The RACE marketing planning framework

Summary

Dr. Dave Chaffey introduces the RACE planning framework developed by Smart Insights to address the lack of strategic, data-driven digital marketing plans in businesses. The framework aims to provide a structured approach to digital marketing, starting from awareness to engagement and conversion across various channels, including traditional and digital. It covers 25 activities tailored to guide businesses through customer journey optimization, from attracting visitors to nurturing leads and encouraging repeat purchases for loyalty.

Takeaways

• 📈 The RACE planning framework was developed to address the lack of strategic, data-driven digital marketing plans in businesses.
• 🔍 Research by Smart Insights revealed that up to 50% of businesses were not planning their digital marketing efforts, regardless of size or type.
• 📝 The framework provides a structured approach to digital marketing, offering a guide rather than starting from scratch.
• 📊 The traditional marketing funnel model is used to visualize the RACE framework, starting from reaching the audience to purchase.
• 📹 The updated eighth edition of digital marketing includes more detailed visualizations of the RACE framework activities.
• 🌐 The 'Reach' stage focuses on growing awareness and driving traffic to websites or social media platforms.
• 🔑 In the 'Visitors' stage, businesses start to gather data such as device and channel information, but the audience remains largely anonymous.
• 🤝 The 'Act' stage aims to engage visitors with content and encourage interactions, such as subscriptions or downloads, to start building a relationship.
• 🛒 The 'Convert' stage involves nurturing leads through inbound marketing strategies, often using email, towards making a sale.
• 💰 The 'Engage' stage is about post-sale customer communications, focusing on repeat purchases and building loyalty.
• 🔄 RACE is an omni-channel framework, acknowledging that digital and offline interactions both play crucial roles in the customer journey.

Q & A

What is the primary reason Dr. Dave Chaffey developed the RACE planning framework?

Dr. Dave Chaffey developed the RACE planning framework to address the lack of strategic, planned, and data-driven approaches in digital marketing among businesses, as observed in their research at Smart Insights.

What percentage of businesses were found to be lacking a strategic plan in digital marketing according to the research?

The research indicated that as many as 50 percent of businesses were not following a strategic plan in their digital marketing efforts.

What does the RACE framework aim to provide that a blank piece of paper does not?

The RACE framework aims to provide a structured approach to digital marketing, outlining all the options available for businesses to follow, rather than starting from scratch.

How does the traditional marketing funnel model visualize the RACE framework?

The traditional marketing funnel model visualizes the RACE framework by starting with reaching the audience at the top and moving them down towards a sale and purchase.

What is the purpose of the 'Reach' stage in the RACE framework?

The 'Reach' stage is about growing awareness, often by driving visitors to a website or encouraging interaction on social media pages.

At what stage in the RACE framework do businesses typically start to understand the audience's identity?

Businesses start to understand the audience's identity at the 'Act' stage, where the goal is to get someone to interact with the content and engage on a customer journey.

What is the goal of the 'Convert' stage in the RACE framework?

The goal of the 'Convert' stage is to encourage the audience to take actions such as subscribing to a newsletter, downloading a white paper, or making a purchase.

How does the RACE framework accommodate for the role of human interaction in the sales process?

The RACE framework includes live chat or sales calls to assist in the conversion stage, acknowledging that human interaction can prompt sales and provide additional information about the product.

What is the final stage of the RACE framework and what does it aim to achieve?

The final stage of the RACE framework is 'Engage', which focuses on customer communications to encourage repeat purchases and develop loyalty.

How many different activities are highlighted in the RACE framework for businesses to consider?

There are 25 different activities highlighted in the RACE framework for businesses to consider.

Why is the RACE framework referred to as an 'omni-channel framework'?

The RACE framework is called an 'omni-channel framework' because it is not limited to digital marketing but also considers the integration of offline interactions and sales.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Introduction to the Race Planning Framework

Dr. Dave Chaffe introduces the Race Planning Framework developed by Smart Insights. The framework was created to address the lack of strategic, data-driven planning in digital marketing observed in up to 50% of businesses across various sizes and types. The aim is to provide a structured approach to digital marketing, offering a clear set of options and strategies rather than starting from scratch. The video also mentions the traditional marketing funnel model used for visualizing the framework, which has been detailed further in the eighth edition of digital marketing.

