The industry has become saturated with an unprecedented increase in small digital service providers that call themselves social media marketers or digital marketing specialists. Everyone is constantly inundated with information on the critical importance of digital marketing to the future success of businesses.
From SEO to paid ads, content, social media, to automated inbound, there is this constant and unrelenting pressure to adopt every new digital release and opportunity with a severe case of FOMO as the consequence if you choose to ignore them; instilling the fear that you will be “left behind” if you do not adopt every new digital and social media trend. This stern advice comes from those who fail to see that marketing & advertising is not the same.
So how does one survive in a world where business failure lies in waiting with the next trend change? How do you remain competitive against this expected sales advantage?
No need to worry about any of that.
What these service providers fail to understand is that Marketing and Advertising are two very different things. When they speak of “marketing your products”, they actually mean to say “advertising your products”.
Not only do they confuse one with the other, they think it’s the same thing.
Marketing & Advertising is not the same thing
When people speak of digital marketing or social media campaigns it is nothing other than Advertising and very far from the true meaning of marketing.
Terms like “engagement”, “content”, “clicks”, “share-ability” are often used as flashy marketing terms, but these are all really just extensions of communication in advertising.
Digital Marketing is for the most part a communication component of advertising through one or more digital platforms and advertising is just one of many components of marketing.
Efforts can look good but where are the results?
These digital marketers create so much noise with their smart designs and clever campaigns covering up for the fact that they know nothing about marketing and that no real results driven marketing strategy is in place.
In marketing, strategy comes first every single time. First the roadmap, followed by the journey.
Besides the communication and advertising part, marketing consists of identifying and understanding your market, your category, your customer; how your product or service is positioned and where – your brand.
It’s about your pricing and distribution models, your business objectives, unlocking new revenue streams in your supply chain or eco system…and, then, about defining the strategy that ties it all together.
Success is measured by the growth
We don’t call it a digital strategy, nor a social media strategy.
Some call it a marketing strategy,
we see it as a GROWTH STRATEGY.
In some cases a growth strategy does not end with marketing but is extended to technology solutions and brand development too. With so many content options and content delivery platforms out there, we have to consider what will be the most effective in reaching our audience and provide maximum return on marketing budget.
So many components, but where to start?
In today’s unpredictable challenging trade climate, business-owners are understandably focused on one thing. Sales.
Business owners are desperately trying to close sales with existing customers while simultaneously figuring out how to land the next client in what may be the most challenging sales conditions of our time.
… to be continued.
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