Christopher Earle: Why Your Approach to Digital Marketing Should be Crafted Like a Well-Balanced Breakfast

Wednesday, 10 February 2016

Why Your Approach to Digital Marketing Should be Crafted Like a Well-Balanced Breakfast

well-balanced-digital-marketing-strategy

I start each morning the same way: After feeding my spoiled dog his morning delicacy of premium dog food, hamburger, rice and veggies, I go about making my morning meal. I know that this is a luxury that many people will say that they don’t have the time to do and are instead getting ready, herding children and grabbing a pastry on the way out the door. However, I’m one of those people that loves a hearty, flavor-filled meal to start my day.

Many Americans skip breakfast saying they don’t have time or don’t need it, while foregoing what is arguably the meal that gives you fuel for the day, can seriously hinder your ability to be productive during the workday.

The same applies to your approach to digital marketing. Marketers often throw together tactics without considering how they work together, what elements are really needed, or the experience that they are creating for their customers. There is truly an art and a science to both a well-balanced breakfast and digital marketing. We’ll explore why below.

Protein Acts as The Foundation = Marketing Strategy

Bacon, sausage, or tofu? Which do you choose to start your building your meal around in the morning?

Recent research has found that over 70% of companies plan to increase their digital marketing budget in 2016. In order to get the most out of that investment, it is essential that their efforts are led with a sound, integrated digital marketing strategy.

An overarching strategy will impact all of the other elements you include in your program (or on your plate) and should tie all of your tactics and activities together. This cohesive approach will also help ensure that you are creating a consistent message for your customers, no matter what methods they are using to discover, consume and act on the information that they find.

Healthy Fats Cover You For the Long Haul = Content Marketing

While carbohydrates give you a quick boost, healthy fats can help keep you full and energized for the long haul.

We know that more fat doesn’t always equal better, and the same applies to your content marketing program. Instead of focusing on creating more and more and more content, focus on developing higher quality content that is directly tied to the needs of your customers.

In order to understand those needs, you may need to complete research and audits which will give you insight into what it is that your customers really care about. This need applies to everything from your website copy to the blog posts and content assets that you create.

A great piece of content will empathize with your audience, identify a pain point and offer a solution to help solve that problem. If you keep those things in mind when concepting and mapping your content plan then you and your customers will be better off for the long haul.

Carbohydrates Provide an Energy Boost = Digital Advertising & Social Media

We know that the healthy fats we consumed will eventually kick in, but sometimes you need that immediate boost to get you through the wee morning hours.

Digital advertising and social media marketing can act as the boost for your content marketing efforts. While they work differently, digital advertising and social media marketing can both be incredibly powerful tactics for getting more eyes on your content.

Digital advertising is a great traffic generator and should be used to drive your audience to bottom of funnel content that is meant to convert. Both organic and paid social media are a great way to expand the reach of your content and boost views and shares in a relatively short matter of time.

Fruit & Veggies Give You Essential Nutrients = SEO

Not only are they delicious, but fruits and vegetables are nutrient rich and a very important part of proper nutrition. In fact, without them, you put your body at a serious risk of developing unwanted ailments (remember what happened to sailors that didn’t have a steady supply of Vitamin C? Scurvy, scurvy happened).

SEO is still undoubtedly one of the most important parts of a healthy digital marketing program. Every piece of content, social promotion and ads should be optimized. An important part of helping your audience avoid content fatigue is by creating quality, optimized content that is aligned with their needs.

The old approach to SEO focused primarily on optimizing content for search engines. However, as search engines and customers have evolved and become more sophisticated, the need for optimizing for humans has become much more essential.

Seasoning Adds Flavor = Influencer Marketing

While not always a necessary part of a meal, it can still enhance the flavors of your breakfast and give it a little extra kick.

The same can be said about the addition of influencers to your digital marketing. Influencers lend an incredible amount of credibility and 3rd party validation to your message. They can also be a great way to draw in new readers and re-ignite those that are beginning to dip in engagement.

As more and more companies begin utilizing influencers, the competition for their attention will increase. In order to stand out in an inbox full of requests, you have to offer value, inspire response and take a creative angle.

What do you risk if you skip any elements of a well-balanced digital marketing program?

If you remove any of the important elements of a well-balanced breakfast your body will suffer. If you remove any of the important elements of a digital marketing program, your audience will suffer. While resources and budget may not always allow you to run a full-scale integrated digital marketing program that doesn’t mean that you can’t begin taking strides today to incorporate each of these essential elements into your digital marketing initiative.

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