From memes, TikTok dances, to reels there’s no doubt that digital platforms have influenced the way businesses and customers interact with one another. Digital marketing knowledge is about utilizing digital mediums to communicate to people about products, services, or solutions that a business offers. Digital marketing experts understand available mediums to create brand awareness, strengthen perceived value once people are aware, and help people find the right offers to make a transaction in an easy, efficient, and effective way. To accomplish all those objectives, experts in the field understand more than just the industry acronyms, they have deep knowledge and digital marketing skills in data analysis, paid media, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, customer relationship management, communication, social media, and even basic design skills.
According to Insider Intelligence, “The US digital ad market will surpass $300 billion by 2025, making up more than three-quarters of all media spending.”
We’ve reached a point where digital media is being utilized more than traditional forms of marketing. Using digital marketing effectively helps businesses cut down on costs from traditional marketing efforts, through effective and measurable targeting. For businesses to successfully manage this shift in marketing, expertise in the field is a necessity.
With the marketing landscape shifting from traditional to digital, more and more businesses are trying to get the attention of people digitally to sell products, services, or solutions. Marketing through interruption is where many brands start and end their digital marketing efforts. Below is what this looks like today.
Some of the recent buzzwords and shiny objects in digital marketing are omnichannel marketing, micro moments, automation, AI, and video marketing. All are great resources to better communicate with audiences, and to get the most out of all those resources brands need to do more than just surface level marketing.
Surface level marketing attempts to build trust through ads but with more and more brands running ads people are conditioning themselves to tune them out. Surface level marketing pitches a product, service or solution before a person is aware that they need your product or solution. The engagement from this type of approach attracts low quality customers since no trust has been built and no conscious consent has been made to engage with your brand.
Understanding how to use all the available digital marketing resources to go further than interrupting people as they are engaged in different mediums is what differentiates real digital marketing expertise.
True digital marketing expertise is about depth. It’s about establishing a deep connection with your customers through high quality creatives or content. It’s about gaining the trust of your customers so that they willingly want to engage with your brand. Trust is gained by being knowledgeable about their aspirations, needs, fears, and desires. Below is what real digital marketing expertise looks like.
It’s important to understand underlying principles, data analysis, and strategic thinking to be effective in digital marketing. Real expertise leverages the underlying principles and works to communicate with customers on why they should do business with your brand through real stories and experiences.
Here at (un)Common Logic our analysts train with subject matter experts on how to think through building campaigns and utilizing data to make strategic optimizations that push account performance forward by meeting customers where they are at in their journey. This expertise is demonstrated by partnering with clients to develop quarterly plans around business goals, challenges, and opportunities. Positive collaboration is demonstrated through case studies and honest communication to ensure clarity on goals, challenges, opportunities, and most importantly a balance between expansion and going deeper with targeted audiences.
For one of our non-profit clients, we promote stories about communities impacted by gentrification in Austin. The most recent story talks about how a monumental mural was taken down which generated public backlash followed by the community coming together and painting a new mural. Over the duration of this campaign content interactions increased by +145% over a 30-day period for the client.
For e-commerce clients, a similar effort could look like the inspiration for why a certain product was made, the story of the store, or promoting a cause that the store supports.
For service-based businesses, this could look like communicating what differentiates your service compared to competitors. It could also look like the values that the service business embodies.
Everybody is running ads and customers are getting better at tuning them out. Perceived digital marketing is interrupting users while they’re online to pitch a product or service without building trust or creating value. Real digital marketing expertise leverages the underlying principles, data analysis, and strategic thinking to understand what customers care about and communicates that to them to build trust before presenting an offer.
For further discussion or inquiries about setting up a digital marketing strategy that works for you, contact us today!