We've become spoiled. Before the Internet, marketers had a very hard time quantifying the ROI they got from their advertising efforts. But they still did it. They knew that advertising worked, they just didn't feel like they had a solid grasp on how, why, when, and where it worked. There wasn't much that was highly measurable in those days, so directly tying ROI to marketing spend with any level of significant confidence was hard. Enter digital. It's the wonderful land of accountability. Now we can (for the most part) know exactly how many of what action comes from what channel or what campaign or what website; and we can match that up with how much was spent on that channel. But I fear many have swung too far in the opposite direction. More than ever before, we hear the question asked "What's the ROI on that?" (social media anyone?!), and if we can't provide a solid answer, we usually aren't provided a solid budget for it.
It might sound like a provocative question, but it's a real question I was asked once at a speaking appearance. The hard part about answering such a question is that it's a matter of perspective. Digital marketing is certainly on the rise, but it depends on your company whether that means that traditional marketing is dead, merely sick, or A-OK. Like any good consultant, I know it is annoying to answer a question like this as "It depends" but you're a lot better off knowing how to think about this for your own business than hearing some apocalyptic pronouncement about...
Social media offers fantastic opportunities for content promotion. Opportunities that didn't exist even just a few years ago. But unlike traditional advertising, social media is less of a promotional platform than it is an engagement platform. That means you can't just use your social media accounts to accost followers with your "commercials." Effective use of social media requires planning and strategic implementation. While old school advertisement allows you to pay for reach on other people's networks, social media requires you to build up your own audience with which you can engage and advertise from. This is no small hurdle, and many companies have failed at social media marketing due to improper use of their social networks.
"There is no law except the law that there is no law", could not be more true in the digital marketing industry. Sure, there are guidelines, best practices and policies but that isn't to say that the industry as a whole is, and will always be, a science....
If you haven't read my book (I assume that's most of you), you might not be seduced by the idea of doing anything wrong. And I have noticed that there are more and more critics of this "fail fast" idea, who are starting to talk about a "cult of failure." Now, I am sure that there are folks who are embracing failure to take off the pressure or to be unaccountable or for other weird reasons. But that's not me. (I swear.)...
The idea of designing your own website may seem challenging if you've never done it before ... but it doesn't have to be. Even with new trends and shifting goals for 2015, the array of tools and resources available online makes it easy for any business to develop its own muscular online presence. Use this step-by-step guide to demystify the process of creating the perfect website....
Content is one of the most important factors a business has to execute properly if it wants to boost search engine visibility and rankings. What's challenging is that there are seemingly a million different kinds of content, and the rules for what's most effective seem to change regularly ... and too often, completely without warning. So how can content be created and employed most effectively? What are best practices for combining business content and SEO?...
SEO is characterized by constant change. Rapid adoption of mobile devices for Internet use is playing a big role in that.To keep up with the way Google ranks websites and how users look for information, it's important for your company to implement evolving SEO strategies for 2015. ...
Have you ever wondered what's holding your Google rankings and SEO efforts back? Proper SEO is complicated, and making a mistake in your SEO campaign is easy. It's possible your only roadblocks to higher Google rankings are foolish - yet fixable - mistakes. What are some common SEO don'ts, and how can you fix them?...
A blog without an audience isn't worth reading. Do you know who your target audience is? Most people don't. In fact, if you talk to many business owners, they'll tell you that their target audience is anyone who wants what they offer. Wrong!
Advertising Age had an interesting story that was brought to my attention by a colleague, where a Procter & Gamble exec speculates that social media is already changing the world of market research. It's an interesting story, mostly because of who is quoted. When a company with the marketing chops of P&G says something, you've got news. But the news is actually much bigger than what you are reading in Ad Age....
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