14 Oct Digital Marketing – There’s no easy way
Today I received a message from a contact that got me thinking about digital marketing and what it entails:
Quick question..Do you recommend any digital marketing courses a fella could do or how did you get up to speed with it?
Now, its a quick question but the answer is as long as the proverbial piece of string.
Here’s what I advised..
I wanted to answer straight and honestly with a shot from the hip “there’s no easy way to get to where you need to be” but knew that would come across as ‘hire us now” simultaneously I did not want to diminish the hard work that gets people to where they are at either:
It depends on your experience really. The biggest thing I found is getting up to speed with what is applicable to each business as not all audiences are the same so the methods change continually.
The key thing and I keep saying this to everyone I meet, marketing is no different now than 100 or 1,000 years ago.
The methods have changed. The tools have changed but the ethos of marketing is constant. Marketing is not sales and selling is not marketing. They are two different sides of the same coin, linked but not the same thing at all.
Marketing
> is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising.
Or another way of saying –
The management process through which goods and services move from concept to the customer. It includes the coordination of four elements called the 4 P’s of marketing:
(1) identification, selection and development of a product,(2) determination of its price,
(3) selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer’s place, and
(4) development and implementation of a promotional strategy.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/marketing.html
Until 10 or possibly 15 years ago mainstream marketing was pretty much unchanged. It really in the development of home computers and online selling that marketing and selling have become intertwined in most people’s perception.
[bctt tweet=”Marketing is not sales and selling is not marketing.” username=”SquarevMedia”]
To most people digital marketing (the here and now reality of modern day marketing) is all about the fancy website, swishy emails going out weekly, posting kittens on social media and a wee bit of a push with advertising (some Adwords using a €75 coupon to get you started) with boosted* posts on Facebook.
Sure, these are the tools of digital marketing (not necessarily how they should be used) the key question is “what are the principles behind your marketing?”
*don’t get me started on this ‘boosting’ of posts. Do a proper considered ad as part of a campaign.
Digital Marketing
Differs from typical marketing as it involves systems and methods allowing us to analyse campaigns in real time. You literally have your finger on the pulse and can identify what is working or not working.
Digital marketing is using the internet of course, in its many different facets. But you also have all the messaging apps & platforms to deal with. Tied in with digital marketing is the management of customer relationships and expectations.
There is no longer a phone call of enquiry or complaint it is now the web, social media, mobile devices, email and sometimes if you are lucky, point of sale. You literally have to be everywhere at everytime to manage customer relationships.
Through a strong digital marketing message you get your business to stand out on the new marketplace. The unfortunate thing for any business these days that think they can ignore digital marketing because they don’t sell online, you are mistaken. Information is digital. Your customers share information digitally. Your potential customers research you digitally.
You MUST consider and more importantly IMPLEMENT a digital marketing plan.
Back to the beginning..
To address a response to my friend.
I’m 10 years on Facebook and still learning tricks every week. Not to mention email marketing, Youtube, Google adwords …
Digital marketing, there’s no easy way. you have to be on the pulse and build your message up over time monitoring and adapting each and every step of the way.
Of course, if I was starting out afresh..knowing what I know now…maybe a partner or outsourcing would be the way I’d go.
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