Integrate a Mixture of Skills and Tools to Maximise Your Digital Investments
Digital marketing has grown from an emerging channel to a part of the mainstream marketing mix over the past five years. In the process, it has become a complex field that sprawls across a number of sub-disciplines that demand a range of specialised skill sets.
Marketers today have a big box of tools to choose from as they implement online marketing plans - search marketing, search engine optimisation, email marketing, online advertising, ad networks, affiliate marketing, social networking, and online reputation management are but a few examples. Each of these fields is specialised in its own right and each of them is changing at such a rapid rate that it's difficult even for the specialised expert to remain on top of the latest trends.
It's little wonder, then, that many companies and marketers have ended up treating each of them as discrete media rather than managing them in an integrated manner.
Keeping them separated
Marketers often assume that the many online marketing tools work in concert, but fail to draw up integrated strategies that span across them or to measure their performance in a holistic manner. That is a mistake since our experience shows that companies that manage their online marketing tools in an integrated fashion enjoy significantly better results than those that don't.
Consider for example, the synergies between search engine marketing (paid
search) and display advertising. The relationship between them may be complex and bi-directional. Users may search for a company's name, products and keywords after they've been exposed to an ad, for example. Or display messaging could seal the deal for a user who has previously searched for a brand or company, but is wavering about whether to buy or not.
When search and display are combined in integrated campaigns, they can deliver a significant lift in clickthroughs to your website and can help you to convert more customers.
Another example: the customer service department picks up that many customers are turning to social media services such as Twitter and Facebook to vent about customer service issues. They set up a Twitter account and a Facebook fan page, then sit and wonder why they have no Facebook fans or Twitter followers. Of course, they'd have more success if they ensured that their social networking details were prominently displayed on the corporate website and in company display ads.
And imagine if they could trace how display and search advertising drive engagement through social networking channels or how social networking interventions affect their brand's online reputation? That's the sort of information that can be used to improve every element of one's online marketing strategy
Benefits that cannot be ignored
If the performance of campaigns across different channels is tracked and measured in separate reporting silos, advertisers lose out on significant opportunities to optimise their campaigns. For example, one could look to understand which display ad placements and search keywords are producing strong synergies. That will allow campaigns to be optimised to achieve the best combined effect rather than tweaking them in isolation.
In practice, integrating various online channels and tools starts from the top with holistic strategy and is supported by integrated measurement of how the channels work together to improve customer engagement.
The reason that many digital marketing disciplines have evolved in their own ghettos is easy to understand - they demand different skills, are often overseen by different departments and may be outsourced to different agencies.
Pulling them all together may look like a daunting task for even the most versatile marketing manager. But the benefits of doing so can no longer be ignored. By integrating their strategies, skills and learning across multiple aspects of online marketing, companies can enjoy superior returns from their online ad budgets.
