It's a huge industry, digital marketing -- in the tens of billions of dollars. Unfortunately, I suppose in part because it's unregulated and because ordinary people are still largely ignorant of how it works, it's rife with scammers, incompetents and, pardon my language, bullshit artists. I therefore feel the need to throw some facts out there. Facts, of course, as I see them.
Please Follow the Numbers
Digital marketing has one incredible advantage: those working in it have access to a wide range of data that can clearly illustrate the effectiveness of a campaign. Wordpress' built-in analytics tools provide a wealth of information; even this here Blogger site gives me tons of data. And of course Google Analytics provides a level of feedback that can be truly terrifying.
I say "terrifying" because it can really be scary to the amateurish brand of marketer who gets emotionally invested in their efforts and is afraid (or even unable) to admit failure.
Try something, check the numbers. If the numbers are good, keep going (or better yet tweak your efforts to boost the numbers); if the numbers are bad, change course. But you'll find that after you've been in the business awhile, you get a good sense of what will and won't work before you even start.
And in the name of all that's holy, never, ever lie about the numbers.
Don't Over-Promise
This one drives me nuts. Like seriously, if I hear one more idiot promise to get a website on the front page of a relevant Google search, I might start a fire. First of all, in most cases, that's not a promise that can be kept. Secondly, even if it is kept, it's a lousy measure of a campaign's effectiveness.
You want your campaign to increase your business. You don't just want to make it easier to find your site, you want visitors to become customers, preferably repeat customers. You want them to be happy customers. You want them to tell their friends. You want to build a reputation. How many of these things are the result of a Google ranking, the promise of which is largely illusory?
"Social Media" isn't a magical talisman, it's just a form of communication
I can't count how often I've sat in meetings where a vaguely-described "social media campaign" has been listed as a key ask. But all too often it's described with an air of reverence, like a vampire-hunter talking about holy water.
In truth, while social media is a thing that exists, it's not guaranteed to be a useful marketing channel for everybody. The reality is that social media campaigns vary in type and scope, not to mention effectiveness. One example: it\s all too common for clients to view themselves as being in some kind of "Twitter race" to amass a huge number of followers in as short a time as possible. Oh sure, I can make that happen no problem. You want ten million followers? I can get you ten million followers. But the dirty little secret about Twitter is that it's clogged with fake users. Some celeb might have followers in the millions, but how many are actual flesh-and-blood human beings? Not many.
A huge part of my job is quelling completely unrealistic expectations about social media marketing. Yes, it can help, and yes, it can even be wildly successful. But it's far from universal and especially far from guaranteed. Unfortunately people seem all too ready to fall for the over-the-top sales pitches. As an ethical marketer, you need to be the voice of reason on this one.
Reduce Access to Your Campaign
Marketing campaigns are complicated things. They can include Google adwords, Facebook ads, a new website, a blog, even YouTube videos, among many, many efforts. The last thing you want is for people who don't know what they're doing to be monkeying with it.
Your clients will want full-on admin-level access to every single thing you do, but you have to hold the line on this one. Otherwise some manager will decide to launch his own adword campaign that doesn't get you anywhere, or post some idiotic cat video (or worse) on your home page ... believe me, I could tell you horror stories.
What's your brand?
Apple's brand isn't a grey apple, it's the placing of incredibly powerful (not to mention incredibly cool) technology into the hands of millions of people. Google's brand isn't a multicoloured font spelling out a funny math term, it's the act of allowing anyone on earth to access an incomprehensibly vast storehouse of knowledge.
A brand is an emotional thing, it's a magical thing. It sums up feelings and ideas and practical products and services. I'm quite annoying on the subject, because incredibly this often gets overlooked, even though it should serve as the cornerstone of your entire marketing campaign.
You don't even have to do a "proper" brand ... I've done my share of what I call "background branding," which is a brief, heartfelt description of what it is I'm trying to sell. It doesn't appear on a website or indeed anywhere public, it's just for myself and the other content creating staff, something to motivate us, to shape our thoughts. And it works, it really does help unify the content and create an overall brand image, even if it's a bit subtle.
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