We help bring clarity, objectivity and plain speak to digital marketing.
In almost no time at all digital marketing has come to dominate the marketing industry. It’s also left many marketers and advertisers, particularly smaller organizations scratching their heads in confusion; trying to make sense of new terminology, ever-changing algorithms, an avalanche of tools and the often dubious claims of black hat digital marketing practitioners.
Google and Facebook, the 500-pound Gorillas in every digital marketing discussion
In Canada, more than fifty cents out of every advertising dollar is now spent on digital channels with the majority of ad revenue being split by the two-headed monster that is Google and Facebook. Google alone generates over $100 billion in advertising revenue per year worldwide. Facebook brought in almost $70 billion in worldwide advertising revenue in 2019. Of the $300 billion spent on digital advertising around the planet, half goes to two massive players.
“We bring strategy and a focus on measuring metrics that matter to digital marketing campaigns and programs.”
As a result of the Google and Facebook dominance, traditional advertising channels have had to remake themselves with mixed results and smaller digital players have difficulty getting market share. What’s a marketer in the 21st century to do? Read on.
Is digital marketing different from traditional marketing?
Traditional marketing operates mostly in a physical world made up of newspaper and magazine ads, radio and television commercials, outdoor advertising, point of sale, tradeshows and telemarketing to name just a few. Digital marketing, exists electronically, online and through an ever-growing list of apps as well as handheld, portable and home-based devices. Examples of digital marketing options include:
- Content marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising
- Inbound marketing
- Social media marketing
- Marketing automation
- Email marketing
As time goes on, the line between traditional and digital marketing continues to overlap. What digital marketing and traditional marketing have in common is that they are the options that marketers have to examine when figuring out how to reach their prospects and customers. The question becomes, which option is best?
Paid digital marketing or DYI digital?
The list of digital marketing channels grows by the day if not the hour. Tik Tok anyone? We view digital marketing channels in two broad categories. First, those that usually involve paying a third party i.e ads on Google, Facebook, Amazon and secondly, those organic or earned channels that might be handled internally by a company. These earned channels include social media profiles and company pages, email marketing, content marketing and more. Slowly, it has become harder and harder for companies to make an impact on using unpaid social media alone. The Gorillas are always hungry for cash!
Digital marketing services focused on a strategy first approach.
According to a report from Smart Insights, almost 50% of the companies active in digital marketing are doing so without a written digital marketing strategy. That’s a mind-boggling statistic. Spending money without a strategy on digital marketing or any marketing for that matter is a recipe for disappointment. Or worse, disaster.
Our approach to digital marketing is to place it within the overall marketing toolbox and approach it strategically. Digital is one of the many tools that marketers have at their disposal, albeit one that every marketer should be using in some form or another. The question becomes, how to use digital marketing in a way that meets marketing objectives.