Keywords

💡Race Planning Framework

The Race Planning Framework is a strategic, data-driven approach to digital marketing developed by Smart Insights. It was created to address the lack of structured planning in many businesses' digital marketing efforts, as identified by the research conducted by Dr. Dave Chaffey. The framework provides a structured way to visualize and plan digital marketing activities, starting from awareness to engagement and ultimately to conversion and customer retention.

💡Digital Marketing

Digital Marketing refers to the use of digital channels to promote products or services. It encompasses a wide range of activities, including search engines, social media, email, and websites to connect with current and prospective customers. In the video, digital marketing is the primary focus of the Race Planning Framework, with the aim of guiding businesses through a structured approach to engaging with their audience online.

💡Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning in the context of the video is about setting out a clear roadmap for achieving marketing goals. It involves making decisions about the focus and direction of marketing efforts. The Race Planning Framework is designed to help businesses implement strategic planning in their digital marketing to ensure they have a clear path from awareness to customer retention.

💡Marketing Funnel

The Marketing Funnel is a visual representation of the customer journey, starting with a large audience at the top and narrowing down to customers who make a purchase at the bottom. In the script, the traditional marketing funnel is adapted to illustrate the stages of the Race Planning Framework, showing how businesses can move potential customers from awareness to conversion.

💡Awareness

Awareness in marketing is the first stage of the customer journey where the goal is to make the target audience aware of a brand or product. In the video, Dr. Chaffey discusses how the Reach stage of the Race Planning Framework is focused on growing awareness, often by driving visitors to a website or social media pages.

💡Visitors

Visitors, in the context of the video, refers to individuals who have been made aware of a brand or product and have taken the next step to engage with it, such as visiting a website or social media page. The script mentions that at this stage, businesses might know the device and channel the visitors are using, but they do not yet know much about their identities.

💡Engagement

Engagement is a key concept in the video, referring to the interaction between a brand and its audience. The Act stage of the Race Planning Framework aims to get visitors to interact with the content, such as signing up for an email newsletter or downloading a white paper, which helps businesses to understand their audience better and nurture them towards a sale.

💡Conversion

Conversion is the process of turning a potential customer into an actual customer. In the video, the Convert stage of the Race Planning Framework is where the goal is to encourage visitors to make a purchase, sign up for a service, or take some other form of action that signifies a commitment to the brand.

💡Omni-Channel Framework

An Omni-Channel Framework is a marketing approach that provides a seamless experience to customers across all channels, both digital and physical. The script highlights that the Race Planning Framework is not limited to digital channels but is designed to be omni-channel, recognizing that sales often involve interactions in the real world, such as live chats or sales calls.

💡Customer Retention

Customer Retention is the ability to keep a customer coming back to make repeat purchases. In the video, the Engage stage of the Race Planning Framework focuses on encouraging repeat purchases and developing loyalty among customers, which is crucial for long-term business success.

💡Inbound Marketing

Inbound Marketing is a strategy that focuses on attracting customers through content and interactions that are relevant and helpful. It is mentioned in the script as a method where marketers can nurture prospects by providing valuable content, such as newsletters or white papers, with the aim of moving them towards a sale.

Highlights

Dr. Dave Chaffey explains the development of the RACE planning framework for digital marketing.

The framework was created due to the lack of strategic, data-driven approaches in digital marketing by up to 50% of businesses.

RACE provides a structured approach to digital marketing, avoiding starting from scratch.

Smart Insights offers a traditional marketing funnel model for visualizing the RACE framework.

The updated 8th edition of digital marketing includes more detailed visualization of RACE activities.

The 'Reach' stage of RACE focuses on growing awareness and driving visitors to websites or social pages.

At the 'Visitors' stage, marketers gain insights into the device and channel used by the audience.

