Thoughts about so called digital and social media marketing

This is probably the most general post I have written to my blog ever. However, this needed to be written out because I'm wondering these things in my daily work with partners and customers. Overall, I think we are living very interesting times dear reader. Communication is going through a transformation, no matter from which point you are thinking about it or which research you are referring to. So is marketing communication. Do you agree?

"Marketing doesn't equal as advertising."

Many people are talking about marketing, but they are really talking about different forms of advertising. Even if you are talking about marketing communication, still you are forgetting couple of P´s of marketing. There is no reason to speak about digital marketing because...

"Everything is digital and we are living in digital world every day."

It's a huge risk if your company is relying just for non-digital communication. As you know, there is a huge hype on so called social media. There are as many experts as there are users. Companies are establishing Facebook pages like they were putting up websites in 90s. "We kind of have to do it because everyone are doing so." Not!

"Social media doesn't equal as Facebook."

Instead of term "social media" we could use "Internet marketing". Internet marketing hints that you have a connections but with new devices and native applications (iPhone, iPad, Symbian, Android) it may be hard to say when you are "connected" or "online". With all this new technology, platforms and services, people need constant education to keep themselves up to date.

"Before you buy services from experts or consultants, you need to know what you are buying."

First, I suggest that you buy training, books - go to events, network and study online. This is a very good tip because I have been training concepts, content management, newsletters, social media, open source, web analytics and search marketing for years. : ) I give you few real life examples so you know what I'm talking about here. Would you buy 2 million Facebook ad impressions for 750 € or learn how to plan and target Facebook advertising?

Would you buy "Google Maps advertising" for 200 € or would you add your company information to Google Places in 5 minutes if I send you a link? Would you buy search engine optimization service or learn what you need to do content and link building wise to help search engine visibility in the long run? Would you buy a crappy marketing register or learn how to grow own, quality database for newsletter promotions etc.? Would you buy thousands of clicks or learn how to know which channels are converting visitors into actions that are relevant to our business?

I hope you got my point. Learn the new technology, platforms, services, software and companies that may help your business. What ever you are doing, you should define a strategy = make a plan. A strategy, in other words a plan, doesn't have to be a 50 page long ultimate document, but it should include the most important thing: business goal(s)!

Before jumping in to Facebook, Twitter etc. or before creating a iPhone or iPad application think these: are we trying to sell more, save costs or both? How we are going to do that and how to measure that? What is the schedule, what are the tasks that need to be done and what are the resources (people, companies, software or channels involved)?

"Most campaigns fail because planning phase is not very well executed."

I'm sure that many people are struggling with many questions regarding to communication solutions. Should we use social media and how? Should we have a mobile website or should we create a native application and for which operating systems? Should we still use print and how can we help production of print products?

What are customer contact points / channels and which are the point of sales? Should we establish a web shop and how do we measure sales between channels?  How do we manage content in each channels and what are the best and most cost efficient systems we are using?

Many tough and excellent questions. And probably many more. That's why you need to learn. When you know more, you can ask the relevant questions from your expert or potential partner and you won't probably make a bad decision. It will cost a lot money if you choose wrong person, wrong software or wrong partner. Here are three simple rules to follow in order to make success:

1. Measure your current activities against goals
2. Plan your next online service, campaign or activity based on the insights you have got from measurement
3. Execute the new plan
4. Start all over

Is it simple? What are your experiences? Throw in your comment - feel free to disagree. Join into a conversation - tell us what's your pain point at the moment? Show me your social side - ask a question! Want to meet me or ask if we can sell more or save costs: send me an email. Try Quick Response code below and get my contact information to your phone. You can download a reader to your phone from Upcode or Beetagg.