VIth Sense: Keep the "Marketing" in "Digital Marketing"
I am intrigued by movies set in the 1800’s that always seem to have the obligatory Magic Tonic salesman drawing a crowd while he exclaims the many benefits of his potion. No matter the movie, the character is always enthusiastic and selling their product as the key to your future happiness. In other words, they make a big deal out of it. And in the movies, like real life, people buy it.
A smart marketer that I know has a saying: ‘It’s only a big deal if we make it a big deal.’ The context of what they are saying is that people aren’t going to get excited about it if we don’t promote it correctly. The marketing industry seems to be forgetting this as we depend more on digital tools and related analytics. The analytics don’t mean much if people aren’t a bit enthusiastic about your brand. In fact, you won’t have a lot of analytics if you’re not also aggressively promoting.
In the digital age, we have a lot of analytics at our finger tips. Discussions are centered around sales funnels, conversions, and attribution models. It’s important stuff and we invest greatly in them. But, none of it matters if we don’t get people excited enough to engage with us. Hanging a banner ad in front of the ideal target won’t get results if the target doesn’t connect with the message. A Facebook ad that is targeted only to users that meet fifteen criteria still isn’t relevant if there’s nothing exciting about the ad. Nothing that you have to say is a big deal unless you make it a big deal.
In 2017, we are wise to use analytics to find the right consumer and connect with them based on their desires. But even in digital marketing, promotion is the Magic Tonic.
