A dual market exists for training — digital marketers who need to grasp
the full breadth of both online and offline activity and conventional
marketers who need to skill-up for the digital realm. This article
considers the differing needs of these groups and how well existing
training resources are meeting them.
What is digital marketing?
So far, I’ve used the term digital marketing as if it
covered one area. Just as with ‘conventional’ marketing, there are many
digital marketing areas. They include:
- How marketing strategy is affected by the use of digital channels, in particular how the drive to use digital to reduce marketing costs may lead to reduced differentiation, even commoditization and consequent competitive weakness and lower margins and even revenues, and possibly to financial exposure because offline costs remain the same.
- How competitive marketing strategy is affected by the changes digital approaches allow you to make to business models, sometimes providing the ammunition to attack and bring down competitors, as many offline retailers and IT companies have discovered.
- How to plan digital marketing, covering how to develop and manage new ways of contacting and managing customers.
- How to manage different digital channels (eg, web, mobile, email), overall and in specialist technique areas, eg, search engine optimization, developing and managing apps.
- How to optimize across and within digital channels, including through accurate attribution and smart real-time bidding.
- Managing, analysing and presenting digital data, from developing insight to dashboard management. A key area here is to understand what the data is telling you, in particular staying open-minded about it and using classic market research to find out why the results are as they are.
The
more technical the area, the more rapid the evolution of technique and
so the more quickly training material can date, but the greater the
possibility of new techniques distracting you from the essentials of
competitive marketing.
In the last few months, the Institute of Direct and
Digital Marketing, of which I am an Honorary Life Fellow, has asked me
to help with several digital marketing training programmes. It reminds
me of when, 30 years ago, the demand for direct marketing training was
surging, as big companies (some recently privatized, such as BT, British
Gas and BA) implemented customer databases for the first time. They
discovered how responsive customers were to relevant communications, but
also that they needed to change the mindsets, knowledge and skills of
large numbers of their people, at all levels. These people came from
many backgrounds, including advertising, public relations, retailing,
brand and product management, general and technical sales, telemarketing
and, of course, customer service. A revolution had taken place in what
they could do. A parallel revolution had to take place in what they were trained, able and motivated to do.
Becoming more professional in customer management
This
revolution then spread out by sector, as various market changes
(privatization, deregulation and a general collapse of barriers to
competition) forced companies to become much more professional in how
they managed their customers. The skills also spread, with the
industries that were strongest in direct marketing (eg, mail order,
credit cards) losing some of their best people to industries that were
desperate for their skills (eg, telecommunications, insurance, travel,
utilities and, eventually, retailing).
Offline still delivering most revenue
Today,
a similar revolution in marketing, sales and service is taking place
because of the growth of digital capabilities and their addition to —
and in some cases substitution for — older ways of doing business.
Therefore, companies face the same challenges they faced 30 years ago,
as they wrestle with the continuous growth in channels, media, consumer
touch-points and marketing technology. However, in many companies,
offline ways of doing business (including direct marketing) still
deliver most revenue and profit. This means digital (at least for the
moment) must take its place alongside them.
Digital is not a bolt-on
However,
while digital techniques are becoming a key for success, for most
companies the link between online and offline marketing is critical, as
is the need to manage a combination of online and offline channels. Most
customers do not separate their online and offline lives — they tend to
mix these journeys. The few leading-edge companies that have a data
management platform that combines the two sets of data have realized
that they need skills and knowledge from both online and offline worlds
in order to manage and use the data. A view that is either purely online
or offline is a partial view. One issue here is that the new digital
capabilities are often ‘bolted on’ to marketing departments, rather than
integrated strategically.
Further more information about this articles, please you check on Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice or e-mail merlin@merlin-stone.com.
By Merlin Stone
Repost by Acarre Community Media
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