The VIth Sense - The Digital Marketing Age is Very Human
If you’re a modern marketer, you likely understand the benefits of digital tools. You can target prospects far better today than ever before. You can adjust marketing activities based on the online behavior of your prospects. You can see, in real-time, what tactics are driving conversions and put more resources towards them. And much of this can be done automatically. Marketing automation we call it.
The ironic twist to all of this digital automation is that it takes humans to make it work. Yes, you can ‘set it and forget it’ and generate some results. You might even be somewhat satisfied with how that performs for you if you compare your results to previous efforts. But, with a bit more effort, your marketing investment can really pay off. All it needs is the time and attention of a strategic marketing mind.
In fact, in this day of automation, marketing actually requires more man hours than ever. Not more dollars, but definitely more time from smart marketing people that can analyze data and develop insight that drives marketing strategy. An example is web analytics (Google Analytics, if that’s your tool of choice). It’s not enough to know how much web traffic you are getting. You want to know the source of it (paid search, emails, organic, advertising, etc). And which sources are driving conversions. Which are performing better, and which are declining. What geographic areas is that traffic coming from? What pages are getting the most views and which have the highest bounce rates? There’s a lot to be gained from data. But it takes time to gather it, analyze it, and develop actionable insight from it.
Other activities that the human modern marketer must spend their time on include:
In fact, in this day of automation, marketing actually requires more man hours than ever. Not more dollars, but definitely more time from smart marketing people that can analyze data and develop insight that drives marketing strategy. An example is web analytics (Google Analytics, if that’s your tool of choice). It’s not enough to know how much web traffic you are getting. You want to know the source of it (paid search, emails, organic, advertising, etc). And which sources are driving conversions. Which are performing better, and which are declining. What geographic areas is that traffic coming from? What pages are getting the most views and which have the highest bounce rates? There’s a lot to be gained from data. But it takes time to gather it, analyze it, and develop actionable insight from it.
Other activities that the human modern marketer must spend their time on include:
1. Those that engage prospects like social media, trade shows, consumer events, and activating sponsorships;
2. Personalizing communications based on what a prospect or customer has indicated an interest in by opening an email, clicking on a video, reading a blog, calling a phone number.
3. Give personalities to brands. People buy brands, not products. Brand positioning takes a fair amount of time, no matter what tactics you use- events, blogs, social media, public relations, and on and on.
Modern marketing is NOT more expensive, even though you’re paying for those human hours through staff members, consultants, or some sort of marketing partner. Modern marketing shifts dollars from other buckets, like paid media, promotional items, and other ‘mass marketing’ efforts. Even if your marketing has gone 100% digital, it needs humans more than ever.
