Definition of digital marketing — 4 things you HAVE to know

Surely you’ve heard the online chatter about “digital marketing.” There are a million platforms, channels, systems, software programs and “strategies” that are guaranteed to help you “kill it” online.

Every month it’s something new. (You using Facebook Messenger as an ad platform yet? What about TikTok?)

If you’re a business owner you have better things to do than keep up with all that. It’ll make your head spin.

Mark Ritson, a renown marketing consultant and Marketing Week columnist put it this way:

“Some of the new developments in digital marketing are genuinely astonishing, others are bags of piss disguised as the champagne of disruption.”

So here’s a little advice… If you’re looking for a digital marketing firm or a “digital agency” read this post all the way through. These are the 4 things you have to know in order to make an informed decision.

1. The definition of “Digital Marketing.”

You have to understand that the term itself varies dramatically from one company to the next. Depends on their niche…

Agencies will say one thing, platforms like FaceBook and TikTok will say another, and ad tech companies will say something else entirely. Some say it’s SEO. Some define it as web development. Some say it’s pay-per-click advertising. Some say it’s all of the above.

Here’s a quote from an attendee at Dmexco, one of the world’s largest digital marketing conferences:

“There’s so much crap spouted here. Even I don’t understand what a lot of these vendors say they do, and I’ve worked in digital advertising a long time.”

That’s an industry insider admitting that!  Here’s a definition of digital marketing used by one of the big players in that business:

“Digital marketing is data-driven and targeted brand promotion through technology.”

“Data Driven” and “Targeted” are popular buzzwords these days.

But guess what… Marketing consultants, direct response agencies, media-buyers and market research firms have been “data driven” since the early 1950’s.

Even Advertising Agencies use hard market research data to inspire creative campaigns, and then they use sophisticated media targeting to deliver the message to the right people.

This is NOT a new concept in the marketing world.

Digital marketing firms are just using new tools to do the work. And for the most part, it’s good, valuable work that should be part of every marketing plan. But it’s just a part.

Note the use of the word “promotion”.

By definition, promotions are transactional.  They are tactical tools that can boost short term sales. They exist at the bottom of the marketing funnel, and they do not build brand loyalty.

Don’t confuse promotional tactics with marketing strategy or brand building.

And wait a minute… That same firm also claims: “We have the means to take over your marketing from top to bottom, evaluate your brand’s needs and develop a powerful strategy that maximizes profits.”

That’s where they begin to overpromise.

I don’t know any small digital firms that have account planners, market researchers or brand managers on staff who can help you with a brand strategy.

Digital marketing people are detail-oriented, technology-minded specialists. They’re not trained — nor wired — to see the big picture.

For that, you need a real a marketing consultant or a strategic branding firm. Even an ad agency would be a better choice for strategy work than a digital marketing firm.

Let the digital guys stick to their own definition of digital marketing, and use someone else to oversee the strategy.

2. Know where digital marketing firms fit into the overall marketing landscape.

Naturally, all digital marketing firms contend that “digital is the future of marketing.”  And a lot of business owners are buying into the idea that a digital marketing firm is all they’ll ever need.

But the world’s greatest brands and the smartest marketing executives recognize one old-fashioned business school fact: The best marketing is a MIX of things.

You need a rich mixture of marketing tactics, marketing perspectives and marketing talent — both generalists and specialists.

You also need a mix of different media outlets to keep your brand visible and relevant. Not just social media posts or paid Instagram ads.

A healthy marketing mix means that some of your marketing efforts will be designed for a short-term bump in sales, while others will be designed for building long-term brand awareness.

Some will be creative, design-oriented, “feel good” efforts like what you get from design firms. Other tactics will be analytical and numbers-driven, like what you get from digital marketing firms.

Both can move the needle for your brand, but all those pieces should be aligned under one, coherent, overarching marketing strategy.

Digital Marketing Agencies are constantly promoting themselves on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram. Which is perfectly on-brand, because that’s their wheelhouse.

They commonly boast that they “manage $x millions in digital media spending”  which tells me they fit squarely in a specialized niche of digital media buying services.

They don’t tout their strategic prowess or creative thinking. Just their ability to manage a shit ton of digital adson all the various digital channels.

The business model that’s taught by all the digital marketing gurus is based on mass scaleability. “Just follow this model and you’re going to crush it,” they all claim.

