widget campaigns need the same level of planning and attention, particularly when they are a new part of your marketing mix. Looking for guidance? Here's a list to help get your widget campaign on track to earn an A grade.
1. Consider the big picture.
The best widget campaigns support your overarching marketing efforts and are integrated with the broader campaign -- online or off. Before you ask how people will interact with your widget, determine what goals the widget will help you accomplish and how your campaign elements can work together. For example, Unilever launched its new Dove product line for young women by creating and running a micro-series featuring Alicia Keys during "The Hills." At the same time, the company distributed a branded widget, updated weekly with new episodes, that gave fans the ability to view and share that branded content with friends on the social networks where they spend time.
2. Define your metrics.
Widget creative can deliver on almost any clear objective: from driving awareness of a new TV show or beauty product among a particular segment of your audience, to gathering user-generated photo or form contest entries, to generating photo views of a new product line. While standard metrics are important -- things like unique users reached, interaction rate and viral growth -- be sure to set metrics that are meaningful for your particular campaign. Videos played to completion, percent of widgets customized by users, number of entry forms completed and any other specifics will help you evaluate not just user engagement, but the kind of engagement that matters.
3. Design for your target.
Widgets fall into one of two buckets: utility widgets that are appropriate for someone's desktop or start page, where the widget is seen and used by a single individual; and social widgets that are more appropriate for a social network profile page or personal web page, where they are seen and used not just by the page owner but by his or her network of friends. Creating the right widget for your target depends in large part on understanding where that target audience is spending his or her time. Great utility widgets help someone start or get through their day, from daily news and weather to simple games. Great social widgets are simple, shiny and shareable; they focus on one primary activity, help someone express themselves uniquely to their world and have the "wow" factor that compels someone to pass it along.
4. Budget for a media plan.
Marketers now understand that it's risky business to simply put your widget on a website, cross your fingers and hope it "goes viral" in the limited time frame a brand has to move the awareness and sales needle. There are many options for seeding your widget to ensure that your investment has the intended impact on your target, including running your widget as a rich media ad unit, securing widget installs through a cost-per-install network, conducting influencer outreach, seeding the widget in high-traffic widget galleries, and incorporating the widget into a campaign website where it has appropriate focus and calls to action. The most important thing is to build a plan that leverages several distribution options with proven reach so that you can hedge your bets and learn for future campaigns.
5. Incorporate a sharing platform.
Like drivers education, this is an easy one -- but something you just can't skip. There are several technologies, many of them free, that make it easy for your audience to grab and share your widget across a variety of destinations, from social networks to blogs to bookmarking, start page and desktop platforms. Just as important, these tools also enable you to track results -- like how and where your widget is being used -- against the metrics you established up front. They also allow you to compare performance across the different distribution channels you built into your media plan.
6. Close the loop.
Widgets offer an incredible opportunity to optimize both creative execution and seeding strategies so you can achieve your goals. Not only is every element of a widget measureable, but it can also be changed on the fly, from a single location, with all widgets reflecting the change almost instantly. I've implemented small changes in color, font size and calls to action that have doubled interaction rates overnight. Similarly, if your media plan has some flexibility, reviewing performance a few weeks into the campaign can give you the necessary insight for shifting budget to your best-performing channels or partners.
With creativity and discipline, widgets can be a powerful extension of a brand advertising campaign. Marketers who give each element in the checklist its due will find themselves at the top of the class with a widget campaign that delivers on objectives with both scale and impact.
Liza Hausman is the vice president of marketing at Gigya.