Let’s start with the basics and go from there. What is digital marketing?
There are many definitions on the web and in books. Some say it’s traditional marketing using electronic tools, some limit it to the use of computer technology in the communication of a brand message, and some it’s bringing digital insight and technology into the marketing mix, and still, some say nothing has changed but the tools.
All of these can in some way be said to be right. Today digital marketing now touches all areas of marketing. It brings with it a great insight into not only what works and what doesn’t but also into our customer behaviours and interactions with brands, in their own social context as well much more. So, from our point of view, digital marketing is the evolution of marketing from being an art to also being a science, but not one that is exclusive of the other.
Digital marketing is still a creative discipline, may it always continue to be so, but where it comes into its own is in it takes the guesswork out of the implementation. Understanding the impact of that creativity and results it brings can shape its development moving forward. John Wannamaker was a US department store merchant who lived from 1838 to 1922 and is famed as saying “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” And traditionally this was right for most advertising and marketing. This is where the creativity and psychology of marketing flourished in the art of getting the message across and the customers engaged, but even so, it was almost impossible to track the impact of a campaign other than sales themselves that some would attribute to other factors and not just marketing or advertising. Being able to attribute specific sales to specific campaigns was never smooth or full-proof.
This lack of traceability would make some business owners feel that the public relations, advertising, and marketing department were not worth the money they were spending on them. This has often meant in turn that in times of hardship they would cut back on the very avenue that was making them money because they had no way of tracking the impact of which advertising channel was working and which wasn’t.
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Some of the most successful companies I have worked with have in times of crisis and recession doubled down on their marketing, with some coming out of those hard times as market leaders because of it.
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When I first got into marketing, I came from an engineering background. So, unlike my colleagues, I did not have the benefit of a marketing degree to hide behind. What I did have though were the skills I had developed through learning the art and science of SEO and analytics applied to it, as well as an engineer’s mindset. Today this process has been given the term Growth Hacking.
Migrating these skills to the digital marketing, direct marketing and telemarketing campaigns I was involved with meant that I could sit in early Monday morning meetings with all the data and stats on what my work had achieved. I could show clear traceability between time spent on the number of leads into the number of sales. My colleagues could only sit there and talk about brand awareness and how the impact they had achieved was difficult to measure. This soon set me aside from my colleagues in the director’s eyes and promotions and progression followed and developed into a career where now I do have the qualifications, the technical know-how, experience, and successful track record that speaks for itself.
Don’t get me wrong I am all for brand awareness and completely agree that there will always be an element of the PR, marketing, and advertising that we do that is not directly measurable. But digital and data-driven marketing give us more insight and more analytical data than we have ever had before. It means we can get closer to our customers, voters, or campaign supporters, engage them on the move and know that we have done this. We have more control over what we know is working and can pool resources into these areas where others may be lacking.
Digital marketing has changed the way in which companies and organisations bring their products, cause, and/or services to market. Unlike the old channels digital allows more conversation between the brand and its customers, more feedback, and dialogue. Through the internet and social media instant conversations between marketers, brands, consumers, and supporters are a matter of daily business.
Consumers and supporters are so connected these days and as such are more demanding in the way they find their information and entertainment that digital marketers need to make sure they really understand their target audience. They need to be delivering to them a smooth, consistent experience across multiple devices and platforms. Marketers need to understand not only the demographics of their consumers but how they think and how and when they interact with their media. From social media to mobile search engines and the user experience getting to, engaging with, and exiting from these sites and platforms.
Digital marketing gives companies, campaigners, and activists the flexibility in getting to know their customers or target audiences. Getting closer to understanding them. How they think. How they behave. How to use this to their advantage.
As users of digital environments, we need to ask ourselves how is this environment designed to influence us? How much do digital marketers know about us? How secret or protected is our data?
There is an old saying in marketing easiest people to influence are those that do not think it is possible to influence them or make them buy something or vote or act in a particular they never intended to. This is usually because even after a compulsive buy they will mentally erase the part where they never intended to buy that product and convince themselves it was 100% their decision, idea, and plan to do so all along unaware that this is a latent cognitive bias.
This is a live book writing project. Copyright is protected. It is a first rough draft so I would love to hear any feedback from readers. When the book is launched all that are signed up for this substack project will be sent a free Kindle copy of the book as a thank you for subscribing.
This project is part of the SleeplessDystopian.com writing projects.
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Visit us at Sleepless Dystopian dot Com our Social sensemaking blogging site; Disruptive Techniques & Technologies. Digital Activism, Creative Pursuits and mentalism, for social change
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