Creative thinking that delivers results

21 Oct

Who said Digital Marketing was easy?

Category: Digital marketing

It sure as heck wasn’t us! I recently came across a very enlightening article that captured our personal feelings – ones we’re often reluctant to admit to - regarding the many challenges inherent in digital marketing.

Titled Digital Distress: What Keeps Marketers Up at Night? , this research from software maker Adobe pointed to the reality that the majority of digital marketers are really struggling with this area of marketing. And no wonder when things like search engine optimization (SEO), social media and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, to name but a few are changing almost on a monthly basis.

The internet has significantly expanded the realm of possibilities available to most businesses and industries; marketing is no different. What has made digital or online marketing so difficult is this ever changing playing field, combined with the fact that most digital marketers have had little to no formal training of any sort to perform these tasks with any confidence. We’d add that even those with formal training recognize that much of it would be outdated in 24 months or less.

What this means for businesses

The one lesson for organizations therefore is that it’s very difficult to have broad expertise when it comes to digital marketing, unless of course you’re a larger agency or consultancy that’s able to draw on a bigger talent pool. For the smaller ones, sure they may have expertise in email marketing, PPC, or Facebook marketing for example, but to expect them to be experts in all of them is highly unlikely. There is simply too much flux in this sector for anyone to be capable of staying on top of everything.

So what practical advice would we give companies?

1) First and foremost, choose a marketing agency or consultant you trust and respect

2) Ensure they’re honest and upfront with you in terms of what they excel at - and what they don’t

3) Ensure they have solid marketing credentials and experience, ideally across a wide array of marketing channels. Ask for references!

4) Confirm they’ll be willing to bring in other experts where warranted and will be completely transparent about this with you

There you have it. At Sydcam Marketing Communications, we don’t pretend to be experts in all aspects of online marketing. We feel we have strong digital capabilities in SEO content development, social media and email marketing; we partner with other businesses that specialize in other areas such as PPC, mobile apps and in-depth analytics. To learn more about any of this, drop us a line today!

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