Digital Marketing for the ‘Old World’ Marketer

Digital marketing is where the action is at, and if you’re a skeptic, and still struggling to catch up with CTR, SMM, Open rates, and all the rest; the world seems to be busy telling you that you’re lost. Some thoughts to put digital marketing in perspective, and help keep you in the game:

Digital marketing is a misnomer

It’s many wonderful things, but not marketing. Marketing is the 4P’s, 7P’s, or creation of the value chain from producer to consumer (of product/service ), or whichever definition of marketing floats your boat. ‘Digital marketing’ on the other hand is a tool of communication and engagement. It’s a “How” (one of many) to communicate “What” you want to say to your target audience. That actually sounds like…

Advertising

“A rose by any other name…” The great bard tells us that a thing remains what it is, irrespective of how one may choose to label it. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a… And all of you know what makes great advertising – insight into your consumer’s behavior and attitudes, clarity of your objective, how the consumer should feel, a bit of serendipity, and so on. Digital marketing is exactly the same. If you’re selling airline tickets to global citizens, smart alec tweets about who won a FIFA World Cup game which are viewed by millions, but annoy a few thousand (potential) customers is poor advertising – as KLM quickly realized. No matter how much your digital agency will jabber on about engagement levels, viral videos, ‘likes’, or “how the digital audience is different”; the essence of what makes great advertising will remain.

“Lies, damned lies and statistics”

The inherent nature of the digital world means everything is made of numbers (queue the scene from “The Matrix” when Neo discovers his true ‘power’). And so the new age digital marketer will bury you in reams of numbers – CPV, CTR, CPA, session time, funnel %, and on and on; and build them into beautiful decks with wonderful graphs. Don’t let them stop there, and ask what do the numbers mean – how are consumers reacting; understand, why are they doing that? Be careful that the data is consistent, and not cherry picked, lest Mr. Disraeli rise from the grave and lecture you. And always remember, don’t derive qualitative answers from quantitative data or vice-versa

Watch your spend

You don’t spend without thought and analysis on television or print or radio, why is digital marketing any different?

Don’t be afraid

One huge advantage ( or nightmare, depending on your POV ) of the digital world is how fast things can be changed, and how quickly the past can be wiped clean ( at an ordinary, superficial level ) – so use that and experiment !