We are committed to serving auctioneers as a trusted digital partner. We invest heavily in the industry because we know that combining the right auctioneer technology and marketing toolkit with the most trusted online buying environment for bidders, enables auctioneers to maximize asset value and run successful online businesses.
This is the fourth email in a series of marketing guides to support auctioneers on everyday marketing needs and best practices.
If you have any questions or would like us to cover a certain topic, please feel free to send a note to your account manager and we will try to include it in a forthcoming guide.
Where should I market my auction?
In the last few newsletters, we talked about the User Interface (UI) and the User Experience (UX) which focus on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, how they shop, their abilities, their limitations, and their satisfaction level to ensure we find the ideal buyer for every auction. However, we can’t just find the ideal buyer once and then market all asset categories to them on every auction. Each asset category will have its own targeted buyer. Every auction will require a smart strategy to ensure the ideal buyer is identified and reached. To have a deep understanding of the ideal buyer or the “who”, we need to start with the right demographics such as age, gender, education, career, occupation, location, and income. This will help us identify an accurate “buyer persona”. A “buyer persona” is the profile of a bidder which defines your target buyer for each specific asset category; this profile is a detailed description of your ideal bidder who will convert into a buyer.
Understanding your “buyer persona” will also help you make marketing, advertising, and sales strategy decisions especially those relating to the following questions:
What advertising messages should be used? The message used in the ad should resonate with the potential targeted bidder depending on the asset category up for auction. At a quick glance your targeted audience/bidder should be able to – CLAP, yes, you read it right… CLAP, because they are so excited to participate in your auction! Also, because your ad has the necessary information needed to get them excited.
When running marketing campaigns, it is crucial to ensure when your audience lands on your auction page, they can register and place a bid. On Proxibid you can post your high-value assets as zero A lots and update the lot numbers to their actual lot numbers once the catalog is finalized without losing any bidding activity. Reach out to your account manager to see how you can post zero A lots for your next auction.
Which marketing channels will be most effective? The only way to know which marketing channels are most effective is to measure performance. Continuously measuring and analyzing your marketing strategy is the ONLY way to ensure your campaigns perform well on every auction. If you are utilizing a third party, be sure to always request performance results.
And most importantly, how much budget to allocate for advertising and marketing each auction? This depends on your asset category, asset value, and what you have taken away from past comparable auctions. You should always know how much of the auction sales were generated due to the marketing dollars spent. Knowing your Return on Investment “ROI” is essential when allocating a marketing budget for auctions.
If you consider all the above, it is much easier to figure out where you should market your auction. While traditional marketing methods such as Printed Trade Publication ads and Printed Brochures/Postcards are costly and hard to measure, small budgets have never had greater access to cost-effective, trackable digital marketing tools. The best way to market your auctions is a lot more accessible than what we used to think. Marketing avenues chosen for advertising an auction, should all have one goal “How well can you measure the performance and track the ROI?”
Traditional marketing doesn’t allow direct interaction with your targeted audience. It notifies your audience of your auction, but you rely on them to take the time to find your auction, register, and participate. Digital marketing allows for a higher level of engagement and interaction. Your target audience can instantly get connected to you through various marketing channels such as:
- Email marketing – Campaigns that deliver relevant content to a targeted audience in a non-invasive manner. It is crucial to keep your email list updated so you can send out personalized emails and include clear call to action “CTA” buttons to improve click rates. According to a study done by Litmus, email marketing has a return on investment “ROI” of $42 for every $1 spent.
- Content marketing – This can be promotional or educational blogs, videos, news, case studies, and webinars for your targeted audience. Like email marketing, content marketing is a non-invasive route to reach your targeted audience.
- Social media marketing – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. have blossomed in the last couple of decades. According to Backlinko.com since its inception in 1996, social media has managed to infiltrate half of the 7.7 billion people in the world. Social network platforms almost tripled their total user base in the last decade, from 970 million in 2010 to over 3.81 billion users in 2020. Regardless of the asset category up for auction, all types of buyers/bidders can be reached during their personal time through social media.
- Pay per click “PPC” display advertising – Allows you to position your auction near the top of search engines such as Google even if that’s not where your auction would show up organically. According to WordLead the likelihood of PPC visitors making a purchase is 50% greater than it is with organic visitors.
According to Statista, the US retail industry spent $356 billion on digital ads in 2020. Digital marketing is always in real-time, you can analyze your strategy and make changes to optimize performance in real-time.
With all that in mind, the answer is easy, market where you can measure performance and track ROI.
Make sure you keep up with this series of emails! If you miss one, reach out to your account manager and they will be delighted to share.
Still to come…
- When do I need to notify bidders about my auction?
- Why should they choose me?
- How easy is it for them to find me?