It’s true. Media planning and buying always has been a highly profitably business model. (That’s how traditional advertising agencies made their millions back in MadMen days.)

But there’s a dirty little secret in the new model that digital agency owners don’t want clients to know:  When they “scale up” the clients pay a price.

The mindset is this: They managed a facebook campaign for a natural foods company, so they replicate that and run the exact same thing for a bunch of clients in the same category. “All we have to do is change out the logos and we can scale forever!”

It’s an efficient cash-flow generator for the agency owners, but it’s not necessarily good for your brand. Do you really want homogenized advertising that says and shows the same thing as your competitors?

Seth Godin posted this recently:

“Online marketing has become a messy mix of direct marketing, seo, tricks, tips, code and guesswork. It’s an always-moving target and it’s mostly focused on tactics, not strategy, because tactics are easy to measure.”

3. The fact is, many of the so-called digital “agencies” are not agencies at all.

They are production shops. They simply fill orders for ad creative and they leave everything else in the client’s hands.

That means you, as a client, are responsible for the ad strategy, the ad placement, ie media buying, and the campaign management.

Some other “digital agencies” are nothing more than media buying services.  Now that there are more than 4300 different digital channels to choose from, that can be a massive undertaking. But don’t expect any help with the art and craft of ad making.

4.  Know the difference between marketing strategy and tactics.

Many digital marketing firms will tell you how “strategic” their social media work is, and they’ll claim that everything they do is based on “strategic targeting.”

Sure, targeting is important, but do not expect marketing strategy from a digital marketing firm.

Mark Ritson puts it bluntly: “‘Digital Strategy’ is a contradiction in terms. What’s happening all the time now is tactics are getting perverted into ‘strategies’. What you really need is a marketing strategy.”

Strategy first, THEN tactics. That’s what we do at BN Branding.

I know it’s confusing. And don’t feel bad if all your efforts have been tactical. Ritson says that 80% of all British companies don’t have a coherent marketing strategy. Everyone’s fixated on tactics these days.

Here’s a good post where you can read more about the differences between marketing strategy and tactics. 

Strategy first. Tactics second. 

The old 4 P’s of Marketing still apply.  You should  pay attention to all four, not just the one that’s covered by digital marketing firms.

There’s “Place” which has to do with distribution strategy. Where you sell.

There’s Pricing.  How much you sell your product or service for.

There’s Product. (A great product makes all the other elements of marketing much easier.)

And finally, there’s “Promotions” which is a catch-all phrase that includes all marketing communications and tactics, including every specialized facet of Digital Marketing.

So you see, the tactical work that Digital Marketing firms do well — SEO, SEM, SMM, CPM — and all those other confusing acronyms — is really just a small part of the overall tactical marketing picture.

Digital marketing firms like to compare themselves to “traditional advertising agencies” because the old, Mad Men model is an easy target.

But digital agencies are actually more similar to Direct Response agencies than they are to traditional ad agencies. Direct Response firms always have been driven by quantifiable data and measurable ROI.

I believe it won’t be long before the term “digital marketing” is dropped entirely from the industry jargon. Because everything’s digital these days.

Even traditional old things like radio advertising and print are delivered digitally. The lines are blurry, and the terminology continues to confound many people. (For a primer on marketing terms, try this post from the AMA.)

5. Know who’s really doing the work.

The business model for Digital Marketing Firms is pretty simple: Scaled Outsourcing. Scale it fast, then sell!

They exploit and monetize multiple sources of cheap labor such as crowdsourcing websites, freelance markets like Upwork, “white label” firms from Asia and of course Ai. Then they mark it up. Dramatically.

It’s a good business model for them because it’s easily scalable. It pays well when the volume is high, but it’s not designed with the best interest of the client at heart.

There’s no synergy to those efforts because every little marketing tactic is being executed by a different person who knows nothing about your business.

Plus, in most cases there’s no strategy to guide the efforts. The right hand seldom knows what the digital left hand is doing at any given time.

So before choosing a digital marketing firm, just know that they cannot help you with the big picture strategy work that’ll build your brand in the long run.

So you have two choices… Become your own, best brand manager and get really good at strategy, OR hire a brand strategy consultant to map things out before you ever jump on board with a digital marketing firm.

Without it, your digital tactics will not be as effective as everyone would like.

If you’re still confused about the definition of digital marketing, give us a call. We’ll coach you through it, from a strategic perspective. 541-815-0075.