The number one mistake almost every single CEO we talk to makes is to assume that digital marketing is just another marketing channel like TV, radio, or newspapers. It’s not.
First off, digital marketing is much much more than social media. It’s a radically different way of doing business that uses data and interaction to deliver business outcomes. Quite simply, it’s a business owner’s dream come true.
A question you hear bandied around by senior leadership who, quite clearly, have their head in the clouds is the question of ROI. “What’s the ROI of digital marketing?”, they ask. There could not possibly be a dumber question in today’s business world.
Let me explain. The only form of marketing that has clear cut, definable ROI with metrics down to minutia is digital. Tell me if your TV, radio, or newspaper ad can answer any of the following questions:
Out-of-This-World Data and Tracking Capabilities
How many people that saw your ad were actually interested in your product or service?
Of those interested, how many took action?
Digital campaigns can answer those exact questions. We know exactly how many people saw the ad, how many people engaged with it, and how many who engaged then took definitive action to contact the business or make a purchase.
We can track who opened emails, who clicked on what, where they went on the website, who called or emailed from the site, who made a purchase, for how much, and did they return to make another purchase in the next 3 months?
If you want to make evidence-based decisions, this is how you do it.
Extremely Detailed Targeting
How about traditional ads for targeting? Can your radio ad just play to listeners in one suburb of Indianapolis and only to home owners who have a dog? No, but digital can.
With radio, you pay to “reach” every single listener. With digital, you only pay to reach those in the market for your product or service.
Once you’ve reached your home owners with a dog in a suburb of Indianapolis, can you then identify those that were seriously interested in your ad and only remarket to them, but not to anybody else? No, but digital can.
Instead of just blasting out generic ad after generic ad, digital can track audiences and deliver highly targeted content that moves them along the buyer journey.
Rapid Iteration
Not only that, but we can track what content users are engaging with and revamp ads on the fly to deliver more of the same while pruning off what’s not working.
What if I want to determine what version of my ad copy drives customers to buy? Can I simply run 6 TV campaigns and then accurately track which one produced the greatest increase in revenue? No, but digital can (are you detecting a theme here?).
With traditional marketing campaigns taking months to test even just one iteration of an ad, they guzzle money and time. With a digital campaign, we can run split tests on images, copy, and audiences in under a week, quickly identifying which ones perform the best and putting money behind the winner.
That Personal Touch
Finally, it’s not just using data to determine content/audience fit, it’s about one-to-one interactions. Can your customer reach out to you through the TV and ask you a question? Of course not, but they can through social media platforms where you’re running your campaigns.
Digital enables you to build relationships with customers that were only dreamed about before. In the past, we had to hire great staff and just hope our customers got the opportunity to meet them. Now, we can interact very early on to wow them.
The Digital Revolution
Digital is not just another medium. It’s a full-scale revolution in business where everything can be tracked, targeted, tested, and personalized in order to give the absolute best result for both customers and brands.
If you’re not already doing this, then we need to talk.
