Digital Marketing
It's not about doing "Digital Marketing"
It's about Marketing Effectively in a Digital World!
The last 15 – 20 years has seen an entire new digital industry emerge and grow, completely preoccupied with all things digital from Web 2.0, Social Media SEO, PPC, keywords, backlinks, blogging Smart Phones etc etc
Whilst all these shiny new tools (and they are just tools!) can seriously help market your business and give you a great competitive advantage, they are not the whole solution.
Some people have thought that digital marketing IS business, and that all you need to do is have a great digital strategy, deliver on it and hey presto job done!
I would suggest that one of the biggest risks to most businesses is not that of being out of touch with all the latest digital developments and/or Googles latest algorithm, no the biggest risk is not addressing the needs of your target customers and the basics of your business model.
These are the questions you MUST ask:
- “Why should people bother to buy from you when they can buy from the competition?”
- “What makes you different from the rest?”
So to answer the question, ‘How are we doing?’ Don’t ask your accountant (or worse your staff!) ask your customers!
You must, engage, talk, listen, ask, relate, think the unthinkable and say the unsayable. Marketing is not, and never has been, just about measuring transactions, otherwise you are just hiding behind ‘doing the numbers’ when you should be ‘doing the thinking’.
If you do not have a clear customer value proposition, then no great digital marketing strategy will win over a slightly jaded and over-stimulated audience.
Don’t misunderstand me, clearly I am a huge fan of the power of digital marketing. It’s our business, it’s what we do. It’s just that none of it matters if you haven’t addressed the fundamental needs of your customers.
Marketing has been radically changed forever by the digital revolution. Thanks to digital, at a tactical level at least, we have lots of shiny new marketing tools to play with, but strategically the fundamental questions of marketing ie insight, creativity, positioning, engagement and, ultimately, results, remain as frustratingly elusive as always.
