So, you are interviewing people about digital marketing. You want results. You want them fast and you want them inexpensively. Well, welcome to the club! The real question is: do you have a strategy? Have you defined success? Do you know what your firm is willing — and not willing — to invest in terms of time, money and people power?
A few one-liners worth sitting with:
“Digital marketing shouldn’t be separated from regular marketing. The approaches need to match!”
“Google is the largest market in the world — it needs investment and attention.”
“There are a lot of tool salespeople in my industry. They sell a trick, an app, a piece of tech. Marketing still is about strategy, messaging, branding and getting people interested!”
Phase 1: Strategy
What are your goals — use numbers. Think “hockey goals”: market share, dollar sales, number of clients, employee turnover, profit margin. What are your objectives (how do you look to the world)? The biggest, the best, the cheapest, the most reliable? What is your promise? What emotions are you trying to evoke?
Phase 2: Your Website Needs To Be A Soft Landing
Can I find you? Are you Google-able? Does your URL make sense, and does it convey a benefit to the user? How does your site look and feel — is it welcoming? Do I learn something every time I go? Is it a tool, or just a brochure? Are you applying social media correctly? Are you answering the four questions: who is the client, what is their problem, what is our solution, and why is our solution better?
Phase 3: Using The Tools
Many people lead with tools: “you need a Facebook campaign.” But it starts with a strategy. Once you have that, you can look at which tactics to use — ad tech, blogging, social media, multiple offers, keywords, back-end tagging, audio/video/text. The key is using content that’s relevant to the problem you solve.
Phase 4: Budgeting
There are really two ways to build a marketing budget. The best way is according to your strategic goals and objectives. The other is: “we have X dollars, what can you do with it?” Budgeting shouldn’t be taken lightly — it’s the mathematical blueprint of your marketing plan, and it keeps everyone on the same page.