In 2018, this might sound like a rhetorical question, but a lot has changed over the past few years.
Whether you already have a good grasp of what modern digital marketing is, or are merely curious if your understanding of it is still accurate, we’ve compiled some information to ensure you know exactly what environment you’re talking about. And the word environment is used here deliberately, because we see the digital space as its own ecosystem. Digital marketing is an ever-evolving garden which needs to be understood, tended to and appreciated before you can get the most growth out of it.
What Digital Marketing is Not
Before we dive into what digital marketing looks like today, it’s worthwhile to explain what digital marketing is not. Digital marketing is not simply a company placing pictures of their goods on a social platform and hoping that someone will buy from them.
Many companies still hold on tightly to the historical, “proven” way of advertising, and as such, treat digital marketing exactly the same way as they do print advertising.
When you open up a magazine or newspaper and find all those flyers from companies selling televisions, furniture, toiletries and food, this is direct mail advertising. If you happen to be in the market for a new refrigerator or patio set, some of the flyers might get closer attention from you. Any flyers or brochures that don’t appeal to your needs or taste, or is simply not relevant, will likely remain unopened and promptly discarded in the recycling bin.
Similarly, the advertising you see on your television or hear on the radio works much the same way. Not only is television and radio extremely expensive, it’s also almost impossible to target on these mediums.
The same lawn mower ad intended to reach male homeowners, is shown indiscriminately to a 16 year old girl who wouldn’t even look up from her phone while the ad is playing. This model is extremely wasteful in terms of cost for the advertiser, and often evokes considerable irritation on behalf of the unintended consumer because you are wasting their time by showing them ads that are not relevant to them.
Another feature of traditional advertising is that the objective seems to be to sell as blatantly as possible, to as many people as possible.
Some companies think that digital marketing works identically to this strategy. They think that digital marketing is placing a picture and price of what they are trying to sell onto social media, and expecting that people will flock to buy it. We are here to tell you that this is the furtherest thing digital marketing stands for.
What does digital marketing mean for my company?
The game has changed considerably in the last few decades, where adverts were basically a list of all the features and benefits of the item in question, and the price. Unless someone is deliberately shopping for that item, this strategy is no longer as effective as it used to be.
Digital marketing is definitely not broadcasting adverts to every person active on a particular social media platform, nor is it the process of spending thousands and thousands of rands/dollars randomly “boosting” posts from your Facebook page.
It certainly isn’t placing your adverts on every social media platform in existence without considering whether your prospect even spends time there.
Quick tip: if this sounds like your current marketing strategy, you might want to consider changing a few things!
Your Client’s Definition of Digital Marketing
For most people, digital marketing is any advertising they encounter in a digital space. This could be in the form of opt-in emails they receive, or adverts consumed actively or passively as they scroll their various social media feeds. Social media adverts are no longer just static images, but include carousels they can swipe through and videos they can watch.
On social media platforms, adverts are sometimes easily identified by their perfect “stock” photo quality, and often include a prominent “call to action button”. Videos are gaining much more popularity, because they seem less “advertisey” and because of their immediacy and down-to-earth vibe.
Most people will have noticed that products or items they previously searched for on Google, later mysteriously appear in their social media feeds. If you are thinking Big Brother is watching you, you are right!
Because people are being bombarded by digital content 24/7, adverts that look obvious and like blatant selling, can be perceived as annoying at best, and an irritating time-waster at worse. The consumer has evolved, and marketing strategies need to evolve with them.
What Do People Really Want From Digital Marketing?
Some people would like all social media adverts to disappear completely, but that is not likely to happen. In 2017, Facebook alone generated 39.94 billion U.S. dollars in ad revenues (www.statista.com), proving that it is one of the biggest ad generators of all time.
If adverts cannot be switched off completely, people at the very least don’t want to have irrelevant adverts shoved in their faces. They are more discerning, and want to know how their lives will change for the better if they purchase that new scatter cushion, or invest in that gym contract. People want to feel like businesses are speaking to them, as individuals, and not just lumped into the same boat as everyone else.
We’ll do a separate blog specifically talking about effective strategies to target and sell on social media, but for now, just understand that digital marketing is not about putting products in font of an audience and hoping they will buy. For the end user, the easier they can spot that they are being sold to, the less inclined they might be to open their wallets.
The New Era of Digital Marketing
For people who actually work in the digital marketing space, the immense popularity of social media platforms, most especially Facebook and Instagram, has provided incredible opportunity to advertise cheaply and effectively.
Globally, there are over 2.13 billion monthly active Facebook users (Source: Facebook 01 Jan 2018) and 800 million monthly active Instagram users (TechCrunch 25 Sep 2017). This provides an unprecedented opportunity to reach more people than ever before, and their secret data algorithms completely eclipse the power of print, television, billboard and radio advertising.
Furthermore, the elaborate targeting mechanisms available to digital marketers allows us to place ads in front of the people most likely to be interested in (and likely to purchase!) that particular product, brand or service.
Digital marketing today is above all adaptable and unafraid of change. Unlike traditional marketing, strategies that work well on a platform today might be old news tomorrow. At all times we have to monitor the trends and test to see what is working. We constantly ask the question: “What are people paying attention to? How can we get our message to resonate with them?”
Consider Yourself Warned
If you are inflexible and unwilling to change your message or approach when advertising, then you might not see the results you’re hoping to achieve.
Digital marketing of today, is about new strategies and continual investigation into the consumer. It is primarily about making customers feel like they are the only one being spoken to, and that their interest in your company actually matters. In a world drowning in a sea of selfies, with billions of people endlessly sharing and posting all day long, people want to feel seen and heard.
Increasingly, they want to do business with ethical companies and are more aware of the impact of ingredients and products on the environment. Ignore these trends at your peril!
Our definition of Digital Marketing
It might sound like a contradiction, but digital marketing is often about not selling your product or service. At least not obviously. It is about endearing your prospects to what your company values and stands for. It is about gaining their trust, often over a long period of time, and giving before expecting to receive.
Marketing in this day and age is not a case of businesses saying: “Here, buy this” but rather, “How can we help you improve your life?”
The Takeaway
Digital marketing might not be the complete opposite of traditional marketing, but it comes close. It’s more like the movie Inception; people want to be sold to, without being sold to.
If that’s what you agree digital marketing is, congratulations! You get it!
If not, we hope we’ve at least given you some new ideas to think about and provided some insight into potential pitfalls in your existing marketing strategy. We hope we’ve shed some light onto what digital marketing looks like in 2018, and challenged you to think about how you could possibly position your business to be more effective on social media platforms.
