Digital marketing strategy: keeping it focused
June 8th, 2011 § 1 Comment
We’ve all experienced in our careers this scenario: The President, CMO, VP Marketing walks in and says “Hey, I saw on TechCrunch the Acmesupersocialinteractive.com presentation, and thought their application would fit perfectly into our marketing program”. Yes, it’s the latest cool thing, full of buzz and attention. But how do you determine if this newest application really might be useful, or not?
The importance of having a well designed digital marketing strategy certainly is to direct and measure your programs and campaigns. But it’s also a resource for determining whether new opportunities or technologies present themselves are applicable — something we tend to forget.
Here are some considerations for when the boss arrives with the newest/latest thing:
- Keep your objectivity. Yes, you designed the digital marketing strategy, and have lots of ownership over that. And your bonus is affected by its success. But try to keep your distance, and approach the process with objectivity.
- Do your research. Dive in and learn as much about the new application/tool/platform as you can. It can be difficult when dealing with start-up or barely out of the box technologies, but try to find what the real information is, not just the official press release version. You should consider:
- How long has the company been in business, and what does its financial structure look like? Is it VC-backed and has sufficient funds to continue operations? Does it have a customer base and growing revenues? You want to be certain that it will be around for as long as you need it.
- What is the real ‘reach’ opportunity from using the new application? Are there subscriber/member/user numbers that can provide a sense of what the real reach potential is? And what does that do to your current programs, either by adding significantly or not?
- Who are their current users and can you get information from them? Any user insights will prove very valuable when assessing a new technology or tool.
- How might it fit into your current digital marketing programs, and what might be the ‘cascading effects’ by adding it? Does it add to what you’re trying to accomplish? And importantly, how might its addition affect existing programs, campaigns or tools?
- And of course cost. What is the cost, not only of the new application or tool, but to its implementation, to other programs and tools, etc?
New applications, tools and technologies are a constant in the digital marketing environment. So having a method and discipline for determining which ones bring opportunity and which ones bring distraction is key. And using your digital marketing strategy as the tool for making that determination will produce a more efficient and effective result.
The guidelines about objectivity are so important. It’s also important to remember that even though the boss thought it’s a great idea to look into, if you take on the new platform or application and it fails, the boss will be asking you why you did it. Being objective with supporting evidence and reasoning as to why it is a good or bad idea is the best offensive or defensive play.