While all of the components discussed thus far in this series are important elements to include in any digital marketing strategy, today's list includes some of the most critical.
Thank you for returning as we continue this series of posts on developing an effective digital strategy. Because your strategy should define your goals, as well as the specific tools and tactics you are going to use to accomplish those goals, we're offering this list of topics that your documented strategy should include. Again, we know that there is some redundancy/overlap among these sections, but it's because the tools and tactics work together to form a solid strategy.
Developing a powerful and effective digital strategy is increasingly critical for marketers today. Your strategy should define the specific goal, or goals, you expect to achieve with your digital marketing efforts. The key word here is "specific" because you want to be able to measure your success against those goals, and without specificity, you won't know how you're doing. Your strategy should also outline the specific tools and tactics you are going to use to accomplish your goals.
Marketing has never been an easy job. But an argument can be made that it’s more difficult today than ever before. From the time-strapped, distracted target audience you’re trying to engage to competitors encroaching on your turf from all over the globe, marketers face a wide range of challenges every day.
We have long been proponents of online tools and apps for our clients. Online tools/apps come in a number of forms and can include sales support tools like CRMs, business data software that provides insights into your prospects, and sales enablement tools that help provide the content needed to close sales, just to name a few. In fact, the use of online tools is rated in the top ten of marketers’ inbound marketing priorities, according to HubSpot's annual research report of 4,500 marketers worldwide.
If you happen to be someone who has been, or is about to invest in, reading our blog (certainly a sign of keen insights and wisdom), you undoubtedly recognize that we talk a lot about buyer personas, inbound marketing, content marketing, conversion optimization, marketing automation, analytics tools, social media marketing, search engine optimization, custom application development, and growth-driven design. While each of these independently is an important tool for serious marketers today, when they are all employed in harmony, it is truly a beautiful thing.
If you’re like most people, it takes you a little time (and more than a little coffee) to get yourself up to speed and fully productive in the morning. For marketers, that slow start can often lead to you feeling like you’re a step behind all day. “I’m just not a morning person,” you say. True as that may be, there are things you can do at the end of the day today that will help you come out of the gate hot tomorrow and have an incredibly productive day.
If you’ve got a product or service that can be delivered anywhere in the country, it only makes sense to market to that national audience. It’s simple math: the more prospects you reach, the more orders you receive. But as you’re putting together your marketing plan, you might consider allocating some extra budget to reaching out to prospects in your home state and even your city.
You’ve heard it said a million times that “you can’t be all things to all people.” Yet, still, you try. And you’re not alone. The vast majority of companies gear their marketing efforts to ensuring that absolutely NOBODY is left out. But it’s critical to understand that there are people you absolutely can and should leave out.
Let's face it, on some level most of us resent generalizations of the characteristics of an entire generation, especially when it is our generation that is being generalized. I'll certainly admit that I resent the definition of my age group as a near technology-illiterate bunch, especially given that I often challenge the younger ones around me to check out advances in technology.
But the truth is, those generalizations can be extremely helpful, especially when trying to provide a service to a subset of the populace. I mean, how can you hope to appeal to them, if you don't understand how they [generally] think. And while quite different in nature, establishing buyer personas (an extremely important marketing practice) is all about thoughtful, informed generalizations.
It's much easier for me to address this issue now, several months after having redesigned our website and currently possessing an absolute commitment to never again falling prey to this marketing "sin."
The truth is, even though we have constantly preached the importance of avoiding it, we at 30dps (always using the "cobbler's kids" excuse), made this egregious mistake for the better part of a decade. And, I can tell you now; we WON'T make it again... EVER!
This entrepreneur (a real person, but we'll respectfully withhold his true identity since we didn't ask permission to use his name) expects his blossoming company to reach a billion dollars this year. He has offices that serve every area of the globe, and products that are highly regarded by customers and industry experts alike. Surely print, TV, and radio campaigns have played a huge role in the company’s success, right?
Marketing has gotten a bad reputation through the years because truth has been sacrificed for marketing-speak. One of the things that is changing that is new media, i.e. the Web and social media. It used to be that a company could constantly control the message. That is, they could largely ensure that much of what was being said about the company was well thought out, deliberate, carefully crafted and positive. Testimonials from happy customers were carefully selected (or simply written) by marketers to reflect most positively upon the company and heralded on brochures and websites as being reflective of the company's performance. Marketers have ALWAYS wanted to control the messaging and reputation of the company. That was their job.
With traditional mass media advertising, the entire production/results cycle is quite lengthy. You typically have to prepare and present the ad to the publisher well in advance, i.e. days, weeks or even months before the ad runs. Then, when the ad does run, depending upon the medium, there is often a significant delay in seeing a response (if you are able to attribute any response to the ad at all). And if you are able to measure a response to the ad, and decide to make a change, the lengthy cycle begins again.
In spite of the fact that virtually everyone who uses a computer these days has seen it, there are still a lot of folks who don't really understand what search engine advertising (SEA) is. Many more know what it is, conceptually, but don't really understand how it works. I've been a big fan of SEA for well over a decade, and have seen it do some amazing things for profitability. I've also seen it done very poorly, and in those cases, it can result in big waste of money, typically when the advertiser doesn't understand how it works or is impatient with the process.