The 'Act' stage aims to engage users on a customer journey within the website or mobile app.

Conversion is achieved by encouraging users to subscribe or take specific actions like entering an email for a discount.

B2B marketing uses similar strategies, such as sign-ups for newsletters or white paper downloads.

Inbound marketing allows marketers to nurture prospects towards a sale through email marketing.

The 'Convert' stage involves nurturing through to sale, often facilitated by live chat or sales calls.

The final 'Engage' stage of RACE focuses on customer communications to encourage repeat purchases and loyalty.

RACE is an omni-channel framework, acknowledging the importance of real-world interactions in sales.

The framework includes 25 different activities, most of which are relevant for businesses to consider.

Smart Insights RACE is designed for digital marketing but has applications in various business sizes and types.

Transcripts

hi i'm dr dave chaffee and i'm going to

explain why we developed the race

planning framework

we originally developed this framework

because in our research at smart

insights we saw that a lot of businesses

were doing digital marketing but they

didn't have a strategic planned data

driven

uh approach we saw in our research as

maybe as many as 50 percent of

businesses

were in this category they weren't uh

planning and that was across all sizes

and types of businesses

so we wanted to create a framework that

could be used to

show all the options available

so that rather than starting from a

blank piece of paper uh there would be a

structure that you could follow we hope

in

student assignments as well this may

give you a structure where you're

working with case studies

okay let's take a look

now if you visited smart insights you

may have seen we have a a traditional

marketing funnel type model uh

way of visualizing the race framework so

we start with our our funnel like this

we're looking to reach the audience at

the top

and then move them down the funnel

towards sale

and and and purchase uh in this

visualization which is uh new for the

the eighth edition of uh digital

marketing we've uh managed to put a bit

more detail uh so that you can see the

the activities there at the bottom so

it's a slightly different uh layout so

let's uh step through the different

stages

so you can see we've got the uh the aim

of

each and uh we're recording this during

the um

the proofing stage there's uh the owned

uh typo here which has been uh corrected

so

excuse that there's uh typos can creep

in amongst the 500 pages so we uh

we we checked them carefully

so yeah the the reach stage is about

growing awareness and from practical

point of view often with our digital

marketing we'll be looking to drive

visitors to our website or to encourage

people to visit our uh our social pages

to uh to interact with the content there

of course at this stage the audience is

uh anonymous we don't know much about

who they are when we're reaching them

other than what the uh the information

the publishers can provide and then at

the visitors stage we might know the

device they're on the channel that

they've come from we we only truly get

to know them at the act stage where the

goal is to uh get someone to interact

with the content so not immediately

bounce off the site but to engage them

on a customer journey

within the website or mobile app and

then encourage them to subscribe so the

classic example we look at in the book

is you might have a retailer that pops

a light box offering 10 15 percent off

the

the first purchase if you enter the

email and then an email will go out to

the person who signs up with the uh the

voucher code for that first

purchase and within business to business

marketing you have a similar concept

someone might sign up for a newsletter

or download a white paper look at a demo

and that will

enable the marketer with permission to

to learn a bit more about the uh the

prospect as part of inbound marketing

and then they can nurture the the uh the

audience

through towards sale hopefully and that

that can occur again through email

marketing so the the nurture through

sale occurs at uh

convert and then the final part of

um the process in terms of purchase is

when someone uh signs up to pay online

or offline and um

conversion will have happened and just

to uh to highlight although we developed

smart insights race for digital

marketing

we call it an omni channel framework

because it's it's not purely it's not a

digital um silo people do of course

exist in the real world and often sales

are prompted when a prospect can talk to

someone in the company to learn more

about the product so uh very often we'll

have live chat or sales calls which help

that conversion stage

so the the final part of of race is

engage this is our customer

communications

and this is where

um will

look to encourage repeat purchase and

develop uh loyalty and you can see the

uh the measures to

achieve that the the final um aspect

that i wanted to highlight and is

highlighted in this new uh visual is you

can see that the activities

are

um

highlighted so overall there are 25

different activities but most types of

relevant for most type of businesses

they should consider

these