With every step forward, we should first take two steps back to see what we've learned. Let's apply that to digital marketing.
Step 1: The start of the internet. As the first websites were being developed, a brand new concept was introduced -- the idea of a "content pool." Suddenly one "pool" of content could be sliced and diced and then generated dynamically based on what the reader wanted to see. It was no longer necessary to do flat page layouts. The unique value proposition (UVP) of internet publishing was established -- customized, dynamic content -- and the internet exploded.
Step 2: The birth of consumer-generated media. As web publishing technology became free and easy to use, and broadband became commonplace at home, consumers became web publishers. The definition of "mass media" changed. Wikipedia became the new encyclopedia, and YouTube became the newest TV network. The UVP of digital publishing was established -- media by the masses for the masses. With the barriers eliminated, social media exploded.
Once you remove the artificial barriers, it becomes easy to establish the UVP for something and then watch it grow. So it stands to reason that if we remove the barriers that currently exist in digital marketing, we should be able to quickly identify the UVP and watch it grow.
Apply this to your own media plan. Why separate earned from paid media, social from commercial content, or advertising from search? Why can't we approach digital marketing with one "budget pool" to leverage one "media pool"? That's the true UVP of digital marketing -- one budget and one strategy that can cut across all digital media channels to effectively engage your target.
Marketers faced unprecedented challenges this year amid a tumultuous and uncertain economic environment. But with challenges come opportunities. As 2010 approaches, marketers must rethink their plans and ask themselves this: How can I eliminate barriers so I can fuel growth from my digital marketing efforts?
Get started
Let's use an example. You've been tasked with raising brand awareness for a product launch targeting new moms. You've been asked to evaluate advertising, search, social, and PR opportunities with a total budget of $500,000. You go through proper due diligence and determine the top indexing properties are Google, MomCentral.com, and iVillage. Now what?
Re-think the media approach: Innovate the media plan. Instead of creating separate keyword lists for paid search, RFP lists for display, strategy for social and pitches for PR, take the top indexing properties and bring together one team -- a media planner, a search expert, a social expert, and a PR strategist, to examine these properties and create one strategy that can work for all.
Take the new moms example. Discussions on MomCentral could be used to determine the top five concerns for new moms. The findings could then be used to build a custom sponsorship with iVillage based around being a "worry-free new mom." Keywords would be selected around the five top concerns, paid search would run on Google to push positive brand association around those concerns, and the desired result would be that more traffic is driven to the online sponsorship program. In this example, the barrier is removed between paid and earned, publisher and social content. The program is designed to mirror the way the target audience would view this information.
Re-think the budget buckets: Using our example, if you allocated $125,000 separately toward your social, PR, media, and search efforts, would each campaign be sufficiently funded to make a real impact? Even if this turned out to be the case, what would your assurance be that these segregated parts would work cohesively?
Under the new media approach, barriers are removed from the paid media vs. earned or social media model. And if the campaign was being measured with one overall ROI, would it matter? This approach also allows more flexibility to shift a campaign midstream to optimize. Say there's plenty of traffic quickly moving to the sponsorship platform, but strategically, those dollars would be better served elsewhere. Budget segmented for a specific tactic can be seamlessly thrown back into the budget pool and swiftly re-directed in order to leverage new channels or to generate new content, thereby benefiting the overall program and maximizing the outcome.
Re-think measurement: Right now, most of you are likely measuring search and, perhaps, even display on a cost-per-action basis, and yet social and PR is measured by ad equivalency or total hits. Why not measure based on what can be fully measured versus what bucket should be measured to quantify the success of your plan? If there is one target audience and one marketing goal, shouldn't there be one metric to determine success?
For example, a marketing goal for the program described above would be if new moms are aware of the product after it closed. In this case, would you use a cost-per-click as a way to answer this or would you instead conduct post-campaign research in order to quantify the overall lift in brand awareness? Which would give you a better shot at getting more budget and, realistically, what CMO wouldn't prefer to see a definitive lift for dollars spent over a 55-page power point outlining hits vs. clicks?
I challenge you to take this approach. It's about maximizing the impact of your marketing dollars based on how your target is consuming digital content in a fast-moving environment that has no barriers. One target audience, one strategy to reach them, one budget to execute, and one measurement plan.
The moral of the story? When you remove artificial barriers and redefine paradigms, the opportunities grow.
Karen Macumber is SVP of media services at AMP Agency, an Alloy Media + Marketing company.
On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.