We’ve been doing marketing now for the past five years. Hindsight is 20/20 and there are just some things you don’t know until you go through it. Here are some fundamental things about digital marketing I wish I knew when I started!
Marketing is simple.
When we think about marketing our brands, we want to list out a plethora of channels, ads, strategies, copy, clever lines and guerrilla marketing tactics, but really you’re inviting your brand to become cluttered! At its purest and simplest form, marketing is just communication and relationship. We’re building a relationship between our brand and customer. Map out that relationship! It’s pretty linear. Everyone starts in the middle.
Hates You —————– Neutral/Doesn’t know about you ————————– Loves You
Digital marketing is always changing.
Don’t fall in love with just one advertising channel. Get used to quickly learning new programs and platforms. Marketing today is about becoming a forever learner. Have curiosity in what makes these new platforms unique and discover how people use them. People connect with brands through many different touchpoints, and those touchpoints become relics quickly when technology changes.
Your campaigns are fluid!
Nothing is truly set in stone. Once your campaigns are published, you just begin the journey of discovering what works and what doesn’t! I have a whole other post specifically about marketing being a game of adjustments. [LINK]
Really, really, really know the people you are going to market to. Like really, really.
The only way your communication is going to be effective is if you really understand your audience. What makes them tick. Like in a scene in a detective movie, you want to know what they like, don’t like, how they spend their days, what’s important to them, what they eat for lunch, when they call their mother. (just kidding) but seriously, know your audience and know how your brand fits within their lifestyle.
Don’t become that annoying dinner party guest.
You may think marketing is about talking about how great your brand is! Well that’s a small part of the entire conversation. Imagine if you were at a dinner party and a person their was only talking about how great they were. How annoying is that? At the end of the day, most people care about one thing, themselves! Connect with the audience, resonate with their problems, then talk about how you can help them. People buy things to solve problems whether that problem is purely functional, emotional, or physical. They want to know how you can solve their problems uniquely and better than the other brands.
